Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja and Chinelo Obogo
The House of Representatives has directed the Federal Government to immediately suspend plans to concession four international airports in the country, pending the resolution of all contentious issues.
The affected airports are Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos; Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja; Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano and Port Harcourt International Airport.
Chairman, House Committee on Aviation, Nnolim Nnaji, gave the directive, yesterday, at a meeting between the committee and officials of the Federal Ministry of Aviation.
This decision was takem even as lawmakers frowned at the continuous absence of Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, at meetings called by the committee to address concerns by unions in the sector on the airports concession and other related issues.
Nnaji said a halt in the planned concession was imperative to avoid an industrial dispute in the sector, which would not be in the overall interest of the country.
The lawmaker, who stated that the committee had received several petitions for and against concessioning the four airports, said efforts by the parliament to interface with Sirika and agencies under him on the issue, had not been successful.
“Among the concerns were the lack of transparency in the exercise, labour issues, Chinese loans, legal issues that may arise from existing concessions and lack of proper valuation of the present status of the affected airports, among others,” Nnaji said.
However, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Aviation, Hassan Musa, who was present at the meeting, said assured the lawmakers that the government “will never do the concession wrongly.”
However, chairman of Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), FAAN, Lagos chapter, Danjuma Ahmed, told Daily Sun that the unions wanted the concession plans to be completely scrapped or overhauled.
“Our wish is that the concession should not go on at all because the time is not right. I believe that the decision of the committee was based on the presentation we had the last time we were with them. We took our time and explained to the committee about the consequences of the action.
“Some of them were saying that it is a government policy that has to be implemented but we made them understand that a government policy does not come from heaven, it is subject to mistakes and shortcomings which we pointed out.”