Workers’ welfare comes first in airport concession talks – Ogbe, ATSSSAN presidential hopeful

By Chinelo Obogo, [email protected]

For John Ogbe, vying for the top seat of the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN) is not just about leading a union, but about redefining how labour engages power.

A seasoned aviation professional with the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and a member of the federal government’s airport concession committee, Ogbe believes it is time to swap confrontation for collaboration in the interest of nation-building.

In this interview, the ATSSSAN presidential hopeful speaks on his vision to reposition the union through dialogue, data and strategic partnership, without compromising the welfare of workers.

He insists that while airport concession and Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) may be vital to bridging Nigeria’s infrastructure gap, workers’ interests must never be sacrificed on the altar of reform.

Ogbe says his campaign is anchored on transparency, unity and empowerment, values he believes can restore dignity to the aviation workforce and strengthen ATSSSAN’s voice in national discourse.

Why I’m contesting for the National President of ATSSSAN

The decision to contest for the presidency of ATSSSAN came after I discovered that a lot of things were not going right with our current association. This is due to the feedback that I received from a lot of our members. The current administration in ATSSSAN has done its bit, and we have the responsibility to improve on whatever they have done. My aim is to reposition our union to face modern challenges. We are trying to move out of the era of banging on tables and running unionism on the streets to a more collaborative engagement. We want to engage more and collaborate with organisations to resolve most of the contentious issues like concessions and others.

What is required in unionism is engagement on issues; the final tool to use in unionism is industrial action, which I do not believe should be used all the time. So, we are going to create an enabling environment of trust between us and the management or government to understand that all issues that have to do with welfare and union activities can be resolved at the table. Everyone is just operating in silos on various issues. So, we want to create an enabling environment, which is lacking right now. That is what I am bringing to the table.

My strategies and plans.

As unions, we don’t just call the shots because we are organised labour unions. You can even go into lobbying and advocacy when you want to achieve a particular goal. The best way to go around some issues is to soften the ground, make yourself available, and come up with facts and figures. What is lacking in today’s unionism is the knowledge gap and capacity. I intend to build capacity as a union leader so that the union leaders too will be more knowledgeable in their engagements with governments and organisations. This would be done across the branches of ATSSSAN.

In my first month in office, I will move around all the organisations where we have our members. In ATSSSAN, as we speak, we have 16 organisations where we have members, and out of these, we have about 11 private organisations, while the government has about five agencies.

One of the recommendations of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) is that an employer is to provide the tools and a comfortable working environment for its workers. These are the issues I intend to take up with the various managements where we have our members. Most of the issues with these private sectors bother on Conditions of Service (CoS). We also intend to support these organisations to succeed; once they succeed, we will be able to come to the table to ask for more for our members.

There are some issues that can be avoided on the part of the unions and the management, and we will try to make them realise this. We are going to open up channels of communication between the union leaders and management.

As a union, you don’t just kick against the policies of the government or company; you must be able to proffer solutions to any challenge at hand. We are going to charge the management too not to be too heady on any issue. If we adopt continuous engagements and collaborations, most of our problems would be solved. Even as union leaders, we know that the figures at this time are not really good.

My position on airport concession

In the last eight years, our position was a firm “no” to concession, but we have realised that concession is not going away. One of the major reasons is that the funds to transform airports, the government doesn’t seem to have. Let me tell you this: aviation standards are global; there are no local standards in the aviation industry. You will agree with me that our airports are not operating to the expected standards, and the government is saying it doesn’t have the resources to pump into this sector. The fact is that Public-Private Partnership (PPP) is just the right way to go for everyone, but we are firmly behind our workers on welfare and labour issues, and all these must be resolved. That is where we are with the government.

In recent days, a lot has been said about the concessioning of Enugu, Ibadan, Minna, and even Port Harcourt airports. The unions have adopted a common position on staff welfare issues. Once these issues are resolved, we don’t have a problem with the government.

The issues are not much; for instance, in the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), we have three big airports — Lagos, Abuja, and Kano — which are feeding the other airports. In the contractual agreement of FAAN’s staff, you are employed as a staff of the authority, not as a staff of Enugu, Kano, Katsina, or even Lagos airports. You can be in Lagos today and be moved to Enugu tomorrow.

All the assets and liabilities are in a pool to share from. Someone in Enugu is still drawing his pension from Lagos and vice versa. If the government is saying it wants to concession Enugu Airport, for instance, there are pensions and liabilities that are attached to these airports. One of our demands is that the government should resolve our pension problem.

As it stands, FAAN is practising two pension schemes, the defined benefit scheme and the contributory pension scheme. Before the migration of staff to the Pension Fund Administrators (PFA), FAAN did not have the funds at that time to move all their workers. So, we are in valuation, practising the two schemes. Right now, there are people on the other side who are still receiving pensions to date, and there are also some staff on the contributory pension scheme.

The workers are telling the government to sever everyone and let the concessionaire take over the whole airport. Part of our demands to the government is cluster concession, in which a concessionaire of any of the big airports would pick other small airports within the region. Someone that takes Lagos will add Ilorin, Ibadan, and Akure to it, while the winner of Abuja Airport will add Minna, Makurdi, and Jos to it, and so on. This will enable the capturing of the liabilities and assets of the airports, and nobody will be left out.

Also, the third one is actual valuation, which is about N1.21 billion for the entire FAAN workforce. So, we are saying let the value of that money be on ground so that those who want to continue with the organisation will continue, and anyone that wants to go can go. So far, the government is sincere in its engagements with stakeholders and the unions.

Pitfalls to avoid

The length of the concession period cannot be determined by an individual; this depends on what the concessionaire and the government are bringing to the table. The financial situation determines how long it will take to recoup your investment.

The good side of this era is that we have the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), which is saddled with the responsibility of midwifing the end-to-end concession process. In the past, we didn’t have an ICRC, but with the coming on board of the commission, such controversies of the past have been nipped in the bud.

Another issue is good faith. In Nigeria, there are lots of concessions that have gone bad, even beyond the aviation industry, and this is mostly because they were skewed against the people and lacked goodwill. So, they were bound to fail, but because they failed, it doesn’t mean we cannot get it right again. The creation of the ICRC has addressed some of those challenges.

Also, engagements with stakeholders and the unions will go a long way in addressing several challenges, even beyond labour issues. The new method the government has adopted will help the concession exercises of today.

What becomes of FAAN post-concession?

FAAN, as an authority, will still be there. With what we are doing in Enugu right now, it’s a form of revenue sharing between the agency and the concession proponents. FAAN will still be running, but it will be overseeing the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of the concession process.