“We will
resist the plan by the Federal Government to concession the
international airports in Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt, and Abuja because
the whole exercise is a fraud and inimical to the interest of Nigeria
and its citizens,” said the Secretary General of the National Union of
Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Mr. Olayinka Abioye at a press
conference held in Lagos last week to demand that the government halt
the concession exercise.
“And if the government feels it has the
private sector experts that can manage or turn around the fortunes of
Nigeria airports, why not concession the non-vibrant airports to them
and let us see the magic that they will perform. Why start the
concession exercise with the four lucrative airports while leaving out
the 18 other airports that are dependent on the four for their
survival?” Abioye queried.
Abioye, who spoke on behalf of three
labour organisations, the Air Transport Services Senior Staff
Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), the National Union of Air Transport
Employees (NUATE) and its ally, the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP)
gave the Federal Government a 15-day ultimatum (expiring on Oct 25,2017)
to rescind it’s airport concession policy or aviation workers would
down tools across all airports in the country in protest.
According to him, the three unions were
of the view that the entire concession exercise was shrouded in secrecy
and devoid of transparency.
“Where is the blueprint of the concession
project vis-a-vis the feasibility study conducted on the projects? No
one has seen this,” he said.
Why concession
With dwindling revenue, the Federal
Government says it has run out of cash to continue pumping money into
the maintenance, upgrade, and expansion of infrastructure of the four
airports to meet with contemporary needs and also cope with the high
volume of passenger and airline traffic that they now attract. But aside
the issue of paucity of funds, there are also concerns over the high
level of mismanagement of funds earmarked over the years by successive
governments for these airports. The Federal Airports Authority of
Nigeria (FAAN) manages the airports on behalf of the Federal Government.
The government’s thinking, therefore, is that it is only the private
sector that would be able to inject the requisite funds to boost the
state of infrastructure at these airports and also halt or check the
graft in the industry.
Labour’s position
Labour, however, insists that the decay
in airports infrastructure in Nigeria had to do with continuous
government interferences and not with management issues on the part of
FAAN.
“The problem of the sector is not the
ability of FAAN to manage its affairs properly and in the wisest of
ways,” said Abioye. “But the continued ministerial/official
meddlesomeness inflicted on the industry and the pauperization,
essentially of FAAN through several policy somersaults, as no clear
policy has been sustained in the last 25 years arising from regular
change of government and ministers who initiate their own
agenda/policies while dismantling existing ones, not minding the success
or otherwise of such policies,” he added.
Pitfalls
Aviation sector labour unions are however
opposed to the concession policy alleging that the Minister of State
for Aviation, Mr. Hadi Sirika is not transparent in his handling of the
project. For instance, they allege that key stakeholders like airport
workers, existing investors and labour unions had not been carried along
in the course of arriving at the choice of concession as the panacea to
the challenges facing the airports.
“How did the Minister get to the
‘concession model’ out of the many available models?,” queried Abioye.
“Where and who was this discussed with? How did we pick concession out
of all the models within the Public Private Partnership (PPP)
initiative?,” he demanded in an interview granted Daily Sun.
According to him, Nigerian aviation
workers have critically analyzed the Public Private Partnership (PPP)
concept as a veritable vehicle to drive the process of engendering
revenue growth, quality service delivery and maintenance of facilities,
infrastructures and returns on investment and accepted its workability,
if driven with good intentions and in a transparent manner.
He however pointed out that given the
penchant with which Nigeria’s political class makes pronouncements
without deep thoughts, labour has become deeply worried and hugely
concerned about the haste, hush-hush and secret disposition of the
Minister of Aviation in actualising the concession project without
following due diligence as practiced worldwide.
“We have also observed with grave
concern, the deceit and coercion that goes with the current process of
concessions, that is lacking in transparency which is hugely required at
this moment,” he said. “What facts were presented to the Federal
Executive Council (FEC) for the approval to concession, as due diligence
was never followed up to the time the said FEC approval was granted and
announcement made by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo?” he asked.
Transaction Advisors
In a document made available to Daily
Sun, the unions faulted the appointment of Proserve Energy Service
Limited, an oil and gas consultant as Transaction Advisors (TA) to the
concession project as not having followed due process.
Said the unions, “How was the Transaction
Advisors (TA) engaged and where did the bidding for such sensitive
matter come up and when that no one saw or heard of it.
“How could a company named Proserve
Energy Service Limited, an oil and gas consultant spearhead concessions
in the Aviation Industry? Let it be known that the said Transaction
Advisors have no understanding or knowledge of aviation, so how could
such persons be a part of the scheme if not for pecuniary reasons and
nepotism?”
The unions also allege that without any
budgetary provision and for a government that is lamenting of severe
funding challenges, about N1.5billion had already been set aside for the
Transaction Advisors to use in road shows, adverts, and transport and
logistics to woo foreign investors.
Ambiguities
Daily Sun learnt that another worrisome
angle to the entire concession process has to do with the Terms of
Reference which is not comprehensive enough to provide full details of
the scope of work upon which the Transaction Advisors were to act upon.
“The areas of the airports meant for concession were not listed out in the Terms of Reference.”
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