By: Gbenga Olorunpomi
WHEN I read the editorial by the Tribune Editorial Board published on Sunday, June 30th 2024, titled “FG’s questionable response to begging, extortion at airports”, I found myself asking, “What do you do when a whole newspaper gets the basic facts wrong?” When I found the words ‘Nigerian Airports Authority (NAA)’ in the second paragraph of the editorial, I was certain my eyes were playing tricks on me. Alas, my eyes are just fine. A simple check on the Internet would have led the writer(s) to the FAAN website which shows that although the ‘Nigeria Airport Authority was established by Decree 45 of 1976 with the statutory responsibility of overseeing the operation and maintenance of all Federal Airports,’ it was renamed in August 1995 which ‘brought about the realignment of some of the functionalities of NAA as well as the renaming of NAA to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria FAAN.’ The most important problem with the editorial in question is that it gets the basics completely wrong and contains information that has changed with time. While editorials are opinions, they should be informed.
When the piece stretched and bent in the vain quest to link the recent unveiling of the Aviation Security (AVSEC) Elite Response Squad to the perennial issue of touting and begging at the airports, it showed how uninformed the writer(s) was (were). The two issues have nothing to do with one another. In May 2017, the then Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, announced that the federal government had commenced the procurement of arms for AVSEC personnel in Abuja. He said this during the graduation ceremony of 35 AVSEC personnel who underwent Counter Terrorism Training organized by the United Nations. This elite armed unit of AVSEC has a clear mandate to provide security for the airport against unauthorized persons who may try to breach the perimeter and gain access to the airport. This elite team is not to be at the terminals, hence it begs the question “Why link the unveiling to touting and begging at the airports?”
The premise that the Ministry or FAAN is doing nothing about touting is misleading at best and mischievous at worst. On June 22nd, the authority issued a press statement announcing it had taken a decisive step towards eliminating touting, extortion, and illicit activities at the airports by establishing a dedicated task force headed by the Director, Special Duties, Mr Henry Agbebire. It was widely reported by the press. Even the Nigerian Tribune published the story under the headline, “FAAN begins raids of touts, extortionists across airports.” Why did the editorial completely ignore its own report and the reporter? Do we assume the board of editors at Tribune is unaware of this news report that they covered and published or did they decide to forget it? It is even more bizarre when one considers that in the days following the unveiling, the Director of Airport Security, DASS, allayed the fears of all stakeholders in an interview.
He said, “The formation of the squad is not to undermine the security we already have but it is just to improve the security mostly on the perimeter fencing areas. More often than not we have a lot of incursions from the perimeter area. Look at Lagos, especially in the Ejigbo axis, there are a lot of dilapidated structures around the fence where intruders gain access to the airport to steal. I don’t think there will be any clashes because everyone has their duties.”
Again, why link the squad to begging and touting? For the avoidance of doubt or ambiguity and, more importantly, to inform the public, the AVSEC Elite Response Squad will be, after weapons retraining, be stationed at the airport perimeters to guard the perimeter against unauthorized access, while the Special Task Force is responsible for eradicating touting and sundry acts. Their full plans for this will be made public in a few days. The FAAN of today is not only proactive, it is deeply visionary and looking to the future.
- Olorunpomi is the Special Assistant to the MD/CE of FAAN on Media and Publicity
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