The ongoing controversy over the planned aerotropolis project by the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, has continued to attract criticisms, the latest being a warning to the minister to desist from dabbling into economic development of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), especially the aerotropolis project.
In an open letter to the minister, the immediate past General Secretary of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Comrade Olayinka Abioye, based his warning on the fact that the Act which set up FAAN doesn’t not give the minister the power to determine how the agency’s economic power could be enhanced, stressing that this function is decided by its directorates.
While acknowledging that the aerotropolis concept was good, Abioye however accused the minister of bungling the project since he came onboard.
“If you mean well for us and you are aware of the contents and spirits of the Act establishing FAAN for instance, it is not within the purview of the minister to dabble into how economic development of FAAN can be enhanced, but FAAN, which has a fully functional directorate, peopled with knowledgeable personnel to handle such economic drives such as aerotropolis, which our unions have clamoured for before you became the minister.
“Aerotropolis is a great project and policy to be driven not by the ministry/minister, but by FAAN whose duties would have to include determining areas and locations where they find suitable to house structures that shall be accommodated for the aerotropolis project,” Abioye said.
Rather than embarking on the controversial project, the labour leader said what the aviation stakeholders in Nigeria required was a conducive environment where airlines could do business successfully, functionally and seamlessly without any encumbrances, which he regretted Sirika had failed to provide in almost eight years as the minister in the sector.
Abioye said Sirika failed in many fronts, not because he didn’t try but because he refused to listen to advice of proven stakeholders and professionals in the sector.
The union leader cited how the idea of having another national carrier was poorly managed by the minister which prompted the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) to challenge its processes in the court of law.
He used the opportunity to condemn the minister’s plan to demolish some structures and agencies’ offices at the Lagos airport, a move he said Sirika lacked justifiable reasons for embarking on.
According to him, if the ministry of aviation had done a holistic job by evaluating the needs and ways of doing due diligence, the ministry and the contractor handling the construction of a new terminal at the international airport in Lagos ought to have known the requirements for building such a structure at the airport without enough space for expansion.
Sirika had recently vowed that there was no going back with the demolition of the offices of FAAN, Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Agency (NCAA) for the aerotropolis project, even as insisted that the EAN and Dominion Hangars at the international wing of the Lagos airport would equally be demolished for the apron expansion of the new international airport terminal at the Lagos airport.
Abioye said, “If at all you intend to pull them down, what are the alternatives provided for the owners/occupiers and the compensation for the staff of the former Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) that you rushed out of Lagos to Abuja without a single humane thought for their wellbeing, comfort and safety, knowing well that the agency does not have any structure in place in Abuja. Do you really and actually mean well for this industry? I think not.”
