Facilities Decay, Embarrassing – FG

The Federal Government says it is embarrassed by the decay of facilities at the country’s airports, and expressed its plans to rebuild and upgrade their standard.

Minister of Aviation, Mrs. Stella Oduah-Ogiemwonyi disclosed this at the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaira, Kaduna State said that the first phase of the rebuilding will begin at 12 airports to good then international look.

Christened “Special Remodeling Project”, the minister listed the facilities to be addressed to include installation of conveyor belts to enhance passenger facilitation, renovation of toilets as well as upgrading air conditioning systems.

According to her, “the change that we desire and which we are vigorously pursuing cannot be funded from public resources alone”, adding “we need the private sector to partner with us to deliver the huge promise which the aviation sector holds for the growth of the Nigerian economy”.

Mrs. Oduah-Ogiemwonji noted that in the next six months, serious work would have been done at the airports in line with the transformation agenda of the federal government, pointing out that government would revoke airport concession agreements signed between the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and private companies, the investigations revealled that they were negotiated without putting the interest of the public ahead of private considerations.

She said it has become imperative to carry out the revocation of some of the agreements, because feelers emanating from the aviation industry, indicating that some of the concession agreement were negotiated without factoring in the general interest of Nigerians.

Her words: “Already we are studying and evaluating the terms of the existing concession agreements to ensure that they are in favour of the people. We shall, however, not hesitate to revoke or renegotiate, where necessary, the terms of any of the agreements if we discover they do not serve the greatest interest of the greatest number of the Nigerian people”.

“In the next six months, Nigerians will surely begin to see the new face of the aviation industry. Nigeria cannot afford to be left behind in the comity of aviation nations”, she stressed.

Speaking, the Rector of NCAT, Captain Adebayo Araba emphasised plans to boost the manpower capacity development of the college, which as he put it, has been on course to add value to the aviation industry.