The minister of aviation and aerospace development, Mr Festus Keyamo, in company of the managing director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mrs Olubunmi Kuku, embarks on a facility tour of the international wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos. They speak on a wide range of issues including inter-agency cooperation, extortion, and concession of international gateways.
Ime Akpan
Appraisal of facilities at the terminal
There is a great improvement here. The management and staff (of FAAN), they worked very hard at making this place look very welcoming and a big lift from where it was before. This is not where we are going. This is not our big plan for the airport.
But this is a low-hanging fruit we can hang on to for now. We want to make the place as conducive as possible for passengers who are coming into Nigeria. And that is why you can see that the management has actually initiated very simple ideas and executed them to make the place very cozy.
Extortion, harassment of passengers
Now, we have been very concerned, Nigerians have been very concerned about the issue of harassment at the airport, touting at the airport, extortion by even uniformed personnel.
Now, our first step in addressing this issue is what you have seen here. So for Nigerians, please look at this. When you come into the E-Wing of the international airport in Lagos, you are going to see a sign discouraging, touting, extortion and general harassment of passengers coming into Nigeria.
Now, there is a QR code. You must make use of it. Don’t come and go to the media and complain that there was nobody to speak to when you are harassed by law enforcement agencies.
Use the QR code, use the hotlines and make a call there and then. Don’t say, oh, there was nobody, they dragged you to one corner and they took money from you. Make that call.
Pick your phone and make that call and you will be attended to. We also encourage people to be courteous, to be respectful also to the law enforcement agencies at the borders. But at the same time, we have also taken measures to ensure that we put a leash around our own law enforcement agencies.
So here you will see it and you will see not only this, you will see it as strategic positions around the airport. It is not all the final solution to it but this is the first big step towards addressing the issue of touting.
So we encourage Nigerians to use it. So what you have seen here today (Friday), are just simple ideas that a very hardworking management has implemented to make it customer friendly.
Inter-agency cooperation
We are the landlord; they are not under our employ. We are not their bosses, but we are their landlords. You see the last time when there was an incident here on tape we threw the particular personnel out of the airport. So FAAN can throw out any personnel from any agency at the airport who is actually crossing the line…whether it is customs, NDLEA or anybody for that matter. These are the steps we are taking for now. We are only asking for inter-agency cooperation, inter-ministerial cooperation to make this work.
And I urge you to keep an eye on this, on what is going on here. You will see great improvements in work ethics, great improvements in attitude to work, great improvement in conscientiousness and dedication to duty. You are going to see that we have a great team now.
Concession of international airports
The big plan for the airport, especially the five international airports, is still to concession them to the best in the world. We are looking for the best partners in the world to come and collaborate with us in turning the airport around and running them professionally. And all will be to the benefit, ultimate benefit of Nigerians.
So what you see there, what we have just come to do here, is to ensure that in the short term, in the interim, that the customers and the traveling public will have a wonderful experience. And in doing all of these small touches here and there, you can see that the new management has taken care of those with disability; they were not there before, the lifts are working now.
Even the new toilets too, you can see the toilets, particular units of those toilets that are also for the disabled. So they are also thinking along those lines. And also for nursing mothers, you saw the units for nursing mothers.
So, all segments of the traveling public, all types of the traveling public have been taken care of by this initiative that we are undertaking here. So we are pushing for this. This will not stop our concession plan. It will not.
Timeline for the concession
We are going public very soon and it is going to be the best. I spoke to Mr. President about it. Mr. President said, Minister, go for the best.
Nobody is interested in whoever is coming to do it; the process that was done before…we halted that process because there were complaints. I am sure you know that. There were litigations’ people went to court. It was not transparent enough. But under this government, it is going to be as transparent as possible. The president gave us marching orders.
Go and do it as transparent as possible. Look for the best bid, the best hand to come and turn around our efforts and run our airports. And that is where we are going ultimately.
Kuku also contributed saying: The minister has said it all. FAAN is ready for business and this government is ready for business.
I continue to say that the investments we need to improve the facilities and infrastructure in the aviation sector cannot only come from the federal government. The minister you have seen over the last few weeks he was engaging with the private sector as well as other government institutions globally to make sure that we can better collaborate, especially around new terminal development and increasing our routes.
Even as far as going on some trips to specifically speak on how the airlines can seek additional leasing opportunities. He said earlier that this is really just the beginning. All we are doing here are just little improvements to our facilities.
But we have major plans in terms of infrastructure development that is required, in terms of bringing in additional private sector participation. And we are exploring various partnership models that would allow us to move forward very quickly.
