The federal executive council (FEC), yesterday, approved N4.2 billion for the procurement of aircraft recovery equipment, designed to respond to occasional breakdown of aircraft on the runways, as experienced recently in Lagos.
The minister of aviation and aerospace development, Mr Festus Keyamo, announced this at the end of the council’s two-day meeting in Abuja presided by President Bola Tinubu.
“We got approval for that as part of ICAO’s requirements in the sum of N4.2 billion and a fraction, inclusive of VAT, with a completion period of 12 months to supply and also to train the handlers of these equipment to handle them and remove disabled aircraft from our runways,” he declared.
He also said FEC approved the cancellation of all exemptions for very important personalities (VIPs), with regard to payment for access into airports in the country.
He said the approval came following the ministry’s presentation of a memorandum detailing the financial loss from the exemptions.
Keyamo said the VIPs had explored to escape paying what was due to government which resulted in the loss of a larger part of the actual projected revenue.
The minister said the council mandated the secretary to the government of the federation, Mr George Akume, to send out a service-wide circular, informing all concerned of the cancellation of the exemption, adding that ministry would follow up on that circular with another memorandum.
“When we came to office, we met a tradition on the ground where at the end of the year, all manners of VIPs would approach us for what they call complimentary e-tags or complimentary stickers, whereby you see them coming into our airports nationwide. They don’t pay the access fees.
“They don’t pay for parking, they don’t pay for essential services at airports, and they are VIPs. And I told myself and my team, I said not under my watch. It will not happen.
“If this tradition has been existing for years, I will not allow it to happen, because it is inconceivable that in our country, it is the VIPs that don’t pay for services but it is the poor men that pay for services.
“The VIPs were supposed to have money to pay for services, but they compel poor men to pay for services and I said no. So, I got my team together, I said we need the backing of council to compel everybody.
“In fact, guess what? Our memo says with the exception of the president and the vice president, and the president overruled me and said he and the vice president will pay, he said everybody,” he said.
Keyamo further said the loss incurred from the exemptions was high.
“The negative figure that we get at the end of the day from the complimentary e-tags is 82 per cent in the negative. In other words, where we are supposed to have a 100 per cent contract, the e-costs from these e-tags that we print, it is only 18 per cent that we now end up selling.
“That is how bad it is. Eighteen per cent and 82 per cent of these e-tags are given out free of charge to VIPs. So, imagine the loss at my sector and I ask myself, which other sector will I go to that they give me anything free?”
“I’ll give another example. In one of the access gates, based on the count of the barrier going up and down, we are supposed to be making N250 million or N260 million from that gate every month.
“That gate, because of exemptions, the return is less than N100 million every month. That also, of course, breeds corruption because now you cannot track; you cannot have the audit trail of those free tags that you now give to our people to give out to people.
“So, it was approved that the secretary to the government of the federation should send a system-wide circular to everybody. We are going to also write to everybody, be it in the judiciary, the legislature, the executive, the military high command.
“They can buy for their personnel yearly. You don’t have to pay every time you pass. Buy the yearly tags for all your officers. You have the money; pay us so that we can improve services at the airport,” he added.
