The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has formally written to President Muhammadu Buhari stating its disapproval of the proposed concession of four of the country’s most viable airports.
Recall that the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA) Kano and Port Harcourt International Airport (PHIA) Omagwa have marked for concession.
The letter dated October 8 and signed by the NLC president, Mr. Ayuba Wabba, sent a cautionary note to the federal government about its plan to resist the move should government press ahead without reconsidering the facts.
In the letter entitled ‘The Nigeria Labour Congress rejects the plan to concession Nigeria’s major airports,’ the NLC demanded that government review other sustainable means of running the airports and attracting fresh fund for expansion and growth.
The union recommended alternatives like Green Field Concession and corporatisation or full autonomy of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) rather than the proposed concession which it believes will offer no benefit to the airports.
“First, is the Green Field Concession where investors are invited to make fresh investments in clearly delineated areas of deficit in our airports’ infrastructure including terminal expansion, runway expansion and upgrading of critical aviation equipment and facilities. Such investments should be recouped from the additional revenue from the patronage and services accruing from the use of the upgraded facilities.
“Another alternative is to corporatise FAAN. Here government should retain 45% equity share while the remaining 55 per cent is broken down for public acquisition. This is the model adopted in such climes as South Africa in a similar situation as we. This would help build investor confidence while assuaging the concerns of labour.
“Another way to optimize infrastructure layout, service delivery, revenue generation and served markets is to ensure the complete autonomy of FAAN as is the case in Ethiopia. This should be void of political meddlesomeness which has been the bane of the efficient performance of Nigeria’s aviation sector,” the NLC said.
The labour leader also contended that due process had not been followed in the concession process.
“Organised Labour is also miffed that due process as prescribed by our Public Procurement and Concession laws and the laws governing our aviation sector has been flung to the dogs by the peddlers of this toxic pill designed to shortchange, enslave and pillage the Nigerian people. A few instances would suffice.
“The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission Act provides that ‘the public entity should have enabling authority to transfer its responsibility’ – enabling legislative and policy framework or an administrative order to that effect,” he added.
The NLC stated that the planned concession was to maximise profit for a few individuals at the expense of tax payers and that the fine lines in the tender documents exempts the would-be concessionaire(s) from improving any facility at the airports in the next 25 years.
It alluded to a potential hemorrhage of government revenue, industrial crisis which will follow the massive layoff of workers stating that there is no compelling reason to gift away national assets to private hand who would not improve on what is all through their stay as concessionaires.
“It is important to note that when our airports especially the ones earmarked for concession were in states of eyesore and dilapidation, private capital did not invest towards their rehabilitation.
“It would be a grand insult to the collective sensibilities of the Nigerian public for government to invest huge public funds into the reconstruction and rehabilitation of our airports and hand them over to private sector players for profit maximization at the expense of the tax- paying public.”
The NLC put FAAN’s current revenue generation into account stating that the airport manager currently generates enough to pay N70 billion into the coffers of government annually.
“As it is, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) currently generates about N100 billion into the coffers of the government yearly. When FAAN expenditure of about N30 billion is removed from the net income of N100 billion generated by it, there is a handsome N70billion left to government to re-invest in the maintenance and upgrade of our airports.”
