In the twilight of his tenure, the minister of aviation, Mr. Hadi Sirika, has again announced his plan to carry out some demolition at the international wing of the Murtala Muhamed Airport, Lagos.
This time, he has penciled in Dominion and Evergreen Apple Nigeria (EAN) hangars for demolition to pave the way for the expansion of apron at the new international terminal of the airport.
Dominion is owned by the founder of Living Faith Worldwide Church International, popularly known as Winners’ Chapel, Bishop David Oyedepo, while EAN is operated by the erstwhile director general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr Harold Demuren.
The minister gave indication to this during the commissioning of N12 billion major aerodrome rescue and fire fighting vehicles at the local wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport at the weekend.
The trucks were delivered to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting Services (ARFFS).
In a lengthy extempore speech which he interspersed with “Buhari is working” Sirika said the two hangars are obstacles to reaping the benefits of the over $300 million invested in the CCECC-built terminal.
He said the two structures do not deserve to be at where they are located adding that he does not know them.
“We are not operating Lagos airport at full capacity. We have some obstructions that will be removed within the next one or two weeks to expand the Apron so that Lagos will have full use 100 per cent.
“Those two hangars – Dominion and Evergreen -will have to go and give way for our airport to be more efficient. It is a $300million investment over there and they can’t sit there in public interest. We have to shift them; I don’t know them. You cannot deny this city Lagos and the country in general from the use of their airport.
”When we demolished the AIB building that belongs to us, some people say it is to move them to Abuja, they have never been to Lagos, their headquarters is in Abuja and if the entire country is to move to Abuja, what is small AIB of 200 people. I don’t need to demolish their building, if I say go and he doesn’t go, I fire him, I appointed him, big deal,” he said.
Unveiling the trucks, Sirika said no fire tender was procured for FAAN during a 15-year period.
He said it was a common practice in the past to cannibalise one or two fire trucks to fix another, most of which, according to him, were obsolete.
“For 15 years no fire tender was supplied to us, we just cannibalise two or three to make one. And the absence of fire cover is the number one reason to shut down airports and even if you don’t have enough, you downgrade the airport to a lower category,” he said.
He said the federal government embarked on equipping the airports with fire trucks to forestall the recurrence of air crashes like the December 10, 2005 Sosoliso accident at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa
“You all remember our children that left Abuja for Port Harcourt in the Sosoliso crash? We couldn’t save those children because even though the plane landed, crashed, they were still alive but the airport did not have adequate fire cover to save those ones and parents were seeing their children burning alive, children they sent to school,” he remarked.
Sirika added that the firefighting equipment are important to safe, secure and efficient take off and landing of aircraft.
The minister also disclosed that a fire truck rehabilitation, overhaul and maintenance centre was would be set up in Nigeria to serve the country as well as the markets in West and Central African regions
He said the contract had been awarded the facility would come on stream in six months time.
“We are doing quite a lot; we are talking about safety and security of the sector. When we leave we pray those people coming to succeed us would do better than we have done,” he added.
Earlier in his speech, the managing director of FAAN, Capt Rabiu Yadudu said the 10 fire tenders would be deployed to the Lagos Airport, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja and Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA), Kano while acquisition of additional vehicles for Port Harcourt and Enugu airports was being processed.
Yadudu explained that each vehicle does not carry 14,000 litres of water, 1,700 litres of foam and 250kg powder capacity but also monitors the discharge rate of between 6,000 to 10,000 litres per minute.
Besides, he said acceleration rate is from 0 to 80km/hr in 30 seconds.
“The truck can discharge while in motion (professional pump and roll operation) and is equipped with under chassis nozzles to tackle running fuel fire,” he added.
In addition to acquisition of the major firefighting vehicles, the managing director said the agency procured eight new water tankers for continuous agent applications and additional 11 ambulances to replace the obsolete ones that were bought in 1996.
Yadudu also disclosed that comprehensive training for the end users of the vehicles and mechanical units would be given.
“This is to ensure the vehicles are not only used as specified by the manufacturers, they would also be maintained accordingly,” he added.
Furthermore, he said: We have also taken delivery of aircraft removal and Recovery Equipment that can handle critical aircraft coming to our airports. We also enhanced the provision of dedicated water supply with hydrants. A number of dilapidated fire stations were renovated and provision of new ones in Kano and Enugu are in the pipe line.”
He said the transformation in the aviation industry spearheaded by the minister cuts across three core areas namely rehabilitation and upgrade of infrastructure, capacity building to enhance competency and skills to meet and supersede minimum standard, and training, manpower development and application of standard procedures in our operations.
“This management also took cognizance of the human factor principles – the personnel being the interface between the equipment and application of procedure, consequently, a high percentage of our budget was channelled to training. This decision enabled our staff to be efficiently integrated with procedures and requirements that make FAAN better,” he said.
