Nigeria’s National Assembly joint committee on Aviation headed by Senator Christine Olujimi and Honourable Nnolim Nnaji have directed the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika to halt his plan to demolish the offices of the aviation agencies in Lagos.
The directive was the fallout of the two-day warning strike embarked upon by the aviation workers’ unions which crippled flight operations across the country on Monday and Tuesday .
In a letter jointly signed by the clerks of the committees and dated April 18, 2023, the two chairmen of the aviation committees expressed concerns over the frequency of industrial actions and the attendant disruption of flight operations in the country.
They noted that most of the issues causing the agitations were not new and wondered why they had continued to linger, stressing that some of them have been in contention for years.
The letter also directed the Minister to submit all the documents pertaining to the sundry issues raised by the workers to the committee.
The contending issues include:non implementation of the consequential adjustment to national minimum wage by some of the agencies as agreed in February 2022.
The demands also include the non release of reviewed condition of service by the relevant government agencies for about a decade, the continuous threats of outright demolition of the aviation agencies, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, (FAAN), Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, (NCAA) and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, (NAMA) headquarters without alternative provisions for their regional offices.
The letter from the lawmakers reads in parts: “In order to prevent further escalation of the crisis as envisaged by the failure of the federal Ministry of Aviation to address the issues within this warning strike period,we are directed to request that you furnish the committees with the following information:comprehensive details of all issues under contention,actions taken by the Ministry and its agencies to address the grievances of the workers.
Also expected to be submitted to the committees include: the challenges in implementing the various agreements reached with unions and any other documents that are germane to the subject matter.
Equally, the chairmen of the committees of both Chambers have also implored the unions to shelve any more actions that will further prevent smooth running of the sector, promising that their grievances would be duly addressed soonest.