Nigeria aviation unions are spoiling for a war over the last minuite concession of the Abuja and Kano airports to Corporacion American, warning the foreign investor not to make the mistake of committing its funds into the project.
The outgoing minister of aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika had recently announced that the outgoing government had completed the concession of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja and the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA), Kano to the American based company.
The unions have cautioned any investor against putting money into the concession project warning that any attempt to take that risk may end in tears.
The Aviation unions at a world conference in Lagos warned the company, Corporacion American to wake up from its dream of delusion of taking over the two airports.
In a joint statement issued and signed by the general secretaries of the National Union of Air Transport Employees, (NUATE), Comrade Ocheme Aba, Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals, (ANAP), Comrade Abdulrazak Saidu and National Union of Pensioners, (NUP), FAAN Branch, Comrade Emeka Njoku, the unions warned that anyone or entity that may go ahead to commit any form of resources to such project is engaging in sheer wastefulness, as the claimed approval of the FEC for the concession, if such really exists, is a non-starter.
The unions accused the minister of running a one man show through where he had “shortchanged our collective aspirations and vision for the future of our airports and the aviation industry. Our effort to bring this situation to the public domain is to enable public outcry to compel the government into positive action to save the concession program, and to alert the incoming government to the booby-traps being enacted for its downfall by the outgoing government.
“We wish however, to state strongly and categorically that our commitment to ensuring that the stated shady concession exercise does not see the light of day is total and unwavering. This present exercise falls far short of legal and acceptable limits and standards of airports concession by global best practices. We shall stand against it mightily and courageously in the interest of our fatherland and the workers. We shall not allow any illegal concessionaire near any airport facility in Nigeria, and any effort to use force against us will be met with equal and opposite reaction. “Any concessionaire would have known that it has willingly purchased a lemon and cannot complain about unfair practice as we have persistently and loudly shouted buyers beware over and over in the past on the issue of airports concessions. All such concessionaires know the global standards, particularly as regards settlement of labour issues before any concession. If they had been given the impression that Nigeria’s case can be different, then this serves as wake up call to them to awake from their dreams of delusion.There can be no concession of Nigerian airports until there is resort to legality and normality.
“But, we wish to use this medium to make the Nigerian and International public aware that the action of the Federal Government in the above regards is an exercise in abnormality and absurdity, albeit in futility”.
The unions while saying that they are convinced that, members of the Federal Executive Council were overcome by the spirit of Camaraderie as institutionalized in the present posture of the outgoing government for last minute bonanza for its principal officers, and so failed to scrutinize the request brought before it by the Minister of Aviation.
“If the Council did it would have availed itself of publicly available information and materials which our unions have persistently put before members of the Council and the Public about the many legally, economically and socially untenable aspects of the airports concession program of the Ministry of Aviation, and which are inimical to both orderly development of Nigerian airports and Nigeria’s social economic interest”.
In the statement the unions highlight the main issues in contention pertaining to the purported airports concession to include: faulty foundation.
“The Ministry of Aviation which carried out the concession has no authority to do so. To begin with, the Federal Ministry of Aviation (and Aerospace) does not own, or run, any airport in Nigeria. By the dictates of the governing Act of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), ownership and management of all Federal Government airports are fully vested in the Authority; not the Ministry. On the other hand, the Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission (ICRC) procedure document states, with respect to the agency that wishes to concession a facility that, “The public entity should have enabling authority to transfer its responsibility – enabling legislative and policy framework OR an Administrative Order to that effect”.
“By the combined import of the FAAN Act and the ICRC procedures manual, it is evidently manifest that the entire airports concession is based on an incurably faulty foundation. For, there is no doubt that it is the Federal airports Authority of Nigeria, not the Ministry of Aviation, that has power “to transfer its responsibility” to a would be concessionaire. It is also FAAN, not the Ministry, which has the requisite “legislative & policy framework” for such. And, there exists no “Administrative order” which grants authority to the Ministry to usurp the powers of FAAN in the particular respect. As a matter of fact, for a PPP project by an agency, the only role prescribed for a Minister by the ICRC is that the Agency “would submit the FBC (Full Business Case) through the line Minister for approval”.
“Therefore, if the claim that the FEC has approved the concession of NAIA and MAKIA has any substance, then the FEC has indeed been misguided in its decision, and that action cannot amount to anything than a nullity.
Also highlighted by the unions are the labour issues.
“The labour issues around the concession of airports are far from being resolved. The three issues are:
“As FAAN workers are not airports-tied in their employments, all employees are considered as a whole unit. In this regard, the concession of the four most major airports away from FAAN would necessarily cause a cessation of the employment of all the staff involuntarily. Therefore, our Unions stand ready to negotiate redundancy benefits for all staff and pensioners of FAAN.
“As FAAN pension liability is unfunded, the federal Government’s promise to provide this funding has to be actualized immediately. The pension liability is estimated to be about N120B.
“Before redundancy can be discussed, individual liabilities of staff and pensioners have to be determined through up-to-date actuarial valuation for 2022.
“All efforts on our part to discuss and resolve these issues have so far fallen on barren soil.
“However, resolution of labour issues is a line charge in the development of a Full Business Case (FBC) for any concession. But, for this FBC, labour issues have not been taken into account. So, how could the FBC have been concluded? Or, more importantly, how could the concession have proceeded without an FBC? Should we not, therefore, suspect that the concession that was purportedly approved by the FEC was secured with a fraudulently procured FBC?.
“Based on the above unanswered questions, the announcement of the concession without resolution of labour issues, or with a faulty or fraudulent FBC makes the concession itself a fraud which cannot stand.
The issue of contempt of Court was also highlighted by the unions.
According to the unions; “The entirety of the airports concession program of the Ministry of Aviation is presently a subject of legal action by our unions at the National Industrial Court, Lagos Jurisdiction. Both the Ministry of Aviation and FAAN are defendants in the case and have been duly served the summons.
“Therefore, by continuing with the concession exercise in spite of having been served with court action, the Minister of Aviation is in contempt of the Court. And such concession exercise is bound to be nullified by the Court.
The unions also raised questions about the lack of transparency in the exercise, saying: “This purported concession of two airports will easily win the award for the most secretive government exercise ever. From the selection of the Transaction Adviser, through the pre-qualification and selection of bidders/winners, to the development of the Full Business Case and conclusion of the concession, only the Minister, his henchmen in the Ministry and the ICRC and the favoured bidder, apart from the wind and walls, have any inkling of the concession process, whereas the whole exercise, by regulation, ought to be carried out transparently within the public view.
“For example, only the Minister and his men know the contents of the bids. So, no one else knows why one bid succeeded and another failed, or even the criteria used. Also, no one else knows what the full Business case contains, or the parameters utilized in deciding the sharing of responsibilities and accruable incomes.
“On the basis of this opacity alone, this concession exercise did not deserve a hearing from the FEC, let alone granting it such a grandiose approval. And this disservice to the nation paints the hallowed chambers of the FEC in hollow art. This is rather unfortunate.
” One man Show:
“As some of you may know, all the aviation agencies, including FAAN, have operated without Governing Board of Directors for the past eight years. In the places of the Boards, the Minister of Aviation constituted illegal ‘Interim Boards’ of which the Minister himself is the Chairman, the Permanent Secretary is the secretary to the Board and the Chief Executive of Agency is a member. This means that the Honourable Minister has been the Chairman of the Board of all six Agencies in Ministry, and at the same time the supervising Minister over himself for the past eight years.
“This anomaly is the basis for all the one-man show that has made it impossible for the aviation industry to grow beyond the mental acumen of a single individual. The same reason that the airport concession programme remains stunted by the limitations and dictates of a single individual.
“This is most unfair to Nigeria and Nigerians considering the abundance of eggheads/experts among Nigerians in many aviation fields, not excluding airport concession, but who have been disabled by lack of consultation.
“In conclusion,
our Unions have consistently and persistently called attention to the many unwholesome aspects of the airports concession program of the Ministry of Aviation and asked for retuning of the process to make it beneficial to Nigeria and its people, including the workers and pensioners of FAAN. We are convinced that our inputs can only assure a more robust concession process that can guarantee better outcomes for FAAN and its workers.
“The present one man show has only shortchanged our collective aspirations and vision for the future of our airports and the aviation industry. Our effort to bring this situation to the public domain is to enable public outcry to compel the government into positive action to save the concession program, and to alert the incoming government to the booby-traps being enacted for its downfall by the outgoing government.
“We wish however, to state strongly and categorically that our commitment to ensuring that the stated shady concession exercise does not see the light of day is total and unwavering. This present exercise falls far short of legal and acceptable limits and standards of airports concession by global best practices. We shall stand against it mightily and courageously in the interest of fatherland and the workers. We shall not allow any illegal concessionaire near any airport facility in Nigeria, and any effort to use force against us will be met with equal and opposite reaction.
There can be no concession of Nigerian airports until there is resort to legality and normality.”
