The management of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has explained reasons for the relocation of the headquarters of the organisation back to Lagos.
In a.statement issued by the image maker of the organization, Mrs Obiageli Orah, the minister of aviation and aerospace development, Mr Festus Keyamo was said to have given the directive for the relocation having consulted with differen stakeholders who agreed that the relocationof the organization to Abuja in the first instance was never in the interest of the country
The statement declared: “Following wide consultations by the new Management of FAAN with stakeholders, which also involved the Unions, it was agreed that the relocation was in the best interest of the Authority and the country for now for the following reasons.
“Those affected by the decision to move the headquarters to Abuja have since returned to Lagos as there is no office space for them in Abuja. It was ill-advised in the first place to move the headquarters to Abuja when there was no single FAAN building in Abuja to accommodate all of them at once.
“Having returned to Lagos, the Authority would be liable to pay them DTA (DUTY TOUR ALLOWANCE) because technically they are working OUT OF STATION as their official posting is to ABUJA. The Minister has decided to stop this waste of public resources and rip-off on the public purse.
“The other option open to the Authority was abandon the old FAAN building in Lagos to rot away and to use its scarce resources to rent an office space in Abuja for Millions of Naira of public money when in actual fact more than sixty percent of its activities are in Lagos given the huge passenger volume of the Lagos airports. The stakeholders and the Minister decided against that and to save the country this waste.
“The Minister has rolled out plans to get concessionaires to build befitting offices for the Authority in Lagos and Abuja and until that is done, the Authority will continue to manage its old building in Lagos that can accommodate all its Directors and senior officials for now.
“Abuja continues to have full operational offices and the Authority has not scaled down operations in Abuja one bit. It is just the technical decision of where the Authority has its ‘corporate headquarters’ that has been taken without affecting the structure of operations as they are for now in both cities.
“In the near future, when befitting corporate buildings have been built for the Authority in both Lagos and Abuja, a final decision will be taken as to the location of the permanent headquarters, depending on the exigencies of the time.
“The Honourable Minister is committed to taking decisions that are in the best interest of the country, especially as it concerns public funds and will not yield to ethnic or sectional sentiments that will derail this commitment”.
The headquarters of FAAN and other aviation agencies were abruptly relocated to Abuja by the former minister of aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika under a very controversial manner
The relocation elicited reactions from stakeholders including unions who accused the former minister of embarking on the policy just just to downgrade the Lagos airport which happened to be the major hub where over 80.percent of aviation activities like flight operations take place.
Many of the workers who were affected by the relocation have been subjected to untold hardship as they could not have access to accommodations or even allowances to relocate their families.
Other agencies whose head offices were forcefully relocated under the former minister were: the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority and the Nigerian Safety Investigstion Bureau.
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