The Senate ad hoc Committee on Aviation which is chaired by Rabiu
Kwankwaso (APC-Kano State) Tuesday, held a public hearing on Tuesday. Heads of
parastatals and other officials of the Ministry of Aviation led by the
Permanent Secretary, Binta Bello, attended the hearing at the National
Assembly. Ms. Bello lamented the challenge of funding which she said was
affecting the Nigerian aviation sector, particularly infrastructure at various
airports. Ms. Bello said, “We have financial constraints. Budgetary provision
can never finance the projects that were opening up in all the airports in
Nigeria.” She hailed the remodelling of the airports under former Minister of
Aviation, now Senator, Stella Oduah.
Ms. Bello, however, said the projects were
stalled as funding for the projects stopped immediately Ms. Oduah was removed.
“She (Oduah) started a very good job. Every airport was opened up. Well she’s
sitting here. She may tell us where she got the funds. But records showed she
got the money from intervention funds. “Since she left, these intervention
funds stopped. We depend on budget. On capital project, we got very little
amount of money which can in no way take care of over 150 projects in our
airports.” On the Port Harcourt airport which Olaka Nwogu (PDP-Rivers)
described as “a disgrace to everything Nigeria stands for especially as Port
Harcourt is the country’s oil,” Ms. Bello said she would accept responsibility
for the poor state of airport where tents are used as arrival lounge for both
local and international passengers. “I went to Port Harcourt,” she said. “The
problem with the arrival is that the terminal building has not been completed.
We don’t have funds to complete it immediately.
The temporary arrival is not befitting.”
She, however, said she had directed the Managing Director of Federal Airports
Authority of Nigeria, Saleh Dunoma, to ensure improvement of the temporary
arrangement within two weeks. Meanwhile, the Permanent Secretary suggested
alternative funding sources to improve the aviation sector. One of these, she
said, was service charge to be levied on arriving international passengers. But
Mr. Nwogu said the move would be counter-productive and would reduce traffic at
the airports. He said it would encourage more Nigerians to fly Accra, Ghana
route, where flight fares are cheaper, compared to Nigeria, already. He
mentioned affordability, efficiency and attraction as factors that could make
Nigeria attain the aspiration of becoming Africa’s number one aviation hub. The
Aviation Ministry was also cautioned against entering into concession deals
that would see investors rely on “extorting” passengers as a way of generating
revenue.
National Carrier Ms. Bello told the
Committee that the Ministry of Aviation was asked to come up with a model for
national carrier. “So what I did was that I set up a committee to look into the
possibility of a national carrier and come up with a model that is best for the
country,” she said. The Committee had completed its assignment; thus, the
report had been forwarded to President Muhammadu Buhari,” she said. She said
the Ministry of Aviation “now awaits further action” from Mr. Buhari.
Meanwhile, in its 2015 survey, Guide to
Sleeping in Airports, a Canadian organisation, rated the airports in Port
Harcourt, Abuja and Lagos as the first, seventh and 10th worst respectively in
Africa. Considering that the survey is a continental initiative, the rebuttals
are self-defeatist and meretricious.
The Port Harcourt International Airport
in Rivers State has the dubious distinction of also being rated the worst in
the world. It is not only about sleeping there, but about corruption, attitude
of members of staff, comfort and other indices. Instead of vilifying the
report, the Ministry of Aviation should scrutinise it and make fundamental
changes where necessary. The weak defence of the Federal Airports Authority of
Nigeria that the Port Harcourt airport is not the dirtiest because it is
undergoing renovation is half of the story. Nigerians who use our airports
attest to their poor state.
The assessment is a confirmation of the
troubles plaguing the aviation sector in Nigeria. Under Stella Oduah as
Aviation Minister, the past administration had controversially taken a $500
million loan in 2013 from the China EXIM Bank to “build four new international
terminals and 11 cargo terminals.” Two years after, the airports are not better
off. The projects centred mainly on re-modelling. At best, this was
superficial, not fundamental enough to transform their outlook and operations.
At plenary on Wednesday, concerned House of Representatives members alleged
that the N400 billion appropriated for “the expansion, modernisation and
management of 17 domestic and five international airports” under the Goodluck
Jonathan government was mismanaged.
The problems of Nigerian airports are systemic, affected by the wobbly nature
of a state bedevilled by weak institutions, corruption and inefficient
allocation of resources. Splurging $500 million on expensive reconstruction has
not shown results or solved fundamental problems, which are legion. How do you
fix an airport where air conditioners don’t work, where security agents demand bribes
and government officials drive to the airside in violation of aviation rules?
In question is the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, with a
dilapidated expressway as the access road. On both sides of the road are petrol
tankers and unruly commercial motor drivers.The survey, which was conducted
among 26,297 international travellers, said, “Top complaints generally revolved
around corruption, crowds, chaos, confusion and a total lack of cleanliness –
five Cs an airport definitely does not want to be associated with. Amenities
across the board are decidedly scarce if not entirely non-existent….” With
Nigerian airports, nothing could be truer. Acts of impunity by government
officials and the well-heeled constantly undermine operations.
As expected, the survey has squelched
the claims of Nigeria being the “giant of Africa.” The report lists South
Africa’s Cape Town International Airport and Johannesburg Airport as the first
and second in Africa. In third place is Algeria’s Hauri Boumediene, followed by
Sir Seemoosagur in Mauritius and Kigali Airport, Rwanda.
The Changi International Airport,
Singapore, has, in the past two decades, been rated as the best in the world
and the 2015 survey gives a hint. It said, “Perhaps, it’s the extreme
efficiency experienced when moving from the airplane to the city centre? Or
maybe it’s the luxurious layover indulgences, which include a fish spa, a
sauna, a butterfly garden, showers and a koi pond?”
When will our airports attain an
excellent culture of efficient operations and service delivery? In the midst of
the rot, and in our search for the appropriate solution, we need to remember
that many governments across the world have had a similar experience with their
airports. Many others are currently similarly encumbered.
So, what is the way out? Aviation
experts propose two radical solutions, especially for airports with a minimum
annual traffic of five million passengers. The first is full privatisation,
while the second is leasing (concession). The Conservative government in
Britain adopted the first model to a great success in 1987 by privatising the
British Airports Authority, raking in $2.3 billion from the sale. In 2009,
Heathrow and Stansted generated combined revenue of $4.27 billion.
The other workable model, which the
government could consider, is partial privatisation or leasing. Examples here
include the Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, France; and Frankfurt, Germany.
While the airport in France generated $3.66 billion in 2009, the one in Germany
receipted $2.74 billion. The Madrid Airport, Spain, which is in the process of
privatisation, raked in $4.16 billion the same year.
As a result of the move to make airports
viable, the Centre for Aviation, an Australian consultancy, estimates that
there are currently “450 airports globally with some form of private-sector
participation either in management or ownership.” Even Russia is jettisoning
the state-run model, going by its 2014-2016 privatisation plan, which aims to
cede operations at Moscow’s Sheremetyeva and Vnukovo airports completely to the
private sector. It is obvious that the $500m loan has not been properly
utilised and we welcome the House of Representatives’ decision to probe the
transaction and demand an accounting.
We have not managed our airports
efficiently as they remain a national embarrassment. And, the resources to do
so are no longer readily available. But privatisation is an efficient way of
managing infrastructure assets, and transparent privatisation will liberate the
government from appropriating money annually for airport operations. A striking
example of how privatisation can benefit the country is the N63.5 billion being
expended on the second runway under construction at the Abuja airport. If our
airports had been privately managed, the Federal Government would have been
able to save this fund and deploy it to other critical social needs.
Punch
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