The Federal Executive Council (FEC) Thursday of Port Harcourt International Airport to private sector investors to enhance management efficiency and service quality.
Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development Mr Festus Keyamo said this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the council meeting chaired by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
The minister assured that no jobs would be lost in the process, stressing that the government would safeguard workers’ rights amid reforms aimed at making the aviation sector more viable.
“We have two major airports now that we have approvals in terms of the business case to begin to finalise with private investors. One of them is the Port Harcourt International Airport.
“I’ve made the point before that we are running our airports at a loss. All the money from Lagos, Abuja and Kano we pour it at some other airports that are running at a loss.
“This is a message to the unions, we will engage them, nobody will loose his job. So, I’m making this very clear because there have been all kinds of misinformation to the union members. I am pro-union, pro-workers and I know the kind of pressure they have been putting on me including people within the system instigating them against these concessions.
“They will not dictate policies of government, I’m ready to engage them, talk with them in terms of these concessions but they will not dictate policies of government to us. We will concession the airports especially as they are running at a loss, we cannot continue to waste government money.
“They will not lose their jobs, that’s the message to the unions, I repeat no worker will lose his job as a result of concessions. Once they are comfortable with that then I think they shall go along with us in that respect,” he said.
The minister said some airports currently run at a loss and are being subsidised by revenues from Lagos, Abuja and Kano airports.
“Before we came in, Port Harcourt was a no-go area — no investor was interested. But today, because of the activities of this government, it has become the beautiful bride. Over six investors competed to manage the airport,” he said.
He said the FEC also approved contracts for maintenance and support of airport management systems across Nigeria’s five international airports, Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt and Enugu.
He said the contracts include procurement and installation of advanced power systems and navigational aids.
He said the Council also approved the purchase of 15 airport rescue and firefighting vehicles to meet ICAO standards and the construction of a permanent Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) headquarters in Abuja.
“Now this is one of the major ones I want to mention now that we sought approval of FEC to exclude properties owned by the Federal Airport Authority in and around the airports in the country from disposal to private individuals.
“By now you know, there is one committee called presidential implementation committee or so on government properties set up long ago by Obasanjo’s government, where they sought to sell government properties to private individuals, maybe some of them on occupier basis, but at that time, I think it was through presidential memo that they excluded certain properties at that time, having to do with safety and security.
“Now it has been our problem at the airport, where people come and say that, because they were owner occupiers, they will buy properties within the airport or around the airport, meant for, for example, very technical staff, maybe firefighting staff, AppSec, navigational people, who we need at very short notice, because the airports are environments where you have emergence, you can have emergency anytime.
“So you need all of those people to stay within government quarters inside the airports because of emergencies. But we have had a serious problem where many of them that they had bought these properties, and now you have private individuals living within the airport, living within security and safety areas. But today, graciously, Mr. President said we should exclude all of those properties from disposal to private individuals.
“I’m just making this public announcement to those who purportedly have bought properties, we will not give those properties to them. We will not because we told them from beginning that these properties were excluded originally, but they said they didn’t see any memo to that effect. Now there’s a memo to that effect. We will not concede any of such properties within the airport or around the airport to any private individual,” he said.
