Airport concession: Sirika assures workers of job security

Minister of State, Aviation, Hadi Sirika, has assured unions in the aviation industry that no worker will be sacked in the proposed concessioning of the four major airports in the country, disclosing that all the 22 airports will be concession in the second phase.

Speaking while meeting with the unions represented by the Air Transport Senior Staff Services of Nigeria (ATSSSAN) and the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) in Lagos weekend, Sirika gave the unions the opportunity to become members of the concession Project Delivery Committee, to enable them make inputs to better the process.

The Federal Government, according to the minister, has earmarked the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA) and Port Harcourt International Airport (PHIA) for the first phase of concession, which will be followed by the cargo designated airports and then others.

Sirika reiterated that the airports as they were, were major blemish that needed improvement, stating that the dynamo behind government’s resolve to concession was the over-riding national interest in ensuring the establishment and sustenance of world-class standards in infrastructural development and service delivery.

He assured the unions that concession is not tantamount to privatisation or outright sale and explained that the institutions being concessioned remained the properties of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and Nigeria further stating that more jobs will be generated at the end of the day.

The minister said:  “Government has no plans whatsoever to sell national assets but it was sheer misconception. The truth is that government does not have money to invest and even if they could, with the sheer bureaucracy, it could take ten years to do that.”

He argued that a private investor like those who built airports at Doha, Dubai could provide funding for such a project and accomplish it with ease, giving this country a state-of-the-art terminal facility devoid of the problems of the current ones.