FAAN Workers Protest Planned Concession of Major Airports

Activities at the Lagos Airport was early today paralyzed, following the protest embarked upon by the workers of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) over the concession of Lagos and Abuja airports by the federal government.

The workers aided by their union leaders in their hundreds staged a peaceful protest around the airport vicinity and vowed that they would ensure the plan of the government did not see the light of day.

The protesting workers through their unions, further alleged that the Minister of State for Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika had earmarked N659 million for the marketing and campaign of the project to prospective investors, describing such as a huge fraud in this era of technology.

They insisted that the concession of the airports were not in the best interest of the Nigerian public, rather to politicians through their cronies.

The protest of the unions, which started as early as 8:45am today at the Freedom Square of FAAN, disrupted vehicular movement to the airport as the Lagos Airport road recorded standstill for almost two hours during the marching of the workers to the General Aviation Terminal (GAT) of the airport and other areas within the environment.

The workers carried placards with numerous inscriptions like ‘VP – what you lost as Bi-Courtney’s lawyers you want to use your position as a VP to get it,’ ‘Osinbajo is misled’, ‘Hadi Sirika must go’, ‘Prof. Yemi Osinbajo is misinformed,’ ‘Selling our international airports an open invitation to terrorism/external aggression,’ ‘FAAN workers say no to Lagos and Abuja Airports,’ and ‘Airport concession is a threat to national security,’ among others.

Addressing the workers at the Freedom Square, the General Secretary of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Mr. Olatunji Abioye, said that the workers were not against the concession of the airports, but were bothered by the lack of openness involved in the whole exercise by the government.

He accused Sirika of ulterior motives, purporting that all avenues to ensure clarity and transparency in the whole exercise were rebuffed by the minister.

He also alleged that the minister and his cohorts are planning to establish the University of Aviation in Abuja, rather than improve the status of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria, lamenting that infrastructure at the college had been in a deplorable state for years without government attention.

He alleged that Sirika had planned to spend N659 million on the concession exercise, adding that N125 million of the funds is earmarked for overseas travels for Sirika to Dubai and United States.

“About two weeks ago, I received a message that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said on his twitter handle that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the concession of Lagos and Abuja Airports. But my VP can’t address us on twitter because it is not a base to address Nigerians or govern the country. It is not even part of the policies of the government,” he said.

“This concession exercise is a fraud. If you want to sell Lagos and Abuja Airports, all you need to do is to put it on the internet and interested investors will make inquiries and not by earmarking N659 million for the exercise. China is already requesting for its part of the $500 million for the construction of some airports in the country and the project is still on going. Who will bear the brunt? It is the same FAAN.”

Also speaking at the rally, the President of Air Transport Services, Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), Mr. Ahmadu Illitrus, who said that before now, the union leaders had engaged the minister on the planned concessions of the airports, but without any tangible response.

Mr. Illitrus noted that the unions’ two members of the steering committee were in the dark about the processes despite their agitations for transparency, but vowed that the plan by the government would not see the light of day.

He specifically said that past concessions in the country had been marred with frauds and mentioned the on-going concession agreement between Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited and FAAN as one of such examples in the industry.

“We have every reason to exercise fear, based on the past experience. Concession of MMA2 is one of the worst we can have anywhere in the world. Nobody can tell you exact tenure of this concession with Bi-Courtney. Nothing is being paid to FAAN.”

“I want to appeal to everyone here to be on the same page on this struggle and use every resource available to pursue this struggle. We must negotiate as a union from the position of strength,” he said.

However, the rally was almost marred when ATSSSAN and NUATE leaderships refused to recognize the new union in the industry, Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals (ANAP), who Abioye said was not invited for the demonstration. It took the intervention of other leaders in the unions for the issue to be put to rest.