BUHARI: PLEASE PROBE ALL PREVIOUS AVIATION MINISTERS !!!

SHAME OF A NATION: With N500bn down the drain, Nigerian airports still stink.

BY LOUIS IBA

If airports are supposed to serve as the mirror that reflects or portrays the inherent beauty of a par­ticular country, as the popular saying goes, then that mission appears to have failed woefully in Nigeria where the state of majority of Nigerian airports have failed to depict anything lofty about the country, particu­larly to any first time visitor.

Without any doubt, what confronts any visitor to Nigerian airports (both the international and domestic terminals) rang­es from the obviously poorly motivated and unfriendly staff, to the fewer immigration counters, to non-existing, derelict and decrepit infrastructure that fails to meet internationally acceptable standards.

From Lagos to Calabar, Abuja, Jos, Yola, Owerri, Port Harcourt, Kaduna, Benin, Maiduguri, Ilorin, air travellers are greeted frequently by such shortcomings like poor lightening and cooling systems, non-functional conveyor belts, dirty toilet facilities, within the airport terminals. And as the visitor exits the airport terminal, he meets defaced buildings, as well as touts and taxi drivers who loiter about soliciting for jobs, non-tarred and unkempt access roads, and the absence of parking spaces for visitors vehicles.

The situation got so bad that a first time foreign visitor to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, which for the past five decades has serves as the hub of aviation activities in Nige­ria was reported to have remarked that “the toilet facilities at the air­port was too filthy and sickening for his Alsatian dog to use.”

Another frequent user of Ni­gerian airports, Peter Umoh, told Sunday Sun “the conditions of most of the airports depict noth­ing but the shame of a nation.”

“I am sure that Nigerians and government officials who travel outside to America, Europe, Asia and even some poorer African countries and pass through their airports will not deny my posi­tion. Aviation is a global industry and airports being so pivotal to the sector have standards that are globally acceptable. In Nigeria, we seem to have carved out our own standard which is noth­ing but a negation of efficient delivery of services, comfort and beauty,” he added.

Except for a newer airport, like the Murtala Muhammed domestic terminal two managed by a pri­vate firm, Bi-Courtney Limited, and some of the state government owed airports that enjoy a good public ranking within the country, the rest of the airports, including what can be considered as the most improved among the 22 re­habilitated or remodeled ones by the outgone government of Pres­ident Goodluck Jonathan cannot be said to be anywhere close to modern or standard airports.

In fact, any first time visitor to Nigeria who exits through the international wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport and drives along the airport road linking either to Oshodi or Apapa would carry an image of a country immersed in dirt and filth. For years, that road has remained an eye sore to most users. Where it should have been adored with flowers, it has been littered with dirt and with several petroleum tankers that also obstruct vehicu­lar traffic.

Aminu Agoha, President of the National Association of Nigerian Travel Agencies recently noted that operations and facilities at Nigeria’s international airports were negations of international standards.

“Travel agents in Nigeria are very worried about the current state of most of our airports particularly the Murtala Mu­hammed Airport, Lagos; Aminu Kano Airport, Kano; and the Port Harcourt International Airport,” said Agoha.

“These airports have suffered serious neglect and infrastructure decay over the years and this has led to the withdrawal of opera­tions by major foreign airlines operating in this country,” he noted.

Poor global rating

In a recent survey report on airports conducted by sleep­ingairports.net and which was based on feedbacks from travel­lers on criteria such as terminal services and state of facilities deployed for such services, cleanliness and comfort ranked the Port Harcourt Airport as the dirtiest and worst in the world. It also listed the Abuja and Lagos airport as seventh and 10 worst in the continent.

The report said: “from dirty floors and bathrooms, to the regular request for bribes, lack of air conditioning, general nav­igational chaos, travelers were unimpressed with the airports that made it onto the list of worst airports in Africa.”

“These airports task the pa­tience of travellers,” it noted.

Although Yakubu Dati, spokesman for the Federal Airports Authority (FAAN) was quick to fault the report hinging on how imbalance and erroneous it could be to assess airports  under construction alongside those in stable conditions, the fact remains that till date, none of Nigeria’s airports carries an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) certification. under construction alongside those in

ICAO, an arm of the United Nations is the global regulator of the aviation industry, airports and allied facilities. International standards and recommended practices for operators are set by ICAO in accordance with the provisions of the Chi­cago Convention. Each country that owns an airport is however required to set up its own Civil Aviation Authority to regulate the standards and recommended practices as set up by ICAO.

It must however be noted that despite repeated attempts, Nigeria had failed to meet those ICAO standards which could qualify any of its airports for the ICAO certification.

And as previously noted, not even an Aviation Sector Reform programme initiat­ed by the former President Goodluck Jona­than, and for which more than N500 billion was estimated to have been earmarked for airport remodelling and reconstruction projects, can be said to have succeeded in effectively correcting or addressing the var­ious problems giving rise to the gory sight of most Nigerian airports as evidenced by the outcome of the survey.

Absence of investments

Investigations by Sunday Sun revealed that one of the factors that could be linked to the poor state of Nigerian airports re­mains the fact that until the Goodluck Jon­athan’s government initiated the airports remodelling and reconstruction projects for the 22 federal governments owned airports, most of the airports had over the years suffered from neglect.

But with the Jonathan’s reform pro­gramme, not only did the federal govern­ment inject fresh funds into the airports, key finance and donor institutions (who hitherto had shunned the industry) such as the World Bank, AFC, IFC, USEXIM, Chi­nese Exim and Citi Bank became actively involved in various loan deals, offering consultancy services as well as direct financing for some of the major ongoing projects in the industry. A $500million loan was even secured from the Chinese Exim Bank for the construction of four new international airport terminals in Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kano ranking as the highest foreign fund inflow into the sector.

“One major problem that plagued the airports was that no new investments were made to upgrade existing infrastructure from the time of their commis­sioning dating to the 60s, 70s, and 80s, to meet modern stan­dards of the 21st century obtain­able in western and some African airports currently ranked among the best in the world,” said a top official of a local airline who spoke to Sunday Sun.

“Also the airports, infrastruc­ture placed largely under the management of civil servants suffered terribly from a poor maintenance culture,” he added

Corruption

Like every other sector of the Nigerian economy, corruption for many years permeated every aspect of the management of the airports.

“We saw multi millionaires who had no registered companies emerging every now and then and if you subject them to an au­dit you will find out that they had no other source of income other than working as staff of one air­port department or another,” said another source who volunteered to speak with Sunday Sun.

“Standards were compromised easily; asking for and receiving bribes by officials from Immigra­tion to Customs, Police, airline staff and regulators became an acceptable business which no one frowned at. There are very many reported cases of kickbacks for contract awards between ministry officials and contractors. Passen­ger baggage were often ripped open and goods stolen, budgeted monies by the government were not utilized for set purposes as there were mismanaged and mis­applied and also outrightly stolen. And the result was the massive rot in the state of infrastructure of Nigerian airports. Corruption killed Nigerian airports,” added the official who preferred to remain anonymous.

The fact that graft has remained a bane to efforts by successive governments to improve the state of infrastruc­ture at Nigeria’s airport was clearly shown in the inability of the Jonathan government and its erstwhile Aviation Minister, Mrs. Stella Oduah to follow statutory laid down processes in the selection of contractors and in the disbursement of funds for the various airports remod­elling projects thus leaving many stakeholders to guess that about N500billion must have been expended on the projects later abandoned half way with contractors who downed tools protesting and revealing they were owed debts totalling about N174billion.

It is alleged that most of the earmarked monies for the airports remodelling projects ended in private pockets.

In an attempt to stem the rising cases of graft that reigns in all the agencies operating at the airports, the federal government on October 5, 2015 (this year) had to allow the deployment of officials of the Independent Cor­rupt Practices and Other Related Offences (ICPC) to now work at the airports.

“These airports are the gate­way to Nigeria and all forms of corrupt practices done there not only run down the image of the country but also mars the efforts to attract international investors which the government needs to lift the economy,” remarks Isa Salami, head of the ICPC airport surveillance and audit team.

“We are going to be looking at all the agencies or stakeholders that do businesses for the gov­ernment at the airports because the bad action of one of them can affect and smear the country. We want to spot the vulnerable areas of corruption and ensure we nip it,” he added.

Poorly motivated workers

Remuneration and other condi­tions of service for most airport workers in Nigeria has remained a subject of crisis between the agencies and labour unions in the industry.

“This industry is not without its challenges and among these is funding; there is inadequate funds for projects and even to pay staff what is obtainable in other climes,” said an official of the NCAA which regulates the industry.

“We truly have acute shortage of skilled manpower both at the regulatory arm, airlines and ser­vice providers. And there is no way the airports can operate at international standards when the staff are not treated in line with international standards. Even the few trained and dedicated per­sonnel are migrating to greener pastures abroad,” he noted.

Airline indebtedness

The poor financial state of indigenous carriers, have also marred the profitability of an avi­ation agency like FAAN which manages the airport.

Most airlines are unable to meet their contractual obliga­tions on landing and parking fees and associated charges enjoyed at the airports.

Some of the factors hiking operational cost and eroding profit margins of airlines include to meet obligations to FAAN to allow the proper maintenance of the airports include, high cost of aviation fuel, multiple taxes at the airports from various regu­latory agencies, high premium charges by insurance firms, exorbitant cost of maintenance of aircraft abroad due to the crash in the value of the naira against the dollar, and the high interest rates from creditor banks.

There is just no way other sectors of the economy would grow in isolation of the aviation sector.

It’s just not possible. People must travel to transact certain businesses as not all deals can be fixed via emails or telephones. People must also travel for tourism and other social engage­ments.

Aminu Agoha, President of the Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies said there is just no way other sectors of the econo­my would grow in isolation of the aviation sector and that the government should take steps to complete all ongoing projects at the airports.

“All works currently going on at our international and local airports should as a matter of ur­gency be brought to completion and should conform to interna­tional standards,” he said.

CULLED FROM THE SUN.