Workers Shut Down Airport Over FG’s Planned Concession

The workers also vowed to shutdown the country’s main airports if the government fails to reverse its moves to concession the facilities.

Senator Hadi Sirika, The Minister of State for Aviation, on several occasions had explained the Federal Government’s resolve to concession Nigeria’s four major airports in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano, saying it will help make the airports rank among the best in the world in terms of facilities.

Sirika had argued that due to dwindling economy, the Federal government lacked the required funds to improve the airports as expected, which was why it was important to concession the facilities as this would make them more efficient.

But workers under the National Union of Air Transport Employees urged that the Federal Government should avert the concession of the four main airports and focus on the dormant ones across the country.

The Chairman, NUATE, Abuja State Council, Mr. Lanre Popoola, while leading the protest at the NAIA, said, “We are not saying they should not concession airports, they should go to dormant airports like Minna. I wonder what Minna is doing with two airports.

“They should go to dormant airports like Gombe. Katsina, and Akure airports are there. They should go there and concession them.

“The Abuja, and Lagos airports, the four vibrant airports are the heritage of our nation. We are not going to allow some contractors, all in disguise of being a minister to come and sell our heritage.”

It will be recalled that the federal government had said it plans to concession the four major airports in the country because of the current state of the nation’s economy which has made it difficult for it to fund the development of airport facilities. So it is inviting the private sector to invest in the growth of the facilities through Public, Private Partnership (PPP).