Gboyega Adeoye
Events at the Nigerian aviation sector is fast shedding the comical toga for a more terrible and sorry sight. Concessionaires employed by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria are on the horns of dilemma enforced by the agency to cover up for its visible inefficiency and lack of focus, engendered by administrative inconsistency, incompetence and measured disloyalty. Violation of laws and due process is now the order of the day and intending investors in the Nigerian economy are not seeing enough on ground to warrant a plunge.
All these are orchestrated by recent decision of FAAN to forcefully terminate the operations of Maevis, an indigenous concessionaire employed to carry out Airline Operations Management Service at the nation’s international airports. The agency did not only take over the concessionaire’s office but brought in a foreign contractor, SITA, which now carries out the service with Maevis’ illegally impounded equipment. This is another of such abrupt breach in agreement, coming after the March 2009 termination of the agreement the agency sealed with another indigenous company, Pan Express Services Limited, on cargo management operation services.
But while the FAAN management is going about this high level of brigandage at the airports with its attendant toll on the people of Nigeria, the lopsided position of FAAN union in the matter calls for scrutiny, as it is suspicious.
The idea to concession out some revenue points at the airports was conceived and hatched under former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration’s Public, Private Partnership (PPP) agenda. This was when it became glaring that workers were becoming increasingly despondent and diverting government revenue to their private pockets. There was a public forum on this industrial scourge at the instance of the Federal Government where stakeholders admitted that they failed the nation and were “cutting corners” at the expense of government.
One is therefore surprised that a workers’ union, which is expected to be agents of positive change in the sector, has suddenly transmuted into willing foot soldiers for a FAAN management that has brought nothing but tales of woe to its workers and the entire nation, over the years.
To my mind, a union that is active, responsive and responsible ought to be active participants in these concession agreements since they have direct impact on the welfare of the workers they swear to represent. And if that is the case, why are they suddenly crying wolf?
Except in a situation where the union leaders have mortgaged their statutory rights by trading away the workers, the union should by now concern itself with how the rights of the workers it represents are not trampled upon in the ensuing illegalities being championed by FAAN, rather than playing the management’s megaphone in the misadventure. Unions should be reminded that it is never the function of labour to take full responsibility of the role of management but rather, listen to participatory role of the employers, vis-à-vis the function of the nation just as it should ensure that workers’ rights are protected.
Activities of labour unions in the Nigerian aviation sector have over the time been characterised by unresearched and tailored criticism, occasioned by deceit and aggrandisement. And because there is no clear cut focus, labour leaders in the sector have been reduced to mere pawns, being used to enforce management’s crooked agenda. They stay behind as global labour movement advance from confrontation to dialogue, which now promotes constructive arguments as real instrument to achieve expected goals for the workers. It is pathetic that our aviation unions still dwell on the old, ineffective method of wearing fierce looks, putting on skimpy attires, chanting war songs and throwing punches into the air. No, this has to stop or we are all doomed as a nation.
Questions should be asked. If the FAAN and its unions are saying the terms of agreement with the concessionaires are faulty, then who do we blame: the concessionaire, the FAAN management that wrote the terms, the duo of Minister of Finance and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice that cross checked the terms in the course of due process, or the workers union that was involved in drafting it?
Even if an agreement is later discovered to be faulty against the principal party, the best and most civilised way to go about it is to call the other party concerned to a round table re-discussion, and with persuasion, re-write the grey areas rather than one party’s brigandage through force.
That FAAN can fix the missing links in its revenue generation drive and match the global pace in the aviation sector will be a misconception judging by the level of rot, corruption and naked despondency inherent in the system. And since there is the need for the industry to advance, particularly now that it is under global searchlight following its current Category One certification by the American Federal Airport Authority, to devise a means around its age-long stagnation becomes a sine-qua-non.
The MMA2 in Lagos, which was built by Bi-Courtney through the Build, Operate and Transfer concept, an offshoot of the PPP agenda, is today earning the nation global respect. But its continued operation to date despite the array of bombardments from FAAN and labour can be linked to the influence its Chairman, Dr. Wale Babalakin, SAN, wields, backed by the grace of God. Pan Express also came into the sector with its wealth of experience in the cargo sector of the airport economy, studied and discovered virgin areas where accelerated revenue can accrue to government and set to work after due process. This company came in and turned around the financial fortune of the agency. But FAAN ever unstable leadership, caught in on the benevolence and transparency of the concessionaire, and turned it into another goldmine to satisfy its unquenchable thirst for wealth and affluence.
FAAN leaderships, in their haste to gather enough before they leave office, are used to flouting agreement terms and jeopardising operations for its concessionaires. Their concern is their pockets. They flouted rules and choked Pan Express with frivolous and illegal issuance of wavers on cargo belonging to their cronies which, by law, is exclusively the prerogative of Mr. President. We only hear their tough talks when a dying concessionaire is not totally acceding to their biddings.
A nation like Nigeria, trying to wriggle out of lingering international and domestic opprobrium, particularly in the management of its economy, will be expected to have long mediated in the questionable manner with which some concession agreements were being abruptly terminated at will in our airports. The source of FAAN’s power to flaunt court orders, as in the case of Maevis, and wanton disregard for government directives as for Pan Express, should be investigated. From facts available, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Secretary to the Federal Government, National Security Adviser, the past ministers of aviation among others, have on different occasions advised FAAN to recall Pan Express and pay up about N1 billion it owes the company but with the former turning deaf ears.
So where did our union suddenly find its voice and where does it derive its recent position? How does a union, which is party to an agreement, suddenly become averse to same contract and is fighting vehemently in support of its illegal termination?
The excesses of the aviation unions, to the view of stakeholders, has a link with the management, which has resolved to use them as foot soldiers to free themselves from ministerial directives and, as such, have a field day, while our airports continue to decay in terms of infrastructures, effectiveness and competitiveness.
Beyond what we have on ground, aviation stakeholders expect a peaceful, conducive business environment at the airports. This is crucial to the maximum performance of the business. A stop should be put to the present situation so as to sustain the inflow of Foreign Direct Investment into Nigeria.
We need absolute security, safety and good leadership in our airport management, control and delivery system. FAAN itself needs a thorough overview and re-orientation so that it can meet the modern day aspirations of Nigerians and the global trading and travelling community. This is more obvious now that the promotion of trade facilitation is the principal goal of maximising the benefits of international trade and globalisation.
The un
ions should be seen to be genuinely fighting for the welfare and interests of their members and for the promotion of good corporate governance in the aviation industry. They should eschew parochialism and self interests and work for the collective good of the entire aviation workers. If the unions could be so ineffective as not to be able to negotiate a good deal for its members thrown out of job in Nigeria Airways Limited, found it impossible to prevent the liquidation of the national carrier, waited sheepishly till an hotel is erected few meters away from the Presidential Wing at the Lagos airport, the only car park at the international wing of Lagos airport being ceded for building of a hotel that has not taken off, permit the sale of NAL property to individuals at various locations of the federation, etc, one wonders where this renewed vigour takes its root from.
As we speak, there has been no concrete reaction from union against the management of FAAN on the N64 billion runway contract acknowledged to be the most inflated and fraudulent contract ever awarded.
It is strongly advised that the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Aviation, should, against all misrepresentations, invite each of the concessionaire to a round table discussion with a view to sorting out grey areas and avoid wastage of public fund on litigations and payment of avoidable bills on claims and damages.
More than ever before, the Nigerian aviation sector needs government’s intervention to right the wrongs in FAAN. We need a peaceful and safe environment to operate. Now is the time. Enough is enough.
Adeoye, a Media Consultant, is based in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.