As debates for for and against the concession of Nigerian airports hots up, stakeholders in the aviation industrfor y have advice the Federal government to embrace transparency and political interference if it wants concession agreements to be fruitful.
The stakeholders who agreed that concession of the airports would promote effeciency and profitability if done in transparent and with the right model, also insisted that failure to honour agreements and not put corporate governance in place, would bring in more problems to the industry.
Speaking at the Conference on Privatization / Concession of Nigerian Airports, held at Sheraton Hotels and Towers, Ikeja, Lagos, on Friday, the stakeholders, who relied on their past experience in the industry to support their positions said the federal government should forget about concessioning of the airports if it is not ready to heed the advice.
They said this would not promote the desire goals but bring disincentives to investors
In his statement, former Director General of Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr. Harold Demuren reiterated his opposition to the idea of concesion agreement entered into with pronounced political interference shrouded in secrecy.
Also speaking from the point of a former regulator, Demuren suggested that without knowing the real sector of the industry marked for concession, there would more problem in the industry because of clash of agreements. . .
He argued that the issue was becoming more confusing as the model and scope of the concession are not made clear by the federal government.
The former helmsman at the aviation regulatory authority in Nigeria observed that the nation would be drifting into greater confusion in a situation where the nation has entered into a concession of terminals with Chinese government on Building Operate Transfer (BOT), expressed fear on what would happen should the government goes out to concession the entire airports
Also in his remaks at the Conference, Chairman, Senate Committee on Privatisation, Senator, Ben Bruce Murray claimed that concessioning of the airports would bring about their profitability and effeciency.
He was of the opinion that since the federal government has no business running airports, he urged the government to hands off the running of the airport
Murray – Bruce who said governments do not have the managerial and creative capacity to manage airports with required urgencies, noted that, “the bureacracy of civil service is not conducive to the automation expected of an airport environment under the best circumstance”.
Citing the case of British Airports that were privatised, recalled that the once struggling British airports now enjoys better operations with good financial returns
Speaking as a legislator, the senator disclosed that his committee is planning to facilitate a bill that would fast track the privatization of the airports.
He equally proposed that every privatization exercise should be given a two year window for observation on its workability.
