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| Aviation minister, Chief Osita Chidoka |
The federal government yesterday ordered
contractors handling the remodelling of airports across the country, who failed
to deliver their various remodelling projects, to return the funds they
collected to government’s purse.
Aviation
minister, Chief Osita Chidoka, who gave the directive, also offered reasons why
the planned re-establishment of a national carrier for Nigeria had not seen the
light of day since the liquidation of Nigeria Airways in 2003.
Leadership newspaper learnt that at the commencement of the exercise, the minister had taken US$88
million from the Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASA), deposited in the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority
(NCAA) as one of the signatories to the account.
A
former supervising minister in the sector, Chief Samuel Ortom, had declared
that former aviation minister, Princess Stella Oduah, left behind N174 billion
debts from the remodelling exercise, an allegation Oduah had not debunked.
Presenting
his scorecard as aviation minister in the last eight months, Chidoka said many
of the contractors had nothing to show for the mobilization funds and other
contract funds they had already collected, and they must, therefore, refund the
monies.
He
also noted that, in some cases, the quality of job done was very poor while in
other cases they were uncompleted.
Oduah
had commenced the airport remodelling exercise in 2011.
Chidoka
explained that on his assumption of office, the government had set up a
committee to look at some of the projects that had been abandoned, and few
weeks later, the committee came up with a report that most of jobs done by the
contractors were substandard.
Chidoka
noted that aside the order that they return money for jobs not done, most of
them had been asked to return to site to complete the projects.
On
the issue of a national carrier, the minister attributed the inability of Aero
Contractors to emerge as a national carrier to the inability of the airline to
source for partners as well as resolve issues bordering on funding mechanism
and equity holding.
Chidoka
said Aero Airlines, which has been acquired by the Asset Management Company of
Nigeria (AMCON), with government having majority equity holding, did not
possess the capacity to be a national carrier.
He
noted that though the country desired a national carrier, the airline could not
meet the template set for its establishment.
AMCON
has 60 per cent equity shares in Aero while the Ibru family own 40 per cent.
The
minister said government was still poised to deliver a national carrier,
provided the domestic airlines to be selected have corporate governance,
adequate fleet size, sizeable operational coverage, restructured ownership,
route development plan, employee size as well possessing international
certification.
He
said the proposed national carrier should not run as a private company solely
owned by one individual, but that it should have institutional investors,
technical expertise and other parameters.
Chidoka
also lamented that growth in the aviation sector had been stunted in the past
decades due to the absence of a robust master plan that would form the
architecture of implementation.
He
also said there are no set targets in infrastructure which would assist in
fixing gaps in the sector, even as he canvassed for the establishment of
airport management companies from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria
(FAAN) to enable them run efficiently like other airport groups across the
globe.
He
said there was the need to have an action plan for performance management as
well as diversification of revenue sources for FAAN.
Chidoka
canvassed transparency in the pursuit of the aerotropolis project, which, he
said, could be fine-tuned if FAAN was given a free hand to choose companies
that it would work with.
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