Mohammed Shosanya
The Senate has begun moves to probe the concession of the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, and the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja,by the last administration.
It also implored the government to review the entire exercise and give a level playing field to all stakeholders to participate in the process.
The move by the Senate followed a motion by Senator Suleiman Kawu, (NNPP Kano South Senatorial District), reading “Urgent Need to Reverse the Concessioning of Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.”
Leading the debate, Senator Kawu told the Chamber that the Federal Executive Council, on 17th May, 2023, approved the concessioning of Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano for 30 years, to Messrs Corporación America Airports Consortium.
He added that the Federal Ministry of Aviation (and Aerospace) does not own, or run any airport in Nigeria and that by the dictates of the governing Act of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), ownership and management of all federal government airports were fully vested in the Authority.
He also noted that the Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission (ICRC) procedure document states, with respect to the agency that wishes to concession a facility that, “The public entity should have enabling authority to transfer its responsibility – enabling legislative and policy framework or an Administrative Order to that effect.
The motion reads in part: “Reflects that from the combined import of the FAAN Act and the ICRC procedures manual, is an evident manifestation that the entire airports concession is based on an incurably faulty foundation.
“For, there is no doubt that it is the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, not the Ministry of Aviation, that has power ‘to transfer its responsibility’ to a would-be concessionaire. It is also FAAN, not the Ministry, which has the requisite legislative & policy framework’ for such;
“Convinced that if the claim that the FEC has approved the concessioning of Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport has any substance, then the FEC has indeed been misguided in its decision, and that action cannot amount to anything than a nullity;
“Worried about the rational in borrowing and spending public money to upgrade the airport only to hand it over to foreign businesses for a period of 30 years in the name of a concession;
“Alarmed that Nigeria is receiving a concession fees or upfront of $1.5m while the total amount of money that the Kano airport is accruing to government is $97.4m;
“Disturbed that this concession is clearly dubious and raise questions on the process and what the actors stand to gain; Recalls that unions in the aviation industry embarked on a strike to question the integrity of the concession exercise, stressing that the concession of the airport away from FAAN would necessarily cause a cessation of the employment of all the staff involuntarily:
“Worried that the concession by the Buhari-led administration raises a fundamental question of injustice on why an elephant project with huge public investment would take place just at the end of the administration; and observes that the faulty gaps inherent in the concession would lead to an array of lawsuits and thereby embarrassing the current administration.”
The Senate Chief Whip, Senator Ali Ndume (APC, Borno South), lamented that some of the government agencies and officials that did the concession, took advantage of what be described as Buhari’s passiveness as a leader, to cheat Nigerians.
