* Minister of State(Aviation).Senator Hadi Sirika * Pix Source : Champion Newspapers
Minister of State (Aviation),Senator Hadi Sirika has stated that Federal Government needed one trillion naira to revatalise Nigeria’s aviation industry to compete favourably with other aviation industries in developed aviation climes.
He said this today while speaking at the public hearing organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation in Abuja.
Recalled that the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Aviation, Mrs Nkeiruka Onyejeocha during the committee’s visit to the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos, for its oversight function had hinted that the committee would call a aviation stakeholders for public hearing to hear the view on the proposed concession of the airports.
The stakeholders she had stated would include: airlines, aviation unions and the ministry
The Aviation Minister, who lamented the poor state of infrastructure in the industry, denied the insinuations making the rounds that the Federal Government wants to sell the airports in the country.
According to him, “One trillion naira will be needed to turn around our aviation sector, we will not sell the airports and nobody is carrying any structure to anywhere. In fact, what we intend to do is to put them into better use.”
He told the august gathering that the Ministry of Aviation had constituted a nine-man Delivery Team to consult with aviation stakeholders on the planned concession of airports in the country.
Sirika further explained that the Nine -Man -Delivery Team would engage aviation labour unions and also oversee the day to day running of the concession.
On the shape the planned concession would take, he stated that the process would not only be transparent, but that it would also be free, fair and in an effective manner.
Abenewsng.com recalled that during a meeting with the unions in Lagos, Sirika had assured them that the planned concession of airports by the Federal Government would be not only be different from other previous concessions but that it would be transparent, done in the open and would have human face.
The Federal Government has penciled down the Murtala Muhammed Airport(MMA),Lagos,Nnamdi Azikwe Airport(NAA),Abuja,Mallam Aminu Kano Airport(MAKA),Kano, and Port Harcourt Airport(PHA) for concessioning to provide better and efficient services.
