Leadership / Nigeria: The House of Representatives Committee on Aviation has kicked against the planned concessioning of airports, suggesting that it will have an adverse effect on the economy.
The committee also advised President Muhammadu Buhari to ignore calls to sell some national assets in the face of the economic recession.
Reacting to calls by some eminent Nigerians to sell public assets, chairman of the committee, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, argued that selling such assets was not the way to solve the country’s current problem.
She noted that the country must protect the $12 billion projected investment and 159,000 jobs provided across the value chain.
According to her, the current economic recession , if not checked, poses a great risk to the job security of over 400 pilots, including expatriates, 1,200 crew members and more than 1,000 travel agencies, in addition to harming the nation’s economy.
“The proposed privatisation/concession is done without recourse to the provisions of the extant Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria Act, which at the moment, has attracted over 60 cases of litigations pending in various courts of law, arising from the shady nature of the deals and arrangements,” she said.
The committee chairman further explained that the sector contributed $0.7 billion (N137.9 billion) in 2014 and $685 million in 2015 as well as a total of 159,000 jobs across the aviation sector and its value-chain.
“The sector has a projected investment of $12 billion in the short and medium term that would lead to passengers’ growth between 12 and 25 million by 2018,” she said, even as she emphasised the need for urgent intervention in order to avert the imminent collapse of the sector triggered by the economic recession.
“The current economic recession in Nigeria is having its toll on the sector, especially the operations of domestic airlines. In the last two weeks, some domestic airline operators suspended flights,” she stated.
PENGASSAN threatens to shut down Nigeria
Meanwhile, oil workers under the aegis of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) have threatened to shut down the country if the federal government should go ahead with the planned sale of national assets to augment revenue shortfall as a way out of the current economic recession.
PENGASSAN described the plan as a self-destructive move and said that the plan meant to solve short term financial obligations, was targeted at handing over the people’s common wealth to a few individuals to further impoverish the rest of the citizenry.
The senior staff trade union advised that instead of selling those assets, the government should look for other ways of increasing the revenue base of the country, while plugging loopholes and leakages in government’s finances.
It further advised the governments at all levels to pump out money through execution of capital projects and payment of workers’ salaries to revive the economy.
PENGASSAN, through its spokesperson, Comrade Emmanuel Ojugbana, cautioned the federal government to be wary of such plan as the association will not sit back and watch national assets, especially those in the oil and gas industry, such as NLNG that has become a huge revenue earner for Nigeria, refineries and shares in the upstream oil and gas JV operations, being shared among those in power and their cronies.
“Any attempt to sell these national assets will be met with stiff resistance from the association, as PENGASSAN will galvanise every support, including that of our sister unions and labour centres, to shut down this country by ensuring that every activity in the oil and gas sector is brought to a complete halt,” the association said.
