By Judith Ufford

For many years, Nigeria’s aviation sector was in shambles. The sector was characterised by poor equipment, decrepit airport facilities, unreliable revenue generating and collection system and unfriendly workforce. All these combined to make the sector unsustainable.

To say the least, the state of the country’s over 22 airports owned by the Federal Government before   2011 was deplorable. And though attempts were made to reposition the sector by the previous administrations, the conditions of the airports did not change much.

At the airports, the air-conditioning system, like car parking lot, the cargo-handling, luggage conveyor systems and other passenger handling systems as well as the alternative power supply systems were in   comatose.

But a little over two years ago, the sector began to see remarkable change. For instance,  the 22 airports across the country got the facelift that changed travel experience for most passengers.

Not only that, there has been a boost for infrastructure in the sector with the replacement of obsolete equipment for modern one. To boot, global players were attracted as investors into the sector.

The Chinese for example signed an MOU with Nigeria to finance the construction of 11 new state-of-the-arts airports across the nation, out of which six will be for perishables. To that end, the sector became the pride of everyone.

From Lagos to Yola, Port Harcourt to Enugu, the quality and pace of work took the aviation sector by storm. For once, the national pride of Nigerians was restored and the nation’s standing in the comity of nations was sustained.

Now, high-wired politics that stopped the reform with the removal of the former Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah, may be impacting on the expected progress within the sector.

Just recently, the House Committee on Aviation claimed that N174.6billion debts have been incurred by the Ministry of Aviation, calling it ‘unsustainable,’ though sources at the ministry denied that, calling it a ‘mere witch-hunting,   bitter politics.’

The committee, led by its chairman, Nkiru Onyejeocha, expressed dissatisfaction with the ministry’s debt burden when it went on oversight function at the ministry and its agencies.

Onyejeocha equally denied knowledge of the aviation master plan which has guided the reform witnessed so far in the sector.

She said: “I wish to state here that the committee frowns at such debt profile because we know that monies have been appropriated for most of the projects that you have been doing in aviation. It’s scary to have a debt profile of N174 billion in the Ministry of Aviation.”

The committee members expressed concern that most of the projects done were to remodel the airport terminals and not to provide equipment that would improve the safety of flights in the country.

In response, the supervising Minister of Aviation and Minister of State for Commerce and Trade, Mr. Samuel Ortom, said the   alleged debts  were not incurred by his administration since it has not awarded any contract and does not intend to award any until it has addressed the debts.

According to industry sources, the supervising minister for the sector may be having challenge with understanding the mechanism of the reform since his redeployment to the sector was only a few months ago.

Indeed, available documents from the Ministry of   Aviation shows that the debts in question refer to the loan of US$500m from China Exim Bank and the Eurobond Loan of US$100m which would both be liquidated from the proposed Airport Development Levy of US$10.00 (International Passengers’) and N1,000 (Local Passengers), with a five-year projected income.

According to the documents, funding sources for the reform in the aviation sector include BASA funds, Appropriations, Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and other sources such as proposed Airport Development Levy and Security Surcharge.

For the BASA funds, there was approval for Presidential Priority Projects in Aviation, which conveyed approval for utilization of N60m in the BASA funds and was submitted to the National Assembly for appropriation to be supplemented by a further N14.6b from the IGR of the Federal Airports  Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).

Consequently, the Senate Committee on Aviation via a letter of May 16th, 2011 written to the Minister of Aviation approved the utilization of the US$60m from BASA Funds. The letter was signed by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Aviation and the Chairman, House Committee on Aviation.

And the Senate and House of Representatives Joint Committee on Aviation, in another letter dated June 10, 2013 written to the former Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, conveyed  Approval/Appropriation of utilization of the BASA funds of N25b for the ministry’s project execution.

The letter was signed by Senator Hope Uzodinma and Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, as Chairman, Senate Committee on Aviation and Chairman, House Committee on Aviation respectfully.

In the same vein, the State House, Abuja, through a letter to the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, conveyed approval for the procurement of critical infrastructure such as perimeter fencing, airfield lighting, water hydrant systems and fire-fighting equipment.

For appropriation, the documents further showed that the Ministry of Aviation approved and awarded a total of 15 projects in Phase I of the airport remodelling and facility development in 2011, amounting to N12, 808,150,598.30
Also, the ministry approved and awarded 91 contracts for Phase II and additional consultancy projects in 2011, totalling N97, 668,167,822.11

And in order to complement the goals of the Phases I and II of the projects, the ministry secured   N43,149,077,670.50 in the 2013 Appropriation to implement the Phase III and approved by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) after submission by the MTB.

Accordingly, the funding was to be augmented from the approved BASA funds amounting to N25 billion of which N14.3 billion was already available. The project funding was expected to further be augmented with funds allocated to airport development projects in the Internally Generated Revenue Appropriation from its  agencies in 2013,and subsequently yearly for all projects.

Now, contrary to the impression in certain quarters that some people were not carried along in the formulation of industry wide policy, the Ministry of Aviation under Oduah held several stakeholder meetings on key industry issues, a top official of FAAN disclosed.

According to him, the meetings   include an interactive stakeholders meeting held on April 16, 2012, at Abuja Sheraton Hotel, Nigerian and Foreign Registered Aircraft stakeholders meeting on April 22,2013 at Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, and Fresh Produce/Perishable Cargo Committee Meeting held on August 22, 2013 at the Minister’s Conference Centre, FMA, Abuja amongst others.

The FAAN official said, “A group, the Association of Aviation Stakeholders (AAS), has accused the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Aviation, Hon. Nkiruka Onyejeocha, of playing politics with her position. According to the group, Onyejeocha cannot claim ignorance of the $500million Chinese-Exim Bank loan for the aviation sector and other infrastructural projects of the Federal   Government”.

The body’s national president, Abubakar Dan Maikasuwa, in a statement said: “Except she claims she was misquoted by the reputable media organisations that reported her comments, she was downright inaccurate and should be told so.”

Maikasuwa, in the statement entitled: ‘Haba Onyejeocha’, said members of his association and himself read, with shock, the comments credited to the lawmaker that she was not aware of the loan.

According to him, Onyejeocha is aware of everything about the loan, stressing: “She was on the trip to China with President Goodluck Jonathan where the document for the loan was signed.”
The association president alleged that her trip to China, was sponsored by one of the aviation parastatals.

”She was not sponsored alone; she went with members of her family,” he said. He added: “It is self-indictment for her to come to the open and say she was in the dark, when she was carried along, especially concerning the four new international airport projects located in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano and Abuja all financed with the Chinese Exim loan.

”We want to state categorically that Nigerians should ignore her and her co- travellers who see nothing good in the revolution going on in the aviation sector. We wonder why she is out to rubbish the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan,” he said.

Maikasuwa said the   threat by her to hold a public hearing on the issue amounts to nothing but blackmail which at the end of the day is a waste of public funds, maintaining that, “we will resist every attempt by the old brigade to take the nation back to the dark old days,thereby turning back the wheel of progress in the aviation sector.”