BY OLAPEJU OLUBI
The Director, Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mrs Obiageli Orah, has provided lucid details as to why the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr. Festus Keyamo, ordered the immediate relocation of the corporate headquarters of the Authority from Abuja to its original base, Lagos, where it has operated for decades until recently.
Orah in a statement explained that the relocation of FAAN headquarters from Lagos to Abuja by Keyamo’s predecessor, Hadi Sirika three years ago, was ill-advised and wrong-headed, considering that over 60 per cent of the Authority’s operations were in Lagos which is the hub of aviation in Nigeria.
Aside from that, the new FAAN Spokesperson further highlighted that the relocation to Lagos was fully endorsed by all relevant stakeholders and the Unions after wide consultations with the new FAAN management.
“It was agreed that this was in the best interest of the Authority and the country for now for the following reasons: Those affected by the decision to move the headquarters to Abuja have since returned to Lagos as there is no office space for them in Abuja. It was ill-advised in the first place to move the headquarters to Abuja when there was no single FAAN building in Abuja to accommodate all of them at once.
“Having returned to Lagos, the Authority would be liable to pay them DTA (DUTY TOUR ALLOWANCE) because technically they are working OUT OF STATION as their official posting is to Abuja. The Minister has decided to stop this waste of public resources and rip-off on the public purse.
“The other option open to the Authority was abandon the old FAAN building in Lagos to rot away and to use its scarce resources to rent an office space in Abuja for Millions of Naira of public money when in actual fact more than sixty percent of its activities are in Lagos given the huge passenger volume of the Lagos airports. The stakeholders and the Minister decided against that and to save the country this waste.
“The Minister has rolled out plans to get concessionaires to build befitting offices for the Authority in Lagos and Abuja and until that is done, the Authority will continue to manage its old building in Lagos that can accommodate all its Directors and senior officials for now.
“Abuja continues to have full operational offices and the Authority has not scaled down operations in Abuja one bit. It is just the technical decision of where the Authority has its ‘corporate headquarters’ that has been taken without affecting the structure of operations as they are for now in both cities.
“In the near future, when befitting corporate buildings have been built for the Authority in both Lagos and Abuja, a final decision will be taken as to the location of the permanent headquarters, depending on the exigencies of the time.
“The Authority wishes to assure members of the public that it will continue to act in the best interest of the public and the country.
“The Minister is committed to taking decisions that are in the best interest of the country, especially as it concerns public funds and will not yield to ethnic or sectional sentiments that will derail this commitment”, Orah explained.
When Sirika jettisoned stakeholders’ cries and defiantly moved FAAN headquarters from Lagos to Abuja three years ago, he cited administrative convenience and boosting operational efficiency as his reasons.
But many who read in between the lines knew it had political undertone.
