Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has said the national carrier project, Nigeria Air, will be suspended till President Bola Tinubu is properly briefed and the allegedly non-transparent processes are reviewed.
“No final decisions have been taken on the issues of airports’ concessions and national carrier. They are only suspended until all processes that are allegedly non-transparent and leading to those decisions are reviewed and all complaints are accessed for the benefit of Nigerians and Mr. President is fully briefed.”
Keyamo said that he is after protecting the average Nigerian, stating that “he is not a civil servant and is coming with a private sector mentality.”
He also ordered the relocation of all airlines from the old to the new Murtala Muhammed International Airport terminal in Lagos.
Keyamo said it is a complete disgrace to the country as a whole to continue the use of the old terminal which has become an eyesore, while the new terminal remains underutilised.
He said, “we have 60 check-in counters in the new terminal and most are not in use. Why are we struggling with the old terminal that is smelly and leaking and a complete disgrace to our country and that is why I said we should use the new facility.
“Just like it’s done in so many countries, we are going to do some emergency procurement, get buses, so that we can in – an orderly manner – board passengers and disembark them and also bring them to arrival and departure, to the aircraft. We would do this as a temporal measure.”
The minister also ordered owners of aircrafts parked in the old terminal to remove them from the facility within three months.
“The first directive I am giving, I have told the MD FAAN, some of these aircraft here that are totally unserviceable, you cannot park them perpetually on the property of the federal government.
“We want to expand the aprons here and so for all those who have unserviceable aircraft here, they have three months to come and take away their aircraft, after which we would be at liberty to do away with them.
“I have also seen reports that say we said we are going to totally close the airport down. There are fifth columnists who would like to misrepresent me at every point in time, to make our work difficult. All I have said is that we move and use the new terminal that is underused. The old terminal is a total eyesore.”
Chioma Kalu
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