Industry stakeholders led by seasoned pilot, Balarabe Usman, have commended the Minister of Aviation, Mrs. Stella Oduah for  the upgrading of airport facilities in the country.

According to him, the obsolete facilities at the airports were in dire need of rehabilitation but successive ministers in the past did not see the urgent need to modernise these airports.

Usman noted that the Oduah has  rescued the aviation sector from the claws of a cabal who flash questionable concession agreements and perfect the manipulation of our commonwealth for their personal and selfish benefits.

The pilot, said in a statement said in  the allegations the land where the edifice is built belongs to another concessionaire,  were baseless.

“We were around when these questionable concession agreements were being manipulated but some of us that raised our voices were victimised. How can one individual manipulate the system and appropriate our commonwealth to himself and his family? The agreement was entered into for 12 years with several concessions offered to the company to enable them make good profits within the said period. Using backdoor tactics, they connived with their powerful friends and unilaterally extended the agreement to 36 years. They nominated their cronies who signed on behalf of Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and happily smiled to the banks,” he said.

He added that those agreements were fraudulently skewed in favour of the concessionaires without any sense of morality, equity and justice.

Usman said: “Is it right for a man to appropriate our commonwealth as a nation to himself? These people have perfected the art of manipulating the laws to their favour. How else can you explain an agreement that was entered into for 12 years, and suddenly converted to 37 years without any review?  No consideration was given to this generation or generations of Nigerians yet unborn, as those masquerading as FAAN representatives were paid agents who traded our common wealth away. If things are allowed to degenerate any further, we shall one day wake up to find the very air we breathe “concessioner” by those with friends in high places.”

He noted that  private investors should bequeath to the next generation a legacy of hard work, creativity and entrepreneurship instead of the fraudulent modules they champion now.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/fg-commended-over-airport-transformation/128730/