NIGERIA’S global reputation took a further hit recently when malfunctioning runway lights compelled delays and the diversion of Lagos-bound international flights. The collapse of the lights made landing at night unsafe and saw British Airways, among other foreign airliners, detouring to Abuja while the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority suspended night-time landing at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport. This national embarrassment reflects the crisis of infrastructure and inefficiency in the troubled domestic aviation sector and makes urgent reforms imperative to reposition it to reap its immense potential.
In an industry where accidents, when they occur, are devastating in their human and economic costs, safety is of paramount importance. Civil aviation is accordingly one of the world’s most regulated industries. But characterised by low investment, inefficiency, maladministration, corruption, and politicisation that underpin state-run bureaucracy, Nigeria’s aviation sector grossly under-performs. Lack of adequate modern equipment among others prevents it from becoming a major continental player and it constantly throws up safety concerns.
Large aircraft require navigational guiding lights to land, in addition to airport and onboard navigational aids. As international passenger flights typically use larger planes and mostly land and take off at night, the collapse of the MMA runway lights potentially put aircraft and passengers at risk. This prompted the NCAA, the industry regulator, to temporarily downgrade the airport to a safety category requiring clear visual conditions to land aircraft in its Notice to Airmen, in line with standard industry practice. With the MMA accounting for over 60 per cent of all the country’s total passenger and aircraft movement, this is another blow to the economy and its travel and tourism sector.
Safety concerns are understandable. The plane crash in May that killed the then Army Chief of Staff and 10 others is only the latest in a string of air disasters witnessed in the country. At least, 10 major crashes that took many lives were recorded between 1969 and 2012, apart from minor ones and near-misses. All 153 passengers and six persons on the ground perished in June 2012 when a Dana Air MD-83 aircraft approaching the MMA crashed in Iju-Ishaga. In a pathetic case, 60 secondary school pupils of Loyola Jesuit College, Abuja, were among the 108 persons killed in a Sosoliso Airlines DC-9 plane that crashed at the Port Harcourt International Airport in December 2005. Earlier in October 2005, a Bellview Airlines Boeing 737-200 plane crashed in Lisa, Ogun State, shortly after take-off from the MMA, killing all 117 passengers and crew on board.
Although most of the crashes have been variously attributed to pilot error, faulty aircraft and bad weather conditions, experts bemoan the paucity and functionality of modern navigational equipment at the country’s 31 airports. Of these, 22 are owned and operated by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, which says it has now restored the MMA runway lights. Only two are turning in worthwhile profits – the MMA and the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. FAAN admitted that 18 airports combined accumulated losses of N65 billion in the six years to 2019. Many airports are virtually idle. The country has no major maintenance hangar, forcing domestic airline operators to incur huge costs for regular maintenance abroad.
Massive private investment is sorely needed to tap the potential in aviation and allied sectors for jobs and infrastructure. Only the MMA and NAIA had met ICAO standards by 2018.
The government must open up the inter-linked aviation, tourism, and hospitality sectors. They are business enterprises better run by the private sector in a liberalised operating environment. Aviation Benefits says the global aviation sector supports $3.5 trillion (4.1 per cent of global GDP) in economic activity. The Air transport industry contributes $961.3 billion to global GDP and creates 11.3 million jobs. According to IATA, it generates jobs, income, stimulates trade, tourism and investment and contributes to the growth of cities. Nigeria’s air transport and associated sectors add $1.7 billion in gross value added to national GDP, a paltry 0.4 per cent while supporting 241,000 jobs. In South Africa, these figures are $9.4 billion (3.2 per cent of GDP), and 472,000 jobs, respectively.
Airports are the hubs of the industry, but clearly, the government lacks enough funds to invest in them. The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), should therefore quickly implement the privatisation and liberalisation plan prepared by the Bureau of Public Enterprises to allow the private sector free rein, while the government restricts its role strictly to that of landlord and regulator. A long-delayed plan to concession the Lagos, Abuja, Kano, and PH airports should be aligned with a comprehensive liberalisation plan. The unviable airports should be privatised.
The grave error committed in the power sector asset sale should be avoided. Only reputable, financially, and technically competent investors should be pre-qualified to bid for the assets. Since the United Kingdom’s first airport privatisation in 1987, Airports Council International said that by 2017, 51 per cent of the world’s 100 busiest airports had private sector participation via concessions, PPP, and leases. Global Infrastructure Partners led by a Nigerian, Adebayo Ogunlesi, has invested in and runs the UK’s London City, Gatwick, and Edinburgh airports. Australia-based Centre for Aviation said while Nigeria continues to prevaricate, Brazil is moving ahead with its sixth round of airport concessions for 43 airports, while Kazakhstan has sealed a $415 million deal to unload 100 per cent of its Almaty Airport to investors as a potential transit hub between Asia and Europe.
True, the Federal Government in 2015 adopted an ambitious Aviation Roadmap to upgrade facilities at existing airports and build an additional 10. For this, it has spent about $600 million on new terminals, runway resurfacing and equipment upgrades for which $500 million was borrowed from China. Results have however been unsatisfactory as Nigeria’s airports are still ranked poorly. The fatal flaws in the plan are that the government is going it alone as policies to attract investors have not been pursued and it is relying on borrowing more. With private investors, airports would be driven by economic considerations; not by politics and sectionalism that influenced the choice of the sites of existing ones.
There is no viable alternative to private investment and management. No Nigerian state-owned enterprise has excelled as, unlike the United Arab Emirates and Singapore that apply merit-based and profit-based principles in public enterprises, corruption, nepotism, sectionalism and sometimes religion underpin public sector decision-making and administration in Nigeria.
Buhari should direct the National Council on Privatisation, the BPE and the Aviation Ministry to commence the immediate implementation of the sector’s liberalisation and privatisation plan.
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