The Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mrs. Olubunmi Kuku, has said that the Authority is asking for inter-agency and inter-ministerial cooperation to achieve efficiency at the airports.
Kuku said this while fielding questions from journalists at the recent facility tour of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, by the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Barr. Festus Keyamo.
According to her, FAAN has taken steps to sanitise the airport to ensure the personnel from all the agencies at the airport apply decorum in the discharge of their duties, noting that FAAN recently sent out of the airport personnel that misbehaved.
She said: “We are the landlord; they (other agencies at the airport) are not under our employ. We are not their bosses, but we are their landlords. You see the last time when there was an incident here on tape; we threw that particular staffer out of the airport.
“So we have passed as FAAN to throw out any personnel from any agency at the airport that is actually crossing the line. We can throw the person out. Be it Customs, NDLEA or anybody for that matter. And that is why the other person who was caught on tape the other time, you can see that he was thrown out of the airport.
“So please, these are the steps we are taking for now. We are only asking for inter-agency cooperation, inter-ministerial cooperation to make this work.”
The Managing Director assured of great improvements in work ethics, great improvements in attitude to work, great improvement in conscientiousness and dedication to duty. “You are going to see that we have a great team now,” she said.
Affirming the plan to embark on public-private partnership to boost infrastructure at the five major airports, Kuku said “FAAN is ready for business and this government is ready for business.
“I continue to say that the investments we need to improve the facilities and the infrastructure in the aviation sector cannot only come in from the federal government.”
She recalled that the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Barr. Festus Keyamo, has over the last few weeks been engaging with the private sector as well as other government institutions globally to make sure that Nigeria secure a better collaboration.
“As he said earlier this is really just the beginning. All we are doing here are just little improvements to our facilities.
“But we have major plans in terms of the infrastructure development that is required, in terms of bringing in additional private sector participation.“And we are exploring various partnership models that would allow us to be able to move forward very quickly,” Kuku stated.