The House of Representatives, says the outcome of the airport concession exercise carried out during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari Enriched unpatriotic Nigerians and their foreign cohorts at the detriment of Nigerians.
The Green Chamber added that the exercise also led to the eventual enslavement of these public infrastructure to foreigners for many decades.
To this end, the House has suspended the concession of airports in the country and also resolved to set up ad hoc committee to probe airports concession.
The resolution of the House followed the adoption of a motion moved at the plenary on Wednesday by Hon. Kama Nkemkanma.
Moving the motion, the lawmaker said most viable airports in the country were commissioned to foreign firms through Federal Executive Council (FEC) resolutions that deviated from due process, public accountability, and established laws of the land.
Nkemkanma said: “The eventual outcome of the opaque concession exercise was the enrichment of a few unpatriotic Nigerians and their foreign cohorts at the detriment of Nigerians and the eventual enslavement of these public infrastructures to foreigners for many decades.”
He added that the country’s major airports in Lagos, Abuja, and Kano have remained by consistently subjects of controversies due to entrenched personal interests that have undermined the laws of the land, irrespective of the occasional efforts of the anti-corruption agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC).
The lawmaker said the National public policy journey has led to embarrassment, corruption, and controversies in aviation and other sectors.
Nkemkanma lamented that the myopic personal interests of these economic vampires have relegated the so called international airports to mere airstrip status after almost seven decades in the industry, and can never be compared with global renowned airports such as Heathrow, Dubai, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Qatar, Vancouver, and others.
The lawmaker said even on the African continent, where one out of every six Africans is a Nigerian population-wise, the South African pairs of Tambo-Johannesburg and Cape Town, Cairo, Casablanca-Morocco and Houari Boumediene in Algeria, have all outpaced Nigeria, while the country also lag behind Kenya, and Ethiopian airlines.
He explained that Nigerians are currently facing job loss and future generation’s economic hardship due to the airport concession policy;
Nkemkanma expressed concern that the country’s national historical public policy journey from indigenization, Commercialisation, Privatisation, Public partnerships, concessions, and others has fetched the country nothing rather than monumental embarrassment, massive corruption, and controversies in the Aviation and other sectors.
The lawmaking stressed that the National Assembly Acts regulate, control, and manage corporations and agencies, including the Federal Airports Authority Act, Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission Act, Public Procurement Act, and Fiscal Responsibility Act.
Nkemkanma noted that the Constitution of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), empowers the National Assembly to control the economy, ensuring social justice, equality, and opportunity for citizens.
The House, therefore, suspended airport concession in the country, and resolved to, “set-up an Ad-hoc Committee to investigate the Nigerian Airport concessions and report back within three weeks for further legislative action.”