LAST week, the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, said there was no going back on the planned demolition of aviation agencies’ offices in Lagos. The minister made the declaration following the directive issued by the Senate asking him to stop the planned demolition of the offices pending the outcome of the intervention by its committee on aviation. According to the minister, the ministry would go ahead with the demolition because the directive did not come from a court and the government could not be stopped from giving development to the people. He added that the intention of the aviation ministry was to remove the structure housing the office of the managing director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and other commercial buildings and replace them with hotels, shopping malls, cinemas and other lucrative businesses that would increase revenue of the ministry.

Actually, the planned demolition of the FAAN buildings is a subject of dispute between the Federal Government and aviation workers. Only recently, an industrial action by aviation workers recently occurred which grounded air travel in the country. Thousands of travelers heading to various destinations and for different crucial personal or business meetings had their objectives truncated by the strike action. But individuals are not the only ones hit by such action; government and state businesses are also affected and, overall, the entire nation is the worst hit. Industrial actions in the Nigerian aviation sector are one of the extreme labour reactions in the nation’s public space. Teachers in the educational institutions, medical practitioners, among several others, embark on this exercise regularly to bargain and secure their rights. Year after year, season after season, Nigerian workers have cause to down tools to forcefully make the government to hearken to their demands.

In the aviation sector, several unions, including the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), Nigerian Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals (ANAP), National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE), and the Engineers Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employers, have been going on strike repeatedly, demanding the implementation of a new minimum wage consequential adjustment with arrears for the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) from 2019. In addition, they demanded the release of the reviewed conditions of service for the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), and the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria and NIMET. Furthermore, the unions demanded a stop to the planned demolition of FAAN buildings and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) by the Ministry of Aviation. The action was total and the amount of setbacks for the economy could only be imagined.

The challenge is that most of these demands are not fresh. They are carryovers from previous years and struggles. During an industrial action, government or its representatives makes promises and urges the workers to return to work, only to make a U-turn and shelve the agreement with the workers. Thereafter, the agencies run out of patience and return to the struggle, which brings things back to square one. Why should this always be the case? During the last episode, Sirika had urged the unions to eschew strikes and embrace dialogue instead. At a forum jointly organised by FAAN and the aviation unions, he had bemoaned what he considered the sudden breakdown of relationship between the ministry and aviation workers, particularly as the Muhammadu Buhari administration is set to quit office, linking the development to some political factors.

Regardless of who is wrong or whether politics is involved, the aviation sector problems are real, humongous and the workers’ demands are legitimate. The government cannot shy away from them. Between last year and now, there had been indiscriminate increases in the prices of Jet-A fuel, which led to abysmal hikes in airfare. The regulatory, institutional and structural problems have persisted. The infrastructure, including tarmacs, airport buildings and basic airport facilities such as toilets, cooling systems, immigration stands, public address system, elevators, escalators, among many others, has remained poor or dysfunctional. We cannot even refer to exotics that are expected of international airports such as what obtains in Cairo, Casablanca, Johannesburg, Nairobi, Kigali or Accra. For Lagos and Abuja, those exotics are farfetched and seem unattainable, which makes Nigeria to be far left behind by smaller or contemporary African countries.

Other problems of the sector are poor access to funding, inability of foreign airlines or partners to take or repatriate funds, and the general underfunding that kills the sector. All of these problems, particularly the operational issues, have culminated in the death of some local airlines or suspension of operations by some foreign airlines in the country. When the aviation sector is not efficient, like it is the case with the transportation system bled by bad roads, the economy is adversely affected. These challenges require quick and sustainable solutions. The airports and our airlines, beginning with aircraft, are the first impressions and, by extension, the instruments of foreign policy. How the world sees Nigerian planes, airports and services at home or abroad is how they will visualise Nigeria. The abysmally poor state of toilet, cooling, lighting and public address systems, and the bad escalators, shabby immigration stands and gridlocks at the country’s airports speak volumes about Nigeria as a country, and have huge economic cost. There are many YouTube videos that rate African airports based on structural, security, operational and aesthetic conditions. Nigeria’s Lagos airport is classed among the bad and dangerous airports not only in Africa but also globally. This is a national embarrassment that should sting government officials where it hurts most and make them to do the needful, and urgently too.

The government should listen to and heed the demands that will upscale performance and efficiency in the aviation sector. These are legitimate demands and the ultimate beneficiary is the country. To avoid the kind of unending problems and consequent strike actions by academic staff of higher institutions that have killed the Nigerian educational sector, let reason prevail. On the other hand, workers in the public service should be ready to pay some price too in the course of their legitimate struggles. To underscore commitment to their struggle, workers should be ready to forfeit wages for the period of strikes. This should be considered as a sacrifice towards the struggle. Government may have introduced wage forfeiture during industrial action to probably discourage or prevent frivolous strikes by workers. However, employers should take appropriate notice of and devote attention to warnings of strike, knowing that workers must have arrived at the decision with genuine and grave consideration. Government and employers should know that an auspicious workspace breeds efficient workers and an effective economy in the long run.

In light of this, we urge the government and other employers in the aviation industry to enter into genuine negotiations with the workers in order to come to a viable and workable agreement on the complaints of the latter. We believe that most of the issues and complaints could be resolved through sincere negotiations among the parties. We commend such sincere engagements to the workers’ unions and their employers in order to put a stop to the strike overhang in the aviation industry. It is important to recognise the economic and image cost of flight disruption due to workers’ strikes, and the many other problems earlier highlighted. Necessary steps should be taken to attend to the workers’ grouse, not for the sake of the workers alone, but in the national interest.

 

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