Chinedu Eze
The House of Representatives is spearheading a major reform of the nation’s international airports in support of the federal government’s Ease of Doing Business, (EODB) initiative that would usher in a single security screening point for arriving and departing passengers.
Currently there are many security operatives including the Nigerian Customs Services, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), the Nigerian Quarantine Service, the Nigerian Immigration Service, Department of State Security (DSS), Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) Aviation Security (AVSEC), Nigeria Air Force and the Nigeria Police.
House of Representatives said the campaign for one security apparatus followed the outcome of the meeting with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, House Committee on Aviation, Committee Chairman on Health that of Agriculture Services and other relevant Committees’ Chairmen on which also included the leaderships of all the agencies operating at the airports and the Special Adviser to the President on the Ease of Doing Business, Dr Jumoke Oduwole.
THISDAY gathered that the end of the crucial interaction which lasted for hours, Gbajabiamila, based on the contributions from the stakeholders on how to achieve international best practices, urged the Chairman of the Committee on Aviation, Nnolim Nnaji and other relevant Committees’ Chairmen to work with the heads of the aviation agencies to come up within two weeks a Bill that would ensure a single security outfit similar to Transport Security Administration, (TSA) in United d States of America that would take charge of security at the airports.
He also said that the menace of touting and extortion at the airports must be tackled squarely with more stringent measures, adding that the problems remained unabated because there were no severe consequences.
The Speaker stressed that traveling through the airports must be made as seamless as possible noting that the level of stress and discomfort travelers go through at the nation’s prime gateways must be eliminated.
“Our airports must give travelers the comfort they deserve, the facilities must work”, he added noting that situation must change forthwith.
The Chairman of the Committee on Aviation Hon. Nnaji had also noted that federal government’s intervention was needed urgently to help FAAN fix the aging infrastructure at the various airports especially Lagos and Abuja, which are the major gateways.
Nnaji’s appeal was sequel to an earlier explanation by the FAAN Managing Director, Captain Rabiu Yadudu that the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, which is over 43 years old required total overhaul because all the facilities had been overstretched beyond their life span.
He also disclosed that the airport generates 70 percent of the authority’s total annual revenue.
Also in her comments, the Special Adviser to the President on the Ease of Doing Business, Dr Oduwole expressed appreciation to the leadership of the House of Representatives and the Aviation Committee Chairman Nnolim Nnaji for the initiative, adding that the situations at the nation’s prime gateways remained a huge embarrassment to the country.
The Speaker had directed the Chairman, Housing of Representatives Committee on Aviation, Hon. Nnaji to invite the Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, (FAAN) Captain RabiuYadudu, the Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, (NCAA), Captain Musa Nuhu and the leaderships of all the agencies involved in facilitation of passengers and goods at the airports, including the Special Assistant to the President on Ease of Doing Business, DrOduwole to discuss the issues of touting and extortions at the airports.
The agencies invited for the meeting were the Nigeria Police, the Nigerian Immigration Services, the Nigeria Customs, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Nigeria Centre for Diseases Control, (NCDC), the Port Health, the Plant Quarantine Services among others.
Reacting to this move, aviation security expert and the CEO of Centurion Securities, Group Captain John Ojikutu called for the establishment of national aviation security agency to control government security agencies operating at the airport within civil aviation defence layers.
“Nigeria can follow the examples of nations that have created autonomous aviation security agency at their airports by establishing agency similar to the USA Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to be known as National Air Transport Security Agency (NATSA).
The agency if established, should have control and authority over the operations and administration of government border security agencies like the Customs, Immigrations, NDLEA in addition to supervisory authority over the Police, Airport security, SSS, etc. The agency must also have mandate to approve airport plans and any building construction and reconstructions, coordinate criminal checks and fingerprints of all airport employees, fund the provision of basic and advanced security equipment for all airport and train staff to screen passengers and their luggage, while it would be the responsibility of the individual airport management to fund all other improvement not related to airport security,” he said.
Also the aviation think-tank group, Aviation Round Table (ART), has backed the move of the National Assembly and stressed that what currently obtains is a disgrace to the nation and one reason for the numerous embarrassment, especially on social media.
The body said that the centralisation of security screening checkpoints at the nation’s airports would trump the current multiple checks by various security agencies.
President of ART, Dr. Gabriel Olowo lamented that despite the Ease-of-Doing-Business initiative of the federal government, myriads of security points at the airports have made nonsense of the policy, stating that this has frustrated the implementation of the law.
“The Gbajabiamila House of Representatives is thinking of giving Nigeria something close to TSA. That is sharing security information and just having one security checkpoint at the airports. That is cheery news for me and the entire body of ART is throwing its weight totally behind this.
“Most of the time, when policy statements come out, implementation always becomes a big task. We have spoken at various times on this matter. Our Secretary General, Grp. Capt. John Ojikutu has released a lot of documents on how this can be done several years back,” he said.
