A member of the Federal Government’s vision 20:2020 and the former General Manager, Public Affairs, of the defunct national carrier, Nigeria Airways Limited, Mr Chris Aligbe,

has said that the only way the Nigeria’s aviation industry could improve on its present comatose state is for the Federal Government to put in place specific reforms that will encourage private participation.

Speaking with journalists  at the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos, Aligbe said that policy summersaults had been the bane of the industry in the past years and challenged the government to ensure Public-Private-Participation(PPP), particularly in the airport sub-sector.

He, however, said that the PPP should be the one that would be done openly unlike the current ones in the sector, which he said lacked merit and public acceptance.

His words: “Sometime ago, I said that what we will do eventually  is to bring in PPP into aviation, particularly the airport sub-sector. I told you that all the concessions that had been done are all sitting on a void. So, the first thing to do is to put in place all the necessary frameworks that will make an investor know that these are the frameworks and not on the whims and caprices of anybody.

“All the concessions that had been done had been done at the whims and caprices of the political officers at that point in time. So, what we are going to do first is to put in place a framework and I’ve said it in the past that we need  specific reform on the aviation industry. There must be sector specific reforms and when we get that in place, what we are going to do is to work out the policies in place so that there will be an aviation policies, which would be seen and known by everybody and within the aviation policies, you have frameworks that would govern any investments or operations in such areas.”

He explained that if the government began the reform now, some of the frameworks would be put in place before the end of the year.

Aligbe also backed the current remodelling plans of 12 airports in the country by the federal government, saying that this plan would keep
the airports value high before their eventual concessions by the government.

“I believe that these things being presently done at the airports will  give them a kind of a human face, which is okay because if you wait until you put all these things in places, they will continue to deteriorate.

So, having looked at it, I believe it is the right thing to do, but it should be followed up with all the frameworks to be put in place, which will eventual bring in place the required PPP.”