How Lagos, Abuja airports certification was botched upon acclaimed readiness
Business Hilights can authoritatively report that chances of any Nigerian airport being certified by the International Civil Aviation organization (ICAO) this year are slim considering the return of manuals sent to the certification agency due to untidiness.
Otherwise, the airports may not be certified even in months to come as Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), had noticed several open items that were yet to be closed by the airports manager.
An official of Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) revealed on Monday over the weekend that the regulatory agency expressed dissatisfaction with several manuals sent to it by FAAN and had to return the manuals to the agency for closure, which led to another postponement of the Lagos airport.
In an interview even before the coming of the certification agency, Grp. Capt. John Ojikutu (rtd), aviation security expert, had said that the country may not be ready for the certification of the international airports after all.
According to him, for any airport to be certified, according to ICAO minimal standard, such an airport must have adequate maintenance and security programmes in place.
He noted that airport certification was not about terminal building, but the facilities installed at such airport, including navigational aids provided by the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).
Continuing, vocal Ojikutu averred that such an airport earmarked for the exercise must be adequately insured to the tune of $250 million, stressing that Nigeria still had a long way to go.
“The issue is, are the airports ready for certification? I have heard that one long ago that they might not be ready for certification. I don’t know the NCAA checklist to be sure if we are ready for certification or not, but there are two issues that are very paramount to certification exercise; we need to have airport maintenance programme and the security programme too.
“Even the runway too must have maintenance programme and the facilities there. I don’t know the NCAA checklist, but as someone who is watching from outside, I think FAAN has to have those two critical things on ground. Also, are the international airports that would be certified insured? I think for the international airports, they should be insured to the tune of $250 million, but are they insured?
“Looking from the point of view of NAMA, their navigational aids and other facilities, how far have they gone with them? The issue of airport certification is not just for FAAN alone, NAMA too has a role to play. Airport is about safety, certification is not about terminal building, but about some of the things that have to do with safety and security.”
While being silent on the reasons behind the botched certification by end of July as earlier informed, Sam Adurogboye, General Manager, Public Affairs at NCAA said “The process is on. They are at the concluding stage. Our people are still working”.
“They are presently going through some new manuals FAAN presented to them. Once they are satisfied, we will go to the next stage, but what I can tell you is that they are on the concluding stage of the exercise. They are going to conclude Lagos airport certification before they move to Abuja airport.
“Just as I told you before, when you are doing auditing and you notice an open item, you will refer it back to the organisation to close it. Even, if they told you they have closed it, you still go back to check and refer back to the manual. But, if you are still not satisfied, you will refer it back to them.
“We were so sure that it would be concluded by the last week of July, but some things again cropped up, which included some documentation in the manual presented by FAAN”, he said.
