The Minister of State for Aviation, is threatening that the President Buhari-led federal government might decide to shut down the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.
Speaking at the 2016 Aviation stakeholders forum, which was held in Abuja on Monday, the minister of state for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, while lamenting on the poor state of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, has threatened that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government might decide to shut it down.
The minister who said that the government had plans to concession the Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kano international airports, added that the current facilities at the airports did not meet international standard and best practices in the aviation industry, and that private sector involvement was the way forward.
"The state of the Abuja airport runway is a source of concern. The federal government may consider closing down the airport as form of safety precaution," he said.
Speaking on the concession of airports, he said the government was committed to upgrading the existing facilities, as well as developing new strategy to repositioning the sector.
"The thinking is that just like every other place in the world, we will concession our airports and we are beginning with the big four, Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano. It would have been ideal to take them to some level of acceptance for them to attract more.
"But I think we just get those guys who believe that in Nigeria they can create a hub geographically given by God.
"To come and put in their money and create this hub, build these airports, concession them, run them and make money out of them," he said
According to him, if the government is able to concession the four airports successfully in the first phase, it will pay attention to providing infrastructure and developing domestic airports for optimal performance.
The minister also said that the state of the Abuja airport runway was a source of concern, adding that the federal government may consider closing down the airport as form of safety precaution.
He said that government was committed to upgrading the existing facilities at the airports as well as developing new strategy to repositioning the sector, adding that a comprehensive security check and vulnerability assessment of the airports had been carried out to ensure they were properly secured.
According to him, every huge major disaster in the world such as the Pearl Habour attack, September 11 attack on the US, among others, are aviation related disasters.
"Safety is the main focus in aviation because, the time a passenger arrives airport, when he takes off and land is very important. We are developing a new security strategy in partnership with international security organisations and procurement of modern equipment," he said.