June 02, (THEWILL) – The Managing Director/Chief Executive of Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Capt Captain Rabiu Hamisu Yadudu, has disclosed the intention of the Authority to decentralise essential operations and also the management of the Agency.
Speaking on Wednesday, during a courtesy visit to the office of the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC), Capt Yadudu, stated that a lot of things are concentrated around the headquarters and you cannot be macro-managing all other airports from the headquarters.
Yadudu, therefore, reasoned that if left the way it is, the headquarters will be doing a lot.
He said that from the first day he assumed office, he informed them that he will be decentralising and each airport will be responsible for itself.
However, he noted that FAAN headquarters will monitor and do surveillance of the facilities.
He said, “I think in the next two weeks, we will start it. We have used the last two years doing the planning and now, we have developed the Key Performance Indexes (KPIs). About 90 or 100 items are in all these. With this, the issue of laxity in the system can be checkmated. This will make us know those who are messing it up and we won’t wait till the end of the year before we take action.”
“Even, the welfare of our staff, we will decentralise it and the managers are responsible. We will also ensure accountability. If your manager is messing up, it is easier for you to know. Also, we have started the scholarship exercise for all our staff and the best five students in each five regions will get the scholarship and FAAN will make sure we fund their university education.”
“The decentralisation shows the management is not ready to hold on to power. Like I said earlier, we are working on the local runway. What is the essence of having two runways if we cannot use them? I believe if not for the cables he brought, we will have installed it in March”, Yadudu explained.
On security at the airport, Yadudu assured that efforts have been made to fortify the sensitive areas of the airport with surveillance systems from sunrise to dusk.
Explaining further, the FAAN boss added, “I was a Director of Operations in FAAN when we realised there is the need for total surveillance for the whole airport. I went to Munich, Germany, by the end of 2018 or so, identified the company, they came to do lead assessment twice; marking and survey. They gave us the estimate for visual and thermal infrared cameras. Visuals to cover the areas for a whole day – sunrise to sunset and thermal from sunset to early morning. If a rabbit is walking within an 8 km radius, which is 16km diameter, they will pinpoint it. We got that camera and at the whole airport, I don’t think you will get that 16 as a diameter. The runway is 3.7km or 3.8km and we are buying about four of those cameras to cover the airfield”.
According to him, FAAN has acquired visual and thermal infrared camera surveillance equipment for both Lagos and Abuja International airports and in a month or two, the equipment will arrive and be installed, adding that the facility is automated.
Capt. Yadudu noted that the process for the acquisition of the security cameras started about three years ago and last year, President Buhari approved the procurement and now, they are awaiting the arrival of the system.
“We started procurement and the minister was very supportive. As of now, the procurement has been concluded and Mr President approved it last year. Part payment has already been made to the manufacturer and the Chief of Staff and myself, we went to the factory to ensure that what we are buying is what we are getting. We were there in November. The delivery will happen within the next one or two months and then installation follows”, he stated.
“This is fully automated; it will be spanning 360 degrees. We already know the solutions to all the challenges we are going through, the minister knows and even Mr President knows too.”
In addition to the cameras, he said, two motorised equipment have also been purchased to handle any security challenges at airports.
“We also bought two motorised equipment. If you have any security challenges at any airport, we will drive it there and deploy it. Inside the vehicle, we have three screens that we can use to monitor and protect the airports.”
On the mangled body found on the runway, he said, “We have resolved the security issue and the manifestation is on ground. On that singular incident, there is still an investigation ongoing, but we can’t make any public statement until the result of the investigation is out. There are a lot of theories on it. I won’t dwell much on this until the report of the investigation is out.”
About the Author
Anthony Awunor, is a business correspondent who holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Linguistics (UNILAG). He is also an alumnus of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria Kaduna State. He lives in Lagos.
