The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has said that there is no going back on the relocation of the headquarters of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria from the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja to Lagos.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria said this on a Channels Television programme: “Politics Today,” on Wednesday.
Keyamo said on the decision, which he revealed he took because it was within his purview as Minister: “We are going ahead”.
“The directive has been given…. I take the decision. It’s a decision under the purview of a minister.”
Keyamo said in terms of travel cost alone, the Federal Government will be saving about N500 million as staff keep shuttling between Lagos and Abuja, adding that only the headquarters of one of the seven aviation agencies in the country is being moved back to the country’s former federal capital.
Keyamo said when his predecessor, Hadi Sirika, moved the headquarters of all aviation agencies from Lagos to Abuja in 2020, no adequate provision was made for the principal officers like Firectors and the departments under them.
He said the headquarters is where the decision-makers meet, not where the largest number of workers are, and not where the biggest building is.
He said over 100 of the 132 workers at the head office are in Lagos, while only the Directors are in Abuja without their support staffers.
He said the whole issue was compounded with the fact that FAAN is not yet digitised and so, in one year, they spend about N500 million on flight tickets between Lagos and Abuja alone.
Keyamo said: “You see them flying every day to and fro Abuja to get one file signed. They fly everyday back and forth. In one year, they spent close to half a billion naira on flight tickets. N450m on flight tickets alone.”
The Eagle Online
