My vision for Nigerian airports, Ganduje
The Chairman, Board of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje has has said his vision is to ensure the country’s airports meet the 21st century airport development and standard by rallying stakeholders and institutions in the sector together achieve the vision which he said is paramount to President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
Addressing the management of the agency at the FAAN headquarters in Lagos, the former Kano state Governor assured that the new board will work collectively with the agency and others institutions to ensure the country’s airports compete favourably with the best in the world.
The Chairman, who was on a familiarization tour of the headquarters of FAAN in Lagos and a tour of the international wing of the Murtala Mohhamed Airport said the visit has given him a firsthand knowledge of the challenges and expectations of facilities and passengers need at the airports.
He called for synergy and collaboration among the agencies in the aviation industry to ensure the vision and objective of the present administration in revamping the airports for optimum performance and contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is achieve.
The FAAN board Chairman, who doubles as the All-Progressive Congress (APC) Chairman commendable the Managing Director of FAAN, Mrs. Olubunmi Kuku for her foresight and affirmed that the agency must work within stipulated timeline in delivering its projects.
Alhaji Ganduje said “We are conversant with International Air Airports especially in the developed countries. So, whatever we saw there is a product of human beings. Is a product of facilities improvement and development, they are product of motivation or visionary management of the organization. That is what we are expecting here, and that is what we will work to achieve.”
But FAAN have laid a very good foundation, and I have appeal to them so that we can continue and improve what they have done so far. We have seen some facilities, we have seen some equipment, we have seen some appliances, and we have also seen the environment, and we have also taken note of the challenges, as explained by the MD.”
“So, my impression is that the agency is blessed with competent Managing Director and also the directors, because I have seen sign of motivation, sign of seriousness and sign of achievement, and of course we have started discussing about the challenges and how things will be resolved.”
He urged the management saying “Also in the implementation of your budget, you should have a timeline so that you know exactly where and when you want to achieve something because delay means a lot, inflation comes in, deterioration comes in, vandalization comes in, then you will notice nobody is giving attention to anything and people will develop apathy. We must be conscious of the timeline. If you are giving out a contract you have to make sure this is the time you are expecting it so that we can avoid those intricacies I just mentioned that will come.”
He said “I request all directorate and directors to give a brief summary in writing so that I will be able to understand the functions of each one of them and the expectations from them so that I will be able to provide guidance.”
Speaking of challenges in the sector, he said “I have heard some of the challenges, according to them and according to what we have seen, the challenges of abundant projects awarded many years ago, not awarded by the present management, but many years ago, prices of cost has gone high. Some equipment originally put in place are now obsolete according to modern technology. So, but they have designed a way in order to resolve all such issues. Also financing also because some of these abandoned projects, but they are sorting them out to see how we can scale some and make better use of them.”
He added that “Regarding challenges, challenges are natural, some are man-made but overall challenges are part of life and any system because of changes of circumstances but what is important is that those challenges should be reducing rather than increased because more challenges will be coming anyway. So, if you have not taken measures in order to resolve those challenges, then you are accumulating them because more and more will surely come.”
While appealing for cohesion and understanding among management staff and collaboration with other agencies, Alhaji Ganduje said “My request here is for collaboration. I hope there is no institutional rivalry. Wherever you have a function to be executed by different institutions, sometimes if care is not taken, there will be rivalry and the end of it, whatever you do if the other institution or agency has not done its homework, then you find out that the overall objective is defective.
MD, you alongside other MDs of other agencies I urge you to work together so that you all can achieve the overall objective of Mr. President.”
“Organizational structure is also vital, we expect corporations among directorates, no directorate itself will succeed with the corporation of other directorates. So, there should seamlessly understanding synergies. I also call for more coordination.
Personal attitude to work contributes a lot in the overall goal attainment of the agency so I believe we should improve on our personal disposition toward achieving the goals of FAAN. The different between success and failure is motive. What is your individual motive toward the growth of the organization. Aside remuneration, motivation by the organization, motivating yourself to improve the lot of the organization is very important.”
Earlier, Managing Director of FAAN, Mrs. Olubunmi Kuku had intimated the board Chairman some of the activities of the agency and brought him up to date on rehabilitation and remodeling works being carried out across the nation’s airports.
