Abuja Runway Decay: Stakeholders Blame NCAA, FAAN

The inability of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to ensure that the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) carries out compliance with approved runway maintenance programme led to the hard decision taken by the Federal Government to close the Abuja airport runway for rehabilitation, stakeholders have said.

Consequently, they insisted that the two agencies should be held responsible for the decay of the facilities, wondering what was their input considering that the runway’s lifespan expired 14 years ago.

They further stated that the decision as to whether a runway should be closed or not rests within the purview of NCAA as provided for in the Act establishing the regulatory agency and not the executive arm of government.

They also tasked FAAN to develop Runway Maintenance Programme (RMP) that would be approved by the NCAA if none were currently available. Besides, they lamented constant political interference by the Ministry of Transportation, which continue to usurp the role of NCAA and have hampered its effectiveness, especially the current director general.

The group equally carpeted the aviation regulatory body for what they described as its docile role in conducting its oversight on the agency’s duty to carry out periodic runway maintenance, stressing that their unprofessionalism has led to planned shutdown of the facility in March this year.

President, Aviation Round Table (ART), Gbenga Olowo, who queried how the runway got to its present deplorable state, said that what has happened over the years has caught up with the country.

Olowo said: “This could only have happened due to the fact that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), which is responsible for conducting safety oversight of the sector, was docile and failed completely in ensuring that the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) religiously complies with the Runway Maintenance Programme for NAIA, which is an operational safety requirement.

“The failure of FAAN to strictly follow the runway maintenance programme and conduct regular repairs and rehabilitation of the runway as at when due coupled with the lethargic oversight of NCAA have effectively contributed in bringing the situation to where it is today.

“We therefore challenge the NCAA to be alive to its responsibility of safety oversight by conducting a thorough assessment of the status of all the runways at the various airports in the country in an effort to correct the problems immediately and give each of them a clean bill of health in order to forestall a reoccurrence of the Abuja saga.”

Consequently, he said: “FAAN should therefore ensure that it develops a runway maintenance programme approved by NCAA if none is currently available. NCAA, on the other hand, must, through regular oversight, ensure FAAN’s compliance with approved runway maintenance programme.

“Furthermore, the runway maintenance programme must be factored on periodic number of landings rather than on the age of the runway. Finally, periodic runway maintenance programme would make repairs and maintenance possible if the runway maintenance programme is regularly implemented.”

Buttressing the NCAA’s negligence further, Security Consultant, Group Captain John Ojikutu (rtd), also agreed that the Abuja runway got to this deplorable state because of lack of periodic maintenance programmes and NCAA’ s negligence to implement it as well as a gross lack of funds available to carry out maintenance.

Ojikutu said: “We got to the level we are firstly because it would appear we do not have periodic maintenance programmes or we have, but the responsible agency has willfully neglected to implement it and the NCAA too has neglected its oversight on the compliance just as the NASS has also neglected its oversight on the responsible agencies

. “Secondly, government agencies have complained many times and over the years of lack of funds because of huge indebtedness of the domestic airlines operators to pay for the various services they have rendered to them.

“These airlines are owned by politically-exposed persons who have enjoyed the privilege of debt concession with their influence in government. Because of such influence, the NCAA on the other hand has remained passive in ensuring that these airline operators comply with the necessary provisions of the economic regulations in the relevant sections of the NACRs Part 18.”

Wole Shadare