By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
The Federal Government on Wednesday vowed to enforce the Civil Aviation Act (2022) which disallowed aviation sector employees from embarking on flight-crippling strikes in the nearest future.
This is even as the Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika on behalf of the government has apologised to air travellers over the industrial action of the National Union of Air Transport Employees, the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, which halted inbound and outbound flight operations on Monday.
Briefing State House Correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Serika disclosed that the federal government will henceforth implement the Section of the Civil Aviation Act (2022) which was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari to deal with future strikes in aviation sector.
“First, we apologise to our teeming passengers in this difficult moment. There are other ways of channeling issues when they arise but they are not permitted to go on strike because aviation is an essential service,” the Minister told reporters.
Prompt News reports that last Monday, both local and international flights were disrupted for several hours across Nigeria airports as aviation workers under the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) declared a warning strike over poor salaries.
Earlier, the aggrieved employees had issued a five-day strike notice to the NAHCO management but their requests which are among other things, 100% increment in pay following the general upward review of ground handling changes in the sector were not met hence they embarked on warning strike.
The impact of the strike was hard on travellers especially international passengers whose aircrafts were forced to make air return to flight origins instead of destinations after the aircrafts have arrived Nigeria but don’t have clearance to land.
Some of the airlines affected include RwandAir, Qatar Airlines and Royal Air Maroc; with some diverting flights to neighbouring countries or returning passengers to base.
But fielding questions from State House Correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Sirika described the industrial action as “wrong, inhumane and against the law”.
He vowed to enforce the relevant sections of the Civil Aviation Act 2022 to prevent future disruptions.
According to him, the piece of legislation prohibits industrial action and riots of such scale in the aviation sector.
“This is very important to the travelling public. First, we apologise to them; our teeming passengers in this difficult moment.
“Second, this will not happen in the future by the grace of God. And the reason is simple; aviation is an essential service. The Act has been assented to by Mr. President, so strikes and riots around our airports are prohibited by the laws of the land.
“Now that we have the Act in place and assented to by Mr President and passed by the National Assembly, we will deal with it according to the law,” he said.
Describing aviation as an essential service, the minister argued that the striking workers had other less-disruptive avenues to voice their grievances.
He said, “We will ensure no essential service is being disrupted by anybody no matter how aggrieved. There are other channels of channeling issues when they arise but they are not permitted to go on strike because aviation is an essential service and is by the law of the land now.
“I will give you an example, there was an airline that had to return to base because it couldn’t land. Imagine if there was a patient on that aircraft. Imagine somebody attending to a very serious issue or matter at hand or business or a student trying to catch up with an exam and then because of somebody who is aggrieved some other person will die.
“Government will no longer allow that. So it’s in the law of the land, check the Civil Aviation Act, it’s been assented to and it’s going to take place soon, in fact now, from today we will not allow that.
“As a government, our ears are always open, the government is open to listening to any grievances and there are procedures for dealing with this kind of grievances. They should please desist from this. It is wrong. It is inhumane. It is not allowed. It is not permitted and we will not be permitted any longer.”
Meanwhile, the Minister said that
FEC has approved the total sum of N7,482,071,196.56 for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Hadeija airstrip.
The contract was awarded to MESSRS CCECC and it will be for a period of 18 months.
Serika also said FEC approved the construction of Control Tower and Technical Building in Enugu. The contract is in favour of MSSRS Mascot Associates Limited. And it is for N1,973,606,141.75.
“And the third contract is for procurement of utility vehicles, to MSSRs Kaura Motors at N625,500,000.
These are the memoranda and they’ve all been approved by Council today. And we thank you, gentleman of the press, my friends”, Sirika concluded.
