Posted by Festus Keyamo, SAN, the country’s minister of aviation, has addressed the issue of badly maintained restrooms, chillers, and other facilities at the country’s international airports.
He said that the humiliating situation was due to bureaucrats’ bad management and that plans were in the works to privatize the five international airports.
The remarks were made by Keyamo during the Ministerial Sectoral Press Briefings held by the Federal Government to commemorate the One Year Anniversary of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Administration.
Regarding the restrooms, air conditioners, and the dismal condition of our airports, we had a solution for that as we moved forward. This is what the president has stated, and I’ve confirmed it to him: we’re beginning the concession process from the beginning. For the sake of candor.
We encountered that on the ground. We have long already decided upon the concessions for our main airports. You and I are in complete agreement that public utility management via bureaucracy is unworkable.
Thus, we will not dispute that. It has already been proven. My bad for stating that. However, public infrastructure cannot be managed by bureaucracy, which is why it is called bureaucracy. The only way to make a public utility function like your own home is to do away with bureaucracy.
Until we fully concession the airports and operate them properly like private enterprises, we will continue to witness similar problems.
That is our current course of action. Throughout, the president emphasized that we would select the most renowned airport management company in the world.