‘Hooligans’ In FAAN —Walter Omobade Ikuomola

The Chambers 21st Century Dictionary defines a hooligan as a violent, destructive or badly-behaved youth. Similarly, the Wikipedia defined hooliganism as a behaviour that is unruly, bullying or vandalising. These definitions aptly describe the behaviour of the present crop of managers at the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, a parastatal which has lost all its past glories and sinks into the abyss of irrelevance today.

Last week, the media was awashed with several stories on how the Management of FAAN forcefully ejected one of its concessionaires, Maevis Nigeria Limited, out of the facility which this concessionaire had built and operated from the airport. The marauding team from FAAN which was led by a Director and General Managers of the parastatal came in the dead of the night wielding dangerous weapons, drilling and cutting machines. They went to the concessionaire’s facility with very clear intent to destroy, plunder and scuttle genuine investment put in place by this concessionaire. As if the commando-like takeover was not enough, the Managing Director of FAAN quickly rushed to address the media on Saturday, 24 March 2012 boasting that the federal parastatal had evicted its concessionaire.

An intriguing thing to note is that a Federal High Court had restrained FAAN from terminating its agreement with the concessionaire. One therefore wonders why such an action was taken by FAAN. This deliberate act of flouting court orders should not go unpunished as no body, not even an institution, should be above the law of the land. It is sad to see Mr. George Uriesi, the Managing Director of FAAN, speak in the media with confidence, even lying that he is not aware of any restraining order of the court but a ‘mere’ court process which has no effect. This behaviour is rather unruly of a public office holder who is expected to demonstrate high degree of responsibility and obedience to the rule of law.

Institutions of government are expected to act within the limits of the law but this recent show of shame by FAAN deserves widespread condemnation in a country governed by law and where the government professes to uphold the rule of law. If a government agency which was at the brink of being declared moribund could treat its local investors in the shabby manner with which the George Uriesi-led management of FAAN did recently, it leaves much to be desired about the so-called ‘drive to attract foreign direct investments’. If Nigerians are not reassured and confident to invest in their own country, for the good of their own economy and for the good of their fellow Nigerians, one wonders how a foreigner would be confident to invest in the country.

Several government agencies such as the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC), the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) etc appear powerless to act in instances like these. Whilst the ideas behind the establishment of these bodies may sound well and reasonable, they all seem to be ‘toothless’ dogs that cannot bite whenever it matters most. Their views have been relegated to mere texts on paper with no effects; they must be strengthened to make the desired positive contributions aimed at attracting private sector investments and ensuring the sanctity of such investments in public services in the country.

With this recent action of FAAN, investors confidence in any area of airports infrastructure in the country would take a dive, because FAAN has become an organisation with a penchant for driving away investors. Many examples exist in the Royal Sanderton & FAAN matter, FAAN had to pay over N2billion in compensation to Royal Sanderton in 2011; Pan Express Limited, a concessionaire chased out of the Hajj & Cargo Terminal, Terminal Zero etc. It is reliably gathered that plans are being made by FAAN to move against Bi-Courtney, the owner and operator of the Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal 2. The questions begging for answers are: why is there so much impunity in FAAN? What is the role of the Federal Ministry of Aviation and the Minister of Aviation in all these? Where is the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (industry regulator) tilted in this matter? What has this regulator done to ensure there is peace in its domain? What has the Federal Ministry of Aviation and the Minister of Aviation done to resolve the entanglement between FAAN and Maevis and the several concessionaires with whom FAAN is always at loggerheads?

Why would an individual believe that he is above the law to the extent of flouting court orders? The Nigerian judiciary needs to rise up on this matter. It is criminal for any person, group of persons or organisation(s) to be in contempt of the court. It is even more so, when such persons or organisations are public servants or public organisations. In my opinion, the court should never tolerate acts that are contemptuous from anyone let alone government agents. The judiciary is known as the last hope of the common man; even Mr. President relied on the judiciary to adjudicate on the legitimacy of his election into office. It is high time the judicial system therefore rose to put public officials who behave badly and in manners unruly to be in contempt of the court where they belong – in prison.

Mr. Uriesi’s act of impunity, gangster-like and over-reaching behaviour is further surprising when one gets to know that the whole reason behind the brigandage was to surreptitiously convert assets invested in, owned and operated by Maevis at the airports to SITA. SITA is a foreign company that had never shown interest in improving or upgrading its ‘ramshackle’ facility at the airports. SITA never saw anything good in Nigeria prior to this robbery-like take-over of Maevis’ assets by its comrade-in-arms FAAN last weekend. To my understanding, SITA had also been restrained by another court prior to last weekend. These behaviours of impunity and disobedience to the courts must stop!

It is up to the Judiciary to help itself by doing the right thing. In the same token, the Body of Benchers, Council of Legal Education, Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee, Legal Practitioners’ Disciplinary Committee should rise up and institute severe sanctions including withdrawal of practice licences, practitioners’ certificates and call to bar certificates of lawyers whose clients act in manners which seek to derogate court orders, no matter the ranking or status of such lawyers in the profession or society at large. Only when punitive measures are enforced would legal practitioners ensure that their clients including public sector clients do not attempt to diminish the powers of the court.

Interested Nigerians and potential foreign investors are watching to see where the feud between FAAN and Maevis would end. If the travels and efforts of President Goodluck Jonathan to attract investments into the country must be meaningful and not tantamount to ‘frivolous jumping around’, time is now when steps must be taken to right the wrongs done to Maevis. Firstly, FAAN and indeed its ‘partner in crime’ must vacate and allow Maevis to return in no equivocal terms to its investment and operations at the airports, restitution made for all damaged items including those already carted away by FAAN and SITA personnel and everyone return to the negotiation table as ordered by the court for supervised arbitration. It is only when this had been done that Nigeria would be seen by the international community as truly ready for development.

•Ikuomola wrote this from Lagos.