According to yesterday reports the
Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) has said that the Total closure of Abuja
International Airport for repairs would lead to huge economic loss,
According to the NSE President, Otis
Anyaeji says in a meeting in abuja while responding to the proposed closure, that
the Nigerian Engineers were sidelined in the consultation process by the
Ministry of Aviation.
He said
“Considering the importance of the
Aviation to Nigerian economy and the potential negative of the proposed
six-week airport closure, NSE responded to the Federal Ministry of Transport
(Aviation) stakeholders forum Newspaper advert by sending a robust
representation to the stakeholders forum led by the NSE Deputy President. Unfortunately,
the decision of the Minister of State (Aviation) to limit contributions to only
three stakeholders precluded the views of NSE from being heard,”.
Anyaeji also added: “Construction of the second runway at the Abuja airport must commence immediately. The present non-integrated management of transport sectors has not worked. There is urgent need to adopt a holistic and inter-modal approach. NSE wishes to re-emphasize the need to collapse all transport modes (railway, road, marine, aviation) into Federal Ministry of Transport for greater efficiency and improved management.”
NSE lauded the National Assembly
leadership for driving the transport sector reforms and would also encouraged
the Executive arm of government to key into the effort.
In his intervention, Dr Isa Emoabino
of the Nigerian Institute of Highway and Transportation Engineers, said the
Kaduna airport is not ready to assume the regional hub of the Abuja airport.
He suggested that smaller planes and
helicopters should be deployed to Lagos and Kano airports for the lifting of
very important personalities and other international passengers to the Abuja
airport and that rehabilitation of the airport should be done in phases and
sections.
He added: “Moving the all the planes
coming to Abuja to Kaduna is ill-advised. The movement will have enormous
effects on the only the economy of Nigeria, but that of the entire West Africa
sub-region. Abuja is a major aviation hub and Kaduna airport is simply not
ready to take over that huge responsibilities. Let the Abuja airport be done in
sections that will allow smaller planes to evacuate Abuja-bound passengers from
either Kano or Lagos airports. By that, minimal damage would be done to the
nation’s economy.”
Source: Guardian
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