MD, FAAN, George Uriesi,
The Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, George Uriesi, has expressed determination to modernise the nation’s airports by upgrading the facilities to international standard.
Expressing concern over infrastructural decay at the airports, Uriesi said that his administration was ready to do everything possible to address the problem in order to take the industry to the next level.
He said that in doing this, the Authority would be ready to step on toes to be able to achieve desired result.
He spoke with newsmen at the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos, and agreed that the Nigerian airports as they were composed today cannot compete favourably with its counterparts in the world.
He explained that the vision of the current management was to drive a change in all the 22 airports in the country whereby Nigerians would be proud, stressing that the environment of the airports were eyesores.
“I’m not afraid of banana peels. That is why I said what needed to be done would be done. The last thing on my mind is banana peels. There will be a lot of negativity because it’s not easy to drive a change. I have to do what I have to do and expect that it would be done. I’m prepared for it, absolutely, let’s see how it goes.
“I’m not excited as the Managing Director of FAAN at all. It’s a huge responsibility on my shoulder. I want people to arrive at Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos and be amazed at the level of development. We will not turn the Lagos Airport to Cape Town International Airport, South Africa now, but we will do that in the long run.”
On the proposed re-modelling of airports in the country, Uriesi said that the tactics had changed, saying that the former Minister of Aviation, Mrs. Fidelia Njeze’s mission was to re-construct some of the major airports in the country, but the priority of the present administration was to “do a touch up” on the existing airports in the country.
It would be recalled that Njeze had promised the nation that the government would construct new airports and demolish the existing ones because of their old fashioned, decaying structure with the sum of N90 billion, but the current Minister of Aviation, Mrs. Stella Oduah, said the main concern of the present administration was to re-model 12 airports in the country with N19 billion.
He, however, assured that the funds for the re-modelling of the airports were readily available and that the agency would start the project very soon.
“”If you are very fast, it will be 24 months to build a terminal and our airports cannot wait for that. The re-modellling of airports under Njeze has changed. The remodeling we are doing now is a touch-up and not the entire construction of new terminal buildings,” he said.
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