Following the threat issued by the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) to shut down airports across the country over the seven-month-old strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has assured that airports will be secured.
This is just as key players in the country’s aviation sector have described the contemplation of the students to shut down the airports as a wrong decision that will not bring the required solutions.
The spokesperson of FAAN, Mrs Faithful Hope-Ivbaze said under the prevailing circumstances, everything possible within the ambit of the law would be done to protect airports’ operations from being disrupted.
She stated: “You know FAAN will not keep quiet under this condition, all security operatives are at alert. You know we have all security operatives at the airport because we know that things like this will always happen. Therefore, to protect properties, facilities and even lives of passengers, FAAN is never resting on its oars to do what is needful.”
A management official at the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), the agency responsible for the coordination of aircraft landing and take-off, vis-avis flight operations through the services rendered by the air traffic controllers, said there was no cause for alarm as flight operations would not be disrupted.
Reacting to the planned shutdown, a former military commandant of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport and the Managing Director of Centurion Security Services, Group Captain John Ojikutu (rtd) declared that the contemplation of NANS to shut down all airports to hit government hard in order to accede to the demands of ASUU is not the best solution.
According to Ojikutu: “The fact remains that in a situation like this, thinking of going to shut down airports has no bearing with the matter at hand and no correlation. It behoves NANS to know that civil aviation is highly regulated and any attempt of protest around such very sacred national facility affects the sovereignty of the nation.
“Airports are not market places, as they are highly controlled. Even such protest by NANS cannot be condoned at the semi-restricted area of the landslide area of the airport. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. The thought by NANS shutting down civil aviation is ill-conceived, indeed an aberration and as such should be discountenanced.
“Rather, NANS should visit National Assembly complex and the Federal Ministry of Education in peaceful protest otherwise the attack dogs of the state will consume them, if they tend to be unruly and destructive,” Ojikutu posited.
The president of the National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS), Comrade Umar Faruk, has said there will be no going back on the plan to shut down Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja and Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, beginning from today. Faruk insisted that until the strike is called off, the students would not relent in street protests and blockade of roads and public institutions across cities of Nigeria.
NANS, however, cautioned against any attack on the protesting students by either state or non-state actors.
The call for caution was contained in a statement by Ojo Raymond Olumide, who is also the chairman, NANS National Taskforce on #EndASUUStrikeNow, issued on Sunday. NANS said the warning became expedient because it had got wind of a plan by state and non-state actors to attack the protesting students.
“We have been duly informed of the plan of the government to attack us with both state and non-state actors.
“It is on this note that we are calling on the international community to pay strict attention to our protest as we start a new phase tomorrow (Monday),” the statement read.
It maintained that an attack on its protest would be a “contravention and an assault on the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, 1981, a treaty-turned-Act, which does not accommodate derogation in any form and Section 40 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) which provided for Right to Freedom of Association and Assembly.”
The students body, however, acknowledged that it had been invited for a meeting by Speaker, House of Representatives, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila, scheduled for Tuesday. Notwithstanding the invite, NANS said it was proceeding with its shutdown of international airports on Monday.
The statement further read: “Our attention has been drawn to a news that the Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila wrote a letter to the national leadership of ASUU for a meeting as regards the ongoing strike action.
“As much as we welcome the dialogue for Tuesday, we insist that the second phase of our action to occupy airspaces by shutting down all international airports throughout the country continues. In fact, someone like Gbajabiamila should also come out to address students.”