Murtala Mohammed Airport Terminal 2 @ 10
The Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal Two (MMA2), Lagos, the only privately-funded and privately-run terminal in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos is 10 years old this May. The facility which has the capacity to process four million passengers per annum has so far in its 10 years of operation, successfully handled 20 million passengers, an average of […]
The Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal Two (MMA2), Lagos, the only privately-funded and privately-run terminal in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos is 10 years old this May. The facility which has the capacity to process four million passengers per annum has so far in its 10 years of operation, successfully handled 20 million passengers, an average of two million passengers per year. It has also handled 400,000 flights and provided jobs for thousands of Nigerians.
The MMA2 experiment provides an insight into what it would look like when the private sector is involved in the provision of infrastructure, using the public-private-partnership model. This could help in solving the dire infrastructure deficit in the country.
The MMA2 has positively affected the psyche of stakeholders in the aviation industry with the doggedness, perseverance and the zeal to overcome challenges. The terminal has disabused the minds of the stakeholders of the usually poor conditions of airport terminals scattered all over the land, with dilapidated facilities, often overheated and cloaked in darkness.
The MMA2, with its Multi-Storey Car Park (MSCP) and the facilities therein, is still a worthy example in the aviation landscape. Despite all the challenges, some of which may have been engineered by those against the MMA2 dream, its operators, Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL), have resolutely remained open for business. The endurance of the operators for the past one decade is what further makes the terminal tick. On the whole, the courage and the resilience to make MMA2 work in the face of stiff opposition from vested interests is what counts for BASL and is a lesson for private investors.
Ten Aviation Ministers have superintended over MMA2 in 10 years. A sad commentary on the commitment of the Nigerian government to its much touted Public Private Partnership, PPP is the way some of the Aviation ministers handled the case of MM2.While a few of them respected the concession agreement the ministry signed with BASL, the majority of them did everything to strangulate the deal. The ministers’ various contributions and those of FAAN were a reflection of the challenges of doing business with the government, even when the administration under which they were established had good intentions. Other private investors and prospective ones need to learn a lesson or two from this experience. For the PPP to succeed more needs to be done to ensure that they are not subject to the short sighted interest of public office holders over the overriding public interest.
With government’s commitment to the concession of airports, there is need for dialogue between government and Bi-Courtney so that the this particular PPP achieves its maximum potential for all parties. Mistakes may have been made in the past and the best way forward is to sit at a table and resolve them. An example for resolution is addressing the issues that prevented the terminal from fully operating regional flights.
Similarly, now that the government has appointed transaction advisers for airport concession, we hope it would ensure a fair playing field for new comers, especially local players and acknowledge the experience of pioneers like Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited who have paid their dues. It is clear that excellence is possible in not just the construction but also the maintenance and the running of an Airport terminal in Nigeria. On its part, BASL should also replicate its success in MM2 to other areas that companies related to it also initially got concessions like the Lagos/Ibadan expressway and the former Federal Secretariat in Ikoyi after the controversies and judicial challenges are eventually cleared.
It bears repeating that to promote confidence in the PPP, government should at all times respect contractual obligations and the rule of law. Unless reviewed in a mutually agreed manner, contracts are sacrosanct and agreements entered into should be respected. A country which continuously, subverts contracts it has entered into willingly, cannot inspire the confidence needed for real public private partnerships needed to address its huge infrastructure deficit. This would undoubtedly send a wrong signal to would-be investors at a time when government has prioritized concession complete with an agency, the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission.
The chaos in the aviation sector over the years is linked to the inconsistencies in government policies, and the outright contravention of trade agreements between Nigeria and investors – both local and international. It is important to acknowledge that government is a continuum, therefore, successive regimes must learn to respect contractual agreements entered into by their predecessors. Changing the rules in the middle of a game does not inspire confidence among players or even spectators. This is the only way Nigeria could sustainably attract local and foreign direct investments.