NASS Urges Sirika To Stop Planned Demolition Of Aviation Offices

The National Assembly has written the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, requesting that he immediately halt his proposal to demolish the aviation agencies’ offices in Lagos.

Senator Hadi Sirika was urged to stop the action by the chairman of the Senate Committee on Aviation, Senator Biodun Olujimi, PDP, Ekiti South, and her counterpart in the House of Representatives, Hon. Nnolim Nnaji.

They explained that the directive was the result of the two-day warning strike that the aviation workers’ unions had initiated, which had crippled flight operations on Monday and Tuesday across the nation.

However, the National Assembly expressed concerns about what it called the frequency of industrial actions and the resulting disruption of flight operations in the country in a letter dated April 18, 2023, and jointly signed by the clerks of the Senate and House aviation committees, Franca N. Nah and Bassey E. Edem.

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The National Assembly recognized that the majority of the problems that had caused the protests were not new, but questioned why they had persisted given that some of them had been a source of disagreement for many years.

The letter also directed Sirika to as a matter of urgency, submit all the documents pertaining to the sundry issues raised by the workers to the committee.

According to the letter which was addressed to the Aviation Minister, the contending issues include:non implementation of the consequential adjustment to national minimum wage by some of the agencies as agreed in February 2022.

The demands also include the non release of reviewed condition of service by the relevant government agencies for about a decade, the continuous threats of outright demolition of the aviation agencies, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, (FAAN), Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, (NCAA) and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, (NAMA) headquarters without alternative provisions for their regional offices.

The letter read: “In order to prevent further escalation of the crisis as envisaged by the failure of the federal Ministry of Aviation to address the issues within this warning strike period,we are directed to request that you furnish the committees with the following information:comprehensive details of all issues under contention,actions taken by the Ministry and its agencies to address the grievances of the workers.

“Also expected to be submitted to the committees include: the challenges in implementing the various agreements reached with unions and any other documents that are germane to the subject matter.

“Equally, the chairmen of the committees of both Chambers have also implored the unions to shelve any more actions that will further prevent smooth running of the sector, promising that their grievances would be duly addressed soonest.”

ENIGERIA NEWSPAPER