The Joint Committee on Aviation of the National Assembly issued a directive to Senator Hadi Sirika, the Minister of Aviation, on Wednesday, ordering him to halt the planned demolition of the aviation agencies’ offices in Lagos.
The clerk of the Senate Committee on Aviation, Franca Mbah, and her House of Representatives counterpart, Bassey Edem, both signed a letter addressed to the Minister with the directive.
They claimed that the decision was a result of the aviation workers’ unions’ two-day warning strike.
The joint committee declared that it was striving to ensure a peaceful conclusion to the heated issues.
It requested the Minister to postpone the destruction of the aviation agency’s main office and headquarters in Lagos awaiting the conclusion of the committee’s intervention.
The committee expressed its great concern about the many instances of strike activities by workers in the aviation sector, which have serious security implications and interrupt travel for the general public as well as flight operations.
It said, “Even if the problems in dispute are not new, the strikes have grown too many and frequent to be tolerated.
“Some have persisted despite many agreements between the government and the unions being signed for over eight years.
“These include some of the agencies failing to implement the agreed-upon consequential adjustment to the national minimum wage as of February 2022.”
It also noted that it also includes the nearly ten-year delay in releasing Conditions of Service that have been examined by pertinent government bodies.
“Another problem is the ongoing threats to demolish the FAAN, NCAA, and NAMA headquarters in Lagos without making adequate arrangements for regional offices that would be appropriate for the city’s status as the nation’s aviation hub.”
The committee asked Sirika to provide it thorough information on every point of disagreement.
Additionally, it asked to be kept up to date on the steps the ministry and its departments had done to resolve the complaints of the aviation workers and their unions.
On Monday, aviation workers in Lagos began a warning strike to demand, among other things, that the Minister stop his proposed demolition of their offices to make room for an airport city.
