The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has stated that the relocation of the headquarters of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) from Abuja to Lagos will proceed as planned, and there will be no reversal. Keyamo made this known during an interview on ChannelsTV on Wednesday evening. He declared, “We are proceeding with the relocation as directed.”

Lagos Reporters reports that mixed reactions have continued to trail the planned relocation of FAAN headquarters and some departments of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from Abuja to Lagos.

Senator Ali Ndume from Borno South, as well as chieftains of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Northern Elders Forum (NEF), and other northern groups have expressed concerns regarding the moves by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). They have insinuated that the moves were an attempt to marginalize the north.

However, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, has emphasized the necessity to relocate the headquarters of the airport authority in line with current economic and operational realities.

The minister added that the relocation of FAAN to Lagos will save the country at least N500 million on flight tickets for officials. He further stated that top FAAN officials and aviation unions had approached him, requesting the head office of the authority to be moved to Lagos for operational efficiency.

When asked whether President Bola Tinubu was aware of the decision or not, Keyamo explained that it was a decision under the purview of a minister. Moreover, he clarified that only the headquarters of one out of the seven aviation agencies in the country was being moved from Abuja to Lagos.

Furthermore, Keyamo said that when his predecessor, Hadi Sirika, moved the headquarters of all aviation agencies from Lagos to Abuja in 2020, no adequate provision was made for the principal officers like the directors and the departments under them.

The minister explained that the headquarters are where the decision-makers meet, not where the largest number of workers are, and not where the biggest building is. He also revealed that over 100 of the 132 workers at the head office are in Lagos, while only the directors are in Abuja without their support staffers.

Keyamo stated that the whole issue was compounded by the fact that FAAN is not yet digitalized. So, in one year, they spend half a billion naira on flight tickets between Lagos and Abuja alone. He pointed out that officials fly every day to-and-fro Abuja to get one file signed, and in one year, they spent close to half a billion naira on flight tickets, which is N450m on flight tickets alone.