The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has explained the relocation of its corporate headquarters from Abuja to Lagos.
In a statement issued by the Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Obiageli Orah, the Authority noted that the Abuja location had no office space to contain the activities of the agency.
Orah however, explained that the Minister decided to stop this waste of public resources and rip-off on the public purse as the Authority would be liable to pay them duty tour allowance because technically they are working out of station as their official posting is to Abuja.
Also, the Minister said that 60% of the activities of the agency are done in Lagos and it is only appropriate for the headquarters to be in Lagos.
Meanwhile, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) was established in 1976 as the Airports Authority of Nigeria and later reformed in 1995 to FAAN and was once had its Authority’s headquarters in Lagos before President Muhammad Buhari moved it to Abuja in 2020.
“FAAN wishes to inform Nigerians that following wide consultations by the new Management of FAAN with stakeholders, which also involved the Unions, it was agreed that this was in the best interest of the Authority and the country for now for the following reasons:
“Those affected by the decision to move the headquarters to Abuja have since returned to Lagos as there is no office space for them in Abuja. It was ill-advised in the first place to move the headquarters to Abuja when there was no single FAAN building in Abuja to accommodate all of them at once.
“Having returned to Lagos, the Authority would be liable to pay them DTA (DUTY TOUR ALLOWANCE) because technically they are working out of the station as their official posting is to Abuja. The Minister has decided to stop this waste of public resources and rip-off on the public purse.
“The other option open to the Authority was to abandon the old FAAN building in Lagos to rot away and to use its scarce resources to rent an office space in Abuja for Millions of Naira of public money when in fact more than sixty percent of its activities are in Lagos given the huge passenger volume of the Lagos airports. The stakeholders and the Minister decided against that and to save the country this waste,” the Authority outlined.
The authority while reacting to the relocation said, “Abuja continues to have full operational offices and the Authority has not scaled down operations in Abuja one bit. It is just the technical decision of where the Authority has its ‘corporate headquarters’ that has been taken without affecting the structure of operations as they are for now in both cities.
“Shortly, when befitting corporate buildings have been built for the Authority in both Lagos and Abuja, a final decision will be taken as to the location of the permanent headquarters, depending on the exigencies of the time.”