The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria has justified the directive asking the agency to relocate its headquarters to Lagos.

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, had issued a directive for the relocation of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria’s headquarters from Abuja to Lagos.

In an internal memo dated January 15 2024, titled, “Relocation of FAAN Headquarters From Abuja to Lagos”, FAAN’s Managing Director, Olubunmi Kuku, directed the agency’s Director of Human Resources and Administration to come up with the implications of moving the operations of FAAN headquarters to Lagos.

The memo read, “The Honourable Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development has directed that the headquarters of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria should be relocated from Abuja to Lagos.

“Consequent upon the above, you are requested to provide the implication of the relocation to the management.”

In a separate statement issued on Thursday, the Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection at FAAN, Obiageli Orah reiterated that relocating the headquarters was considered to be in the best interest of the authority.

The statement reads in part, “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 per cent 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.”

According to Orah, the minister has unveiled plans to engage concessionaires in constructing suitable offices for FAAN in both Lagos and Abuja.

Orah noted that until this development materialises, FAAN will maintain its management of the existing building in Lagos, which is capable of accommodating all directors and senior officials.

Orah clarified that operational offices in Abuja remain fully functional, with no reduction in operations, adding that the decision was purely technical and does not impact the ongoing operational structure in both cities.