•Festus Keyamo (L)
Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr. Festus Keyamo, today inspected affected parts of Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Terminal 1, Lagos, announcing that Fingers D and E will be relocated to allow for the facility’s demolition.
He added that airlines will move operations to the temporary terminal, noting that while the recent fire incident was regrettable, no lives were lost, reports The Nation.
The fire affected several key areas, including airline counters, offices, and equipment belonging to the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET).
Keyamo commended first responders, saying, “First of all, we must thank those who were the first responders before we begin to explain conspiracy theories. Those who responded first in disasters like this helped save lives and limited further damage.”
He extended gratitude to the Lagos State Fire Service, FAAN staff, the terminal’s managing director, and other directors for their swift and effective response. On the alleged conspiracy theories surrounding the incident, the Minister said, “We cannot say much.”
Keyamo also revealed that plans to relocate operations from the old terminal were already underway before the fire outbreak.
He said, “Later, we can decide to look at the cause of the fire and all of that. But let me first of all clear a few points. One, it is not the new terminal that was affected.
“It is the terminal that we are about to pull down. I won’t say fortunately because there is nothing fortunate about fire. So even though we are trying to pull down this old terminal, there was certain equipment that we also needed to retrieve.
“Certain persons also needed to leave the old building for us to start work on the new building. So let me assure Nigerians that even before this fire, if you look behind, we had already made temporary arrangements to move most of the airlines, most of the entities in that space to the temporary place provided by the CCCEC. What this has just done is to hasten our move away from the building.
“The building was about to be pulled down anyway, and totally rehabilitated. However, a lot of our equipment was damaged. What we saw at that time is just the tip of the iceberg.
“It is still not safe to go to the fifth, sixth, and seventh floors. I mean, so many, for example, our NIMET equipment, our NIMET office where they read the weather, that is totally gone. I’m sure you saw that most of the air traffic controllers who were also our air traffic controllers were trapped up there yesterday, too.
“Many of them had to be rescued by crane. So, some of our equipment is damaged, but mostly, as I said, for the building itself, we were about to pull down the building anyway. For conspiracy theories, we won’t go into all of that for now.
“We just want to thank God that there was no single loss of life. That is the first gratitude we have to God. In this kind of situation, we first look at the loss of lives.
“We thank God for that. But between you and me, work will start in earnest to clear the rubble. And then, of course, it will hasten our process of reconstruction.
“So, talking about pulling the building down, how soon do we see that happening? They are on site already, I’m sure. You have seen that the bridge is down already, this bridge, linking up this part of the river. They are reconstructing the new bridge to the new terminal.
“They are on site. The CCCEC is on-site already. We are just waiting for people to evacuate.
“This place would have come down anyway. We are just waiting for people to evacuate. So, this fire actually helps to just, well, not help, but this fire will hasten our movement away from the place.
“And some airlines were rerouted yesterday. When can we expect them to resume? We resumed, the director is here, from NAMA. We resumed about an hour later.”
Keyamo said temporary arrangements for air traffic control have been put in place.
He said, “For now, they are using a temporary tour. Then, also, mobile tours are coming in today for us to resume normal flight activities.
So, I want to assure the public that flight activities will not be disrupted in any way at all.
“Going forward, I want you to address the issue of safety. Well, as you said, we will improve. People were questioning the discretion of this government, especially the President, in actually deciding to reconstruct this gateway to the nation.
“This is the gateway to Nigeria. And I am sure everybody has seen the benefits and the wisdom behind it now. Most of the equipment were obsolete.
“This is like a 50-year-old building. Other buildings in the world are 100 years old, but because of constant maintenance, they still look good. It’s just that this building was abandoned. The infrastructure collapsed.
‘The traffic overpowered the capacity of the building over time. So, that is why the President decided that this gateway to Nigeria, 67 percent of travellers into Nigeria come through this gateway. That is our official statistics.
“Sixty-something percent come through here. And all the other international airports share the other percentage. So, there is no reason why this place should not reflect the health of Nigeria.
“We can make temporary arrangements to move some here. And while we look at the grand plan to replace that equipment. So, what is your message to airlines and others? Well, to the international community, flight operations will resume normally.
“Whilst we repair what has been damaged, we continue to rebuild this place. And this place is going to be a proper hub now. We want to challenge other West African hubs and even African hubs.
“That we can transit passengers through here without them having to get visas into Nigeria. We can transit through here and fly to other parts of the world through here.
“That is what this design is all about. And Nigerians will be very proud of what the President has done at the end of this.”
