Are you preparing for a trip to Nigeria
or doing a research on the country’s aviation industry? If you fall into
either category, there are certain facts you should not count on the
website of the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria to give you.
First, you will not get the contact
address or phone numbers of the front desk officials of the authority on
its own website. One would think that the address, email address and
telephone number of an organisation are the most basic things a good
website should flaunt.
Unfortunately, when you click on the contact title on www.faannigeria.org,
the website address of FAAN, it takes you to a page listing headings
like international airports, major domestic airports and other domestic
airports and photographs that say little or nothing about the content.
It is also saddening to know that the
site does not contain the correct number of airports in the country,
which FAAN manages. Its international airports title contains the Nnamdi
Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja; the Mallam Aminu kano
International Airport, Kano; the Murtala Muhammed International Airport,
Lagos and the Port Harcourt International Airport , leaving out the
recently-added Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.
Continue reading after the cut....
Good for travellers and research
organisations, the Enugu international airport is listed on Wikipedia,
where its major facilities and history are laid bare. But FAAN, which
should have been the first port of call, does not acknowledge the
existence of the airport on its website.
On the site also, there is also no
mention of the dozens of airstrips that are scattered in different parts
of the country. You will not also find up-to-date airport passenger
traffic statistics. The most recent document is first half of 2012,
which puts the total number of passenger traffic at approximately 7.1
million.
Those of 2003 to 2011 are also available,
but the data of the second half of 2012, 2013 and 2014 are clearly
missing. And this is different from what is obtainable in other places.
Airport traffic data, in other places, are released quarterly or
monthly.
For instance, the Federal Aviation
Administration of the United States has published, on its site, the
February passenger traffic data, showing the minutest details any
visitor needs for anything. And the data are fully analysed.
In an era when websites are designed to
automatically update and refresh their news content, those who visit
FAAN domain will have to settle for stale information on the industry.
For instance, over a year after the exit of the former Aviation
Minister, Stella Odua, www.faanNigeria.org still leads with her
assurance that “change has come to aviation.”
The report which leads the site of FAAN
is on the remark of Odua in 2012, not even shortly before she left
office. Three years after, it appears the administrator of FAAN’s site
has not found a suitable replacement for the “news” report.
“Investment opportunities abound in
Nigerian airports for both local and foreign investors. Investment in
aviation infrastructural facilities top the list of such opportunities
as listed: “Construction/management of terminal buildings,
construction/management of runways, taxiways and aprons;
construction/management of helipads,” says the website, which does not
portray its operator as a serious organisation.
From its landing to exit page, content on
the site raises questions about the seriousness of its vision statement
– “to be among the best airport groups in the world.” FAAN may have
fallen into the category of public institutions that have yet to realise
that websites are gradually taking the place of office receptions in
modern organisations. What may have made its situation worse is that it
operates in an industry that deals with global standards.-Punch
Share your thoughts....thanks!
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