Mixed reactions trail the recent commissioning of 10 high-capacity firefighting vehicles by the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika. Although some have applauded the action as a step toward enhancing security and emergency response at airports around the nation, others have expressed reservations about the expense of the trucks and if they are actually required.
Sirika via his Twitter page on Sunday said,”Just commissioned 10 Firefighting trucks, total cost of over 12Bn Naira. More to come in due course. Safety has been the Buhari focus in Aviation, since 2015. Hitherto FAAN has not bought new trucks in 15 years.”
See some reactions on Twitter below:
The Presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, Omoyele Sowere said,” Wow! You mean you bought a single fire engine for over $2 million each. Wonders shall never cease. You and @mbuhari really finished Nigeria! #RevolutionNow.”
Another Twitter user, @n6oflife6, said,” The cleaning out these people are doing before leaving office. Heaven helps whoever enters next. You literally spent 30 million United States Dollars on 10 fire trucks. even if they were made by Bugatti and Lamborghini @officialEFCC please check.”
A Twitter user @yuteoflondon, said,” spent the last hours researching how much fire trucks cost, the expensive high-end trucks cost $650,000 (which Nigeria never gets the best, I can bet these are used trucks too).
“NYC firefighting trucks cost $550k each, what truck did you buy for $2.8m You sir and your cohorts are thieves. Give the spec of this truck and what makes it N1.2B each. the ridiculous broad daylight robbery of our coffers.”
Another Twitter user @aisosaigiebor, said,” This is absolute madness. How can you buy 10 fire trucks for 12bn Naira @1.2bn each?
Fire trucks don’t work well without a direct source of water which we don’t have in most places. This looks like a China truck and from my find, the one that holds 12000 litres is about 80,000$. Why would you pay 1.2bn Naira for one truck? This is insane.”
Reacting, Centurion Security’s CEO, Capt John Ojikutu, raised concerns over the deployment of new firefighter vehicles to Nigerian airports.
Ojikutu said, “Each is good enough to be deployed to an airport as Cat 9 but do we have the required skilled manpower to sustain their operations and the periodic maintenance? It is not sufficient to go buying sophisticated equipment without adequate and skilled manpower to sustain its operation life.
He added that, “The relevant question to ask is, why are all these buying and project contracts coming during the outgoing administration and not at the beginning or mid-term? Where is the funding coming from at a time the government administration is complaining of scarcity of funds and going borrowing funds in external loans?”
