NAHCO: From crisis unto crises
By MAURICE ARCHIBONG
Thursday, February 7, 2008

The crisis plaguing the National Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) plc took on a nasty quirk last Friday with the invitation of that body’s Managing Director, Mr. Bates Sule, to the Panti Station of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID).

The MD had initially been unable to honour that invitation and had, sources revealed, sent word to police authorities that he would be available the following Monday. Last Monday, Mr. Sule arrived at Panti about 2pm in a blue-painted Honda Civic car with registration number LK 839 KJA.

At 4pm, the embattled NAHCO boss was invited to a chat with an assistant commissioner of police, after which the MD had to write a statement, before he was allowed to go home at 7.20pm. After more than five hours at the police station amid lengthy interogation, Sule was permited to go home, but under instruction to report at that station the following day, Tuesday February 5.

Sule’s invitation follows the arrest and detention last Wednesday of at least one of that outfit’s managers over alleged death threat messages. The staff (names withheld), who was picked up Wednesday afternoon, after security operatives’ search of his residence, passed a night in detention. He was arrested and detained on suspicion he sent life-threatening messages, which inter alia read, “Let peace reign at NAHCO or else your family will mourn you. You have been warned.”

In a letter titled, “Petition of threat to the life of our branch chairman,” signed by deputy general secretary of the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), Mr. Olayinka Olu Abioye, the labour union claimed that “On 24th December 2007, two unknown/unidentified men visited the home of Mr. Abiodun Adewuni,” Chairman of NAHCO Chapter of ATSSSAN. According to the letter dated December 31, 2007, the suspected assailants arrived in the evening (about 20 hours local time). At the entrance to the man’s residence, the uninvited guests allegedly demanded Adewuni’s whereabouts from the security man, “claiming they have a message from his Managing Director. After hot exchanges with the ‘maiguard’ and the intervention of a neighbour, they (the unwelcome visitors) were forced to flee as people began gathering.”

Sources said the union decided to address their letter to the Commissioner of Police, Homicide Section, Force CID Annex, Alagbon, and copied the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Force CID, after reporting the matter to the Murtala Mohammed Airport Divisional Police Headquarters.
Last Thursday, members of NAHCO Board held a meeting at the headquarters of the air-cargo handling body but the outcome of their deliberations remains unclear as efforts to speak with any of the participants proved abortive, and the reported departure from the venue by the Board Chairman, even before deliberations were concluded.

British Airways (BA), Lufthansa, KLM, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Nigeria, Delta Air, Arik, Air France and Turkish Airline are among NAHCO’s clients. With NAHCO workers frequently threatening to down tools, passengers may well begin to brace up for flight disruptions.
NAHCO has recorded several curios in recent times: On of these came to pass on January 10, 2008, when a security department worker was invited to collect a letter of suspension that had been back-dated to August 9, 2007.

Apart from the invitation by the police to Mr. Sule and detention of one of its managers, NAHCO insiders also revealed that the Chairman, NAHCO Board, Dr. (Ambassador) Patrick Dele Cole actually walked out of that body’s Board meeting, which took place at the Ikeja-based corporate headquarters of the aviation handling agency last Thursday.

NAHCO has been groaning under labour restiveness for many months. With this latest tweak, observers are convinced the situation at NAHCO has not only has dipped from bad to worse, but that the relation between the workers and management seems to have broken down irreconcilably. This is more so with workers calling for the removal of Mr. Sule, NAHCO Managing Director.

Unfortunately, several attempts to speak with Sule, including personal visits to NAHCO headquarters, yielded no fruit. During our latest visit on Friday, the receptionist told us “the MD’s secretary said the MD has advised that you see someone in the Corporate Planning department.” But when we made to head to that office’s floor, the receptionist said the person, directed to speak with us was at the Ramp. According to the light-complexion woman, the Ramp is out of bound to outsiders, and son we left again, unable to get NAHCO’s official side of the spiraling crises.

Mr. Bates Sule used to be Mohammed Abubakar Sule, and he was a former Assistant Manager of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN). Sule assumed duty as MD of NAHCO roughly two years ago, and has been embroiled in a running battle with workers demanding heavy wage packages, better conditions of service, better facilities and the conversion of casual employees to permanent staff. This last demand comes against the management’s alleged plans to downsize the company’s workforce.
The employees of NAHCO are affiliates of two labour bodies, ATSSSAN and National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) and both organizations’ executives and their members are at loggerheads with NAHCO Management, going by a series of rallies, they have held recently.

After a 14-day ultimatum to management to implement workers’ demands, which include 350% increment, the labour unions and management had reopened channels for dialogue and for a while, NAHCO enjoyed an uneasy calm. However, recent developments could trigger another hardening of positions.