Society Gists

The board of directors of the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) are planning to re-introduce the suspended Management Support Agreement (MSA) stipulating that 3 percent of the company’s gross earnings is shared among the board.

Under this agreement, the eleven-man board headed by Usman Bello would share N700 million, which is a backlog of the money that would have been shared in the past year if the program were not stopped by the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), which considered the agreement fraudulent.

A source close to the NAHCO described the MSA as a loophole allowing the board of directors to milk company stakeholders and shareholders dry. He questioned why the board would reintroduce such a controversial agreement that enriches board members while workers’ salaries have remained stagnant for the past four years.

The source told our correspondent that two industry unions, the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN) and the Nigerian Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), had in the past three years kicked severely against the introduction of the MSA without success until the SEC intervened in 2016 and canceled it.

“The current board membership of NAHCO has held a series of secret meetings where they planned to reintroduce an illegal agreement nicknamed the Management Support Agreement (MSA) whereby 3 percent of all gross earnings of NAHCO would be paid under a platform,” the source said.

“It would be remembered that the former chairman of the board had to relinquish the position under a controversial circumstances in 2016. In the process of that, questions arose as to what constitutes the MSA, and the Security and Exchange Commission directed that the money should be stopped immediately.

“This is the same organization that has over the years jettisoned staff salary increase, staff promotion is also stepped down and long overdue.”

The source added that the managing director of NAHCO, German national Norbert Bielderman, was not favorably disposed to the board’s plan. It was learnt that in one of the meetings held at the headquarters of the ground handling company at the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos, Mr. Bielderman insisted that he would not be a part of the plan, but the 11 board members overruled him.

Apart from this, our correspondent also gathered that the same board is also seeking the approval of N155 million at N15 million each from the management in order to pay for foreign training of its board members.