Members of the International Facilities Management Association (IFMA), Nigeria chapter, have charged stakeholders to accord basic principles of facility management to national infrastructure to ensure adequate operations.
President of the Association, Mr. Lekan Akinwunmi, gave the charge at the World Facilities Management Day 2023 held in Lagos. He stated that the move would make unquantifiable impact in national life, if well prioritised.
According to him, the nation’s infrastructure needs the service of facility managers to be beneficial to Nigerians. Akinwunmi said: “The practice of facility management cannot be underestimated; we manage both the hard and soft facilities. The World
FM Day is set aside to recognise facility managers, the behind the-scenes heroes of the built environment and share well-deserved thanks for keeping facilities healthy, safe and productive.
“Facility Management service is a thankless one, people remember you when the facilities are not properly functioning.” He expressed concerns that facility managers are having tough times to get their budgets approved, as if they are spending the money for personal purposes, adding that without proper operations and maintenance, the business environment would be unsafe and unappealing.
The IFMA president said: “Facility Management makes a big difference by keeping the facilities in good shape to improve our
economic life and ensure proper operations for the comfort of the users.
“Hard facility management relates to the physical materials of a building, such as mechanical and electrical maintenance, fabric maintenance, plumbing and air conditioning, while soft facility management is about people and organisation, including hospitality, catering, cleaning and human resources. The act of the facility management in integrating people, place, process, and technology as stated by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), the built environment will surely be safe, comfortable and functional.”
He encouraged facility managers to do better in their areas of operations through advocacy and training for the total integration of facility management in various economies and physical planning.
In a keynote speech, an architect, Niger Temlong, listed issues affecting maintenance of Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) airports to include government policy inconsistencies, overriding interference on the parastatal by supervising ministry, lack of adequate resources, procurement process, corruption and lack of standardisation in all aspects of corporate governance in the organisation.
He suggested that the Federal Government/airport authority must see and treat aviation as global assets and shouldn’t be subjected to policy inconsistencies because of local exigencies.
To him, policy planning should involve short, medium and long-term, while the ministry should restrict itself to policy formulation and oversight functions, as well as refrain from the day-to-day running of the parastatal.
“One of the reasons for the inability of FAAN to efficiently maintain its facilities is that over time the ministry has not restricted itself to only those roles, it had delved into awards and supervision of contracts for FAAN, concessionaires and land allocation.
“The parastatal should be allowed full powers to prioritise their projects, award and supervision, outsourcing and concessions. FAAN should be allowed to source funds from other sources other than the government for the development and maintenance of airports,” he said.
He further suggested the active participation of the private sector for the development of airport infrastructure in Nigeria, just as has been the practice worldwide. Hence, he said Public Private Participation (PPP) in the implementation and execution of programmes and projects in the aviation sector.
He said: “To have world class standard airports with world-class maintained facilities in Nigeria is achievable. It is a sine qua non if the country must compete and remain relevant in World aviation. To ensure this, all practitioners, stakeholders, civil and public servants, investors, travelling public, concessionaires and airport workers must know that it starts with each of us and we must all forgo “selfish interest” in all our dealings and believe that we have an obligation to make the world a better place.
The government at all level; federal, state and local, should formulate citizens-friendly policies that promote good governance. The dividend of democracy should be spread across the nation, in line with global best practices. It is imperative that each and every one of us “Make a Real Difference”, wherever we find ourselves.”
