Professionalising Service Delivery in Nigeria’s Public Buildings Using Facility Management: The Lagos Murtala Muhammed International Airport

Abstract

Nigeria’s international airports have attained a somewhat poor reputation in regard to service quality. At the largest and busiest of them all, the Lagos Murtala Muhammed International Airport (LMMIA), the authorities have been taking action to expand and improve facilities, just as in the country’s 21 other airports. However, the results achieved have obviously been unsatisfactory given persistent passenger complaints and low assessments recurrently centered upon the indices of corruption, crowding, chaos, confusion and cleanliness. This paper empirically examines these persistent problems using as benchmark the 2015 published worldwide survey and ranking of international airports. The main finding is that adequate and determined attention has not been given to quality service delivery, the result of a low managerial capacity and an inappropriate, bureaucratic management model which has failed to deploy modern business techniques as well as appreciate the importance of the human element in that particular environment. The recommendation is that the airport be privatized and managed in accordance with professional Facility Management (FM) principles which, by co-ordinating people, facilities, systems and equipment, offer the best prospects for optimising operational effectiveness and facility value towards achievement of the corporate purpose.