The fact that aviation ministry has been collapsed into the ministry of transportation is absolutely joyful for any rational stakeholder in aviation industry. We must commend President Buhari for listening and attending to the voices of wisdom.
It’s time to allow the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) a freehand to effectively carry out its functions. The domineering effects of a dedicated ministry of aviation has always submerged the NCAA’s role as a regulatory agency, of which the other agencies must dwell under.
We have witnessed in the past, how successive ministers steer over domineering behaviour which led to direct extortion of funds from all the agencies. Aviation ministry became their greedy path to illicit wealth; agencies such as the Federal airports Authority (FAAN), the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), and the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) became conduit pipes for pure robbery and embezzlement through fake, unadvertised, and unexecuted contracts in the name of aviation blue print and airport remodeling. The results are abandoned airport renovation projects, poor navigation aids and under trained personnel in the NCAA.
It is unnecessary to mention how much has been spent in the sector in the past four years, with very little output. If after spending N175 billion, the state of our airports, navigational aids, and communication equipment remain in this poor state, there is an obvious necessity to scrap the designated ministry of aviation.
What is most appalling is that there were no long- term plans to grow the sector as ministers after ministers come to take what they perceived as their own share of the national cake. With sheer brutality, they steal available funds meant to enhance aviation development: contracts were awarded to fake companies or proxies of the minister in order to recoup immediate benefits. Some ministers have used the sector, through the ministry to employ unqualified personnel for political reasons; all the agencies constantly bear the brunt of these irrational actions which keep draining their revenues.
Since 1999 when the ministry of aviation was formally created, ministers of aviation have hindered the industry’s growth. The sector has been used for personal gains by various political appointees, and airlines keep going into bankruptcy due to escalating, meaningless charges.
When the Civil Aviation Act 2006 became effective, the autonomous status of the NCAA became non-negotiable. But, gradually, appointed ministers found it derogatory to listen to the directors-general of the regulatory agency, and very soon, eroded into the functions of the NCAA. Undefined power tussle between the political power of the minister and the authority of the head of the NCAA became visible, which led to the diminished autonomy of the civil aviation authority of this country.
The functions, responsibilities and safety oversight position of the NCAA were forced out and ceded to the ministry, with the agency, most times, taking orders from the ministry on safety matters. These overlapping confrontations always happened to the disadvantage of the director-general, who is literarily a subordinate of the minister, despite being appointed by the President to oversee air safety in the country.
Every aviation minister became the de facto director general of the industry, with unilateral authority to undermine the heads of the NCAA and other agencies, all in the name of controlling their finances.
FAAN, despite its relatively huge revenue, has not been able to provide reasonable services to its clients because of overloaded salaries and wages. The airports authority is overblown with unnecessary staff, employed by ministers and forced on it. From six directorates, FAAN has been forced to expand to 10, with surging staff monthly remunerations in excess of N1.6 billion. Five years ago, these expenses were less than N400m per month. The managing director of FAAN must always obey the minister’s directives, even when clearly, the imposition of unqualified personnel is the case, and absolutely unnecessary. For now, FAAN must carry the load, with little or no funds to provide its clients valuable services. It became so bad that a minister took runway lighting system from FAAN to NAMA, because it was easier to execute business deals with the head of NAMA at the time than the managing director of FAAN. An aberration that that remained throughout the minister’s tenure. Similar maladministration of this nature has consumed all the agencies.
What is important now, and why we feel the time has come to rescue the industry from politicians is that, henceforth, the autonomy of the NCAA must be safeguarded by all stakeholders. Safety oversight, economic and regulatory functions of the NCAA must be complied with in accordance with the 2006 Civil Aviation Act. Ministerial interference must be dwarfed to the barest minimum.
The regulatory agency must be equipped with trained professionals that will support industry growth.
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority must also reduce the number of directorates from 10 to its original status of five; reduce the number of support, non-professionals staff by about 50percent to remain financially comfortable to function properly. The practice of over levying the airlines to meet wages and salary obligations of its large, unnecessary staff cannot be borne by the struggling carriers.
At this stage of its autonomous status, the NCAA should be more efficient in processing requests for aircraft importation without recourse to the ministry for further approval on the same request. The usual practice of tossing a prospective aircraft buyer up and down between the ministry and the NCAA must stop immediately.
Inserting aviation into the purview of the ministry of transportation is laudable, and should steer the sector in the direction of pure privatisation for self-sustaining growth. The NCAA should be able to manage its revenue judiciously without federal government’s bailout. FAAN, on the other hand, must resume its airport concession programme to off load its burden. Unnecessary staff should be pruned to reduce excessive and overblown salaries and wages.
NAMA’s charges keep escalating every day without improvement in navigation, surveillance, and communication services. These failures cannot support air transportation in our country. We understand how previous aviation ministers dipped their hands into the treasury of the agencies with fictitious, and unexecuted contracts in the name of repositioning the sector for better service delivery.
The future of aviation industry lies squarely in how this government allows every agency to improve performance, unimpeded. This will only be possible if the ministry stays away from looting available resources of the agencies. Every agency head must be given free hand to perform, and must be made accountable. The usual practice of ministers’ greed and overbearing authority that have pervaded the industry must not continue.
We hope that this repositioning will save everyone from predator aviation ministers and the sector can take responsibility for its growth or failure.
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