The absence of governing boards for the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), and the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) and the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB), is threatening safety, fueling employment and contract racketeering in the nation’s aviation industry.
LEADERSHIP reports that the board of government agencies are responsible for instilling discipline, scrutinising contracts, curbing employment and recruitment irregularities.
However, with the absence of agency boards in NAMA, NCAA and NiMets, numerous employment decisions and contract awards, which ideally should have gone through governing boards, were made in their absence.
Aviation stakeholders further asserted that many decisions solely taken by the minister should have been made by governing boards.
Though the minister has inaugurated the governing board of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), stakeholders, especially labour unions, have called for the appointment of aviation agencies’ boards to ensure justice, equity, and enhanced safety within the sector.
Speaking on the issue, the Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals (ANAP) called on the federal government to promptly name the boards of other aviation parastatals.
Secretary general of ANAP, Comrade AbdulRasaq Saidu, who emphasised the critical need for these appointments confirmed that it would ensure justice, equity, and enhanced safety within the aviation sector.
Comrade Saidu stressed ANAP’s long-standing advocacy for proper governance structures to entrench safety standards.
“I am calling on the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to name other agencies’ board of directors for justice and equity in the system”.
He reiterated ANAP’s consistent demand for rectifying “anomalies” in the industry for the sake of safety.
Comrade Saidu affirmed that the presence of governing boards is essential for instilling discipline, scrutinising contracts, curbing employment and recruitment irregularities, and overseeing the daily operations of aviation agencies.
He noted that numerous employment decisions and contract awards, which ideally should have gone through governing boards, were made in their absence.
The ANAP scribe also criticised the previous administration of former Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika, alleging that no boards were inaugurated during his eight-year tenure, despite initial announcements by former President Muhammadu Buhari.
“ANAP has raised this issue on numerous occasions. Late former President Buhari named some people to various boards, but till Sirika left office, nothing was done to inaugurate the boards. It died like that, now, this administration has continued the same way,” Saidu lamented.
The ANAP scribe decried the non-compliance with the establishing Acts of aviation parastatals regarding board appointments, asserting that many decisions solely taken by the minister should have been made by governing boards.
Also speaking, the former general secretary of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Olayinka Abioye, said the boards are a necessary function of all federal agencies, as it is mandated by acts establishing the agencies.
He argued that the minister was expected to initiate the process of setting up a Board by drawing the federal government’s attention to it as a matter of law, in consonance with the provisions of the Establishment Act setting up these agencies.
“Aviation is growing, as you may know. Infrastructure development is ongoing, airlines are expanding, while handling companies are smiling at the bank. Generally, we are not doing badly except in the public sector agencies where we expect Governing Boards in place, but not yet,” he said.
“You may recall that the past administration of Buhari instituted a Board for all aviation agencies but the blatant disregard for the rule of law and disrespect to authority by the then Minister, Hadi Sirika put paid to the existence of the Governing Boards because he refused to inaugurate them for reasons best known to him much of which was a seeming greediness and corruption tendencies.
In the Tinubu administration, in just two years, we have seen a semblance of respect for the rule of law occasioned by the setting up of Governing Boards for several Government agencies.
Of recent, the FAAN just had a Board under the Chairmanship of former Governor of Kano State and immediate past Chairman of the ruling party, Abdullahi Gandunje, has clearly shown that the FG is responding to the yearnings of the workers in their respective agencies through their Unions who had been very vociferous in demanding for the establishment of the various Boards in consonance with the provisions of the establishment Acts of these Agencies.
“The absence of the Boards has significantly dealt a blow to the proposed functionality of the agencies since the Boards have a significant role to play in the administrative synergy of these agencies, collaborating with the CEOs towards the well-being of workers and the entire system.
I hope that the FG on the continued initiative and promptings of the minister will do justice to these demands and fulfil its obligations by putting in place Governing Boards for other Aviation agencies to enable them to play their complementary roles towards good governance, he stated.
When contacted, the spokesman for the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, said the governing boards of other agencies would soon be announced by the federal government.
Also, when asked about how the agencies without governing boards go about contract approval and employment, he said only the agency heads can speak on it.
“Governing board members of other agencies would be announced as soon as possible
I don’t understand this, maybe you’ll have to speak to the head of agencies because I am not part of their management
