Experts Kick As Aviation Minister Removes NAMA Boss

Less than 24 hours after the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, removed the managing director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Capt. Rabiu Yadudu, the Minister has also sacked the acting Director-General of the National Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Mathew Pwajok.

Sirika replaced Pwajok with the Director of Aerodrome and Airspace Standards in the National Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Engr. Tayib Adetunji Odunowo.

LEADERSHIP gathered that the appointment of Odunowo takes immediate effect.

It could be recalled that Pwajok had been in acting capacity as NAMA MD since February 2022 without confirmation as substantive MD.

Meanwhile, the Aviation Safety Roundtable (ART), an industry Think Tank group has described as capricious, despicable and unwarranted the last-minute activities of the Minister of Aviation in the twilight of the Buhari administration.

The ART in a statement issued in Lagos, Monday, by Olumide Ohunayo, specifically bemoaned the appointment of new heads of agencies in the Aviation sector when the country is in a transition stage.

He said, “The ART equally frowns at any decision of the Minister to appoint a new director general, managing directors or directors with barely ten days to the eve of the new administration, thereby, foreclosing the opportunity for new presidential appointees that will be more suited to the agenda of the incoming administration.

“The ART is of the view that a more appropriate action would have been to nominate a new candidate for appointment by the incoming Minister and there is nothing wrong in extending for a further 30 days, the term of the existing Managing Director and Directors on a transitional basis, to enable the new administration pick the men/ woman to driver their agenda.

“It is the hope of the ART that the incoming President will attend to these challenges expeditiously. Aviation is such that once the airplanes lose the officers in the left seat, the officers in the right seat cannot simply take over without the required experience and authorization.

“The ART calls the attention of the current Minister to ensure the full and faithful implementation of Section 16 of the NCAA Act for the establishment of Directorates and Inspectorates as opposed to the changes he has made in consolidating and placing too many departments under too few personnel and to further comply in particular with Section 16-10.”

The group also condemned the change of name of the Federal Ministry of Aviation to Federal Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace as approved by the outgoing Federal Executive Council (FEC).

The ART said it was convinced that the annexation of the underfunded National Aerospace Research Development Agency (NASRDA) into the Ministry of Aviation would impede the appreciable progress so far made by NASRDA under its parent ministry – the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology.

ART stated, “We further opine that the Centre for Space Transportation and Propulsion whose activities include the sustenance of rapid advances in the propulsion systems and rocket science should not be impeded by the Ministry of Aviation’s terrestrial operations.

“This deliberate attempt to muster the NASRDA under a Ministry that the Minister of Aviation is about to leave only creates organizational confusion for the incoming administration. The ART is of the view that the Aviation Ministry is already under stress with the existing workload and the departure of capable hands, that it is not equipped to handle the additional function of Space Research and administration.

“The ART believes that the nation will benefit tremendously if Nigerian space agency remains an independent but properly funded organization with the inclusion of the Minister of Aviation or his representative on its governing Board alongside other ministerial appointees as provided in Section 2 of the NASRDA Act.

“The ART could have rated the tenure of the outgoing Minister a total failure but for the fact that he did appoint capable and qualified individuals to run the various departments and agencies under him. These astute professionals in our view discharged their duties creditably well in spite of the Ministerial bottlenecks placed on their paths.

“For eight solid years the Minister of Aviation appropriated the required governance structure under his personal control by neglecting to appoint the statutory Governing Boards required to ease the functions of the agencies and parastatals under him.”