Experts Kick As Aviation Minister Removes NAMA DG

The minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, on Monday, disclosed that reorganisation and replacement of head of agencies and directors is an ongoing process.

Recall that in the last 24-hours, the minister has sacked the Managing director of Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Capt. Rabiu Yadudu and the acting managing director of Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Mathew Pwajok.

The minister, however, appointed Kabir Yusuf Mohammed as the substantive MD of FAAN and Tayib Odunowo for NAMA, making aviation experts queried the appointments especially as the twilight of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

However, speaking to journalists at the official commissioning of the N2.2billion phase 1 of the expansion at the General Aviation Terminal (GAT), Lagos, the minister, noted that there was no sinister motive behind the reorganisation, saying every appointment has entry and exit timeline and tenure.

The minister said, “The reorganisations approved by the president is an ongoing process and it will continue to go because there is nothing sinister about it especially if it’s been approved by the president. Government is a continuum and appointments have timelines and tenures. There are time to come in and go like we also have time to go. There is nothing hiding about it,” he stated.

Speaking further, he said, President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has helped develop the aviation sector as they have improved it than it was meant.

According to him, the administration doubled the number of airlines, airports and passengers in the eight years of the administration.

“The administration of president Buhari has done well in the aviation sector because we are leaving aviation better than we met it. We have doubled the number of airlines, airports, passengers and we recovered out of COVID-19. We are the fastest growing sector of the economy and second fastest growing country after Columbia after COVID-19.

“We run the airport during COVID-19 when we don’t make a dime, President Buhari has done a lot in civil aviation in Nigeria,” he said.

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, Senator Hadi Sirika 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 head of agencies 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 authorisation.

“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 that of the Federal Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace purportedly approved by the outgoing Federal Executive Council.

The ART is 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 says, “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 organisational 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 the 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.”