NewsStakeholders Lament Minister Pausing Aviation Boards 4 Year After Buhari Appointed Them

Stakeholders Lament Minister Pausing Aviation Boards 4 Year After Buhari Appointed Them

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BEVERLY HILLS, April 12, (THEWILL) – Key stakeholders in the nation’s aviation industry have condemned the failure of the Aviation Ministry to inaugurate the Boards of Directors (BoDs) of Aviation Agencies, four years after they were appointed.

President Muhammadu Buhari about four years ago, approved the appointment of boards of directors to five out of the six agencies in the sector, but in spite of this, nothing was done.

Also, former Chairman of APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, about three years ago gave a deadline for the inauguration of the board members, but in spite of the approvals and directives, the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, is said not to have yielded to the call.

The agencies that are supposed to accommodate board of directors, according to the Acts setting them up are the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET) and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), while Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) does not have a board of directors.

Reacting to the issue at the weekend, President of Aviation Round Table (ART), Dr. Gbenga Olowo, said that the failure of the Minister to inaugurate the boards for the aviation agencies could cast a thick shadow on transparency, accountability and responsibility in the sector.

Due to the nature of professionalism in the aviation sector, Olowo said that with its critical nature together with safety issues, there was the fundamental need for the emplacement of boards of directors for prompt decision-making.

He opined that interim boards could fill administrative vacuums, but agencies were not contemplated to run without functional boards for periods exceeding three months.

Olowo said: “ART is of the view that aviation sector policymakers adopt the international aviation best corporate governance for the promotion of safety.

“Sirika should as a matter of urgency inaugurate boards of directors for the respective agencies in order to avoid continuous breach of rules by the Minister.”

In his views, Comrade Abdulrazaq Saidu, the General Secretary, Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals (ANAP) also noted that the failure of the Minister to inaugurate boards of directors on the agencies indicated a disregard to the rule of laws.

He said, ANAP for instance wrote numerous letters to the Minister to remind him of this oversight, but he failed to respond.

“Aviation workers were suffering because of the several actions of the Minister since he came on board. For instance, training of personnel has been relegated to the background in recent years,” Saidu said.

Also speaking, Comrade Olayinka Abioye, the immediate past General Secretary of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) said, “The non-inauguration of the boards shows that something is actually wrong in the sector. Since the Acts setting up the agencies stipulated that they should have a board of directors; the Minister ought to have set them up immediately they were appointed by President Buhari. The Minister may have wilfully delayed their inauguration in order to continue to have influence on the agencies.

“The implication is that the Minister wants to still control the happenings in the parastatals. You are aware that by the Acts establishing these agencies, they are supposed to report to a board and in the absence of a board, the Minister takes charge. So, if the Minister has the audacity to set aside the directive of Mr. President, it goes to show that something is definitely wrong with our system.”

According to him, the minister and the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) have a limit on what they can approve and spend without recourse to the boards of directors, adding that: “Some of his activities over the years indicate that he has flagrantly disobeyed the extant rules for the industry.”

Meanwhile, some of the names announced by President Buhari in 2018 through a circular signed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha are: For NAMA: Dr. Yakubu Lame, Abdullahi Y. Gashu’a, Capt. Ibraheem Olugbade; FAAN had Otunba Niyi Adebayo, Akingbesote Akinyeye, Suleiman Mohammed and Bello Babura

NCAT has Mrs. Deborah Iliyas and Chie Simon Owhofa while NIMET has Otunba J.F. Faleke and Dr. Chichi Ashwe on the list.

Attempts made to reach out to the Director, Public Affairs of the Ministry of Aviation, Mr. James Odaudu, as at the time of filing this report proved abortive as text messages sent to him were not responded to.

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