The aviation industry in Nigeria is tottering as last week’s sack of chief executive officers (CEOs) and their directors is having a huge toll on the sector.
There are also fears that the country may fail to close the observed gaps by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in the August – September safety audit it carried out in the sector, reports Daily Independent.
ICAO is expected to return to Nigeria for the Corrective Action Plan early next year, but the sack has caused disarray in the industry, especially in the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
Besides, one of the affected directors in the last week’s purge who didn’t want his name in print, has expressed dismay with a report linking the affected directors with the alleged billions of naira scam of the failed Nigeria Air, saying that he like many others had nothing to do with the national carrier project.
A source close to the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development confided in this paper yesterday that Keyamo, the minister in the sector, was ill-advised to sack the CEOs and the entire directors in all the agencies, maintaining that it would have an adverse effect on the industry.
The source explained that Keyamo fell for the booby trap because he was not familiar with the sector and feared that the industry may pay for it.
Since the sack of the directors last week, Keyamo was yet to name their replacements. The source said: “The minister didn’t know the enormity of what he has done to the industry. He took the decision based on ill-advice.
As it is now, the minister is totally confused, he’s not familiar with the industry and the few people who have access to him are giving him different ideas.
It is never done anywhere that the aviation CEOs and all the directors are sacked in one day.
“The directors would have been there for three to four months to guide the new CEOs and then you can now relieve them of their jobs later and appoint new directors.
“The sector is now in jeopardy. Some of the directors were never involved in the Nigeria Air project and have nothing to do with any fraud as claimed in some quarters.
“For instance, in the NCAA, Engr. Gbolahan Abatan came in when there was a huge vacuum in the system as Engr. Kayode Ajoboye who was the Director, Airworthiness Standards resigned abruptly. He was drafted in because of the then forthcoming ICAO safety audit.
“The six months he spent there, a lot of things changed.”
The source said that the injection of entirely new people into the system may work against the sector, but insisted that the success or otherwise of the ICAO Safety Corrective Action Plans depended on who was brought in.
“It depends on how hard the new people will work to close the existing gaps. But if the new people have that orientation that they are coming in to make their own money, then, the whole system will collapse on them and Nigeria may go back to zero.
“The success or otherwise depends on the motivation of those on the job. You have to bring in the right personnel to man the directorates. Yes, it may be people within the industry, but I can tell you not everybody within the industry is sharp, brilliant and good enough to occupy that position.
There are some sycophants that we have in the industry and those are the people who have been running around,” the ministry source said.
But Grp. John Ojikutu (rtd) said that the sack of the directors across the six agencies may not affect the performance of the country in the ICAO corrective action plans.
According to him, those to do the bulk of the jobs are general managers and their subordinates, but feared that the country may not have enough skilled inspectors to successfully execute the corrective action plans. He said: “The question now is how many skilled inspectors do we have in the sector? How many safety and security inspectors do we have? Those are the things that are going to come under the closing of the gaps.
“However, it has to do with the areas noticed by ICAO. All those removed were all political appointees.”
Ojikutu also queried the appointment of Capt. Chris Najomo as the Acting Director-General, NCAA, saying he had lots of questions to answer during his days as the Director of Air Transport Regulations (DATR) in the same agency.
Besides, Capt. Samuel Caulcrick, aviation stakeholder, declared that the sack of the CEOs and the directors may not affect the sector.
He declared that the general managers could execute the exercise successfully if they are in sufficient numbers.
No fewer than 30 CEOs and directors in the six agencies were removed last Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, in a purge that took the industry by surprise. Most of those affected by the sack were appointed by Sen. Hadi Sirika, the immediate Minister of Aviation, in the last minute of President Muhammadu Buhari administration. Sirika has also created new directorates in some of the agencies.
He had created the directorates of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Corporate Services and Aviation Security Directorates.
Some of the affected in FAAN for instance were Mr. Shehu, Director, Human Resources and Admin; Olumuyiwa Femi-Pearse, Commercial and Business Management; Barr. Azubuike Okorie, Corporate Services and Kingsley Uchechukwu Okunji, General Manager (Statistics).
For the NCAA, we had Engr. Gbolahan Abatan, Director, Airworthiness Standards; Engr. Godwin Balang, Director, Aerodrome and Airspace Standards; Capt. Ibrahim Danbazau, Director, Operations; Mr Olaniyi Saraku, Director, Air Transport Regulations; Air Cdr. Hambali Tukur, Director, Aviation Security; R. M. Daku (Mrs.), and Director, Corporate Services. For the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau, affected by the purge were: Mr. Ori Bassey, Director, Finance and Accounts; Dr. James Odaudu, Director, Public Affairs and Consumer Protection; Oliobi Godfrey Ikemefuna, Director, Corporate Services, and Capt. Tosin Odulaja, Transport Investigation. For the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET), directors sacked were Saleh Yusuf, Human Resources and Admin; Daniel Okafor Chibueze, Director, Weather Forecasting Services; Ahmed Sanusi, Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, and Prof. Effiong Essien Oku, Director, Research and Training.
At the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, directors laid off were Matthew Pwajok, Director, Operations; Khalid Emele, Director, Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, and Mr. Uchendu Oji, Corporate Services.
The CEOs removed by President Bola Tinubu are Mr. Kabir Mohammed, Managing Director, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN); Capt. Musa Nuhu, Director General Civil Aviation (DGCA); Engr. Akin Olateru, Director-General, Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB); Prof. Mansur Matazu, Director-General, Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET); Engr. Tayib Odunowo, Managing Director, Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), and Capt. Alkali Madibbo, Rector, Nigerian College of aviation Technology (NCAT).
