How non inauguration of boards crippled aviation

By Chukwuemeke Iwelunmo

The non inauguration of the boards of agencies in the aviation sector has greatly affected the operations of the agencies in the country.

President Muhammadu Buhari on December 29, 2017 approved the constitution of the governing boards of agencies and parastatals .

The Acts of other aviation agencies also make provision for the composition of the boards that are responsible for the policies for the running of the organisation.

For instance, appointment, promotion, and award of contracts fall under the purview of the boards, that have been mandated to meet not less than four times in a year but without a board all these have fallen on the table of the Minister, who according to various unions, have refused to inaugurate so as to run a one man show.

This, according to many, has affected the industry negatively with accusations of the minister running around and doing anything he feels like unchecked thereby affecting the creation of strong institutions by projecting the individual.

The current court cases instituted against both the Airport concessions and the Nigeria Air project are case in points all suits pointing at various levels of alleged irregularities with the processes.

President of the ART, Elder Gbenga Olowo, had sometime last year in the first BBM said, “Due to the nature of professionalism in the aviation sector, its critical nature together with safety issues, there is the fundamental need for the emplacement of boards of directors for prompt decision-making.”

He said the board serves as the intervening mechanism between the chief executive and the ministry.

At one of their joint congresses, the General Secretary of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Comrade Ocheme Aba said the union had cried to different quarters and made several appeals for the composition of the boards to no avail.

Aba said, “The concept of boards is to improve the capacity to manage those organisations and to have a type of intellectual input necessary for its development and growth.

“The Nigeria’s aviation cannot grow beyond the mental capacity of only one man. The Minister of Aviation is the chairman of the interim boards of all the aviation agencies and he is joined by the Permanent Secretary and his appointees, the chief executives who cannot take a contrary view against whatever is being pushed to them.

“So the whole of aviation is on one man’s head. I would want to say it is in one man’s hand and it is dangerous. So we have a one-way track; one-way track for all the agencies; no diversity. There is nothing like cross fertilisation of ideas. So the disadvantages are numerous,” he said.

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The Aviation Safety Round Table Initiative (ASRTI) has said that refusal to inaugurate governing Boards of aviation and allied agencies in line with section 29:1 of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Act stifles initiatives and accountability and promotes organisational recklessness.

The group made this known through a communique issued after the last Breakfast Business Meeting themed: Aviation in Nigeria Beyond 2023 General Elections: Challenges & Prospects.