Carrier, MRO, airport concessions

international airports, coupled with the new agenda to demolish aviation agencies’ offices in Lagos.

The workers, under the aegis of National Union of Air Transport Employees ( NUATE), Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria ( ATSSSAN) and the Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals ( ANAP), said details of the concession plan have shown it as self- serving and anti- Nigeria.

Aircraft leasing company, MRO, aviation varsity

This week, at the Extra- Ordinary FEC meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, the government ratified the establishment of a leasing company, a vital component of the aviation roadmap, which would allow existing investors and new entrants to lease equipment at affordable rates.

Sirika highlighted the significance of the aviation leasing company, stating, “Today in Council, something very significant happened in the world of civil aviation. Part of our roadmap, the aviation leasing company, has been established and approved by Council.”

An elated Sirika said: “I’m glad to see the full business case has been approved by the FEC. So the roadmap is gradually coming to 100 per cent completion. Therefore, entrepreneurs and civil aviation will have access to lease equipment at affordable rates within our country, Nigeria, and this is part of our roadmap.”

While there is no mention of the Maintenance Repair and Overhaul ( MRO) facility at all, Hadi Sirika last year assured that the Federal Government was committed to setting up a University of Aviation which will commence on September 26, 2022.

He said President Buhari had concluded all the necessary preparations for the establishment of the African Aviation and Aerospace University in Abuja. Sirika said the institution, which would be the first of its kind in Africa, will commence with 20 pioneer students with a BSC in Aviation Business and BSC in Meteorology in view and by 2023, the University would start an MSC in Air Transport Management programme.

“For this year’s ( 2022) academic session, we are going to start BSC Aviation Business and BSC in Meteorology, then each of the courses will start with 20 students for now and by 2023 the University will start MSC in Air Transport Management,” Sirika had said.

Just yesterday, the minister announced that the commencement date of the university has been shifted till September 2023 – four months after the expiration of the President Buhariled administration.

Performance rating: Poor

But the minister has given a verdict of 100 percent delivery of the aviation road map – without the takeoff of the national carrier, airport concession ( despite endorsement of bidders), MRO, airport cities. Fillers from the stakeholders did not agree with his self- appraisal.

The Aviation Safety Round Table Initiative ( ASRTI), in a recent poll, scored the President Muhammadu Buhari- led administration’s performance in the air transport sector only six per cent success rate in over seven years.

The rating was benchmarked on key performance indices like the aviation roadmap, critical issues identified by the stakeholders and recommendations made to the government since assumption of office.

ASRTI, a think- tank group, estimated that only six per cent of the agenda has so far been implemented successfully; 42 per cent still in the progress, while 52 per cent others remained unscratched in almost eight years.

Aviation Security Consultant, Group Capt. John Ojikutu ( rtd) noted that there are about 12 items in the minister’s Roadmap, “but none of them seems to be up to 20 per cent in completion”.

Ojikutu noted that the 16 million yearly traffic would not even qualify as an achievement. “The Vision 2020 projected 20 million passengers traffic by year 2020 but unfortunately, in 2019, the passenger traffic was 16 million, and COVID- 19 could not be an excuse for not attaining 20 million in 2020.

“We are in 2023, two years after COVID- 19 had been declared ended in Nigeria, and we are still in the pre- COVID figures. The airfare is higher than pre- COVID. About 70 per cent of the air travelling passengers are government and corporate officials whose airfares are paid by their employers.

“The question now is, are the employers financially buoyant today to be able to be paying for the airfares of their officials to increase or sustain the passenger traffic figures? Only time can tell,” Ojikutu said.

Aircraft engineer, Andrew Sunday, is one of those disappointed with the state of the industry. Sunday said though the minister enjoyed good support from stakeholders, “attempts to implement unpopular and outdated ideas were his undoing”. He said: “I’m surprised that he awarded himself a 100 per cent score for the Roadmap. Sadly, he came in as an insider and professional, but clearly missed the runway and crash- landed on his promises to the industry at large. It’s so painful for some of us who love him so much, to witness these episodes of unfulfilled promises. He should score three over 10, because on the overall, aviation is worse off than he met it,” Sunday said.

Where are the governing boards of agencies?

Indeed, one of the issues that agitated aviation workers the most is the conspicuous absence of statutory governing boards of directors for five aviation agencies. President Buhari had six years ago, approved replacements for the former boards but the new ones were not inaugurated, allegedly in preference for “a one- man” leadership at the helm.

The responsibilities of the board include fixing the terms and conditions of service for employees, reviewing yearly reports of the management for submission to the President, presenting yearly budget estimates of the agency to the minister, record- keeping, and auditing the agency among others.

Former scribe of the National Union of Air Transport Employees ( NUATE), Olayinka Abioye, said besides the Roadmap “being a colossal disaster as the items became distorted with variations, wasteful, and avoidable controversies”, the tenure also treated workers with disdain.

Abioye noted that workers are the lubricant of the industry, and despite their grievances over the years, they remained steadfastly devoted to the provision of seamless services.

“As the maxim says, a disgruntled worker is an accident waiting to happen. It is disheartening that under the watch of the minister, workers service conditions nosedived arising from the failure of the Executive and the Ministry to secure for these workers the only ingredient that could add value to their lives and working conditions. This non- provision and approval of functional service conditions worsened following the arbitrary and unwholesome refusal, failure and reluctance of the supervising Minister of Aviation to inaugurate Federal Government approved Governing Boards for aviation agencies.

“The establishment Acts of these agencies provides for the existence of these Boards, who see to the day- to- day running of the agencies. And without the existence of these Boards, the Minister becomes the alpha and omega, de factoand de jurecontroller of the agencies and that’s where we have found ourselves in these past eight years, where probity, accountability, and transparency had taken the back seat.

“It is very frustrating for CEOS to be running helter skelter all over the ministry waiting to secure one approval or the other from the minister for days. I have witnessed occasions where the minister became the spokesman for the CEOS at several fora whereas the CEOS were present. Very humiliating, to say the least!” he said.

President of the group, Dr. Gbenga Olowo, said it was regrettable to find the “national carrier a stillbirth, MRO as unborn, and airport concessioning inconclusive”.

Olowo added that the government, however, did well in the area of regulatory bodies, with the status upgrade of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority ( NCAA) and expansion of the Accident Investigation Bureau ( AIB) into National Safety Investigation Board ( NSIB).

He, however, said that: “the failure to establish some aviation agency boards as stated in the Civil Aviation Act ( CAA) violates Section 29: 1 of the Civil Aviation Act, as contained in Section 11: 1 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution.

“The New Airport Terminal Building in Lagos, commissioned by the President last year, was said to have had no apron for parking, ditto for the one in Abuja obstructing the control tower. The light rail line in Abuja does not connect to the airport terminal building either. Were there no plans before these projects were executed?

“We expected the government to have done at least 60 per cent and leave the rest to politics. To us at ASRTI, following our indices, we scored the administration below par. We didn’t see the national carrier. We started acquiring non- profitable airports from state governments, and some governments still want to develop their own. And we said no. How about the existing ones that are unprofitable?

“The Murtala Muhammed Airport ( MMA), Lagos that is supposed to be our number one airport has been neglected. The one added by the Chinese, recently, some foreign airlines rejected it. How can we deliver a facility that operators don’t want? So, who is delivering facilities for who? No airline growth, no airport growth because I didn’t see a hub developed,” Olowo said.

Caveat emptor!

The president added that it behooves the incoming administration to critically review the aviation roadmap and make amends with the foreign airlines, to return air transport to the path of growth.

Aviation analyst, Olumide Ohunayo, said the current administration has demystified the age- long agitation for having aviation professionals at the helm of its affairs.

“Now we have realised the need for a change; to bring people from outside the industry but people with good flair for economics and commerce. What is actually lacking in our industry is that ability to attract FDIS and the need to push for the commercialisation of the industry and its agencies,” he said. Ohunayo explained that with aviation agencies struggling with inefficiencies, each minister that comes on board has been loading those agencies with all manner of irrelevant staff.

“The staff structure is killing professionalism; we must address it. Again, we must get to the point of ICAO’S statute that says that revenue generated in aviation must be reinvested to develop infrastructure and delivery of quality services. We need sincerity of purpose. That much we lacked and you can see why all the concessions are failing.

“For me, we should return to those days when we had the Minister of States for Aviation, under transport, for accountability purposes and avoidance of dictatorial tendencies. I only pity the next minister of aviation because there are so many landmines that have been put in place for him or her failure. And all of them are coming from the Roadmap that is enmeshed in all manner of controversy just because the handlers put their private interest before national benefits,” Ohunayo said.

The establishment Acts of these agencies provides for the existence of these Boards, who see to the day- today running of the agencies in consonance with the Act establishing them. And without the existence of these Boards, the Minister becomes the alpha and omega, de facto and de jure controller of the agencies and that’s where we have found ourselves in these past eight years, where probity, accountability, and transparency had taken the back seat.