NIGERIA MASTERWEB DAILY NEWS

*Nigeria's Civil Aviation--Journey To Transformation or Retrogression?

By Lateef Lawal

The new Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Adaeze Oduah since assumption of office about five months ago is used to talking tough on her vision for the industry and other sundry issues that ordinarily should have been left for Chief Executives of Agencies under her Ministry to address.

One of such major pronouncements was the remodeling programme of 11 airports in the country.

She emphatically stated in July this year that in three months, that is, by October 2011, at least the remodeling of the four major international airports of Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt would have been completed. Good talk! ( Continues below..... )

Photo Above: Nigeria Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Adaeze Oduah

October has come and gone, no physically visible re-modelling of any of the airports listed in the first phase of her projected re-modelling can be seen on ground.

One incontrovertible fact is that before the appointment of the Minister, the Management of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria(FAAN) has had the plan of carrying out total infrastructural overhauling of old terminals across the country in gradual phases, starting with the major international airports aforementioned.

Next, was the Committee set up also in July, 2011 to look into the problems of high cost of operations by Nigerian registered airlines, especially the cost of Jet-A1 which members of the Airline Operators of Nigeria(AON) complained, was on the high side selling as high as between N180 and over N200 per liter depending on the location from where an operator lift the fuel.

The Minister gave the Committee 30 days within which to complete its job and churn in its report and recommendations to soot the operational 'sores' of the airlines. ( Continues below….. )

Thirty-day has rolled on to over 90 days, there is yet to be submitted any report nor recommendations to address the airlines' complaints.

The most the public heard of the issue was from the Technical Adviser to the Minister, Mr Victor Oche was that the Committee would soon submit the report(when asked about the report three weeks ago by journalists. How soon after sixty clear days from the initial 30 days directed by the Minister?

Effective administration is not run this way, if at all the Transformation Agenda of the President Jonathan's administration is to be felt in the Aviation Sector.

Before setting one month deadline within which the Committee was to sbmit its report, the Minister ought to have weighed the enormity of the job given to the committee.A leader's pronouncement on issue affecting all of human endeavours must always be his/her unshakeable bond with the people and the environment within which such leader operates.

Taking a second look at the Minister's recent strides and pronouncements, I want to believe that, fresh from being in the saddle, the Minister was unaware of the enormity of what she was into or She must have been deceived by some so-called experts within and outside the Ministry of Aviation in taking some actions not well thought out.

If the re-modelling as earlier pronounced by her had been achieved within the set three months she told the public, it should have been a great feat no other Minister before her had achieved! You talk of MIDAS touch?

Much as one appreciates the good intension of the Minister to put things right, She must be very cautious in making specific pronouncement which from all intent and purposes can not be achieved within the set time frame.

Her recent public outburst on the planned review of concession and lease agreements entered into by aviation agencies, especially the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria(FAAN) before her coming into the saddle is understandable.She deserve commendation on this.

This is because there had been calls from several quarters for such an exercise in view of the apparent lopsidedness observed in some of the agreements but previous Ministers foot-dragged on taking necessary steps to rectify tha anomalies.

However, shock again was the word, when I read an advertorial placed by the Ministry of Aviation in the Nation newspaper of October,17, 2011 tagged "Invitation To Tender".

To quote the introduction of the tender: "In furtherance of the Federal Government commitment towards improvement of the Aviation Industry, the Federal Ministry of Aviation is embarking on improvement infrastructure at some of the Fedral Government owned Airstrips Nationwide".

I was surprised and pissed-off with the word "Airstripes". I had thought it was "Airports". Should improvement of airstrips be the priority of a government that prides and touts its transformation agenda. Airstripes across the country are known to be veritable points from where all sorts of atrocities are comitted in the smuggling of arms and ammunitions illegally into the country by politicians and people that are well connected. Of what urgent economic relevance is an airstrip to the industry and the contry at large today? ( Continues below..... )

Photo Above: A Dana plane

The advertorial was specifically calling for the invitation to tender for the -Fencing of Potiskum Airstrip-. Again the question that arises from this tender is-What is the economic relevance of Potiskum Airstrip placed side-by-side with the myriad of problems facing the industry? Must the fencing of this particular airstrip be the focus of an aviation minister that is barely five months in office.

The problems of incursion by unauthorised human andanimals onto the sterile areas of all the four major airports of Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt have not beenfully addressed not to talk of other commercially operational airports of Kaduna, Sokoto, Enugu, Maiduguri, Calabar and Jos and several others.

I should reiterate here again that airstrips that dotted the country's landscape are first anf foremost routee used by the super-rich for their convenience and in most cases to smuggle into the country, illegal items. There is more or less no security presence at almost all the airstrips that are even more than the number of funtional airports we have in the country.The must be very cautious of her action and inactions. Aviation industry is much more sensitive than other sectors of the economy.

Lateef Lawal (NigerianAviationNews)

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