7 years after, aviation agencies yet to get boards

There is uncertainty in the aviation industry over the composition of governing boards of the parastatal agencies under the aviation ministry, Daily Trust can report. 

More than seven years now, the agencies have functioned without statutory boards as provided for in the Acts establishing them. 

• Dataphyte: Why NNPC may not succeed as a private business entity
• NPA flags off Ikorodu export processing terminal

However, a Ministry of Aviation source told our correspondent that things might change with the recent passage of the new Civil Aviation Acts by the National Assembly, adding that the much awaited boards might be constituted. 

But stakeholders said with the Acts still awaiting presidential assent, the composition of the board might not happen in the life of the present administration. 

The aviation agencies include the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA); which is the apex regulatory authority, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) and the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET). Only the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) does not have a board.  

The four others are expected to operate with the full complement of Boards of Directors as stipulated in the Acts establishing them.  

For instance, the NCAA Act stipulates the appointment of professionals as chairman and members of the board, as well as representatives from three ministries. 

Part three of the NCAA Act said, “The Authority shall have a governing board (in this Act referred to as “the Board”) which shall consist of: (a) Chairman; (b)one representative not below the rank of a director of the following ministries: (i) the Federal Ministry of Aviation or the ministry for the time being responsible for aviation; (ii) the Federal Ministry of Defence or the ministry for the time being responsible for defence; and (iii) the Federal Ministry of Communications or the ministry for the time being responsible for communications.” 

The Acts of other 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. 

An official in one of the agencies, who spoke with our correspondent on the condition of anonymity, said the running of the agencies lies essentially with the boards. “The minister as it were has a limit of approval especially for a contract which is less than N1m for instance but boards can approve any contract without necessarily going to the Federal Executive Council. 

“The approval of promotion and employment of staff are the exclusive functions of the board but in the absence of the board in any of the agencies, the chief executive takes charge and is answerable only to the ministry. Also, the autonomy of civil aviation is under question because of interference from the ministry,” the official said. 

For the past seven years, the agencies have operated without boards thereby hampering their efficiencies and effectiveness, according to stakeholders. 

Daily Trust reports that the boards were constituted in the first tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari but their inauguration was stalled because as was revealed at that time, the composition of the boards was not in line with the Acts establishing the agencies. 

None of the boards was inaugurated and it was not clear what later happened with the members of the boards even as other agencies and parastatals in other sectors were being reconstituted. 

In the aviation industry, the wait appears endless, according to stakeholders after shouting to high heavens with several petitions to the presidency highlighting why it is important to constitute boards of the agencies. 

Aviation industry think-tank group, the Aviation Roundtable (ART), had also made a case for the composition of the board. 

President of the ART, Elder Gbenga Olowo, had 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.” 

A former director in one of the aviation agencies who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the board of any of the agencies is the only approving authority in the agency with an approving limit of N200m. 

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

Speaking with Daily Trust, 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 raging problem of absence of condition of service for aviation workers was due to the absence of boards which have the power to intervene on issues of staff welfare. 

He said the unions have lost hope in the readiness of the present administration to comply with the law by emplacing boards of the agencies. 

 “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 in one man’s head. I wouldn’t 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. 

He added that the unions would have no reason to go to the Ministry of Aviation or Ministry of Labour for issues of staff welfare if the boards were in place. 

“That is what exposes these organisations to all these unnecessary bickerings and union actions. We have made these points to the highest heavens…,” he said. 

Also speaking, Comrade Rasaq Saidu, the General Secretary, Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals (ANAP) blamed the non-composition of the boards of agencies on “selfish interest.” 

“The agencies are structured in a way that they must have governing boards. We protested to the National Assembly that there was no board in the agencies. The ministry has no business with the salaries and negotiations of staff welfare if there is a board in place. 

“Up till now, they have not been approving all the conditions of service of the parastatals. It is not their duty. 

“The absence of governing boards in the aviation industry has affected the industry and the National Assembly is there, saying they have oversight; they are not doing it diligently. Can they tell us they didn’t know there was no board? 

“This is affecting us because there is a lot of confusion. They asked agencies to relocate to Abuja whereas three quarters of aviation business is in Lagos,” he said. 

However, a source in the ministry who spoke with our correspondent on the condition of anonymity said, “The minister is also committed to the composition of the board. You would recall that an attempt was made but it is not the fault of the minister that the board was not inaugurated. But I can tell you that things would change as soon as the newly passed Civil Aviation Acts are assented to.” 

Also, Dr James Odaudu, Special Assistant on Public Affairs to the Aviation Minister, in a chat with Daily Trust, said the ministry would take appropriate action as soon as the new laws establishing the agency are assented to by the president.  

“You know that the laws establishing the agencies have just been repealed and passed by the National Assembly, awaiting the president’s assent. I think the moment the presidential assent is given, the necessary things would be done in accordance with the laws,” he said.