There is uneasy calm in the aviation industry over the proposed full implementation of Steve Oransaye’s report on restructuring and rationalisation of government agencies and parastatals.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Monday ordered the full implementation of the report within the next three months.
The report had dragged on for over a decade since it was commissioned by former President Goodluck Jonathan.
In 2022, former President Muhammadu Buhari set up a white paper committee to review the report.
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In the report, the committee recommended the merger of three aviation agencies; the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET) into a new body to be known as the Federal Civil Aviation Authority (FCAA) while amending their respective enabling laws to reflect the merger.
The committee also recommended that the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) be privatised.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Monday approved the immediate adoption of the report.
If the implementation of the report is anything to go by, it means the regulatory authority would be merged with other agencies which stakeholders said would not be feasible especially given the country’s membership of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
ICAO Standard and Recommended Practices, they said, forbid merger of the regulator with the service providers, especially the airspace navigation service providers represented by NAMA.
General Secretary of the Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals (ANAP), Rasaq Saidu, said the implementation would cause confusion in the industry.
“That is confusion. It is not possible. There is division of labour and responsibility in line with ICAO standard and recommended practices.
“They have tried it before and it failed. Why are people deceiving Tinubu? It is not aviation that they should come to. It is not feasible in aviation,” he said.
General Secretary, National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Employees (NAAPE), Comrade Olayinka Abioye, said the matter is speculative.
“All we are doing is unnecessary speculation until the aviation minister informs his agencies we may continue to speculate. But by next week hopefully the unions will come out to speak directly on the matter,” he said.
Former Rector of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Capt. Samuel Caulcrick, stated that NAMA, NCAA and Nimet merger “will degrade efficiency and safety.”
“It’s almost Herculean to switch mindsets from regulatory to operations, in an instance, particularly at the managerial level.
“If you merge a regulatory body with an operation, it will cause a crisis. One is operation, the other is to show compliance. So, it is going to be tough,” he said.
Aviation analyst, Group Capt. John Ojikutu, rtd, said, “Before we put ourselves into unprecedented confusion with the planned merger, we should do away with the thinking in the consultant’s proposal that there is a precedent for a merger between airport service providers and airspace service providers in some countries.”
He stated that what should be merged instead is the Ministry of Aviation with the transportation ministry so that all modes of transportation can be under one ministry while advocating for autonomy for the agencies.
Aviation management consultant, Babatunde Adeniji, said, “I don’t agree with the NCAA, NAMA and NIMET merger but agree FAAN should be privatised. The NCAA should be the apex regulatory body. NCAT should be privatised, with enough funding without results. Clearly there should be tweaking as well as proper implementation that addresses abnormality and does not punish staff.”
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