Follow Us on Google
Chinelo Obogo
Despite a February 28, 2018, directive given to all ministers by President Muhammadu Buhari, to inaugurate the boards of various parastatals under their supervision, Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika, is yet to comply with the order.
President Buhari had issued the directive through a circular signed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, for ministers to proceed with the inauguration of the boards on or before Friday, March 9, 2018.
The directive came after President Buhari appointed 209 board chairmen and 1,258 board members in December 2017, the largest set of appointments he made since assuming office at the end of May 2015.
But Mustapha said his office had already streamlined the constitution of the boards in accordance with the statutes and sent the list of the chairmen and board members to the various ministers.
Investigations reveal that more than 20 months after, Sirika has yet to inaugurate the boards of five out of the six agencies under his supervision.
According to the Act setting them up, the agencies whose boards ought to have been inaugurated are the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET). The Act setting up the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) does not provide for a board of directors.
One of the reasons sources within the aviation ministry cited for the delayed inauguration of the boards was that the minister raised an objection that the Federal Government did not consider the qualification of the persons to be appointed into the boards, while announcing their compositions as required by the Acts establishing the agencies.
But some stakeholders in the industry said the minister ought to have officially met with the appropriate authorities to address the perceived challenge in the composition to avoid giving the impression that he wants to run the agencies as a sole administrator.”
The the non-inauguration of the boards would have grave consequences on the agencies as the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) have a limit of what they can spend without recourse to the board of directors.
The immediate past General Secretary of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Olayinka Abioye, said that the non-inauguration of the boards indicates that all is not well within the aviation sector. He said the minister may have delayed their inauguration in order to continue to have influence on the agencies.
“The implication is that the minister wants to still control the happenings in the parastatals. You are aware that by the Acts establishing these agencies, they are supposed to report to a board and in the absence of a board, the minister takes charge. So, if the minister has the audacity to set aside the directive of Mr. President, it goes to show that something is definitely wrong with our system,” Abioye said.
