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By Chinelo Obogo
The appointment of some heads of aviation agencies few weeks to the end of the former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration came as a surprise to many stakeholders in the industry including the chairman of National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE), Arik Air chapter, Mudi Mohammed.
He told Daily Sun that though he was not in support of making appointments at the tail end of the administration, the appointment of Kabir Mohammed as the helmsman of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) was ideal because of his performance as Regional General Manager at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. He also spoke on the plea by aviation unions to the Federal Government to exempt aviation agencies from paying 40 percent of their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to the government and the Nigeria Air controversy among other issues.
Payment of 40% IGR from aviation agencies
Corruption breaches safety. If you force agencies like the Nigerian Civil Aviation Agency (NCAA) and the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to remit such an amount, they will end up having financial constraints which would also affect the retention of competent manpower and purchasing safety equipment.
When an agency worker who should be a safety officer is not well paid, there is a very high tendency for such a person to cut corners and it will affect the safety of the industry. Many professionals who work for these agencies will leave to get better jobs in private companies and that is how they lose staff. The government should look into it and cut down the percentage of remittance.
Nigeria Air
My view on the national carrier is that it is a failure and the immediate past aviation minister, Hadi Sirika failed in that aspect. He failed the aviation industry and he failed Nigerians. For eight years, he was planning on something he couldn’t achieve until the end of his administration. He was the longest serving minister of aviation in the history of Nigeria and by the end of his administration, he should have realised that he has failed as a minister, what she should have done was to have cancelled the national carrier deal and take responsibility for its failure instead of the show of shame.
Appointment of new agency heads
I was not in support of making appointments at the tail end of the administration and I believe that the minister should have made such changes long ago not at the end of his tenure. However, despite the timing of the appointment which I have pointed out that I had an issue with, some of those appointed are very efficient. An instance is the current Managing Director of FAAN Kabir Mohammed, who was the regional manager and in charge of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport where I work. In my view, that is the best appointment that Sirika ever made throughout his time as minister. While he was there, he really performed well and changed the face of the airport. Everyone who knows that place can attest to the fact that it is better than what it used to be.
In the aspect of crowd control at the airport, he did very well. Before he became the regional manager, the airport was always crowded because of the mosque which used to be very close to the terminal and it was not good for the safety of the airport. So, what he did was to move the mosque far away from where it used to be and by doing so, he was able to ensure crowd control.
At the terminal itself, staff at the airport were made to use one exit, while passengers used the other exit. When you talk of safety, it comes in two ways; security and facilitators. It takes both of them to point to each other. For instance, if someone comes to the airport and wants to fly with prohibited items through the gate, as a staff, I can come in with the person and make eye contact with the security personnel on duty and say, ‘that is the man.’. But what the then regional manager did was to create a separate access door for staff, so that the security personnel won’t have anyone that would make eye contact with him so he can do his job and check the passenger very well.
I happened to be in the committee for the runway as the NAAPE chairman for Arik Air and sometimes we go for inspection where we identify things that need or lighting system that is bad. Two days after the committee went on inspection, I met the current FAAN MD who was on a flight, I greeted him and introduced myself and I raised the issues that came up when we did our inspection and before I could finish, he told me all that transpired and the actions they were taking to rectify them. That shows that he is a leader who listens to complaints from his subordinates. He admitted the issues and didn’t defend it. For the period he was the regional manager, there were lots of positive changes.
I haven’t known him for a long time, we only met one on one for the first time onboard a flight but I know how the airport was before he came and how it now is and it is something everyone can see and verify. It is not hidden. There was remarkable improvement during his tenure and that is why I believe that even though his appointment came late, he is a square peg in a square hole.
