DEAR Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, this is to directly intimate you with happenings across the country’s aviation sector which coincidentally is your area of jurisdiction as the minister in charge.
Obviously, it is not negotiable that in view of your background as a trained pilot and an intelligent one for that matter, you are absolutely on top of the situations vis a viz all policies regarding the sector including their implementations.
Therefore in all sincerity, your appointment as the overall manager of the sector did not come as a surprise, particularly as a pilot.
The sector has had many ministers who came and played their roles as witnessed in the different achievements recorded during their tenures and they will surely be remembered for their roles.
Since your appointment, you have also not lagged behind as you continue to struggle to transform the sector through the various steps you have taken and are still taking.
Without a doubt, the aviation sector happens to be one of, if not the most sensitive sectors to manage in view of its highly regulatory nature based on international standards and recommended practices.
In the areas of safety and critical elements, Nigeria has continued to enjoy the role of a pacesetter and leader in the West African region as equally seen in the excellent outcome during the various international audits so far conducted on the country’s civil aviation regulations, among others.
Nigeria is actually not doing badly even in the face of global challenges like the Covid-19 pandemic as witnessed in the gradual recovery of activities in the sector.
Despite the positive sides, the sector no doubt would have fared better if not for some unpopular policies of the previous and present governments which rather than reposition it, have continued to be its bane.
Focusing on the present government, many of the ideas so far mooted, as good as they would have been, have ended up complicating issues in the sector for so many reasons.
Among such controversial policies of this government that have put the sector in uncertainty include: the back and forth policy of the floating of another national carrier after the demise of Nigeria Airways which the government at inception promised to provide. Six years after the promise, coupled with the financial commitments and other efforts so far made, the project is still hanging, the plans to concession four international airports across the country is another kettle of fish.
While the government has insisted that there will be no going back with the concession plans, there are many obstacles standing in the way of making the dream a reality.
Such obstacles as being rolled out by the unions include: over 60 pending litigations traced to catalogue of faulty concession agreements, a huge debt of N140 billion, apart from another N15 billion being the debts FAAN owed contractors and the yet to be repaid $1 billion Chinese loan for the construction of new terminals at the airports.
This is aside from the over N2.5 billion monthly salaries for the FAAN’s over 800 workers which has not been resolved even as the government continues to push for the project. Based on these uncertainties, the unions have warned the would-be bidders for the concessionaires to seek clarity before dabbling into what may set them against the unions.
Also worthy of mention is the latest announcement that the government would be partnering with the Magnus Aircraft Manufacturing industry in Hungary to establish an assembling plant and begin to manufacture aircraft in Nigeria from start to finish before the end of the current administration.
All these are good ideas but the question is: are they feasible with the little time remaining for this government to exit when there are other pressing myriads of challenges confronting the sector, such as infrastructural deficit like lack of perimeter fences around many airports, expensive and unavailability of jet A1, lack of forex for airlines and many others calling for urgent action.
There is no point in putting hands in too many projects which may end up further complicating issues already affecting the sector in view of previous bad policies. Rather than start new projects, the minister should concentrate on what he can finish perfectly and complete the existing ones that fall under the critical needs of the sector.
The present government though still has over one year to stay in office, but as usual, it is a fact that nothing concrete can be achieved within the remaining time as the electioneering will soon start and, once that begins, there will be no room to execute fresh gigantic projects like manufacturing of aircraft, floating of a new national carrier and airports concession. These are the projects that require due diligence that will stand the test of time rather than commence and abandon them midway.
All these big projects apart from being capital intensive, but are enmeshed in controversies, they should, therefore, be left for another government who may have the interest to pursue them unless it has a different agenda.
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