THERE is no doubt that there is a new sheriff in the country’s aviation sector in the person of the legal icon, Festus Keyamo, who has, to some extent, hit the ground running.
The minister has not failed to let all actors within and out of the sector know that he is the one in charge as witnessed in the continuous marching orders he is regularly churning to the top management staff across the agencies on the need to reawaken their capacities.
He is constantly reminding the workers, particularly those in the top echelon of the agencies to buckle up and play their roles as the only condition through which their jobs can be secured.
Again, the proactive nature of the minister may have been a fallout of the retreat held by President Bola Tinubu, where he directly cautioned that any minister who fails to meet up with the performance bond of his government would not stand the chance of remaining in his position.
Therefore, let no one blame Minister Keyamo, who as a young man and by virtue of his professional background, will not allow any CEO to embarrass him on the platter of incompetency.
In order not to be caught up in the web of abysmal performance and the consequences awaiting whoever is at the center, the minister, at any available forum, continues to play up the warning bell, ‘before you mess me up, I will mess you up’.
The before you mess me up, I will mess you up slang, which has become a mantra amongst stakeholders in the sector, was again reemphasised by the minister during the induction ceremony of the chief executives of the agencies and the directors in Abuja, where the minister advised any of the CEOs or directors who may have the agenda of perpetrating corruption to resign at once.
Prior to the development that unfolded at the induction ceremony, at a stakeholders’ forum earlier held in Lagos, the minister had openly told all the former CEOs in attendance that before he got sacked he was ready to first sack anyone not ready to join in driving his six-point agenda for the transformation policy of the Tinubu-led government.
Without doubt, obviously, all the CEOs at the agencies are sitting on very hot seats following the high benchmarking of performances wrapped round their neck, even in the midst of the hydra headed inherited challenges hanging on the sector like the sword of Damocles.
While by now, the CEOs and their management team must have realised that it is not going to be business as usual for them under the minister who has the power to invoke the principle of ‘before you mess me up, I will mess you’, there is, however, the need for the minister to also consider that there are other critical factors required to help realise his agenda for the sector.
There is no way the minister can totally drive home his agenda with the contributions of the CEOs alone if he fails to consider the roles of other critical actors within the sector.
No matter who the minister appoints into different agencies, not having critical organs like the board of directors for the agencies may hinder the six-point agenda of the minister from going far.
As the minister needs the CEOs and their managements to succeed, he needs the constituted boards to complement his efforts, as it has been confirmed at different fora the necessity of the boards towards the enhancement of transparency and good corporate governance.
It is a known fact that the objectives of having board of directors include serving as custodians and checks and balances that would strengthen the critical role of corporate governance in any establishment including aviation agencies which was totally neglected in the last eight years, thus dwindling the development of the sector.
It is at this juncture that the Crucial Moment is calling on the minister to pursue rigorously the issue of having the boards without much delay, for the purpose of bringing sanity back to the system.
Certainly, the absence of the boards for eight years running contributed immensely to the crisis that befell the sector in view of the lacuna it created.
Therefore, while the idea of putting the CEOs on their toes is not out of place, the minister should earnestly accept the fact that he also needs the expertise of the boards which will surely guard and guide him in his resolve to achieve his agenda for the sector. All hands are on the deck to see how he intends to bring back the boards.
and then