Professionals set agenda for new aviation minister

The Nigeria Aviation Professionals Association (NAPA) has advised the incoming minister of aviation to ensure review of the law establishing all agencies in the sector to boost productivity.

Speaking in an interview in Lagos, the general secretary of the association, Abdulrasaq Saidu, said some of the parastatals have more than 50 general managers and bloated work force which is giving way for redundancy. He blamed politicians for the situation.

According to Saidu, the ills in the aviation industry can only be corrected by reversing the Act establishing some agencies which gives room for only four parastatals as against eight and above as obtained currently in some agencies.

While emphasising the need to stick to approved conditions of employment, Saidu advised that government should avoid bloated workforce, maintaining that the ugly trend began in the early 2000.
He noted that services of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) have diminished, and that none of the country’s airports has been certified. He urged the minster to, as a matter of urgency, address the issue of inefficiency to save the aviation industry.

Saidu asked the incoming minister of aviation to look into the infrastructure at the airports to ensure that those structures not in line with ICAO standards are jettisoned in order not to lose the category one status of the country.

The NAPA secretary called for immediate payment of accumulated debts by airlines and other concessionaires to enable agencies meet their responsibilities. Saidu decried the level of lawlessness in the system, claiming that withholding of money collected by a concessionaire was criminal.

His words: “Aviation can never be stable without asking where Nigeria Airways is. It is the edifice of the nation, Nigeria Airways did not owe what they claimed the airline owed. They must publish how much the properties of the airline were sold and those that bought them, if the change must start in aviation.”