Many Nigerians would be ready to roll up their sleeves for a heated debate or even a fight as to whether the advent of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari in May 2015, meant doing things a different way in aviation sector from what it used to be. This debate would be heated but many have applauded the giant strides that the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika have brought to the sector.

Although the sector is faced with so many challenges but the manner the duo have moved to tackle some of the challenges experts say are commendable. The problem of aviation is systemic and would take 10 years of uninterruption to put it properly in order because of many years of rot that had pervaded the sector by many Ministers of Aviation who came with so much promise but short in delivery.

Many of them left the sector worse than they met it, further compounding the work of their successors. The sector stated on a very slow pace in 2015 with so many crises ranging from humungous airlines’ funds trapped in the country totalling over $600 million. Others challenges were serious issues faced by the airlines, particularly Nigerian airlines to get access to foreign exchange, which was like a camel passing through the eye of a needle, which led to almost near collapse of the carriers.

The most embarrassing of the situation was the withdrawal of foreign airlines from the country. Like a joke, Iberia, whose operations were not too significant in the country was the first to pull out. This was followed in quick succession by United, a United States airline. United reasoned that it had to pull out of the country because of the low traffic on the Houston- Lagos route occasioned by the dip in oil prices, which affected its passengers. Other airlines such as Emirates, which hitherto did two flights to Lagos cut it to one flight daily and cancelled its Abuja operation.

Many other airlines also did same because of their seized funds and low passenger traffic. They also reduced their seat capacity on a route that had sustained them for many decades. The recession was biting harder and life was difficult for many people. All these ate deep into the country’s revenue.

Gradually, the government sat down, pleaded with the airlines to remain and gave assurance to them that things would improve just as the Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo also gave assurance that the government would release their funds to them. Yes, all the airlines may not have returned, but air travel has improved significantly with influx of foreign exchange injected into the system with several of people resuming their normal travels.

One noticeable area of commendation is the release of over five accident reports by the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), something renowned aviation consultant and former Director of Flight Operations for defunct Nigeria Airways, Capt. Dele Ore, said had never happened in the history of aviation.

His words: “I think I want to score them very highly. There has not been too much interference in safety and security. The agencies are allowed to do their jobs. There have not been too many sacks. Those that were asked to go have skeletons in their cupboard, which is very different from the past where people are brought to man sensitive positions without experience. “You can’t talk of success in aviation without giving credit to people at the top. We pray for the President to get well.

These people listen to advice. I criticised the Director-General openly and he changed. AIB reports were released immediately and made us to know what went wrong with the accidents that occurred. Every parastatal are working now and the corrupt people were removed.

Look at airline operators; they are jokers. They don’t want to pay what they owe; funds they had already collected but not remitted. This is criminal. I have to give it to this government. If they are doing badly, you know me, I will shout out.” Ore said in the past, accident reports are allowed to gather dust on the shelf without allowing the public to have an idea of what led to the accident in order to prevent re-occurrence.

Former Assistant Secretary General of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Mohammed Tukur lauded the Buhari administration.

He said, “Two years of this administration, they have done well in terms of infrastructure. “You saw the opposition to the Abuja airport runway and some other policy and how government stood its ground to promote safety.

“They need to train and retrain people and we can see the movement from analogue to digital in NAMA through Aeronautical Information Service (AIS). Government should make sure that people are trained. That is the only thing remaining. People are ageing and need to be replaced.What I go against is recycling. The government has done well for this industry”.

Commissioner, Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), Akin Olateru, an engineer released over five reports same day on March 17, 2017 less than two months after he assumed office. It was unprecedented.

Aviation security consultant and former Commandant, Murtala Muhammed Airport, Group Capt. John Ojikutu (Rtd), said for people outside, they may not know the enormous work done to put things right from the near total collapse the sector was before now.

He said : “The government is making a lot of progress in aviation. Aviation is business of saving lives not business of making money. If you don’t  put money in aviation, you can’t make money. For over 10 years, we refused to do what we were supposed to do”.

“We refused to put money into calibration of navigational aids until they went past their tolerant level. The government has concluded plans to calibrate navigational aids in about 11 airports. It is commendable after that of Abuja and Kaduna were done. Calibration is supposed to be done every six months.”

“That is why they been talking about concession of the airports. We have not been putting attention in safety. The runway in Abuja runway went bad because the airlines were not paying. We did not calibrate our navaids as at December or January.

That is what the government was trying to correct. We need to commend the government to concession the airports but the area of concession should be aeronautical side while they leave the apron, control tower, ILS, etc.

Ojikutu lamented the human capacity development deficiency occasioned by shortage of air traffic controllers and technicians, adding that the situation is likened to putting people’s lives in danger. This is one major area he said the government should pay attention to including provision of perimeter and security fences at the nation’s aerodromes.

Very instructive was the completion of the Abuja airport runway in six weeks. This runway was constructed 30 years ago and had been in poor service condition for more than 20 years. Convinced that the runway needed upgrade and modernisation, the Federal Government gave the order that it be done no matter the cost.

That made users to the facilities to laud the government for doing what they initially thought was impossible to do. First, the realisation that the runway ought to have undergone maintenance work for the past 15 years or more was cheeky enough and showed the careless manner public policy is handled in Nigeria.

The aviation sector in Nigeria may not totally have reached the Promised Land but there is considerable improvement in terms of infrastructure upgrade and far better approach to stabilising a sector that is safety dependent.