Aviation Minister Must Act Now

Not many are impressed with the performance of Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika. They had bottled up their frustration over the drifting of the aviation sector.

If one were to conduct a survey, it would be doubtful if the Minister would score 20 per cent in a performance-based rating. It took the courage of National secretary of Nigeria Aviation Professionals Association (NAPA), Abdulrasaq Saidu to bring to the fore the seeming apathy of the Minister to the sector.

Saidu noted that the aviation was drifting alleging that the Ministry seemed to have no clue as to how to give policy direction to a sector in dire need of rescue.

Aviation is economic driver for nations, not one that should be treated with levity, since we do not have accurate statistics to show what the country earns from aviation industry.

For Nigeria, it oscillates between N40billion and N50billion annually. Aviation gives the United States $1.5 trillion per year in economic activity – jobs, commerce, leisure. Aviation is key to the America’s economy and is one of the main reasons NASA invests in aeronautics research to support the US to make air transportation globally sustainable.

The sector needs urgent reform, just as the entire agencies need people to reinvigorate them as there seems to be lackadaisical attitude from top management of the agency as large-scale graft still persists in the sector. Sirika is too far from the sector he is presiding over.

His impact has never been felt. He is totally detached from an industry he is expected to give direction to. This has necessitated a call to President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently beam his searchlight on the industry and if possible, reassign Sirika before we are faced with more serious problems.

This reporter feels Sirika should still be given the time to remedy the situation rather than the hasty call for him to be re-assigned.

The NAPA scribe also alleged that there are lots of compromises by Sirika owing to the contract to build the Katsina airport; a project that was reportedly awarded to him by former Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah when he (Sirika) was a member of House of Representatives.

The agencies under the Ministry of Transportation, especially the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) is in a mess over alleged infighting among the directors.

Morale is at its lowest ebb, with the authority losing grip of its statutory function. The NCAA of today is more reactionary rather than be proactive, always engaging in the rebuttal of whatever it is accused of doing rather than laying a template for doing what is right

Wole Shadare