Exposing NCAA’s soft underbelly

WOLE SHADARE writes on the need for the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to reinvent and guarantee efficient safety regulations

Inconsistency

The recent sanction of four nameless airlines by the Nigerian Civil Aviation (NCAA) last week is one of the many inconsistencies of a supposedly watchdog of a critical sector like aviation.
The fact that the aviation regulatory body may have passed some international aviation audits does not in way leave the NCAA without major flaws, and if not nipped in the bud could fester and expose further the underbelly of the agency.
The essence of any sanction is to serve as deterrent to other erring airlines. The world has moved on. Hardly do you hear CAA’s in other climes sanctioning airlines.
All over the world, the CAA works with airlines not to kill them but to help them in overcoming whatever problems they may have.
How many times does the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States make pronouncements that put the entire industry into panic?
How many times has the United Kingdom’s CAA been seen making comments that not only threatens investments but capable of scaring travellers?
Most of the time, decisions are taken under intense panic to paint a picture that the management is actually working.

Headmaster approach

The agency acts like a headmaster against his pupil thinking that the best way to let airlines do the right thing is by acting like a policeman in a third world country.
The NCAA has shown that it is reactionary rather than being proactive.

The agency, most of the time, wait for deafening public outcry before it deems it fit to take action or put its feet down.
Some of the hurried decisions taken by the agency were after the media alerted the nation that the aviation regulatory body was condoning the operations of one aircraft airlines for a very long time, a condition that violates its own regulations.
One of the inconsistencies of the NCAA is that it was in a hurry last year to wield the big stick on FirstNation Airways.
n 2017, the aviation regulatory body slammed N32 million fine on FirstNation Airways for violating the provisions of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (NCARs).
The NCAA also fined one of the airline’s Pilots-In-Command (PIC) N1.5 million for breaching the safety regulations.
Not a few believe that the open sanction of airlines amounts to playing to the gallery and one that does the airlines no good.

Stakeholders’ concern
Stakeholders are worried that the NCAA as presently constituted lacks the verve to engender new ideas in aviation regulation.
Morale is low among workers, training has taken the back seat; not what it used to be under Dr. Harold Demuren, who made it attractive.
Demuren was proactive and on top of his job. He brought sanity to a despondent agency. Most of the time, NCAA gives the impression as if airlines are the only sector set up to regulate.
Why has nobody heard of sanction against the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and others like SAHCOL, NAHCO among others?
There are better ways the aviation regulatory body can really impact on the sector rather than the uncoordinated approach to civil aviation regulations.

Worry over ICAO Annex 12
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Annex 12, which talks about search and rescue, is still a big challenge not only for the agency but the country at large.
How does NCAA, Nigeria respond to a plane crash in the middle of an ocean or in a thick forest like the case of Bellview Airline that crashed in a forest in Lisa on October 22, 2005?
Annex 12 sets forth the provisions applicable to the establishment, maintenance and operation of search and rescue services by contracting states in their territories and over the high seas.
Search and rescue services are organised to respond to persons apparently in distress and in need of help.
Prompted by the need to rapidly locate and rescue survivors of aircraft accidents, a set of internationally agreed standards and recommended practices have been incorporated in ICAO’s Annex 12 – Search and Rescue (SAR).
One of the drawbacks of the agency, according to experts, who spoke toWoleshadarenews, is lack of skilled manpower.

Knowledge deficiency
Policy is one thing but human beings formulate and drive these policies. How adequate in the knowledge of how aviation works are those people who presently drive, implement and interpret the policies on ground? Only skilled or trained people drive policies adequately. Policy formulation for aviation sector growth is important.
Some policies might not be sustainable if NCAA lacks adequate knowledge and skills to drive them. People shouldn’t talk about policies each time the industry fails. It is a fact that the aviation regulatory body lacks adequate skilled manpower either within or outside its fold.

Political decisions

There are indications that most of the decisions of NCAA are politically motivated, a position aviation security expert, Group Captain John Ojikutu (rtd), agreed with.
His agreement stems from the non-disclosure of airlines by NCAA that were said to have violated safety regulations.
His words: “A lot of them are there on political appointment. Why did the director-general of NCAA shy away from naming the airlines involved in serious violations? If the same NCAA could publish the names of FirstNation and Medview Airlines for violating safety, what makes these ones special except NCAA is covering up for these airlines? There is political interference in their jobs.”
“Again, they don’t have skilled manpower in sufficient number. Inspectors are not enough. No adequate survey on operators. It is insufficient number. If you are to audit all the airlines, how many inspectors do you have to do that? Audit is mandatory every year. You need to do inspection on NAMA, FAAN etc. Many of them have no field experience.”

NCAA’s position
Meanwhile, General Manager, Public Communications of NCAA, Mr. Sam Adurogboye, has stoutly defended his agency, saying it was not true that the aviation regulator was not doing its job well.
Adurogboye stated that the achievements of the agency are there for everybody to see culminating in the country scaling the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Category one in 2010 and retained it in 2017.
His words: “The records and statistics are there to show that NCAA is doing well to tackle issues of safety. We attained Aviation category one in 2010. We went through re-certification in 2014 and again in 2017 and retained the rating. We went for ICAO audit within the period we came out shining.
“All these would not have been possible if we are not proactive. At a time countries are losing their category one aviation status, we retained ours. Our enforcement of compliance to safety regulations has been strengthened. More investors have applied for AOC. This is good news for the sector. We have enough inspectors to match the level of operations. We would not have passed the audit if we were deficient, he added.

Last line
Not a few believe that the country’s aviation regulatory agency has not covered itself in glory concerning its weakness and lack of pro-activeness in taking hard decisions.
Where decisions were taken, they come more from reactionary rather nipping a crisis in the bud. The agency needs to re-invent itself for not only service delivery but by living up to its responsibility of civil aviation regulation.

Wole Shadare