FG at crossroads over former NCAA DG’s removal, may hamper Najomo’s confirmation

The Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development may have found itself at a crossroads on how to solve the Director-Generalship of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) just as time as time is fast approaching for either the confirmation of the current Acting Director of the agency, Capt. Chris Najomo.

The law stipulates that Najomo can only act for six months before he is confirmed or asked to give way for another and he has about two months before he clocks six months in acting capacity.

The only obstacle on his way before he can be confirmed is the immediate past DG, Captain Musa Nuhu who was removed in December by the Federal Government for a position especially that of Directors-General of NCAA and Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) that are tenured and can only be removed from office by a recommendation of the National Assembly or by President if they are found to have committed financial impropriety or dereliction of duty.

Capt Nuhu was suspended from office replacing him with Capt. Najomo. The reason according to Presidential spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale was to enable the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to conduct an unfettered investigation into the activities of the suspended Director-General and other senior officials in the NCAA.

Nuhu had pleaded his innocence as the anti-graft agency is yet to prove its case against the former DG.

A source very close to intrigues about the conundrum in the headship of NCAA confided in Aviation Metric that many influential persons had made overtures to the former DG to lay the matter to rest.

The source disclosed that doing so may pave the way for the confirmation of Najomo as the substantive NCAA Director-General, who is an obvious choice of the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr. Festus Keyamo for the top job.

Checks by our correspondent show that President Tinubu disregarded the civil aviation law in removing the director general.

Section 11 of the law which talks about the appointment and removal of the director general said, “There shall be for the Authority a Director-General Civil Aviation Appointment (in this Act referred to as “the Director-General”) who shall be appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Minister, subject to confirmation by the Senate.

The law also clearly states that “The Director-General may be removed from office by the President subject to confirmation by the Senate, where he becomes of unsound mind or is incapable of carrying out his duties as a result of physical or mental illness or has demonstrated inability to effectively perform the duties of his office;  has been absent from five consecutive meetings of the Board without the consent of the Chairman unless he shows good reason for such absence or in the case of a person possessed of professional qualifications, is disqualified or suspended from practising his profession in any part of the world by an order of a competent authority;”

As such, the Civil Aviation Act clearly states the procedures for the appointment and removal of the director general which is subject to Senate approval.

Meanwhile, there are strong indications that the aggrieved sacked directors who approached the court demanding that they were illegally removed from office can heave a sigh of relief as one agency (name withheld) could pay them off.

One of the aggrieved directors who pleaded confidentiality told our correspond that the agency had reached out to them to resolve the matter amicably by paying them what would have accrued to them for the period they would have remained in office.

According to him, “The managing director has reached out to us and we are grateful that he has done that. They are looking at paying us what would have accrued to us for the period we would have remained in office”.

Some of the sacked direction had last week Friday dragged the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development to court to seek redress.

Some of the affected directors who spoke to our correspondent said they decided to go to court not because they were interested in fighting the government but to seek redress for the injustice done to them as they asked the court to intervene in the matter by reinstating or paid them what would have accrued to them for the period they would have remained in office.

Recall that Keyamo had in December 2023 caused a gale of removal from office of all the Chief Executive Officers and the directors of all the aviation agencies in one sweeping announcement.

Wole Shadare