Experts in the aviation sector have told the Federal Government that to ensure safety and security of Nigeria’s airports and the airlines, the government must not interfere in the day-to-day decision of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
Speaking at the Aviation Safety Round Table Initiative (ASRTI) last week, Harold Demoren, former director-general, NCAA, said according to the standard of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), which Nigeria is privy to, NCAA was supposed to be an autonomous regulator that would guarantee safety without political interference.
Demoren said the NCAA must be independent because every decision taken by the regulator had major effects in the industry, and therefore, there should be no room for compromise.
He hinged the failures of the airlines and the airports to poor safety and financial regulations on the airlines, which had today led to their takeover and the temporary closure of the Abuja International Airport.
He recalled that when he was the director-general of NCAA, the minister tried to influence him into taking certain decisions that might be detrimental to safety, but he stood his ground and refused to be influenced by anyone’s decision.
Anastasia Gbem, director, legal services, Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, (NAMA), said according to the law, NCAA had regulatory autonomy not only to make regulation but also not to summit decision on safety and security to anyone for approval.
Gbem also emphasised that NCAA’s responsibility was also to ensure that relevant stakeholders such as airport operators, NAMA, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) implemented the components of their activities.
“ICAO does not bother itself with political appointees but with the executive head and the operatives like the inspectors and instructors. That does not mean the appointments have met the statutory requirements of the Civil Aviation Act 2006.
“The director-general and members of NCAA are expected to have certain professional qualifications with cognate experience of minimum of 10 years. That is our law for the director-general, the directors and board members and not ICAO,” John Ojikutu, a security expert and the former commandant of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), said at the event.
Ojikutu explained that the current director for Air Worthiness at NCAA was not fit for the position. “Does he have the current licence to make him qualify for his new appointment? Has he been a quality control officer in any aircraft maintenance outfit he had worked?
“You have a fellow who probably worked on an aircraft last over 10 years ago and had been a political party adherent; you can get him to do a serious safety job at NCAA. Why government wants to kill the career and moral of those in the labour line of the civil aviation agencies beats my imagination,” he said.
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