A body of Nigerian aviation professionals, the Aviation Round Table (ART), have rated the industry’s performance in the last eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari led administration
Aviation Safety Round Table Initiative (ASRTI), a think-tank group, estimated that only six per cent of the agenda has so far been implemented successfully; 42 per cent still in the progress, while 52 per cent others remained unscratched in almost eight years.
The non-governmental organization (NGO) said that most of the Government’s roadmaps for the aviation industry in the last eight years were either stillbirth, unborn or inconclusive.
President of the group, Dr. Gbenga Olowo, in his opening remarks at the ASRTI Business Breakfast Meeting in Lagos, on thursday said it was regrettable to find the “national carrier a stillbirth, MRO as unborn, and airport concessioning inconclusive”.
Olowo added that the government, however, did well in the area of regulatory bodies, with the status upgrade of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and expansion of the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) into National Safety Investigation Board (NSIB).
He, however, said that: “the failure to establish some aviation agency boards as stated in the Civil Aviation Act (CAA) violates Section 29:1 of the Civil Aviation Act, as contained in Section 11:1 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution.
“The New Airport Terminal Building in Lagos, commissioned by the President last year, was said to have had no apron for parking, ditto for the one in Abuja obstructing the control tower.
“The light rail line in Abuja does not connect to the airport terminal building either. Were there no plans before these projects were executed?” he queried.
Olowo reiterated that the ASRTI remains apolitical but deemed it fit to engage the presidential aspirants in knowledge-sharing ahead of the elections. He, however, lamented that only two candidates sent representatives.
Representatives of the presidential aspirant of the Labour Party, Prof. Pat Utomi, said that no serious government would undermine the importance of multimodal transport and its air transport component.
Utomi, a professor of political economy, said that both Dubai and Singapore got developed through the aviation sector, and Nigeria should not continue to be different.
“Politicians have continued to show incapacity to understand the peoples’ need and strategy to deliver them. We need to vote out these characters.
“The aviation industry needs to learn how to cooperate, even if you are competing with one another. We need to build real and not an inelastic market. Also, there is a need for intermodal linkages. The Labour party has a plan to build new cities that are linked. In these cities, there will be air, road and rail linkages. Aviation has to be well positioned to drive that,” he said.
According to him, the Key Performance Indices (KPIs) of the Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika indicated that the planned national carrier, Nigeria Air remained a “stillbirth,” while the National Maintenance and Repair Organization (MRO) was still “unborn,” almost years after the idea was conceived by the minister.
Besides, he lamented that the concession plan some of the airports in the country in the first phase of the exercise remained “inconclusive,” despite the financial resources that went into it.
Recall that the Federal Government had in the last quarter of 2015, planned to concession four major airports in the country- Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, Aminu Kano International Airport (AKIA), Kano and the Port Harcourt International Airport (PHIA), Omegwa.
Olowo, however, said that the establishment of a new Civil Aviation Authority Act was successful, while the former Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) was transformed into the Nigeria Transportation Investigation Board (NTIB) was successful within the period.
