Aeropolitics: Scrap aviation ministry, give CAA a chance, Olowo tells FG
Nigeria’s aviation industry has a huge potential for growth, leveraging on the market size, but there is no stable political will to drive its growth, a pundit in the industry, Dr. Gbenga Olowo, has observed.
Speaking at the 23rd Conference of the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) held in Lagos recently, Olowo, said the office of the Minister for Aviation is a political office, and those who occupy the office do not understand the workings of aeropolitics that is being played in the international community through the instrumentality of Bilateral Air Service Agreements.
He, therefore, called on the Federal Government to consider scrapping or reducing the undue powers of the minister for aviation because of the instability of his office and poor understanding of aeropolitics, a situation that has put the nation’s indigenous carriers at a disadvantage against their foreign counterparts.
Olowo urged the government to give the Civil Aviation Authority ample powers and will to, not just to regulate the industry, push forth in support of the local airlines in addressing the erroneously permissive lapses and antagonism they experience whenever they make efforts to reciprocate flight services to other countries.
According to him, the CAA should be allowed to play the same role being played by the United States of America’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which is a department under the ministry of transports.
He said, “The ministry of aviation and the CAA must be able to influence a lot of things with our carriers. When our carriers approach them, they must not see them as a disruption. They must see their table as a fulfillment to what the stakeholders are asking for.
For instance, if we give birth to a national carrier tomorrow, and the ministry or the CAA do not follow the objective to the later, and they just say you are designated to China or to London without influencing the way things happen at the other end with government influence, that airline won’t survive.”
Olowo made reference to slots which Nigeria Airways lost in the United Kingdom after it was liquidated, and how Arik Air couldn’t reclaim the slots in consonance with the terms enshrined in the BASA between Nigeria and the UK and was eventually frustrated out of the route.
“Arik as a carrier is a player coming to compete with their own carrier, so there will be unseen resistance, despite what you call anti-competitive rule. But the influence of our government is vital, number one, politics involve power also, it involves authority.
What is power? When ADC was grounded in London our former President Abacha grounded British Airways here, that is power and authority. So, basically, politics is politics and the elements of politics must be adopted in business.
We shouldn’t just put our own son on the stage and back out. And then begin to say our son is weak or bad. If he is weak and bad, we have a duty to make sure that he is strong. And all the elements of that weakness, Nigerian airlines that are there have been talking about them, they are numerous,” he said.
Olowo emphasized on the need for policy objectivity and consistency for the aviation industry to thrive.
This, according to him, can only be achieved by having stable frameworks with timeframes such that does not give room for individual influences like the aviation ministers and other political office holders were known for.
“One of the presenters was talking about planning to the year 2030, that kind of plan must be there and it does not matter who is president today or aviation minister tomorrow, that must be followed.
And that is why I have always been advocating that the CAA is the authority for aviation. I want the power of the ministry reduced to the very minimum because most of the time people in the ministry are political appointments.
They are politicians who represent the face of aviation to the government but they don’t understand.
Somebody is from women affairs as the permanent secretary in aviation, how can she understand aeropolitics?
So, we need to reduce that ministry to the barest minimum and allow CAA to be in charge.
In the US, the FAA is under the department of transport and FAA controls even the airspace, but here we have all the big offices that are uncontrollable. Rather than work together they are working in different directions.
He noted that aviation business is a very profitable venture if one understands the dynamics involved and the opportunities available to them.
But by exploring the dynamics to take advantage of the available opportunities requires a sound knowledge of the industry and, of course, a political will to protect your own interest in the face of other competitors, which Nigeria must not struggle to have, considering the size of air traffic and load factor to its advantage.
