Delayed inauguration of Board of Directors for aviation agencies: Sirika’s questionable motives

Nigeria’s Minister for Aviation, Hadi Sirika has failed to inaugurate the Board of Directors for aviation agencies three years after they were granted approval by the President, Muhammadu Buhari.

It would be recalled that the President, in 2018, approved the appointment of boards of directors for five out of the six agencies in the sector.

The agencies with boards of directors, according to the Acts setting them up, include the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET) and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

The only agency without a board of directors is the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), which operates independently without any intervention.

Some of the names that constitute the various boards of directors as announced by President Buhari in 2018 through a circular signed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha include:

NAMA had Dr. Yakubu Lame, Abdullahi Y. Gashu’a and Capt. Ibraheem Olugbade; FAAN had Otunba Niyi Adebayo, Akingbesote Akinyeye, Suleiman Mohammed and Bello Babura.

Others include Mrs. Deborah Iliyas and Chie Simon Owhofa for NCAT; while Otunba J.F. Faleke and Dr. Chichi Ashwe were approved for the NiMET board.

Considering the critical roles of boards of directors to the healthy running of such agencies, the President directed Sirika to inaugurate members of the various boards immediately.

But three years down the line, the minister has feigned indifference; not yielding to the President’s directive nor giving reasons for cause of the delay.

The Minister’s continued delay to inaugurate the boards has generated bitter reactions from industry stakeholders.

The President of the Aviation Round Table, Dr. Gbenga Olowo, has said that “the failure of the minister to inaugurate the boards for the aviation agencies can cast a thick shadow on transparency, accountability, and responsibility in the sector.”

According to Olowo, there is a fundamental need for the emplacement of boards of directors for prompt decision-making, due to the nature of professionalism in the aviation sector and its critical nature to the economy.

He said “Interim boards can fill the administrative vacuum, but agencies are not contemplated to run without functional boards for periods exceeding three months. ART is of the view that aviation sector policymakers adopt the international aviation best corporate governance for the promotion of safety.

Sirika should, as a matter of urgency, inaugurate boards of directors for the respective agencies in order to avoid continuous breach of rules by the minister.”

Another stakeholder, Comrade Abdulrazaq Saidu, the General Secretary, Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals (ANAP) said “the failure of the minister to inaugurate boards of directors to the agencies indicates disregard to the rule of law.”

According to Saidu, ANAP has written numerous letters to the minister to remind him of this oversight, but he has failed to respond to any of its letters on the issue.

He added that the Minister’s several actions since he came onboard, particularly training of personnel which has been relegated to the background in recent years, has stagnated the growth of the industry and the personnel.

And yet another stakeholder, who expressed bitterness at the Minister’s attitude to critical oversight issues in the industry, is Comrade Olayinka Abioye, the immediate past General Secretary of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE).

Abioye said “the non-inauguration of the boards shows that something is actually wrong in the sector.  Since the Acts setting up the agencies stipulate that they should have a board of directors; the minister ought to have set them up immediately they were appointed by President Buhari.

“The minister may have willfully delayed their inauguration in order to continue to have an influence on the agencies.

“The implication is that the minister wants to still control the happenings in the parastatals.

“You are aware that by the Acts establishing these agencies, they are supposed to report to a board and in the absence of a board, the minister takes charge. So, if the minister has the audacity to set aside the directive of Mr. President, it goes to show that something is definitely wrong with our system.”

According to Abioye, the minister and the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) have a limit on what they can approve and spend without recourse to the boards of directors.

“Some of his activities over the years indicate that he has flagrantly disobeyed the extant rules for the industry,” said Abioye.