After shakeup, lobby for aviation agencies’ headships begins

Following the sack of chief executives of aviation agencies as well as their Directors, an intense lobby has commenced for the vacant positions of Directors in the agencies, findings by Daily Trust have shown. Already those interested in the positions have intensified even as there are agitations for a mix of internal and external people […]

Following the sack of chief executives of aviation agencies as well as their Directors, an intense lobby has commenced for the vacant positions of Directors in the agencies, findings by Daily Trust have shown.

Already those interested in the positions have intensified even as there are agitations for a mix of internal and external people to fill the vacant positions.

The agencies affected are the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) and the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET).

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had last Wednesday sacked all the aviation agencies’ CEOs appointed by his predecessor.

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He followed with the sack of all the Directors in the agencies while directing them to hand over to the most senior persons in their departments.

The 33 Directors appointed and reappointed by the immediate past Minister, Senator Hadi Sirika were eased out in the clean sweep of the industry, leaving the agencies without Directors.

Stakeholders in the industry are however agitating for the early reappointment of the Directors to ensure a smooth running of the agencies.

They said the sack of the Directors have created a vacuum in the system which is inimical to safety.

In some of the key agencies like the regulatory authority, NCAA; the FAAN and NAMA, Directors are very critical to their smooth running.

An industry player who spoke with our correspondent on the condition of anonymity said, “It is very important that we don’t delay in appointing replacements for all the directorates because there is very little that the GMs or DGMs can do in the various departments.

“As of today, the management of these agencies are incomplete without the Directors and we only hope the Minister would fast-track to ensure a smooth running of the agencies. There are some safety critical decisions that the acting Directors cannot take and also the CEOs need the full compliments of Directors to function effectively. So delay might be dangerous,” the source said.

Even as stakeholders anticipate the Minister to fill the vacancies, it was reliably gathered that many people have indicated interest and are lobbying to occupy the over 30 Directorship positions.

Checks by Daily Trust indicate that there are nine Directorates in NCAA; FAAN has nine; NAMA has six; NIMET also has six while NSIB has seven directorates.

There are also agitations for the harmonisation of some of the directorates in the agencies to save revenue while some of the workers are also agitating for the government to look inwards in picking the Directors.

Speaking with our correspondent, an aviation management consultant, Mr. Babatunde Adeniji called for a mix of in-house and outside people as Directors.

According to him, whether the Directors are being appointed “inwards or outwards depends on the quality and attitude we have currently inside or outside and what we are trying to achieve and the strategy we intend to pursue to succeed.”

He said, “Each of the agencies also has their peculiarities …Some of the agencies need a healthier mix of broad minded  Business management oriented Directors to compliment the technocrats. Some will require competent and tested change managers in cases where we need to drive transformations ..

“Most importantly also is the need to promote from the best within and drive empowerment of the team already on ground …Who knows, the opportunity may be all they need to unlock potential greatness within those organisations….We need the best mix of internal and external leaders and staff to deliver our expectations.”

General Secretary of the Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals (ANAP), Comrade Rasaq Saidu in a chat with Daily Trust said Directors can be sourced within the system.

“We have always been agitating for appointment within the system because of continuity, experience and consistent system of continuity because when you go and bring politicians from outside that never knew about those places, it may be about learning or asking the  people that were supposed to be there to do the job for them and those people will feel reluctant and cheated and they will not be happy doing the job and the whole system will collapse.

“We don’t want that in aviation, we want as we said, for example look at the managing director of NAMA, it’s done within the system, from within the system he knows everything.”