Aviation industry must be insulated from politics — Capt Musa Nuhu
Captain Musa Nuhu has served as Nigeria’s representative on the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Council 2016-2019; Second Vice President of the ICAO Council 2017-2018; and as DG/CEO of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) 2019-2023. In this interview on Trust TV’s Daily Politics programme, Captain Musa, who served in the Nigerian Presidential Fleet for […]
captain musa nuhu
Captain Musa Nuhu has served as Nigeria’s representative on the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Council 2016-2019; Second Vice President of the ICAO Council 2017-2018; and as DG/CEO of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) 2019-2023. In this interview on Trust TV’s Daily Politics programme, Captain Musa, who served in the Nigerian Presidential Fleet for years, spoke on reasons behind some air mishaps in the country, and the need to insulate the aviation sector from politics to make it viable, among others. Excerpts:
You spent over 45 years as a pilot and thereafter as a regulator in the aviation sector. I want to know why we recorded almost 10 incidences of mishaps, like skidding the runaway by aircraft, between 2024 and January 2025.
First and foremost, it’s very unfortunate when you have such incidents; the goal of civil aviation is to have zero accidents. Though it’s very difficult, anything human, you have human factors, you are bound to have errors in one area or another. But in the last three or four months, the incidents have become a bit more serious, a bit worrisome.
You mentioned the Sakoski helicopter crash; we had two commercial aircrafts – one passenger and another cargo. They had landing gear collapse on landing: Those are not serious incidents.
What gladdens me is that the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) seems to be doing a very good job; the preliminary results they have given are quite instructive and quite encouraging, which is getting to the root of these causes and proffering solutions for the civil aviation authority to implement.
However, on the Sakoski accident, in which I think eight passengers lost their lives – NNPC staff and the two flight crew and the Allied Air Cargo that also suffered landing gear problem on landing – the preliminary report of the NSIB seems to point fingers at the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority.
That’s where you served as chief executive…?
Yes. What they said was that the flight data recorder of the Sakoski was not working or was absent. But if the flight data recorder is absent in an aircraft, a commercial aircraft, it should not have a Certificate of Air Worthiness. That is a mandatory requirement. And then the other comment they made on the Allied Air cargo plane, Boeing 737, they said the NCAA should inspect all their aircrafts to make sure they’re in good working condition.
That should be a normal function of the NCAA through what we call surveillance. They are supposed to have yearly surveillance programme to check all the operators to ensure that they’re operating within the parameters of the certificates approval or licenses given to them; that they are in compliance with the extant regulations. So, for another agency to tell you to do your job raises some questions.
We also witnessed the Max Air suspension.
Some people are seeing the problem in the aviation sector more from political dimension than from the technical aspect. Do you agree with that?
It’s a bit of a combination of both. Like the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, it states clearly the regulation that there should not be any interference in its function and they should not take directive from anybody when it’s conducting its function.
This is clearly stated in the Civil Aviation Act of 2022 as passed by the National Assembly and signed into law by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, that it should be an independent body without any interference whatsoever.
I understand it’s a government agency; it cannot work in isolation of the supervisory ministry and I think what is needed from the supervisory ministry is to give it all the support to be able to do its functions.
You’ve been in suspension for a long time and that very agency is being fingered as not doing its work…?
Well, what you said is true. In December of 2023, while we were on official duty in Dubai, somebody sent me a social posting that all the heads of the aviation agencies had been changed on the directive of Mr President, and I have been suspended from office pending an EFCC investigation of alleged corruption. That’s over 13 months ago.
You have been on suspension for 13 months?
Yes, but as I speak to you now, I do not have any official letter of suspension, all I’ve read of my suspension is in the social media. I’ve not been given any official letter of suspension.
You mean by the Minister of Aviation or by the Presidency?
Nobody, it should come from the supervisory ministry. I’ve asked for it, I have not been given any letter of suspension.
What about EFCC, have they invited you?
Well, we went there, we made our report…
What is so special about the aviation sector that the mind of politicians is always there?
I’m not a politician. I can’t really say that but aviation is a high visibility industry. It’s something that will get you in the news all the time. But you know, one of the things that happens, the NCAA is the regulator and we have other agencies like the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, the Nigerian Airspace Management Authority, the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology in Zaria. You have the Nigerian Metrological Agency, then, you have the commercial industry, the airlines, the ground service providers and others. The NCAA regulates all those agencies.
What’s the difference between the way the NCAA is operating in Nigeria and its counterparts, maybe in US and in the UK?
It’s completely different. The NCAA is put at a higher level. In fact, in some countries like Saudi Arabia, the head of the CAA is basically a ministerial position. And they have full control of all the service providers within the industry in those countries without interference from anybody.
There is provision in the 2025 budget to split the Aviation College in Zaria. Did that shock you, or you think it’s normal and that is what obtains all over?
My only concern is if we split them into six campuses, are we going to have enough for each of the regions to really function, and the finances to be effective?
If you look at the students in Zaria, maybe you have 20 student pilots or 25, if you split them into six regions, you’ll have maybe five students in each… I don’t know but that is the policy of the government.
If you have your way, or maybe they contact you about how they should do it, what will you tell them?
I think, this is my own personal opinion. The resources we would use to build five others, we can use that to consolidate Zaria and make it strong.
Why is the attrition rate of airlines very high in Nigeria?
It’s a very difficult environment for airlines to survive in Nigeria. Right now, I think we have 11, 12 commercial airlines. If you look at the passenger figure, 15 million and one airline, the biggest airline will probably carry 30, 40% of those passengers. Are there enough passengers for the airlines to actually thrive, to actually become truly profitable and truly efficient? It’s a very difficult thing when you do not have the customers and you have too many service providers in that area.
In addition to that, the airlines really are in a very, very difficult situation in Nigeria vis-a-vis the fact that the dollar rate has gone up. Most of their costs are in dollars – aircraft parts, acquisition of the aircraft, aircraft maintenance and training of pilots and so many other expenses.
So the airlines can only increase the fare to a certain level to try and recoup their dollar expenses after which the passenger figure will actually start dropping.
Is cutting corners by the airlines precipitating the crisis we are having in the sector?
During my time in office, we started what we called the financial and economic audits of the airlines. We did that and we found out the airlines that were not financially strong were more likely to have problems, were more likely to have safety problems.
Because if you are not financially strong, you do not necessarily have the resources to comply with the regulations and to ensure everything is okay and these are businesses that are out there to make profit; so it’s a very difficult situation.
Is it some of the laws that establish the agencies you headed and others and, then the general architecture of the aviation industry, that are responsible for the poor performance of the aviation industry? When you go to Addis for instance, you see many aircraft…
There are so many problems that we face in Nigeria. I mentioned some of the agencies and there is no collective planning; each agency does its own something. There’s no control, there is no coordination and these things at the end of the day impact the service providers.
Those other countries I mentioned: Ethiopia strives and lives on Ethiopian Airlines as a major generator of their GDP, so the government ensures only qualified and competent professionals are appointed to run the airlines and qualified and competent people are appointed to run the agencies including the CAA and the government does not interfere, it gives the Ethiopian Airlines all sorts of support.