A
wave of appointments in the Ministry of Aviation attracts suspicious
stares to Ms. Stella Oduah, Minister of Aviation, who is accused of
flooding agencies in the ministry with South-Easterners
Stellar.
This is not a word that watchers of the aviation industry will freely
use in an assessment of Ms. Stella Oduah, Minister for Aviation. It was
not always that way. Oduah, a major player in President Goodluck
Jonathan’s campaign, started out like a house on fire. Shortly after
becoming minister, she turned her attention to the country’s decrepit
airports and quickly commenced a lavish remodelling of 11.
It was a
move that attracted huge applause from members of the public, who had
become disenchanted with the shabbiness of such facilities. The airport
rehabilitation exercise has since been hobbled by a shortage of funds
and the applause has thinned out.
More worryingly, what is left of
Oduah’s deposit of goodwill is experiencing rapid depletion on account
of what she brands as a restructuring of the agencies under her
ministry. This has put her under the headlights of public scrutiny. And
the result has been less than flattering, as it contains a strong whiff
of an ethnic agenda.
Oduah’s recent appointments in such agencies
have provoked allegations of “ethnic cleansing”. At the Federal Airports
Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Oduah sacked eight General Managers, GMs.
Six of them hail from the Southwest, while two are from the North.
Those
affected by the weeding process are Solanke Gideon Akintunde, GM,
Facilitation; Mrs. Ayeni Folashade Olufemi, acting GM, Internal Audit;
Mr. Komolafe Samuel, GM, Commercial; Mr. Oyedepo Adeyemi Biodun, GM,
Mechanical; Mr. Adefarasin Adeoye Emmanuel, GM Stores; Mr. Tanko Idris,
GM, Management Services; Alhaji Maltala Iliyasu, GM, Finance; and Mr.
Bello Olu Kayode, acting GM, Internal Audit. The minister also
redeployed six senior staff– four GMs and two Regional Managers–and
appointed 75 new staff in the agency. Forty of the new appointees are
from the South-East. The minister hails from Anambra State.
At the
Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA, the minister has appointed
about 107 staff since August, with 12 percent of them from the North, 20
percent from the South-West and 68 percent from the South East. This
works out at 73 slots for the minister’s geo-political zone. A
creditable imitation of this trend was produced at the Nigeria College
of Aviation Technology, NCAT, Zaria, where Captain Adebayo Araba, rector
of the college, was replaced by Captain Chinyere Kalu. Last year, the
minister chucked Alhaji Ibrahim Usman Auyo as NAMA Managing Director.
His replacement was Engineer Nnamdi Udoh. At the Nigerian Meterological
Agency, NIMET, Dr. Anthony Anuforom, a South-Easterner, was re-appointed
as Director-General.
Also last year, Engineer Sam Oduselu,
Commissioner of the Accident Investigation Bureau, AIB, with Captain
Muhtar Usman. Oduselu was relieved of his appointment seven months into
his second term of office and no strong reason was offered. Oduselu’s
sack, aviation stakeholders insist, was a violation of the Civil
Aviation Act No. 6 of 2006.
AIB sources told TheNEWS that the
agency, conceived to have a lean staff strength, currently has 45 people
in its employ. But Oduah has already made about 50 additional
appointments, most of them from the South-East.
“We understand
that their appointments are already at an advanced stage. She is
appointing between 45 and 50 new staff. She’s bringing these people
without thinking about their salaries. She is choosing them mainly from
the South-East where she comes from,” the source alleged. The
appointments have irked stakeholders. Comrade Abdul Kareem Motajo,
acting General Secretary, National Union of Air Transport Employees,
NUATE, accused the minister of destroying the industry with her bad
policies.
“If you look at what is happening, the minister is
sowing the seeds of a tribal agenda. At the audit department of FAAN,
the General Manager has been sacked and an Igbo lady is coming to occupy
the seat. Six other officers from the South-West have also been removed
from that office in other to accommodate the new people that are coming
in. Comrade Olayinka Abioye, Deputy General Secretary for the Air
Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, ATSSSAN,
described the pattern of appointments made by Oduah as an indication
that she is unfit for the job. “My take is that she is not only
promoting ethnic agenda, but a destructive restructuring where
mediocrities are imported to truncate or stunt careers of our qualified
members,” he said
One of those appointed as GMs, said a source,
“graduated just four years ago and has jumped ahead of people who have
been working for over 20 years. For the next six months, he will be
going for training at the expense of the agency. These are the things we
are fighting against because they portend real danger to the industry
and we are not going to allow that to happen,” said the source.
Comrade
Odinaka Jude Igbokwe, NUATE’s Senior Organising Secretary, is of the
view that Oduah started well and sustained the momentum for a while
before the wheels came off. “She did some commendable things, including
submitting all the concessions at FAAN to a review. But now, she is
doing many terrible things, like appointing people to positions they do
not deserve. She is bringing greenhorns to occupy positions that are
meant for experienced people. To me that will lead to a total disruption
in the industry. Many aviation professionals have no job and when you
bring people from outside the industry, that is the worst thing you can
do to the industry. The way she has taken off and going ahead is not
going to help the industry,” he reckoned.
Igbokwe also accused the minister of opaqueness in the award of contracts.
“Look
at what she calls remodelling of airports. FAAN, which owns the
airports, does not know what she is doing. For the first time in my
life, I see a government contract for which the name of the contractor
is not known. We do not know the architect or what the contract is all
about,” he said with barely concealed disgust.
Another anomaly
that has sparked anger in the sector is the reappointment of Captain
Henry Omegui as FAAN’s Director of Airport Operations. Omegui was said
to have been indicted for a variety of corruption-related activities.
Apart
from labour leaders, the minister’s actions and policies often get
criticised by other stakeholders in the sector. They generally think her
policies are not good. One of her staunchest critics is Captain Dele
Ore, a veteran Nigerian pilot and President, Aviation Round Table. Ore
alleged on 27 July that Oduah threatened to “deal with him” in a
telephone conversation.
“At 11.13 a.m. today 27 July, 2012, the
Honourable minister of aviation, Princess Stella Oduah, called me from a
number “08055024340” and showered unprintable insults on my person,
threatening my life while promising to deal with me. This conversation
lasted 3 minutes and 8 seconds, and she claimed that I have been writing
rubbish, lies and fabrications about her in the media.”
Ore
explained that he was not against the minister as a person but against
her policies and management style, which threaten the sector.
Specifically, Ore criticised the minister for the airport remodelling
project she has embarked upon, saying it did not follow due process and
that she was utilising funds meant for other purposes to execute it.
There
was also bewilderment when Oduah cancelled the contract between FAAN
and Maevis Nigeria Limited, its revenue generating concessionaire, at
Lagos and Abuja airports. The cancellation was in disobedience of a
presidential directive. Tunde Fagbemi, Maevis Managing Director, has
insisted that his contract with FAAN was to last until 2017. Both
parties are in court.
Oduah also drew the ire of Dr. Wale
Babalakin when she began remodelling the General Aviation Terminal in
Lagos in disobedience of a concession agreement between FAAN and
Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited, builders and managers of the
Murtala Muhammed Airport 2, MMA2. According the contract, all domestic
airlines in Lagos should operate from MMA2. Oduah’s remodelling of the
General Aviation Terminal is a direct hit on Babalakin, as Arik and
other domestic airlines have been encouraged to give MMA 2 a wide berth.
At
a press conference two weeks ago, NUATE and ATSSSAN identified ten
areas in which they reckon that Oduah has failed. These, naturally,
include the perceived lack of fairness in appointments.
The unions
insisted that the new appointments have not followed due process and do
not reflect federal character. “We have also observed that some
unqualified elements are being decorated with the toga of General
Managers without the prerequisite experience, expertise, skills and
qualification as stipulated in the public service rules and or the
subsisting conditions of service in the various agencies. To add insult
to an already sore wound, the Minister of Aviation has approved that a
graduate of four years, without any sense of public service duties, be
made a General Manager,” the unions raged.
Another area of
failure, according to the unions, could be noticed in Oduah’s creation
of directorates, something she is said to have no power to do. “The
minister does not have the authority and competence to create extra
directorates without approval from the Office of the Head of Service.
The new Directorate created in FAAN, for instance, is a breach of
establishment laws and a contravention of the position of the Chief
Executive of FAAN, who had once claimed that he does not require more
than three hundred personnel at the FAAN headquarters even with six
directorates, which are being indiscriminately increased to nine,” said
the unions.
Oduah has also been accused of meddlesomeness in the
day to day running of the agencies, which are allegedly run according to
her own rules. “How else can one describe the ongoing remodelling of
our airports without following due process; where contractors are
unknown; where nobody knows the costs of such gigantic projects; whereby
FAAN which is supposed to supervise and grant necessary approvals for
work done is nowhere near the projects; and where NAMA, which has no
business in the so called re-modelling, is involved in paying as much as
over N200 million as custom duties for items for the remodeling of our
airports?” the groups asked.
The groups reckon that their
criticism of the minister has placed them firmly in her gunsights and
she is itching to shoot. “The minister has begun the unholy process of
collating and collecting names of union leaders at the branch and
national levels for possible transfers, dismissals and or retrenchment,”
they alleged.
Similarly slammed on Oduah is that accusation of
failure to assist aviation agencies to collect their debts from
airlines. “It is necessary to ask the minister what efforts she has made
to effect the collection of outstanding indebtedness of her agencies
such as FAAN, NAMA and others, which can barely pay staff salaries from
airlines and or concessionaries, considering the precarious financial
situation of agencies,” the unions said. They also wondered why FAAN and
other agencies, which can barely pay staff salaries and promote staff
or pay other statutory deductions, are being saddled with additional
directorates created by the minister.
Before now, Oduah’s stay in
office has hardly been plain sailing. After the initial flourish of the
airport remodelling exercise, the aviation sector was hit by a series of
problems, not exactly created by her. In May, the price of aviation
fuel soared to N190 per litre, a development that strangulated domestic
airlines. Of the nine airlines in business, three (Midwest, Chanchangi
and Associated Airlines) gave up the ghost on account of huge debts.
Those that survived–Arik Air, Aero Contractors, IRS Airlines, Overland
Airways, Dana Air and Air Nigeria–kept gasping. Things grew worse.
Currently, only four commercial airlines remain in the skies and most of
them owe tonnes of debts to aviation agencies, foreign and local banks
as well as the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON.
Last
month, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, barred the top two airlines
from receiving any additional loans over their massive outstanding
debts. Arik Air, the nation’s top carrier owes AMCON more than $534
million, according to the CBN, while Aero Contractors, owes more than
$203 million to the state-run company.
Ugo Okoroafor, a Central
Bank spokesman, warned that any bank that goes against the CBN directive
on the airlines would face serious sanctions.
Though he
acknowledged the difficulties in the industry, he said the bank can no
longer allow massive debts to pile up on the nation’s banks and threaten
the financial market.
“Adverse consequences exist for people who
take part in such unhealthy acts,” Okoroafor warned. In August, the
scale of decay was further exposed in the report by an investigative
panel, set up after the 3 June crash of a Dana Air plane, by the
Ministry of Aviation.The panel concluded that the country’s aviation
sector is in such a bad shape that only a state of emergency could
prevent its total collapse.
Group Captain John Obakpolor (retd.), who headed the panel, said the sector would need at least N500billion to survive.
“At
the end of its deliberations, the committee came up with 59 findings
and 41 recommendations, in line with the terms of reference. The federal
government should immediately declare an emergency in the aviation
sector and commence implementation of the Aviation Safety Emergency
Programme,” Obakpolor said.
He added that the Nigerian Civil
Aviation Authority, NCAA, should ensure that airline operators are put
under closer surveillance. “Maintenance actions carried out by
operators, if not routine, should always be queried to establish what
necessitated the maintenance action and ensure the continuous proper use
of the technical logbook,” he said. The crash that provoked the probe
attracted public anger to Oduah, who was accused of insensitivity when
she restored the licence of the airline when the bodies its 163 victims
were yet to be buried because of delay in the identification process.
There
was also bewilderment when Oduah cancelled the contract between FAAN
and Maevis Nigeria Limited, its revenue generating concessionaire at
Lagos and Abuja airports. The cancellation was in disobedience of a
presidential directive. Tunde Fagbemi, Maevis Managing Director has
insisted that his contract with FAAN was to last until 2017. Both
parties are in court. Oduah also drew the Dr. Wale Babalakin when she
began remodeling the General Aviation Terminal in Lagos in disobedience
of a concession agreement between FAAN and Bi-Courtney Aviation Services
Limited, builders and managers of the Murtala Muhammed Airport2, MMA2.
According the contract, all domestic airlines in Lagos should operate
from MMA2.
But Joe Obi, Special Assistant (Media) to Oduah, argued
that the minister should be commended rather than condemned for what
she has done in the ministry and dismisses allegations that she is
pursuing an ethnic agenda. “I think the minister needs to be commended.
There was no lopsidedness in terms of Federal Character in the
appointments. Those within the agencies who merited promotion but were
unduly stagnated by previous administrations have been promoted,” he
told TheNEWS.
Obi described the dissent of the unions as “the traditional resistance to change and nothing more”.
BusinessNews
NIGERIA’S foreign service officials have become the laughing stocks of
the diplomatic world in Europe and the Americas following the failure of
the home government to remit their salaries and allowances to them as
and when due.
