The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr. Festus Keyamo, has been urged by the Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals (ANAP) to advocate for the appointment of board members for other aviation organizations.
The recruitment and eventual inauguration of boards for aviation agencies would solidify systemic transparency, according to ANAP General Secretary Comrade AbdulRasaq Saidu.
However, Saidu praised Keyamo for the appointment of board members for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) in an interview with reporters in Lagos over the weekend.
Saidu claims that in order to keep improving system safety, ANAP and other aviation unions in Nigeria have long been pushing for the correct policies to be implemented in the industry.
He pointed out that the Acts that established the agencies were broken by not appointing board members.
“For justice and equity in the system, I am urging President Bola Tinubu to appoint the boards of directors of other agencies,” he stated. For the sake of safety, ANAP has been advocating for the correction of all abnormalities in the aviation sector.
Only the governing boards, according to Saidu, would enforce systemic discipline, prevent unlawful contracts and employment and recruitment frauds, and supervise the daily operations of agencies.
Saidu laments that the opposite has been true in recent years, stating that the majority of recent employment and contract awards should have gone through the parastatals of the Governing Boards of Aviation.
Saidu also chastised Sen. Hadi Sirika, the former Aviation Minister, for failing to designate board members for aviation agencies during his eight years in the ministry, even though previous President Muhammadu Buhari had done so.
“ANAP has had periods without numbers that raised this issue,” he stated. Several individuals were appointed to various boards by previous President Buhari, but nothing was done to officially inaugurate them until Sirika left office. That’s how it died. This administration has now carried on in the same manner.
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The FAAN board members were inaugurated by Keyamo last Wednesday, six months after Tinubu appointed them.
The All Progressives Congress (APC)’s immediate former chairman, Dr. Umar Ganduje, was named board chairman, while FAAN’s managing director, Mrs. Olubunmi Kuku, was named vice-chair.
Additionally, FAAN’s Director of Legal Services, Mrs. Bridget Gold, was named Secretary to the Board. The board also featured Ahmed Ibrahim Sulaiman, Director of the Air Force, Ministry of Defense, and Mrs. Dorothy Duruaka, Director of International Tourism Relations & Cooperation, Federal Ministry of Culture, Tourism & Creative Economy.
Additionally appointed as members were Engr. Peter Vembe, Director of Aerodrome Development, Federal Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development; Dr. Omozojie Okoboh, representative of the Federal Ministry of Justice; and Engr. Nasiru Muazu, Dean, Air Traffic Service, Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT).
