There were mixed reactions yesterday on the proposed merger of three aviation agencies– Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET)–into the Federal Civil Aviation Authority (FCAA).
Scores of aviation workers discussed the fate of their jobs, if the government implements the merger.
The workers were scared that should the merger hold, they would lose their jobs.
An industry player, who spoke in confidence, said the proposed merger was at variance with Article 8365 of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
The article stipulates that the aeronautical agencies should function and exist independently.
The operator noted that at a time global aviation was going digital, Nigeria returned to the Stone Age.
He said industry players were still studying the technicality of the issue to know the position to take on the matter.
It was learnt that some stakeholders might contact ICAO President, a Nigerian, to prevail on the Federal Government to reverse the proposal.
Aviation sector unions held an emergency meeting on the effect of the proposed merger.
But some airline operators said it was a welcome development because the affected agencies were within the same purview in developed world.
A former Airport Commandant at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, Group Captain John Ojikutu, said whoever advised the government to merge NAMA and NIMET with NCAA did not understand the reality in the sector.
The advisers, he told reporters, probably forgot to include the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) in taking the nation back to the era of self-regulatory.
Ojikutu said: “(Steve) Oronsaye must have been wrongly briefed by some egg heads. How do you merge operators of the industry with the regulator? This merge completes what (former Aviation Minister, Ms Stella) Oduah started: bringing the industry under the jackboot of the government. Must the government drive the policy, regulate and operate the industry? We must be in a world of our own and out of the Earth planet.
“We should get the private operators to invest more in the industry or commercialise government operators, such as FAAN and NAMA, as recommended in the Privatisation and Commercialisation Act of 2000. The government, instead, is appropriating the industry to itself alone.”
The General Secretary of the Nigerian Aviation Professional Association (NAPA) Comrade Abdul Rasaq Siedu said the decision was shocking because a similar step in the past was unsuccessful.
He said: “It didn’t work by the former minister, Air Marshal Nsika Eduok (retd). It was practised and it failed. Secondly, the recommendation of Steve Oronsaye cannot work in our aviation industry because Nigeria’s aviation is not for Nigeria alone. Aviation is global and it is regulated by international bodies, such as ICAO, IATA and others. If they do that, Nigeria will lose Category One.”
Captain Dele Ore, President of the Aviation Round Table, a think tank group in the industry, said: “What the government is planning to do is wrong. It will take us back to the 1995 era. And whether we like it or not, I give them two years, they will return back again.”
“You don’t merge a regulatory body with a service provider. NAMA and NIMET are service providers; you cannot merge them with NCAA, which is a regulatory body, this is at variance from international laws laid them by ICAO and other relevant international bodies.
“Who are the experts who did the report. Did they even give consideration to international convention and international best practices? Those are the questions one would love to ask. And whatever they do may be a big slap to our faces.”
He said the decision should be jettison otherwise they will be disgraced.
Also Ekanem Ekanem, the Chairman, Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSAN), the issue is not a question of merging NCAA, it ought to have being an autonomous body since NAMA provides the equipment to make the airspace safe.
“Merging both agencies will make their administration very cumbersome. What the industry need is to optimise the operations of the agencies.”
He said “Nigeria is an emerging economy, we should be allow to grow at our own space.
Aviation is not where you carry out experiment because it is a global industry.”
Ekanem reiterated it will give Nigeria the impression that things are not done here with seriousness. Government should rather invest in modern equipment and put in technically sound personnel in both agencies and also strengthen the regulations to make the more effective.”
Other affirmed that If government is trying to save cost, it should not be at the expense of the operators and flying passengers.
They maintained that the Federal Government would never mean it because they are going to resist it.
“we will not allow Cat One to be toy with, NCAA autonomy has an act that establish it, NAMA has it own that establish it, FAAN has it own that establish it now has all these been cancelled.”
Meanwhile, Aviation unions and stakeholders are strategizing to ensure that the recently announced merger by the Steve Oronsaye committee will not be implemented in the aviation sector.
The committee in its recommendation proposed the merger of Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority NCAA, Nigerian Airspace Management Agency NAMA and Nigerian Meteorological Agency NIMET to be known as Federal Civil Aviation Authority FCAA.
In a swift reaction, the aviation unions and stakeholders have described it as unrealistic adding that it will be senseless to merge service provider and a regulator in the aviation sector.
They declared that all over the world there was no where merger existed except for some small countries stressing that meteorological service in the country does not cover only aviation but agriculture, industry among others.
According to them, over 55 county’s navigational providers were on their own saying that the government had ulterior motives.
They urged the government to looking into the unemployment situation in the country adding that the merger will lead to loss of jobs in the aviation sector.
According to them, the country was yet to know her fate on the recent FAA re-assessment of the country’s aviation category one status adding that the country was going back to the dark old days of five airports.
They said those who recommended this to the President did not mean well for the country as President Goodluck has used the aviation sector to boost his achievements.
The government on Monday said it accepted the recommendation to scrap some agencies, it was contained in a Government White Paper by the Presidential Committee on the Restructuring and Rationalisation of Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies.
The Steve Oronsaye committee advised the government to merge the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, (NAMA), the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, (NCAA) and the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, (NIMET) into a single regulatory body.
The new agency is be known as the Federal Civil Aviation Authority, FCAA with their respective enabling laws to be amended accordingly to reflect the new name.
