Aviation groups want aviator as Oduah’s successor

.In letters to President Goodluck Jonathan

Simon Ateba/Aviation correspondent

Nigeria’s aviation stakeholders met on Saturday to send a clear message to President Goodluck Jonathan: he should appoint an aviator rather than a politician as the next minister of aviation if he intends to move the troubled industry forward.

They drafted several letters to be delivered to the President at the weekend amid speculation that the next aviation minister may emerge by early next week.

A core professional, they said at joint press conference in Lagos, western Nigeria, will move the aviation sector forward, while a pure politician, the likes of sacked Stella Oduah, will take the industry backward by many decades.

The hurriedly organised joint press conference by a coalition of professional bodies and the unions in the aviation industry was attended by the National Union of Air Transport Employees, NUATE, the National Association of Aircraft and Pilots and Engineers, NAAPE, the Airlines’ Operators of Nigeria, AON, the Aviation Round Table, ART, the Air Transports Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, ATSSSAN, and Nigeria Air Traffic Controllers Association, NATCA.

They all seemed to have broken a jinx and as they spoke with one voice at the press conference.

It was the first time in recent times that these unions and professional bodies agreed to hold a joint press conference or convey the same message on an issue.

They, however, failed to explain how an aviator will be different from a politician on the main issues of corruption, lawlessness and personal interests rocking the Nigerian aviation industry.

“We the aviation unions, aviation professional and the AON, have decided to come together to talk to Nigerians on a very important issue, which has to do with the appointment of the new aviation minister,” said Balami Isaac David, National President National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers, NAAPE, who was one of those who briefed journalists after their emergency meeting.

“What we have agreed today at the end of our meeting is that considering the sensitivity and how the aviation sector is to the nation to have a core season professional as the aviation minister,” he added.

He said politicians often take a long time to even understand the sector while core professionals are already familiar with the litany of problems suffocating the almost cursed sector.

Pressed by journalists on the issue of corruption that may not have anything to do with professional training, he said the president should appoint “a core professional with a track record.”

“It is right to put round pegs in round holes,” Balami said.

As they spoke about integrity, some of them as private operators had accepted conflicting political appointments during the past regime.

Nogie Meggison, who is the president of JedAir and also Chairman Airlines’ Operators of Nigeria, AON, recently accepted to be in the board of directors of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA.

Other operators have been appointed in NCAA and elsewhere.

Tukur Mohammed, a former AON Assistant General Secretary, had in the past questioned the appointments saying, “you cannot be an operator and a board member of your regulator at the same time.”

Meggison, who was at the press conference and one of the spokespersons, said it takes an average of nine months for a non professional to understand the aviation sector after the appointment.

“The reason we are here is to make sure that a professional is to put in as the next minister of aviation. We don’t want to make the mistake of the past,” he said.

He said since the Dana plane crash, the Nigerian aviation industry has lost at least 30 percent of passengers.

“I believe that the last minister if she had her way again after learning in the last two years, 80 percent of what she did, she may not do again,” he said.

The stakeholders said they were not sending a threat to the president but onlt giving the best advice for a safer and prosperous and revived aviation industry in Nigeria.