Misguided Merger In Aviation

The plan by the Federal Government to merge the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA and the Nigerian Metrological Agency, NIMET, into the recommended Federal Civil Aviation Authority, FCAA, is dangerous, misguided and should be rejected.

The implementation of that recommendation by the government may save costs but will have adverse consequences on the Nigerian aviation industry. It would certainly undermine all the gains made in the sector in recent decades and take aviation back into the dark ages.

The great threat facing the Nigerian aviation industry now started two years ago when the Federal Government, in an attempt to reduce the ever increasing cost of governance in Nigeria, set up a presidential committee chaired by the former Head of the Federal Civil Service, Stephen Oronsaye.

The committee recommended the scrapping of 220 out of the 541 existing Federal agencies, commissions and parastatals to reduce the cost of governance, especially because of the dwindling fortunes of the country.

For the aviation industry, the committee recommended the merger of NCAA, NAMA and NIMET. The report has been submitted to the government and a white paper has since been presented for implementation. But, since that recommendation was made, aviation stakeholders have kicked against it and warned that it will take aviation industry several decades behind.

Apart from the fact that the recommendation is against the regulations of the International Civil Aviation Organisation, ICAO, merging NCAA, which is in charge of licencing with NAMA, which is in charge of navigational aids, as well as NIMET, which is in charge of weather does not make sense.

Merging these three agencies into the FCAA would naturally conflict with the functions of FAAN. The industry would be terribly confused if FAAN and FCAA remain as regulators of the industry, contrary to the regulations of ICAO. Besides,  Nigeria will immediately lose its coveted FAA Category 1 safety certification, and Nigerian airlines will no longer be able to fly directly to the United States.

Nigeria will also have to repeal the Civil Aviation Act of 2006, which was signed into law by President Olusegun Obasanjo, having been passed by both houses of the National Assembly. The law designated NCAA as the sole regulator of the Nigerian aviation industry. That law will have to be repealed for FCAA to regulate NCAA.

To repeal that law, a stakeholders meeting would have to be called in accordance with part 9 and paragraph 12 of the Civil Aviation Act. Convincing them would be a herculean task since most of them are already opposed to the merger. Violating  ICAO regulations will also be a terrible embarrassment to Nigeria whose son for the first time in history of Africa has become the president of ICAO.

We believe that there is no need for that merger. We call on the government to retrace its steps and rather move quickly to appoint a Minister of Aviation, and complete abandoned projects in our airports.