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The appeal from the different stakeholders to the federal government to constitute governing boards for the different aviation agencies may be a pipe dream as the information gathered has shown that the government has no intention of inaugurating such boards.
For consecutive nine years, while other agencies of the government had functioning boards, the country’s aviation sector has been denied the critical arm of governance that would have served as checks and balances on the activities of the ministers in the areas of policy formation and implementations.
Throughout the eight years of former President Muhammadu Buhari, the management of the agencies were left in the hand of the then minister, Senator Hadi Sirika who singularly called the shots without any board available to challenge him.
Despite the controversy and the criticisms this generated, the aviation agencies were left in the hand of the minister until the twilight of the administration when the former minister hurriedly constituted kangaroo boards for the agencies.
The constitution of the controversial boards however did not see the light of the day in view of the circumstances surrounding the inauguration at the injury time.
With the coming of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu led government, the hope of many key players became rekindled in the confidence that the missing organ of transparent governance will be brought back.
However, information reaching Nigerian Tribune has indicated that the body language of the Tinubu government is not tilting towards making the dreams of the stakeholders realised.
According to the latest information gathered, the government, as represented by the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has jettisoned the probability of accommodating governing boards for the aviation agencies.
A source who revealed this to the Nigerian Tribune in confidence attributed the unwillingness on the part of Tinubu government to inaugurate the boards to the excuse that the presence of the board members will only be at extra cost put on the agencies through the demands of the board members.
The government as quoted by the source declared : “We don’t want a Board. When they come, they will be asking for money, travelling all over and doing contacts.
We are comfortable as we are”.
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“From that moment onward, I knew that some of the Chief Executives of the agencies are already in the Minister’s pocket and they might have all agreed to maintain the status quo ante bellum, (as the situation was before) and continue as usual with the Minister being in charge.”
The stakeholder wondered how the Minister, who happens to be a lawyer for that matter, and ought to have known and respected the laws of the land, still fails to facilitate the process of getting Governing Boards in place because their roles are very critical to the growth of the system and well being of workers.
“There are issues that the Boards can easily handle without escalating it out of the agencies,” he notes.
