Following your recent story, “Ministry of Aviation mess: conflict of interest, mismanagement and nepotism prepare Nigeria for further air travel tragedy,” (Saharareporters, 28 May 2009), I believe that it is obvious that the Minister of Aviation, Babatunde Omotoba, is not interested in safe and productive civil aviation in Nigeria. From what I know, rather than work in that direction, he has installed a selfish regime of gerontocracy, graft, nepotism, cronyism, manipulation and mismanagement in the system that militates against the interest of the flying public.
The gerontocrats that now run the sector include the Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority, Dr Harold Demuren is 60+ years; the Managing Director of the Airspace Agency, Mr Ibrahim Auyo, is 60+years, the Commissioner of Accident Investigation, Engr. Sam Oduselu, (who was sacked by sacked by Omotoba’s predecessor, Borishade, for complicity in certifying the ill-fated Bellview airline which crashed minutes after take-off and where several promising Nigerians lost their lives) is almost 60 years; the Rector of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, Captain Bayo Araba, who incidentally, checked-out the pilot of the ill-fated ADC aircrash in Abuja (in which the Sultan and several other innocent travelers perished), is also approaching 60 years.
It is only an indolent Minister who will enjoy administering the aviation industry with geriatric administrators masquerading as agency heads, because it serves his purpose, which is graft. The traveling public should note that this sad situation persists because all these 'spent forces' would always remain 'grateful' and subservient to Omotoba who has allowed them to continue in an industry awash with several younger turks who are capable of better performance in the public interest. In the current situation, only one man, Omotoba, would benefit financially, to the detriment of the traveling public.
There is also another dimension: nepotism. To continue the graft system, Omotoba has brazenly appointed his cousin, Mr. Akinyenju, into the position of Director of Procurement of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN). This is another indication of the greed with which Omotoba administers his office. How can the public good be guaranteed when the cousin to the Minister handles all Procurement matters? Nigeria, when will these nepotism and gross abuse of the intelligence of taxpayers stop?
To compound the mess in the aviation sector, the minister, along with the conniving, Dr Harold Demuren (whose son presently manages his shares in Afrijet airline (a local operator), single handedly perverted the public service rule by denying the incumbent NCAA General Manager of Finance, Mr. Gwari, the opportunity of succeeding the Director of Finance of the lucrative parastatal. This was done by re-appointing Mrs. C. Ebilah, as the Director of Finance in NCAA following her retirement from NCAA as Director of Finance. The records show that after her retirement, she spent some months collecting her entitlements.
According to the law, a retired officer can be re-engaged, but only to a level below his/her retirement grade. To frustrate that law and perpetuate graft, Mrs. Ebilah was returned as Director! The reason why the indolent minister chose to pervert the rules is probably because Dr. Demuren had assured him that this lady would help cook the books and milk the agency for the minister and no one would know. The NCAA is the richest of the aviation agencies in Nigeria because it retains the lion share of the 5% Passenger Services Charge collected from every airline passenger. This translates into huge sums of foreign-currency-denominated revenue every month. For NCAA, which has no real capital projects, these sums are at the mercy of the minister to do with as he pleases. Note that the Director of Finance, who knows that she has been returned to authority in violation of the law, would certainly be continuously grateful for the opportunity, and not hesitate to do what Dr. Demuren and Omotoba tell her to do. One may ask: are there no administrators in the sector? Well, the permanent secretary, Mr. Idris Kuta, who ought to guide, is busy being subservient to Omotoba in order to get a 'piece of the action' After all, if you can’t beat them, the faint-hearted are tempted to join them.
To strengthen his stranglehold and perpetuate graft in the NCAA, minister Omotoba also unilaterally sacked the director of procurement; Mr. Musa Garba, for no reason. This was done so that a stooge can be appointed who would remain grateful and only work to electrify Omotoba's pockets. Again at the expense of the un-suspecting Nigerian public
A new dimension was recently introduced into the system of graft. Minister Omotoba has now engaged the services of his spiritualist, Mr Idowu Oluyomade, who is the Pastor of the richest RCCG Province in Victoria Island. This Pastor routinely arranges meetings between Omotoba and contractors. At the church after service, contractors are assembled for a meeting, and arm-twisted into signing agreements where sharing formulas favorable to Omotoba are negotiated and agreed upon before Omotoba would get the relevant agency to award the contract to the contractor. This process is completely alien to the industry and was only introduced by the thieving Omotoba who is determined to get his way all the time. What happens when un-deserving contractors get such projects, well the standards that the system would have relied on in selecting the right company is completely subverted! Who pays?
The minister and his permanent secretary are so emboldened by their graft that the official four-wheel drive of Kuta carries the number plates of the Accident Investigation Agency. This is despite the Federal Government’s stoppage of the procurement of official vehicles! How can well-known fraudsters administer an industry where decent professionals abound? What are the credentials of the Chief Accident Investigator? How can someone fired for complicity in causing an air disaster be re-hired to investigate accidents? This is happening and posing a real danger to the un-suspecting public only because Omotoba and Kuta are not there to serve, but to eat. Every body acts as if all is indeed well. The records are clear on the reasons why Oduselu was sacked, yet he is still in office because he is a 'very useful link' in the chain of graft, which will lead to Omotoba to becoming super-rich whenever he leaves office. Of course, the chronically corrupt Dr Demuren (operator or regulator?) is too busy cooking-the-books for Omotoba and will not advise against the continued stay in office of this person who has so much blood on his hands.
Recently, Omotoba has regaled everyone with his plan to drag the President to commission the Abuja Radar. What Omotoba did not tell the public was that he had approved the expenditure of N50Million for the “commissioning”! Imagine spending that much for a single Unit of a 9 Unit project? The question is how much will be spent on the remaining? Of course Omotoba will do this because against the formal advice of the Engineering Regulatory Council (COREN) he appointed a quack "Engineer" to the position of Director of Engineering in the Airspace Management Agency. As Saharareporters has reported, Mazi Nnamdi Udoh is not registered with either the Society of Engineers or COREN, yet Omotoba appointed him to that position because in addition to bringing in money from Mr. Nuel Ojei of the Nuel Ojei holdings, the Nigerian partners of the TRACON project, he can use this thieving staff to cream-off an additional N50Million per Radar site under the guise of "commissioning” each one. Records show that COREN objected to the appointment of Mazi Udoh, yet the thieving Omotoba retains him in office because his personal interest rises above the safety of the Nigerian air traveler.
If you look around the nation’s aviation sector, what new public-good initiative has been initiated lately? Nothing! The airlines are virtually operating with minimal supervision, after sponsoring NCAA inspector to certify their aircraft how do those Inspectors insist on public Safety? The 'geriatic' Agency Heads are too busy stealing for Omotoba! And everything is on auto-run, waiting to reach its breaking point, and then planes will start dropping out of the sky, yet again truncating several innocent families.
This is the sorry state of affairs in the aviation sector. Where is the President? Who is going to protect the interest of the innocent traveling public? Who is going to protect the nation’s interest before all we are left with are tears and empty searches for black boxes?
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