FG Sacks NCAA Management
By Chinedu Eze
The federal government may have dissolved the entire management of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
THISDAY learnt that the Director General of the agency, Captain Muhtar Usman returned from Abuja yesterday and announced that the management had been dissolved.
The NCAA management is made up of the Director General and 10 Directors, although some of the Directorates are headed by officials on acting capacity.
The directors affected by the dissolution include Alhaji Salawu Ozigi (Director of Finance and Accounts), Dr. Joyce Nkemakolam (Director of Aerodrome and Airspace Standards), Mr. Aba Ejembi (Director of Administration) and Mr. Emmanuel Ogunbami (Director of Licensing).
Others are Mr. Benedict Adeyileka (Director of Airworthiness), Mr. Justus Wariya (Director of Air Transport Regulation), Alhaji Adamu Abdullahi (Director of Consumer Protection), Capt. Ayodele Sasegbon (Director of General Aviation and Mr. Austin-Amadi Ifeanyi (Director of Human Resources).
The affected directors were immediately ordered to handover to the next in command in their various directorates who would in the interim take charge of activities.
The General Manager, Public Affairs, NCAA, Mr. Sam Adurogboye in a telephone conversation, confirmed the development
He simply replied that he was aware of the sack of the directors, adding that they were all political appointees.
“It is true that all the directors have been disengaged, but I don’t have details of their disengagement,” he said.
NCAA source told THISDAY that all the directors might have been sacked and it was only the Director General that would not be affected because his position is tenured for five-year term, which is confirmed by the Senate.
Informed source told THISDAY that no explanation was given for the sack of the management but this may become clearer by Monday when the agency would throw more light on the reason for the sack.
THISDAY also learnt that all the Directors may have lost their jobs, despite the fact that some of them were due to be retired by in few months.
THISDAY learnt that the dissolution of the management may not be unconnected with the shake up that has been going on in the industry, as sources indicated that some of the Directors were said to had stayed too long in the agency and had become lackadaisical “and therefore they need to be removed so that younger people with zeal will come in.”
Reacting to the dissolution, an operator who expressed shock at the action said government might have a plan for dissolving the agency’s management, adding that some of the directors had actually stayed too long in their positions.
The operator, however, observed that NCAA had been doing very well recently because while it was effectively carrying out its regulatory responsibilities, it had been doing so silently, “without drawing attention to itself as obtained in the past.
“The Director General goes by himself, he is completely apolitical; he does not want to know what you have or what you don’t have but he effectively does his job. We have never had a Director General like this; but I must admit that some of the Directors have lost creativity”.
