Air Crashes In Nigeria: Between The Minister And Drunks In Beer Parlours

Leadership is like riding a horse; once you cannot control its speed and temperament, the horse will definitely control you. For the aviation minister,Princess Stella Oduah, it seems she has mounted a stallion and she does not know how to steer it. In her opinion, it seems, taking control of a steed is easy once you mount it; it is as if you need no instructions on how to manage its temperaments. The Ministry of Aviation is the horse, and the requirements for satisfying its temperament and unique demands are many. For one, dealing with the technical details and tight regulatory demands of the sector requires the expertise of someone who understands the necessary steps required. Secondly- and even more crucial, dealing with a Nigerian ministry creates its own challenges that even someone with a firm resolve will find hard to manage. The aviation minister, whose sense of fashion betrays her penchant for the excessive, has tried to portray a sense of seriousness that is, sadly, absent. She has tried to stand her grounds against a stream of criticisms over her handling of the ministry’s affairs and a failure in implementing regulatory policies that could improve the dire failures that have led to many deaths. She insists that her policies have been effective but the indices tell a different story. Since 2011, there have been seven crashes and five near misses. The tale of disasters starts with a cargo Aircraft of Allied Airlines, which crashed in June 2, 2012 in Accra, Ghana, with 10 people killed. The next was the Dana Airlines crash of June 3, 2012 in Lagos that claimed the lives of 153 persons. Next was a Nigeria Police Helicopter that crashed on March 23, 2012 in which a Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) and three officers on board and several other people in Kabong Village, Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau state, were killed; then came Odenegene Air Services (OAS Helicopter), which crashed enroute Akure in 2012, all on board were killed. The Taraba State Governorís aircraft crash in Adamawa state on October, 2012 was well publicised. Taraba Governor, Danbaba Suntai and others survived but were seriously injured. There was the Augusta 109 helicopter crash in Bayelsa State that claimed the lives of former National Security Adviser (NSA) General Azazi, Kaduna State Governor, Patrick Yakowa, two naval pilots and two aides on December 15, 2012. The most recent was the Associated Airlines crash on October 3, 2013 in Lagos that claimed the lives of 16 persons on board with 4 injured. There have also been three near crashes: one was a Kabo Air aircraft on October 4, 2013, Maxi aircraft on October 4, 2013, and IRS airlines on October 13. The minister’s response to public outcry over the spate of crashes and the obvious complacency of the regulatory agencies, under the control of the Aviation ministry, in these incidences reeks of the mediocrity that pervades leadership today. She thinks that all these crashes have been simply acts of divne design and not the consequences of obvious flaws in the implementation of regulations; in fact she hits back at critics of the ministry’s incompetences, calling them “drunks and drug addicts” who choose to cast aspersions in the comfy confines of beer parlours. Well, I have always been told that only a mad man can tell when another mad man speaks: I hope, in this instance, that this aphorism does not explain her rant. Whether the minister likes it or not, her explanation of the causes of the plane crashes exposes an obvous inanity that would immediately disqualify her from holding public office in any country where governance is taken seriously. This is clearly not the case here. Rather than accept the fact that there were obvious technical incompetences from the regulatory bodies and speak about launching investigations into the frighteningly growing numbers of crashes, she starts with an arbitrary statement that tilts more towards confrontation than concilliation. It seems like the minister is revelling in the imaginary successes that her administration’s canards have continued to promote than face the reality around her. Burnishing the facts with statistics that even the experts in the industry do not know about further reduces whatever little confidence the public may have had in her. As the minister speaks glowingly about her many renovation efforts, she ignores the fact that Nigeria’s aviation industry regulator, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, is yet to certify any of the 22 airports in the country because the airports have been unable to meet the requirements on the regulatorís checklist, particularly in the area of security and safety in the last 20 years. The recent incidence when a thirteen year old boy beat airport security and hid in the wheel well of a Lagos bound flight from Benin is clear proof. According to reports, the security aspect has to do with control of access to the airportís sterile areas or airside and the security of other major points like the catering departments, boarding gates, check-in points and perimeter fencing. The safety aspect deals with runway light, taxi way light, approach light, fire station and airport emergency response system. These are vital to airport operations. Madam minister seems proud of her misdirected “Restoration” efforts that concentrate on aesthetics rather than functionality. If these efforts have impressed Mr President, it has clearly not fooled the “drunks and drug addicts”, many of whom are known aviation experts. I will end by drawing some quotes from those who work in the aviation industry, and who have constantly expressed worries about the inherent failings. Recently, the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) petitioned the National Assembly over a New Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP) that it says infringes on the 2006 Civil Aviation Act. It also complained about the overwhelming powers the new policy grants the minister of aviation. In the petition the AON accused the aviation minister of cashing in on the security challenges in the country to formulate a policy that gives overwhelming powers to the minister of aviation contrary to international standards. Part of the petition, as published in the national daily, reads: “The policy seeks the transfer of economic regulation to the Ministry of Aviation. This is a violation of Civil Aviation Regulation, Paragraph 18 Volume II, covered by the official Gazette. Violating this regulation automatically violates the Civil Aviation Act which is the Law of the Parliament”. The minister may shrug such complaints off as the rantings from “nattering nabobs of negativism”- to borrow the words of Spiro Agnew- but she cannot ignore the fact that the international ratings she so easily points to as proof of her successes do not mean much to the lives already lost, neither do they hide the fact that Nigeria’s rates of air accidents have surpassed those of other country’s with same ratings. Something must be wrong. We may be drunk, but the disasters are real.