More sacks loom in aviation agencies over illegal recruitments •FG grants airlines foreign exchange concession

Ongoing sack at the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, will sweep through all agencies formerly under the defunct Federal Ministry of Aviation, senior officials working in the agencies have said.

The officials confided in our correspondent at the weekend that there were already panics at the agencies because some employees who got job between 2011 and 2014 in the agencies were brought in through the back door.

The officials, who pleaded anonymity, however, said the exercise would only affect employees who were engaged without following due process.

Former Minister of Aviation, now representing Anambra North in the Senate, Stella Oduah, had reportedly shunned public service rules by approving recruitment of young graduates into headship position in the agencies.


One of the officials, who spoke with our correspondnet said: “There are fears in all the agencies because this Minister (Sen. Hadi Sirika) has got the nod of President Muhammadu Buhari to cleanse the agencies of such abnormalities.

“It is not only stopping at FAAN, NCAA, NIMET, others will be affected any moment from now. But, I can assure you, only those who came in through the back door will be affected for now.”

Another official, however, informed that some Deputy General Managers from Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, and other airports across the country would be moved to Lagos this week as General Managers.

“Some Deputy General-Managers will be moved to Lagos from Monday (today) to replace their sacked superiors,” the official said.

Agencies under the Aviation ministry, now merged with the Ministry of Transportation are: Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, Nigerian Meteorological Agency, NIMET; Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA; Accident Investigation Bureau, AIB; Nigeria College of Aviation Technology, NCAT; and Federal Airport Authority of Nigerian, FAAN, where heads rolled in past few days.

There had been petitions from National Union of Air Transport Employees, NUATE, against the shady recruitments into the agencies when Oduah headed the ministry, resulting in last Wednesday’s sack of about 22 top FAAN officials.

Among others, NUATE had petitioned government that graduates of 10 years were appointed as General Manager in FAAN, a position it claimed takes a career public servant 26 years to get.

NUATE, through its General-Secretary, Olayinka Abioye, had called on government to beam its searchlight on illegal recruitments in the sector to other agencies other than FAAN.

Apart from last week sack, many General Managers on Level 17, the highest level in the nation’s civil service, and Deputy General Managers, were demoted to Level 10 and made to work in the same organisation but at different departments.

Some of the officials could not bear the shame, but tendered their resignation letters the following day.

The current exercise came on the recommendations of a Presidential Committee chaired by Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, of which NUATE was represented.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government has approved a special sectorial allocation of foreign exchange for the nation’s airline operators in the Secondary Market Intervention Sales, SMIS.

The government said this became necessary in order for the airlines to further engender market confidence, ensure access to forex and sustain the integrity of the Nigerian Inter-bank forex market.

A statement yesterday by the General Manager, Corporate Communications, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, Mr. Sam Adurogboye said Minister of State for Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika secured this for the airlines from President Muhammadu Buhari.

The statement added: “The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has resolved pursuant to the minister’s show of concern to intervene in the inter-bank forex market through forward settlement.

“For clarity, the Special Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) – Retail is an important one-off exercise dedicated to the clearance of the backlog of matured forex obligation for airlines.

“It is, however, worthy to note that other sectors were similarly availed priority in the inter-bank forex market.

“These are raw materials and machineries for manufacturing companies and agricultural chemicals.”

Adurogboye recalled that Director General, NCAA, Capt. Muhtar Usman had earlier led a delegation of Airline Operators of Nigeria, AON, to hold meetings with Sirika, Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun and the CBN Governor.

He hinted that following the success of the meeting, Sirika was able to extricate for the foreign airlines, 50 per cent clearance of their forex obligation, stressing that this present success was another step ahead in seamless operations in the aviation industry.

He expressed the hope that the new window would enable other carriers that have ceased operations to recommence in earnest, emphasising that with this, local and foreign operators would be able to continue to carry out safe, secure and lucrative operations in the country.

He added that this would also ensure that all scheduled and mandatory checks, which were done in the Diaspora, would be undertaken with this leverage at a reduced cost.