By Joseph Ainoko

Like in every other sector, the unimaginable sleaze that has gone on in our nation’s aviation sector has been the interplay of external and internal forces.  While external forces account for between 70-80%, internal forces account for between 20-30%.    Sometimes, the internal collaborators find themselves so hapless and at the mercy of the external forces that they easily capitulate.  Most of those who fall prey to these forces are usually at the thresholds where they perceive imminent threats to their appointments and positions.

Airport..

A study of the industry reveals that a one- time Managing Director of defunct Nigeria Airways was removed for allegedly failing to buy a Cherokee SUV for his Minister while an FCAA MD was removed even after acceding to the Minister’s request to buy him a “Peugeot 505 Evolution”.    He was fired the very morning the Minister, through his driver, collected the vehicle from FCAA.  Once, a Director of Finance was removed for refusing to give out a “Calendar Contract” to an organization sent by a Minister because they came with just a note without any proposal.

Political office holders who over the years mount pressure on Management of the Agencies know exactly when to do that.    It is usually during periods of instability in Management, always created by them which they then exploit for fraudulent contracts after arm-twisting the vulnerable Managements.

Some of the contracts cited to fall into this category included the    unexecuted FAAN Cargo Terminal contract awarded and almost fully paid for by a serving Minister in the OBJ’s administration to an influential member of Senate Committee for Appropriation who always threatened Agencies with non-approval of their budgets if they failed to meet his demands on contracts and employment. The most celebrated one still under OBJ’s administration was the NAMA N19billion TRACON/Safe Tower Project now under prosecution by the government.

In most recent times, under the Jonathan’s administration were the huge expenses on upgrading airports which were carried out allegedly without FAAN Management involvement. In NCAA, the most celebrated cases are the two bullet-proof cars bought by the then Minister and the contracts of N150million and N25million awarded to a leading member of the Senate Committee on Aviation, for the refurbishment of NCAA Conference room and re-roofing of a generator house.    The actual value of both projects was allegedly estimated at N30million and N6m respectively.

While the bullet-proof cars were procured without reference to, or much action, by the then Management of NCAA under the then Acting Director-General, Engineer Nkemakolam, the contracts on Conference room and generator house were awarded as a pay-off for a dummy sold by the Senator to the then vulnerable Acting Director-General, that he would ensure that the President confirmed him substantive Director-General. Unfortunately, it was a mere deception, which the hapless man fell for.    These contracts, like others, are today subjects of petitions by the Unions to EFCC and the Senate.

It will be recalled that during an Aviation Roundtable Breakfast forum held last year at Golf View Hotel, Ikeja, Arik Air Chairman, Engr Arumeni Johnson alleged extensive fraud in the aviation sector and called on the government to carry out a forensic audit of the sector.    Only recently, the Minister of State, Transport (for Aviation), Senator Hadi Sirika told Stakeholders at a forum in Abuja that no Agency CEO will dare him with any financial inducement as he neither has asked for, nor will ever ask for.    Another stakeholder who is an APC sympathizer said, “the President is aware of these pressures and that is why he has forbidden Ministers from awarding contracts and also from illegal recruitment which are the bane of the industry today with NCAA, NAMA and FAAN accounting for over 80% of such illegal recruitment, cannon-furthered by Legislators, Permanent Secretaries and Ministers”.

In his reaction, industry consultant – Chris Aligbe said, “please I don’t speak about corruption.    My advocacy in the industry covers airline matters, national carrier, consumer protection, regulation, concession, manpower development and improvement of the industry through policy and infrastructure development”.

It will be recalled that Dr. Demuren’s second term was not approved because, among other things, politicians who could not break his resistance to sleaze ensured his exit.    George Uriesi was also removed as MD FAAN for consistently opposing his Minister’s contract awards on grounds of irregularities and cost. As a member of ATSSSAN, the industry senior staff union said, “until the government investigates and prosecutes the external generators of these infractions and their internal collaborators, the aviation sector will still remain under the strangle-hold of political rent-seekers and manipulators”.