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Stakeholders, Labour kick against merger plan

By BusinessNews Staff on April 21, 2014

A fortnight ago, the Federal Government announced it would merge three aviation agencies to make them more productive, but industry stakeholders and labour unions unanimously condemned the plan, which they believe would be injurious to the industry. Chinedu Eze writes

Industry operators and stakeholders, including the labour unions have condemned the plan by the Federal Government to merge the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET) to become the Federal Civil Aviation Authority (FCAA).

They accused the Federal Government of not consulting widely before issuing a white paper on the plan in order to carry out part of the recommendations made by the committee, headed by a former Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Steve Oronsanye, which many who spoke to THISDAY said was outmoded and therefore out of tune with current trends as endorsed by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

It has to be noted that this is the first time everyone that has stake in the aviation industry spoke in unison to condemn a government policy. This is because many see the planned action as retrogressive step which would deny the country its prime place in the world.
Today, a Nigerian is the President of the ICAO Council, which is the decision making body of the international organisation. Today too, a Nigerian is the Secretary General of the African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC), which is the umbrella organisation for the civil aviation authorities in the continent.
After Nigeria passed the ICAO certification and went on to get the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Category One safety status in 2010, the country was rated highly in international aviation circles. So Nigeria may be retreating to its past of indignity and lack of reputation with supposedly unsafe air space if it embarks on the plan to merge these agencies which will bring the regulatory body together with service providers. Industry stakeholders say that it would take the industry 50 years behind and urged the Federal Government to rescind the decision.

Regulatory Agency and Service Providers
When government made the plan to merge the aviation agencies a fortnight ago, many industry stakeholders reacted immediately but some associations and labour unions in the industry held meetings before coming out with a position and their positions were in tandem with the positions of other stakeholders; that government should review that plan which they believe would be retrogressive.

The Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) in a statement excoriated the merger plan, saying the decision was totally against ICAO regulation in section 8335.
According to ICAO, “Separation of provision from regulation is consistent with principles of good governance; the regulatory oversight function must be seen as independent and transparent”.

AON noted that Nigeria is an active member of ICAO, which is made up of 197 member states and over 110 of these countries have complied with this provision and have moved on with the demerging of their agencies.

Executive chairman of AON, Capt. Nogie Meggison, who spoke to journalists on the issue said the autonomy for the air navigation services provider and its separation from the regulatory oversight function was well established in ICAO guidance material.
According to him, “It is not right to have the NCAA as the referee and the player at the same time. NCAA has been statutorily established in compliance with ICAO set standards and practices. We believe the information that was given to the committee set up in 2011 to make that decision is obviously now obsolete and outdated as per ICAO regulation which Nigeria is not only a signatory to but also the first African ICAO President today is a Nigerian who headed the committee which in 1999 separated the agencies from the then Federal Civil Aviation Authority (FCAA).

“Even United States of America, which was (referred to) by the committee (as an example of such merger), is in the process of demerging. The process is currently in the Congress to pass the Act on the NextGen (next generation) regulation that will separate the agencies from each other”.
Speaking in the same vein, Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN) also berated the proposed merger plan and said it would be detrimental to the aviation industry and may even lead to the country losing its certifications from ICAO and FAA if government insists on going on with the plan.

“ATSSSAN is shocked by the announced merger which is coming at a time when Nigeria as a signatory to the convention on International Civil Aviation has in the past 14 years made significant progress in institutionalising and nurturing the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority into a sound civil aviation regulatory institution that is now a reference model of a Civil Aviation Authority in the West African sub-region and in Africa.”

The union said it viewed the decision of the government to merge the NCAA – a regulatory entity with NAMA and NIMET both service providers within the aviation industry as ill-timed and ill-conceived and inimical to the sustenance of the feat Nigeria has attained in the area of international certification by ICAO and FAA.

“While ATSSSAN recognises the prerogative of the Federal Government to restructure and consolidate its parastatals for whatever reasons, ATSSSAN is of the opinion that the government should have consulted widely on the issue and its consequences on the industry before making such pronouncements,” the union said.

It reminded the Federal Government about Nigeria’s obligations under the Chicago Convention 1944 and the consequential commitment to subject its civil aviation activities to regular routine and scheduled oversight/inspection by ICAO which is charged with the responsibility of setting standards for civil aviation and oversighting same globally through its Universal Safety Audit Oversight Program (USAOP), stating that Nigeria has and maintains similar commitment with the International Maritime Organisation pursuant to its being a signatory to the world maritime convention.

Cutting Down Government Bureaucracy
Many industry stakeholders who spoke to THISDAY accused the Federal Government of not consulting widely before issuing a white paper on the plan in order to carry out part of the recommendations of the Oronsanye committee report.

Among the stakeholders who condemned the plan include aviation security expert, Adebayo Babatunde, who reiterated it was contrary to the recommendations of ICAO to member states. The recommendation says each aviation agency should exist on its own. He also described the merger plan as retrogressive and confusing because it does not make any sense to merge a regulatory body, NCAA with service providers NAMA and NIMET.
Industry consultant Chris Aligbe described the merger plan as a wrong move which would spell doom for the industry in the near future, adding that it was a retrogressive step that would pull the industry more than 50 years behind, thus diminishing the progress made in the industry so far.

Lack of Consultation
Aligbe observed that the Oronsanye committee report did not consult widely and speak with the people in the industry because his focus was to cut down government bureaucracy and reduce the financial burden of running government agencies, so he did “a cut and join job of merging the agencies without knowing the international implications of such action.”

He said that the plan to merge these agencies was not accepted globally, where a regulatory body could be merged with service providers, pointing out that NIMET is not wholly an aviation agency; rather it provides service to the aviation sector as it does to the agricultural, maritime and other sectors that need weather forecast. So it does not make any sense merging it with aviation regulatory body.

“Those in government who brought out white paper on the merger plan did not consult people in the industry. A Nigerian is the President of ICAO Council, Dr Bernard Aliu; a Nigerian is the head of Africa Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC), Iyabo Sosina. These people should have been consulted before such decision would be taken,” Aligbe noted.

He said that before government should carry out its merger plan, it must have to repeal the Acts that established these agencies, noting that these Acts have been existing for a long time and have been subjected to global assessment by world regulatory bodies and accepted by ICAO and the US Federal Aviation Administration.

Aligbe suggested that as the objective of the Oronsanya committee was to cut down the cost of running the agencies, the better option would have been to give greater autonomy to the agencies so that they will become self-reliant, remarking that if the merger plan is executed it would waste the opportunity for further development of the agencies.

“If these agencies are merged it will create a complex organisation. There is dearth of managerial competence in the industry right now, so the organisation will not have the right competences to manage it effectively,” he said.

Aligbe insisted that the committee had created more problem for the aviation industry but took solace in the belief that the National Assembly which would repeal the Acts to create room for the merger would not be able to do that in the next two years and during that period the plan would be subjected to greater scrutiny under which government should wisely jettison the idea.
However, the Federal Government has said that it may review the plan to merge the agencies.
This was made known by the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Aviation, Captain Shehu Iyal, who said President Goodluck Jonathan would not carry out any programme or policy that could affect the sector negatively.

Iyal said, “President Goodluck Jonathan wants to improve the output of the agencies and to make them more productive, but if the decision to merge the aviation agencies will be counterproductive, he will look at that decision again. He is a listening President and I know that he will not support anything that will hurt this country in the comity of nations. I know that aviation is an international industry with international regulations; we must do what will dovetail with international practices.”
It is believed that government would respond positively to the views of the industry stakeholders.

[This Day]

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