Leadership (Abuja)
Rilwanu Shehu Gusau
26 August 2008
opinion
Those who have been following events in the aviation industry in Nigeria would agree that the past few years, especially the period before 2003, had been a most trying time for the sector. The industry had been bugged down by numerous problems such as administrative laxity, corruption and the resultant inefficiency. And this was why when Chief Olusegun Obasanjo took over the mantle of leadership as president in May 1999, these problems became an utmost priority. To this effect, he appointed those he thought had enough vision and commitment to revamp the sector. Each of the ministers appointed at various times did their best, but their best was simply not good enough as most of the problems persisted, threatening to bring the industry to its knees.
So in 2003, the president decided to look for a more capable hand who would be able to tackle the problems headlong. And the lot fell on Malam Isa Yuguda, the current executive governor of Bauchi State. He became the choice of the president due to his track record of achievements in the various offices he held in the past. So, from August 2003 to July 2005, he presided over the affairs of Ministry of Aviation.
Given the urgent need to turn the sector around, Obasanjo personally provided Malam Yuguda the strategic vision of his administration for the industry. In other words, he was given a broad outline of the targets he was expected to meet in the course of his ministerial duties. They included, first and foremost, proper restructuring of the Aviation Ministry and its parastatals in order to enhance efficiency, transparency and good service delivery. He was also expected to ensure safety and security within the framework of local and international standard, establish a new national flag carrier and facilitate programmes and projects to create a sub-regional aviation hub in Lagos. And the records of what Yuguda acheived are quite glaring.
This is, no doubt, a daunting task, considering the deplorable condition of the industry at the time, especially in terms of administration.
In view of the numerous challenges being faced by the sector, Malam Yuguda began his ministerial duties with agenda setting. In line with the situation on ground and the development target given by the president, he mapped out the programmes and projects he intended to put in place within his tenure. Prominent among the planned lines of action were the review of the aviation policy and plans, creation of a durable and sustainable environment for private sector participation in the industry, reduction in government funding by making regulators and service providers self-sustaining and creation of regional airport systems.
Malam Yuguda set out to work bearing these noble plans in mind. And since the achievement of his objectives was dependent upon a healthy administrative machinery both at the ministry and the parastatals level, he started by sanitising the entire system. At the ministry level, he introduced, among other things, monthly meetings between him and the top officials of the ministry, like the permanent secretary, chairmen of boards, directors and heads of parastatals. He then carried out some restructuring exercise in which, as he put it, "round pegs were put in round holes for enhanced efficiency and optimal productivity."
He also devised a means of checking corruption and from derailing his administration from its set goals. He did this by appointing consultants with multi-disciplinary backgrounds to review the financial, operational, technical and institutional structures of all the parastatals for sustainable growth and development.
Having established a sound administrative machinery within the ministry and the parastatals for the effective coordination and inspection of the sub-sectors' activities, Malam Yuguda then turned his attention to other aviation concerns, such as the establishment of a new national flag carrier – Virgin Nigeria Airways – following what could be described as the collapse of the Nigeria Airways Limited. He did such a wonderful job in setting up the new outfit which is 100% private sector driven in the equity of fifty million dollars ($ 50m). Today, it could be described as a strong and an internationally viable flag carrier that can compete favorably with other mega-carriers as well as salvage the pride and reputation of this great country. Lest we forget, before the invitation to Virgin company, the former minister held a meeting with the stakeholders in the industry in order to put their resources together for a mega carrier. They never did.
In fact, one of the major and immediate responsibilities of Malam Yuguda as the minister of aviation was the preparation of the erstwhile Nigeria Airways Limited and handing it over to the Bureau for Public Enterprises, BPE, for liquidation as directed by the federal government. This invariably meant restructuring of the corporate entities formerly operating under the supervision and control of the defunct carrier. He did this successfully by ensuring proper registration of each corporate entity with the Corporate Affairs Commission and onward transfer to the BPE for privatisation.
Malam Yuguda's tenure equally witnessed a phenomenal increase in aviation activities which facilitated his Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASA) with several countries whose airlines now operate into Nigeria. Consequently, a sharp increase in revenue was recorded. From a paltry $1 million, at the time he assumed office, to $27 million, before he left. And out of this fund, which was deposited in the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, the federal government approved the utiliszation of N3.6 billion for the rehabilitation of the ailing Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, NCAT, Zaria . The importance of this achievement cannot be overemphasised, considering that NCAT is the only civil aviation training institute in the country that trains pilots and engineers that serve the industry. Sadly, the former minister found out that the college could not graduate students pilot for 12 years due to lack of basic facilities. He was able to create an enable environment and graduated 30 Students within two years!.
Before Malam Yuguda took over the mantle of leadership at the Aviation Ministry, indigenous carriers suffered a kind of marginalisation as international carriers who were more superior in terms of capital base virtually monopolised the industry. So, on assuming office, he promptly designated eight indigenous carriers on regional and international routes after enhancing their capital base. This move did not only improve their economic viability but enabled them to compete favourably and gain global experience with their counterparts around the world.
In the same vein, new and old airlines were directed to right-size and reposition their companies for profitability, bearing in mind the need to utilise dormant airports and airstrips located across the country. The directive was promptly carried out, resulting in increased efficiency and economic capacity.
It is an obvious fact that airstrips and similar facilities are very sensitive to national security and unless they are properly managed, they could be exposed to security risks. In view of this fact, all the 99 illegal airstrips, aerodromes, helipads and helpdesks across the country were identified and integrated into the National Airport System. Today, government presence has been firmly established in these facilities.
The aviation industry under the leadership of Malam Yuguda also witnessed abundant provision of modern communication equipment in most of the airports to facilitate good navigation and landing aids within the framework of the international aviation organisation standard and recommended practice. In this regard, most of the ambitious projects, like the Total Radar Coverage and Doppler Weather Radar Projects were vigorously implemented. And before he left office a considerable percentage of the projects were executed.
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, is very central to the operations of the aviation industry as it is responsible for the maintenance of and management of the 22 airports in the country. However, this important parastatal faced various crises due to mismanagement of human and financial resources. Hence, no sooner had he assumed office as the minister than he embarked on restructuring and revamping exercise. In order to sanitise and revive the organisation, he carried out a review of all contracts awarded from 1999 to 2003 which at the end of the day yielded savings on spurious contracts to the tune of N2 billion. He equally ensured the reconciliation of the bank accounts of the organization, thereby facilitating the redemption of illegal and arbitrary charges, pension funds and other long-standing debts owed by government agencies to the tune of N2.3 billion. All the recovered funds were used for the restructuring of the organization, thus positioning it for better performance.
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