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The administration of President Goodluck Jonathan boosts the aviation sector with strategic initiatives being implemented by Princess Stella Oduah, minister of aviation

It is now loud and clear that aviation under President Goodluck Jonathan and the Ministry of Aviation headed by Princess Stella Adaeze Oduah, is bound to enjoy a boost.  In the past few months since Jonathan took over the mantle of leadership of Nigeria, the aviation industry has witnessed tremendous transformation.

Although there were the previous efforts targeted at stabilising the aviation industry before the present  administration assumed office,  the  truism  is that at the inception of  the Jonathan administration, the aviation infrastructure, particularly the airport terminals, runway, control towers, cooling systems,  and conveyor belts were in terrible conditions.  Even though before now, some cosmetic renovations were attempted in some airports, most of the nation’s airport terminals which were constructed in the 70s had remained in their old original state without any major   initiative at adapting to modern designs and or concepts acceptable to international best practices.

The poor state of the airports was compounded by the influx of all manner of persons into them, thereby overstretching the old facilities, which posed serious security challenges at the airports which were in dire need of being addressed frontally.  However, since July 2, 2011, when Oduah was sworn in and deployed to the Ministry of Aviation, she has recorded a landmark in the aviation industry within the short period she has been at the helm of affairs. In line with Mr. President’s transformation agenda, the focus of the ministry under Oduah, who is popularly referred to as “the Amazing Amazon of the Aviation Industry” is to make air travel the preferred and safest means of transportation, increase the growth of the tourism industry and drive socio-economic growth in Nigeria.

Right from the day, she was appointed as the minister of aviation; Oduah had a clear vision on how she intended to reposition the aviation industry in line with international standards and best practices.  The thrust of her vision included changing the business model of the aviation industry into a self-sustaining model through increased private sector participation and transforming the industry in Nigeria into a regional hub in West and Central Africa.

She has also demonstrated uncommon commitment towards enhancing internally generated revenue and improving transparency within the agencies by automating the revenue collection process. Besides, the minister made conscious efforts to maximise the contribution of aviation to the socio-economic development of the Nigerian economy through the boosting of tourism, agro-allied growth, commerce, job creation, national image, and inflow of foreign direct investment.

As a woman of substance with a wealth of experience in the private sector, Oduah was determined to sustain the Category 1 Certification, CAT 1, and continue to maintain all the International Civil Aviation Organisation, ICAO, standards and industry best practices.

The ministry equally set out to provide reliable navigational and meteorological services to enhance air safety and develop requisite capacity and manpower to meet the needs in the aviation industry for the 21st Century.

To achieve these lofty goals, the present administration has a clear-cut roadmap. The ministry had, after due consultation with industry stakeholders, came out with short, medium and long-term strategic initiatives for accomplishing its vision. The strategic initiatives include the Airport Remodelling Project, ARP 2011. This entailed the immediate remodelling of 11 airports within 90 days of her assumption of office.

To ensure air safety, the ministry set out to provide airfield lightning, navigational aids, meteorological instruments and other safety measures at all airports in line with ICAO standards as well as strengthen the Accident Investigation Infrastructure.

In a bid to improve  security,  the ministry embarked on repositioning the aviation security infrastructure and procedures to meet current threats and challenges through the deployment of state- of- the- art security measures amongst others.

In terms of E-Governance platform, the ministry has developed a website (www.aviation.gov.ng) to provide links to websites of all airlines and provide information on investment opportunities in the industry.  It has also developed an E- Governance platform which will enable the ministry to have management oversight on all ongoing projects and other activities. This has greatly increased transparency and improved on accountability.

In the area of training and capacity building, the present administration has strengthened the Nigerian College of Aviation and Technology to become a regional centre of excellence in aviation training and capacity building.

To guarantee revenue enhancement and concessioning, the aviation ministry under Oduah is working in conjunction with industry players to bring its revenue generation activities to meet international best practices. In addition, it has initiated institutional reform and private sector participation in the aviation industry.  The implementation of reforms within the parastatals is geared towards optimal delivery, which will enhance private sector participation.

Interestingly, the vigorous pursuit of the vision of the present administration by the minister is already yielding desired results. Since Oduah assumed duty, the ministry has commenced the full implementation of the Jonathan administration’s collective vision to transform the aviation industry aggressively. Some of the achievements of the ministry include the commissioning of three architectural firms to design simple but modern airport city concepts for the country, recertification of pilots, engineers and airport maintenance organisation, AMO, in line with Aviation Industry Procedure. It also embarked on a debt recovery drive with airline operators and developed policy initiatives to enhance growth in the aviation industry. In accordance with this policy, the ministry   mandated all airlines to join the International Air Transport Association, IATA, platform to increase transparency in the revenue collection process and enable inter-airline ticket endorsement.

The ministry also had to intervene on the cost of aviation fuel to reduce operational cost of airline operators in an effort to reduce ticket prices and made efforts to increase the number of airline operators. The aviation minister had intervened to stop the exploitative collection of N2,500 passenger service charges, PSC, by directing the operator to revert to the old rate of N1,000, because she considered the new charge as an additional burden on the Nigerian travelling public.

Other significant achievements recorded by the ministry within this period are the completion of the new control tower and commencement of installation of equipment at Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, and completion of the upgrade, remodelling and movement of the local terminal of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport to international standard. The rehabilitation of the Hajj Camps at the Malam Aminu Kano International airport was equally completed within the period.

It is noteworthy that the present administration effectively handled the resurfacing of the runway at Margaret Ekpo, Calabar; Ibadan, Maiduguri and Sokoto Airports. It went further to install low level windshear alert system, LLWAS, at Lagos airports, while those of Kano and Port Harcourt were completed in November 2011.

Apart from the projects that have been completed, there are many others which are nearing completion. They include the installation of  six Doppler weather radar system; test running of the system in Abuja, power improvement projects at Lagos, Abuja and Ilorin  as well as water improvement including construction of new boreholes and water hydrants for the runway at  the Lagos, Jos, Abuja, Owerri and Kano airports.

Besides, under state airport development, contracts for consultancy services have been awarded for the Bayelsa Airport project. The provision of the requisite infrastructural facilities in these airports has led to a steady growth in passenger traffic in most airports notably in Lagos, Abuja, Owerri, Benin, Port Harcourt and Kano.  Consequently, commercial activities have been rejuvenated. This positive trend has resulted in the general overstretch of facilities and equipment in most of the airports.

However, the gains that ought to flow from the increase in passenger turnover have either been lost or reduced to the barest minimum by contentious and often inconsistent concessionaires and concession agreements.  To address this problem, the ministry under Oduah has reviewed  all concession agreements, permits and licences that have unfavourable terms to government  and  the Nigerian public. The  repositioning of  the sector  by Oduah’s leadership, has made aviation a major contributor to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product ,GDP.  

The amiable minister’s commitment towards protecting the interest of Nigerians, especially  travellers and businesses is total.  She  demonstrated this  at the  heat of the recent wrangling between   Arik Air and  the British Airways. The issues involved were that there was   a bilateral Air Service Agreement which gives both parties 21 frequencies each.  The two British carriers, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic use all 21 frequencies, with both having seven each between Heathrow and  the Murtala Mohammed Airport,MMA, and BA having  seven between Abuja and Heathrow.

On the other hand, Arik Air, the only designated Nigerian carrier currently operating flights into the UK, operated seven daily flights into Heathrow from Lagos and until the end of October, when it operated five flights a week into Heathrow from Abuja.  The withdrawal of the  five  slots Arik had from Abuja to Heathrow at the end of October, meant that the Arik Abuja-London service had to abruptly stop, further reducing Nigeria’s share of the 21 frequencies back to only seven.

By withdrawing Arik’s slots into Heathrow from Abuja, the only Nigerian carrier currently utilising frequencies granted by the BASA was disenfranchised.

The British government claimed that the slots issue in Heathrow is an independent, commercial operation, run by Airport Co-Ordination Limited, ACL. In reality, ACL was a very clever and convenient tool for manipulating competition in Heathrow in favour of British carriers. ACL is made up of the nine biggest British carriers and together they vest slots in Heathrow in carriers, giving them ‘grandfather’ rights, whether these slots are used or not. Yet they created the impression that the slots issue in Heathrow was due to lack of capacity.  But this was not the true situation because slots are vested in carriers who use some and trade with some and use them generally for competitive manipulation as has been done to Arik.

With respect to the Arik case in particular, after BMI indicated that the slots would no longer be available as at the end of October,  it turned out that BA had bought BMI and would now take control of BMI’s slot holdings at Heathrow. Therefore, the edging out of Arik was something that BA didn’t need to do, except for their own unfair competitive advantage.

The minister perceived this matter as not about Arik Air but about the unfair treatment of a Nigerian carrier and the surreptitious undermining of the letter and spirit of the BASA between Nigeria and the UK.

The other issues border on the significant and unexplainable pricing differentials in what BA charges between Nigeria and the UK on the one hand and what they charge for similar sectors on the other. The Nigerian authorities considered the differentials as unfair exploitation of the Nigerian market. The aviation minister said the British authorities were under obligation, as far as BASA is concerned, to ensure that independent and commercial decisions taken by their corporate citizens do not infringe on bilateral agreements. She was emphatic that the federal government would not stand by and watch Nigeria’s flag carrier being unfairly treated under BASA agreement.

According to her, allowing this would mean setting an undesirable precedent that would violate the rights and privileges of Nigerian airlines by independent business concerns in other countries.

She opened discussions between the relevant Nigerian and British authorities and at the end, the matter was amicably resolved in a mutually satisfactory manner.

Unlike some other public officers who are afraid to step on toes, Oduah is a fearless and selfless leader who is always resolute in fighting for what is right and just. Indeed, she has stamped her authority on the paths her predecessors feared to tread and carved a niche for herself as a  true patriot. It was based on her sterling leadership qualities, courage and strong conviction in piloting the affairs of the aviation industry that recently earned her the 2011 Leadership Public Officer of the Year Award.

No doubt, Oduah is determined to transform the aviation industry in line with President Jonathan’s agenda. She was firm and unequivocal in her position as regards the next level to which she was taking the aviation sector. “Our medium and long -term programmes have been conceptualised… but it suffices to say that a definite emphasis on security, safety and comfort of passengers as well as attracting private investors in the aviation sector would be cardinal in our activities and programmes,” Oduah said.