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THE Minister of State for Air Transportation, Mr. Felix Hyat, has said that the Federal Government‘s directive to aviation agencies to relocate to Abuja, is in the best interest of the industry.
THE Minister of State for Air Transportation, Mr. Felix Hyat, has said that the Federal Government‘s directive to aviation agencies to relocate to Abuja, is in the best interest of the industry.
Hyat, who stated this in Abuja at a News Agency of Nigeria forum, said that the decision was aimed at bringing the agencies closer to the seat of government.
"The decision was taken in the best interest of the sector to push the industry forward,‘‘ Hyat said.
The minister said that he was surprised that some critics were linking the relocation order to air crashes that had occurred in the past.
He said, 'All those air crashes we had in the past took place while the parastatal agencies were in Lagos, so how can an issue of relocation be linked to air disasters?"
"I find it very abnormal and unthoughtful for somebody to say that. You have a regulator, who is staying far away from the seat of government.
"A regulator who goes to the National Assembly on a frequent basis, who liaises with security agencies in the nature of work he does, who needs to interact with the supervisory minister and that person is hundreds of miles away."
Hyat also said that the revocation of the licence of Sosoliso Airlines was unjustifiable.
He said that the closure of the airline was an overreaction to the spate of crashes that had occurred in the aviation industry.
Nigeria experienced two air crashes within two months in 2005. Some 117 people were killed in a Bellview Airline crash at Lisa, in Ogun State, on October 22, while another 103 lives were lost in the Sosoliso plane crash in Port Harcourt on December 10.
'I personally find fault in the way the issues concerning the Sosoliso plane crash were handled.
'To me it is not a justifiable reason to revoke the licence of the airline completely. Rather, we should have subjected it to real effective audit to be sure the rest are airworthy," Hyat said.
The minister noted that if every airline that had an accident was closed down, then 'you will wake up one day and find out that all the airlines have been closed down."
It never happens anywhere in the world, so to me I thought that it was overreaction at that painful time,‘‘ Hyat said.