Posted by By BASHIR UMAR, Abuja on
The Senate Monday passed a motion asking President Olusegun Obasanjo to sack the Minister of Aviation, Dr. Babalola Borisade over the incessant incidents of plane crashes in Nigeria.
The Senate Monday passed a motion asking President Olusegun Obasanjo to sack the Minister of Aviation, Dr. Babalola Borisade over the incessant incidents of plane crashes in Nigeria.
After a long deliberation on aviation mishaps that had bedeviled the country of recent, the Senate also resolved that total overhaul of the industry must be undertaken, while Nigerians turn to almighty God with prayers to rescue them from future air crashes.
During the 3-hour plenary session, Senator Yari Gandi and Senator Joy Emordi expressed the view that the Minister of Aviation must bear the responsibility of what has been happening in the aviation industry of recent, since "he is there to oversee everybody and everything on behalf of the country."
The Senate later adopted the motion calling for the removal of the minister, pointing out that "if anybody deserves punishment, he (the minister) must be the first one before his permanent secretary or a director who are currently on suspension."
Other lapses in the aviation industry, according to the Senate are indiscipline and lack of maintenance culture as observed by Senator Aruwa and Senator Arthur Nzeribe, who both said that the aviation industry in Nigeria epitomized corruption from top to the bottom.
On pilots, the Senate believed that some of them were indisciplined, revealing that "the Sosoliso aircraft pilot was informed that there was a weather storm in Port Harcourt, but he insisted on landing instead of diverting to Benin or any other convenient place."
In his contribution, Senator Patrick Osakwe described the commercial planes in Nigeria as "moving coffins" and called for a law disallowing aircraft above 10 years to be brought into Nigeria.
But Senator Aruwa, who is an aviation expert countered that " an aircraft is as good or bad as its maintenance programme, because an aircraft engine is like new whenever it is serviced according to the rule."
Senator David called for serious supervision of the aircraft operators by the Senate Committee on Aviation with a view to ascertaining that "they stop toying with people's lives, because they think they can manage instead of maintaining aircraft which is never the case."
While calling on Mr. President to sanitize the aviation industry with necessary dispatch, the Senator also called on the Aviation Minister "to vacate that seat to show his remorse, apologize to Nigerians and sympathize with the families of the bereaved."