In this interview, the president of Aviation Safety Round Table Initiative (ART), Mr. Gbenga Olowo who represented the former director general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr. Harold Demuren as keynote speaker at the 23rd annual conference of the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC), advises the federal government to put sound and enduring polices in place to grow the domestic airlines as well as take aero politics seriously so that Nigerian carriers on long-haul operations may survive.
Ime Akpan
Which areas in the aviation industry would you say investors can latch on?
There are very, very tangible assets in the aviation industry going from airlines to airport, to terminal building that could attract investment, provided four policy thrusts – stakeholder satisfaction, the investors, the consumer and of course safety and security -are driven by policies. Policy needs to drive these four; policy thrusts that are directed towards achieving solid objectives, objectives that we will set with strong dashboard imperatives whereby we will be able to measure. Not just run from here to here day to day but we need to launch into the future 5 or 10 years from now. Whoever occupies a position to drive policy must be measured. The regulatory framework must be stable; the political environment must be stable because a Mr. President today need not be there tomorrow for us to respect certain contracts that are signed with stakeholders. We must have stable regulatory framework, we must have stable legal framework. Regulation shouldn’t be changing the way we change our dress. A regulation that drives economics, we cannot continue to be prodigal the way balance of trade against Nigeria is handled. We need services from foreign partners but we say that those services cannot be provided by us. And that is the emphasis that I made. If we cannot run our businesses then we will not be able to manage even ourselves. If we say Nigerian aviators cannot give birth to solid and sound Nigerian airline that means maybe Nigerians shouldn’t be our governor, Nigerian shouldn’t be our president, Nigerian shouldn’t be our legislator. But as long as Nigerian remains our president, commissioners and governors and local government chairmen, and congressmen, then Nigerians are available to run airlines for us. We have all the solid resources, provided the policy thrusts are followed.
In what ways should the federal government ensure consistent policies?
It does not matter the government of the day, the policy has to be there; we must plan into the feature. One of the presenters was talking about planning to the year 2030. That kind of plan must be there and it does not matter who is president today or aviation minister tomorrow, that must be followed. And that is why I have always been advocating that the civil aviation authority is the authority for aviation. I want the power of the ministry reduced to the very minimum because most of the time people in the ministry are political appointments. They are politicians who represent the face of aviation to government but they don’t understand. Somebody is from women affairs as the permanent secretary in aviation, how can she understand aero politics? So we need to reduce that ministry to the barest minimum and allow CAA to be in charge. In the US, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is under the department of transport and FAA controls even the airspace. Here we have all the big, big, offices that are uncontrollable. Rather than work together they are working in different direction.
What are your thoughts on aero politics as it affects Nigerian airlines on long-haul operations?
Well, aero politics is politics, and if you look at the grammar of politics, the grammar of politics basically addresses the area of influence which is very important in politics. Our people in government, especially the ministry of aviation, and the civil aviation authority must be able to influence a lot of things with our carriers. When our carriers approach them, they must not see them as a distraction. For instance, if we give birth to a national carrier tomorrow, and the ministry or the civil aviation authority does not follow the objectives to the latter, and they just say you are designated to China or to London without influencing the way things happen at the other end with government influence, that airline won’t survive. We heard during the conference the slot that Nigeria Airways was using, how Arik couldn’t get it on time. Arik as a carrier is a player coming to compete with their own carrier, so there will be unseen resistance, despite what you call it anti-competitive rule. But the influence of our government is vital; number one, politics involves power, also it involves authority. Both power and authority we should not throw away in politics. What is power? When Nigeria Airways (aircraft) was grounded in London our former head of state Abacha grounded British Airways (aircraft) here; that is power and authority. So, basically politics is politics and the elements of politics we must look at it even in business. We shouldn’t just put our own son on the stage and back out and then begin to say our son is weak or bad. Yes, if he is weak and bad we have a duty to make sure that he is strong. And all the elements of that weakness, Nigerian airlines that are there have been talking about them, they are numerous. And how far has the government gone with all those issues, fuel taxes, airport problems, airspace problem? We heard at the Aviation Round Table last quarterly meeting how there are times that the pilot is flying on his own. The radar covers everywhere but there is no communication, so the pilot is flying blind. How far have we resolved that problem? So government policy must drive objectivity and objectivity must be measured.
