Nigeria was rated high in the last International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), Universal Security Audit Programme Continuous Monitoring Approach (USAP – CMA) on account of efforts by the Federal Government to proactively ramp measures aimed at improving aviation systems, processes, and procedures, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), said yesterday.
If not for such efforts, the civil aviation authority said the country would have slipped to a ridiculous 30 percent grading while efforts are ongoing to close identified gaps in the 71.04 percent score it pulled.
Speaking in an interview, NCAA’s Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Mr Michael Achimugu attributed Nigeria’s good outing during the ICAO audit to the painstaking efforts of the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr. Festus Keyamo (SAN) and the Acting Director General Civil Aviation, Capt Chris Najomo.
He affirmed that the leadership provided by the duo on insisting the right steps being taken pushed Nigeria to its rating.
He said if not for their leadership skills and dexterity in mobilizing manpower and resources to ensure all open gaps were closed, Nigeria would have scored 30 percent in the final outcome.
The NCAA spokesman described as mischievous comments by industry watchers that both the Minister and DG, CAA were responsible for the supposed fair rating of the country.
Though ICAO sets 75 percent as a commendable feat for its audit of countries, Achimugu said ratings at such audits are a work in progress achieved affirming that, Keyamo and Najomo assumed duties as Minister and acting director general of the CAA barely months ago and started work immediately to improve on the deteriorating infrastructures and poor remuneration of workers they met on ground.
Achimugu said: “Six months ago, we met a dilapidated industry with poor infrastructure. The security and safety issues did not start in the last six months. Had it not been for the tireless efforts of the Minister and the DGCA, what we met on the ground would not have scored 30 percent in the audit.
“Going by what was on the ground when Keyamo and Najomo assumed office, the current score is a substantially good showing, a miracle if I must say. The narrative being pushed out is just part of the larger strategy to push out Keyamo and Najomo from office. It is the handwork of paid mercenaries who have just one task.”
“The ICAO auditors praised our performance during their final briefing at the NCAA. They even mentioned a scenario where they complained about an absent infrastructure but, to their pleasant surprise, it had been made available the very next day! They said that only Nigeria moves at such a pace in the face of criticism. If the ICAO experts were pleased, who are these puff-puff experts trying to deceive the people?”
Speaking further, the Director said: “We have actual Intelligence about an alleged media team being commissioned to cause continuous chaos until Keyamo is either removed or moved elsewhere because certain people want to take back ownership of the contracts they were busy allocating themselves and family members while critical infrastructure was growing dilapidated.
“We will resist every attempt to deceive the Nigerian people. Keyamo did not become one of the starboys of this administration by doing nothing. He spent his first six months unbundling the rot in the system. Sadly, the rot runs so deep that six months are not enough to scratch the surface.
“They know this and it is why they are relentless in their fight. But the Minister and the NCAA will do everything to sanitize aviation. We are working and it is evident.
Source: The Nation
