FG mulls merger of aviation with transport ministry

… unions kick

The Federal Government may be planning to merge the aviation ministry with transport ministry soon in order to run it cost effectively, Businessday learnt on Wednesday.

Some aviation workers under the aegis of National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) and Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN) revealed Wednesday that “some persons with selfish interests” may have prevailed on the Presidency to merge the sector with transport with “a view to perpetrat- ing their selfish with.”

Olayinka Abioye and Oba Ochene, both general secretary of both associations, said when it was merged at two occasions under former President Olusegun Obas- abjo, the nation regretted it.

“It is instructive to state here Mr. President that on the two occasions the ministries were merged under President Obasanjo due to ill advice from this same cabal under different pseudonyms, such were reversed to status quo when it was discovered that such decision was not only retrogressive but also capable of fur-ther destroying the sector,” they said.

They said that “the fundamental problem in some of our ministries is corruption and bad leadership arising from  failure to do the right thing in the appointment of profes- sionals to run such ministries,” saying the ministries were easier to manage as they were, than when merged to make it unwieldy and complex.

“With the level of unemployment in the country, it beats ones imagination that some group of people will be advising government to shrink the ministries and thus narrow employment opportunities for deserving Nigerians.

“It is our conviction that any ministry that is self sustaining through its parastat-als/agencies and has the capacity to contribute to the national treasury should not be merged but rather should be structured if there is need to do so, with a view to strengthening the institutions for effective and efficient service delivery,” they said.

According to the workers, the initiators of this plan as presented before the president are only seeking to have “a weak aviation leadership, that can be manipulated. They hope to achieve this by having a larger transport ministry where avia- tion will be mere but lucrative
department.

“We consider it most ab- horring and vexatious for anyone to posit that the weaker the better, unless of course such person stands to benefit from the weakness.”

They are of the opinion that aviation cannot run efficiently under a larger ministry.

“How efficient can avia- tion run under a Ministry of Transport, which may end up with a minister who has to go again through tutelage on aviation itself, perhaps under the cabal, as they usually find their way round an innocent non-professional minister who must seek professional advice, then getting the ad- vice that have selfish agenda.

SADE WILLIAMS