Board Members For Aviation: Necessary For Compliance – Emmanuel Olisemeke

The recent appointment of Alhaji Umar Ganduje as the Chairman Board of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), industry experts say is a step in the right direction, but want full compliance to agencies’ Acts.

For almost 15 years, aviation agencies operated without board members despite the outcries in some quarters for the Federal Government to do so.

The agencies with boards of directors, according to the Acts setting them up, are the Nigerian Airspace Manage­ment Agency (NAMA), the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET), the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB).

When Princess Stella Oduah was appointed as the Minister of Aviation by former President Goodluck Jonathan between 2011 to 2014, the minister dissolved the boards and administered the agencies all alone in flagrant disobedience to the Acts establishing them.Also, subsequent ministers did not fare better. Within the period, the aviation industry had Mr. Samuel Ortom, Mr. OsitaChidoka and Sen. HadiSirika as ministers.

Sirika, the longest serving Minister of Aviation, 2015 till 2023, refused to inaugurate board members for his eight years period despite the appointment of board members for the agencies by former President Muhammadu Buhari and the clamour for it by the then Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Adams Oshiomhole.

Some of the appointees for the agencies included Dr. Yakubu Lame, Abdullahi Y. Gashu’a and Capt. IbraheemOlugbade for NAMA.For FAAN, Buhari had appointed OtunbaNiyi Adebayo, AkingbesoteAkinyeye, Suleiman Mohammed and Bello Babura.

NCAT had Mrs. Deborah Iliyas and Chie Simon Owhofa, while NiMET had Otunba James Faleke and Dr. Chichi Ashwe, among others.But, Sirika failed to inaugurate the boards despite their appointments in 2018 by Buhari.

Sirika had claimed that the membership of the boards, violated the provisions of the Acts which stipulated the requisite qualifications they must possess to be appointed and inaugurated. The Act of each of the agencies specifically makes provision for the composition of governing boards to run them.The intent is to ensure that there is corporate governance in the running of the agencies while deepening the quality of decisions and policy implementation.For instance, Part 2 (5) of the NCAA Act 2022 reads: 5.—(1) There is established for the Authority, a Governing Board (in this Act referred to as “the Board)”.”The Board shall consist of — (a) a Chairman; (b) one representative each, who shall be within the directorate cadre, from the Federal Ministry for the time being responsible for — (i) Aviation, and (ii) Defence; (c) the Director-General of the Authority.

May 29, 2023 Boards Appointment

Surprisingly, Sirika, who failed to inaugurate boards for his eight years period as a minister, constituted boards for the agencies a few hours until his departure on May 29, 2023.NSirika in a statement by Mr. OluseyiOdutayo, the Head of Press and Public Affairs, Ministry of Aviation, named the agencies as NCAA, FAAN, NAMA, NCAT, NiMetand NSIB.According to the statement, NCAA was chaired by Mr. Lai Are with two institutional members representing the Ministries of Aviation and Defence.

FAAN was chaired by Capt. FolaAkinkuotu, the former Managing Director of NAMA with five institutional members representing the Ministries of Aviation, Defence, Justice and Tourism and NCAT while Capt. Mukhtar Aminu and Mr. Chris Aligbe were appointed as members.NAMA had Capt. Bashir Sodangi as Chairman with four institutional members representing Ministries of Aviation, Communications and Digital Economy, Transportation and Nigerian Air Force as well as two other members to represent public interest. They were Mr. Richard Aisuebeogun and Suleiman BalarabeIsmail.NSIB was to be chaired by Engr. Ezekiel Danboyi Zang with six other members including Engr. Suraj Abdulwahab, Engr. ItaAwak, Mall. Nasiru Anas, Alhaji Sani Maida, Engr. PantaniEsugo and Lawrence FubaraAnga, SAN.

Dr. ImoroKubor was to chair the NiMet Board with four institutional members representing the Ministries of Aviation, Agriculture and Natural, Resources, Environment and Transportation with Dr. Adebayo Yinka and Prof. Aliyu Umar Tambuwal as members.Also, NCAT was chaired by Capt. Jonathan Ibrahim with institutional members, which included the Ministry of Aviation, NCAA, Nigeria’s International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) representative; representative of the aviation sector, Engr. Bashir Saad; HajiaBinta Aminu Iya representing the community; Representative of the College elected from the congregation who should be a non-teaching staff and the college registrar.

The statement added, “It should be noted that, in line with the recently promulgated and gazetted Acts of the agencies, membership of their boards are mostly institutional representations. The President, therefore, considered the requirements in approving the memberships and hopes that they will play the necessary roles in furthering the development of the sector as a new administration takes over.”

However, none of the board members was inaugurated. In fact, some of them who spoke to our correspondent, claimed that they only heard of their appointments in the media, adding that they were never contacted by Sirika.

Tinubu’s Appointment of Ganduje

While the clamour for the appointment of board members continued to gain momentum, on January 24, 2025 President Bola Tinubu, announced the appointment of Board Chairpersons for 42 government agencies, but with only FAAN in the aviation industry.

Tinubu in a statement by Mr. Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information & Strategy, announced Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje, the Chairman of APC announced as the Chairman of board for FAAN without any other board members, while other agencies were overlooked apart from NCAT, which the government had earlier announced an unnamed board chairman for in the last quarter of 2024.

Experts Reactions

Experts in the country’s aviation industry, especially the unions, have continued to crave for the appointment of board members for the agencies.

They argued that the appointment of boards would act as checks and balances on the minister, while also ensuring quick attendance to staff welfare issues and accelerated monetary approvals for the agencies’ Chief Executives (CEs).