Stakeholders Condemn Appointments In Aviation Parastatals, Seek Reversal

Aviation stakeholders in the country have criticised the recent appointments and changes recently made by the aviation minister Hadi Sirika in various agencies.

The chairman National Union Of Air Transport Employees FAAN branch, Comrade Shola Idowu said the appointment lacked credibility because most of the re-appointed directors were overaged and has nothing tangible to offer the organizations.

Idowu noted that the appointments were also a means to a corrupt end as the minister in his letter of appointment to some said those appointed into the ministry will be receiving their salaries from the office where they were pulled out.

“How can you work in the ministry and salaries be paid by the agencies this is broad daylight robbery and other prompt tactics to bring the organisation down because salaries issues will come up”.

For Comrade Olayinka Abioye the immediate past national secretary of NUATE, for a very long time, workers in the various parastatals have condemned in very strong terms, various attempts and actual forceful implosion of external bodies on the parastatals in such brutal manner that tends to stunt career growth of the ever persevering members of staff.According to him, this imposition is most annoying given the fact that this same Minister on coming to power was the one who complained and criticised the implosion of external persons and went ahead to set up a committee to look into it.
“The aftermath was a reduction in their numbers which brought a sigh of relief to staff only for the same Minister, under the cloak of darkness, return this time with venomous fangs. Employing all manners of people into virtually all the agencies without following processes or procedures.

“Just a few days ago, we apprehended copies of yet another annoying document detailing reappointments and deployment of personnel into our agencies.”He added, “More shocking is the fact that out of 33 appointments, the Ministry felt it was normal and in tandem with their hidden agenda to appoint only 9 southerners with only one slot to the entire South East, which had complained in the last seven years of marginalisation and disguised apartheid”.

Abioye said these appointments can not be justified in anyway as there was no rationale for making 33 appointments and giving a section of so-called One Nigeria, 9 positions.

“This not only smacks of gross irresponsibility on whoever made such appointments, but it also shows how divided and devious we are in making national plans. Aviation cannot grow with these tendencies”

Abioye warned that care must be taken in order not to create the impression that the Ministers plan was to kill the industry adding that a typical example was the appointment of someone into the Directorship in NCAA, a political office probably to help in perfecting the issuance of AOC for the National Carrier, since their Principal now believed that starting an airline can be done in four months”

“If we condemn this exercise enough, coupled with other unwholesome tendencies that could detail our path to growth already ongoing, and our Unions are united to confront this evil starring us all in the face and those critical”

Abioye urged stakeholders to raise their voice and not to sit on the fence as they expect a reversal adding that it was one of the fraudulent systems in the polity

He described a situation whereby workers posted to the ministry getting their from agencies as a gross abuse of financial regulations since the staff were no longer with the agencies.

To avoid this type of scenario, Abioye suggested that since the ministry which gave them new political employment also has a budget it makes more financial sense that these jobbers were paid by the ministry rather than their former employees adding that will help the system function unhindered and more financially unencumbered.