By February, the newly appointed Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Captain Musa Shuaibu Nuhu, will take over the management of the regulatory agency.
President Muhammadu Buhari had submitted his name to the Senate for confirmation.
In his request from the Senate for Nuhu’s conformation, Buhari had said, “Captain Musa Shuaibu Nuhu is a reputable airline Pilot and Aviation Safety Expert with well over 30 years of cognate working experience in the Aviation Industry.”
Reports indicate that Nuhu ventured into the private sector for 10 years as an airline Captain, Safety Officer and Chief Pilot. He was Technical Assistant to the then Minister of State, Aviation Sen. Hadi Sirika before his appointment as the Representative of Nigeria on ICAO Council.
In addition to Airline Transport Pilot Licence, Captain Nuhu holds the prestigious International Aviation MBA Degree from Concordia University Montreal, Canada.
He also obtained several professional and managerial certificates in Aviation Safety, Aircraft Accident Investigation, Audit, Quality Management Systems amongst others.
After his service at ICAO, Nuhu is back in the country to take up his new assignment. THISDAY spoke to industry insiders on what they expect the new Director General would do in order to sustain and improve on safety standard in the industry and also for him to put the agency on a higher pedestal.
The CEO of Aero Contractors, Captain Ado Sanusi spoke to THISDAY and said the new Director General should move towards the total overhaul of the agency.
“We expect total overhaul of NCAA so that the agency would become more efficient and make airlines save money so that they will survive. Oversight should be done in a more efficient manner in order to help airlines save their resources,” Sanusi advised.
He said Nuhu should bring up personnel licencing to be in conformity with international standards and he should also look at test procedures for engineers, pilots, dispatchers, cabin crew so that they would be in tandem with what is obtained globally.
Sanusi said airport licensing is critically important as well as that of service providers.
“He should ensure that most airports and service providers are licensed. There should be more oversight on aviation fuel marketers and distributors. NCAA should develop more regulation to check the activities of fuellers because of the sensitivity of their product. How they access and distribute the product should be monitored in a more efficient manner,” Sanusi said.
Speaking in the same vein, the Director of Engineering, Ibom Air, Lookman Animaseun, said there were issues that lend themselves to arguments and debates in the last administration but things seem to have improved significantly in the agency; so Nuhu is expected to make a statement as he takes over the management of the agency.
“From the people’s perspective of what happened in the last administration in NCAA, there are indications that things have improved from what it used to be, so we expect the new Director General to make a statement as he takes over the agency. I know he has the capacity to transform the agency,” he said.
Animaseun, also made reference to Nuhu’s invaluable work experience and expose, noting that he is coming to NCAA with bountiful resume; so it is expected that his wealth of experience be brought to bear on his new job.
“There are two key areas we expect the new NCAA Director General to work on. He should stop the infrastructural decay at the airports. This is affecting flight operations and security. He should intervene, especially at the Lagos airport, which is porous in terms of security.
“He should also be on top of government agencies and monitor them as part of his oversight function. Many past Director General neglected this aspect of oversight, except Dr Harold Demuren.
“Nuhu should institute quarterly briefing, addressing stakeholders on what is going on and what he plans to do. He should not neglect the training of NCAA personnel, especially the statutory training prorammes,” Amisnaseun said.
On welfare of NCAA workers, the President of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Comrade Ben Nnabue, told THISDAY that the new Director General should approve the agency’s conditions of service (CoS).
“The conditions of service of NCAA have not been approved. The new DG must ensure that the new COS is approved and implemented immediately. There should be the immediate implementation of the new minimum wage and consequential adjustments and more importantly with the foreseen ‘ Future of work’ (Artificial Intelligence and robotics) and it’s global consequences, NCAA should commence digital literacy program, We need to resume periodic training and re training of NCAA workers,” he said.
THISDAY
