The Federal Government’s plan to merge the aviation
and transport sectors under a fresh initiative aimed at
cutting cost of governance may have unsettled labour
unions in the ministry which have warned that such a
policy could be counter-productive.
Daily Sun learnt proposals for the merger of the two
ministries has already received President Muhammadu
Buhari’s approval who also believes that with the
nation’s dwindling revenues, it would be best to run a
lean cabinet, with fewer federal ministries, departments
and agencies of government.
“There are very strong indications that Aviation and
Transport may be merged to form a larger Transport
Ministry with a sole supervising Minister,” a source told
Daily Sun.
“The new government targets cutting down on cost of
governance and there is no better way to achieve this
than by reducing the number of ministers, their advisers,
aides, and the multiplication of duties and allowances.”
But Olayinka Olu Abioye, General Secretary, National
Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), however,
described the reasons adduced for the proposed merger
as flawed.
“The merger of the aviation and transport ministries is
not a panacea to saving cost for the government,” said
Abioye.
He described the proponents of the proposed merger as
members of a cabal who had ulterior motives of
“weakening” the aviation sector by having it submerged
under a larger Transport Ministry in order to benefit
from the inherent weakened regulations and
supervision.
“The proponents are well known aviation cabal which,
over the years, has perfected the art of cornering every
new administration, and then manipulating it towards
their own selfish agenda which they dress in national co
lours,” he said.
“They now seek to have a weak aviation leadership,
more amenable to their type of unsolicited advice (ma
nipulation). They hope to achieve this by having a larger
Transport Ministry where Aviation will be a mere but
lucrative department. We consider it most abhorring and
vexatious for anyone to posit that the weaker the bet
ter, unless of course such person stands to benefit
from the weakness.
“We therefore consider it expedient to draw attention of
Mr. President to the existence of this cabal and to
humbly advise him to keep a safe distance from them,”
he added.
Aba Ocheme, Secretary for Association of Aircraft Pilots
and Engineers in a signed statement faulted the move
to merge the two ministries, noting that it will be quite
challenging running an “efficient aviation industry under
a Ministry of Transport, which may end up with a
Minister who has to go again through tutelage on
aviation itself.
“It is our conviction that any Ministry that is self-
sustaining through its parastatals/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.”
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