Aviation shake-up: Union commends FG, seeks complete sack management teams

The National Union of Air Transport Employees on Tuesday commended the Federal Government for the shake-up that affected the headship of aviation agencies, urging it to go further and carry out a complete overhaul of their management teams.
The General Secretary of NUATE, Olayinka Abioye, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos.
NAN reports that the Federal Government had on Monday replaced the chief executives of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency and the Accident Investigation Bureau.
Also replaced were the heads of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology and the Nigerian Meteorological Agency.
Under the new arrangement, Captain Fola Akinkuotu took over from Emma Anasi as the Managing Director of NAMA, while at NIMET, Prof. Sani Abubakar Mashi replaced Dr. Anthony Anuforom as the Director General.
Also, Captain Abdulsalam Mohammed took over from Captain Samuel Caulcrick as the Rector of NCAT and Dr. Felix Abali was replaced by Akinola Olateru as the Commissioner of the AIB.
Abioye said the removal of the four aviation chiefs should have been followed with the removal of top management staff of these agencies.
Abioye said: “The union is still expecting a full blown change starting from the top management of the four agencies that had their heads recently changed.
“They are also involved in the critical decisions that had necessitated their boss’ removal.”
Abioye said that the appointment of the new heads for the agencies would enable the sector to be re-engineered for better performance in 2017.
He said: “Our attention has been drawn to the appointment of new chief executives of four of the parastatals in the aviation sector.
“We want to commend the Federal Government for taking a bold initiative in attempting to reposition this sector.
“However, we expect a complete overhaul of the system.
“Given our experience from past appointments, we will want to give these new appointees the benefit of the doubt.
“In doing this, we also want to welcome them with open minds while the union looks forward to working with them.”
Abioye pledged NUATE’s support to the chief executives, adding that their successes would be of immense benefit to all stakeholders in the industry.
The union official advised the new heads to work together with all the stakeholders in the industry in repositioning the sector.