Sack Gale Looms in FAAN

Fani-Kayode

Aviation workers employed by embattled former ministers of aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode and Professor Babalola Borishade, may be sacked
By George Umunnakwe
The cloud over the nation’s aviation sector is gloomy, as a sack gale looms over the troubled sector. Pointing the way, the chairman, senate committee on Federal Character and Inter-Governmental Affairs, Senator Smart Adeyemi, had in January 2008 faulted the lopsided manner of employment in federal parastatals, particularly the aviation sector. He spoke against the backdrop of petitions sent to the committee by aggrieved stakeholders complaining about the manner people termed as ‘political jobbers’ were foisted on the sector.
Quoting from section 14(sub 3) of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution which he noted was breached, Adeyemi said quite a number of agencies have not followed the law and the National Assembly is not going to fold its arms and watch things go wrong. “These files are files of ministries and agencies we are going to sanction and aviation is the worst culprit”, the senate committee chairman stated.
Perhaps this warning jolted the Minister of State in charge of Air Transportation, Felix Hassan Hyat to request for files of workers in the four parastatals in the sector. They are the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN); Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA); Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA); and Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET). Having studied the files and armed with petitions from the Air Transport Service Senior Staff Association (ATSSSAN) and the (NUATS), two notable unions in the sector, and concerned stakeholders, the minister in charge of the sector was said to have frowned at the manner a particular tribe in the country was favoured over the other tribes.
Irked by this, a directive was given to the managing director of FAAN, Richard Aiesoeobogun, and Captain Ado Sanusi of NAMA to work out modalities by which those employed in negation of the Federal Character principle will be eased out of the sector.
While this sounded like sweet music in the ears of the originator of the petitions, to those employed by Chief Femi Fani-Kayode and Babalola Borishade, both former Ministers of Aviation, it is apparently a bitter pill to swallow. And they have gone to work to avert the looming disaster.
Every weapon in their arsenal is thus been employed to blackmail and back-stab each other. Echoes of plans to throw back the sector into the dark days has invariably become the order of the day.
This came on the heels of a pronouncement made by Hyat that federal character was neglected when some parastatals in the sector carried out recruitment exercise. The minister's disclosure came weeks after the chairman, Senate Committee on Aviation, Senator Ayim Udeh, re-echoed Adeyemi’s earlier observations.
This much was exclusively reported in the March 10, 2008 edition of The Source, captioned: “Aviation: An Ethnicised Sector.” Immediately he was sworn in as the Minister of State in change of Air Transportation, Fani-Kayode, who was until that appointment was a Senior Special Assistant, Public Affairs to former President Olusegun Obasanjo had hinted of moves to carry out rationalisation in the sector. He pointed at the N19.5 billion Aviation Intervention Fund (AIF) as reason for the sacking of workers in the aviation parastatals.
Ex-President Obasanjo had after successive air disasters that plaqued the country approved the fund, but with a proviso that the over-bloated number of workers in the sector must be pruned down.
Interestingly, while the exercise which saw more than 5,000 staffers of FAAN and NAMA kiss their cherished jobs goodbye, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) faithfuls were brought in through the backdoor to fill positions which were not advertised in the national dailies, as stipulated by civil service rule: Where positions were not available, Fani-Kayode and his predecessor created directorates for such cronies to occupy. The new employees were mostly from Ekiti and Osun States, South-west Nigeria.
Irked by the creation of additional directorates, the workers feared that the sector was systematically drifting towards taken over by non-professionals, particularly from one ethnic group of the country.
Protests by workers that those employed in managerial positions (levels 15, 16 and 17) lacked the requisite qualifications could not stop the exercise; instead, an internal memo which emanated from the office of the newly created Directorate of Administration requested the urgent formal approval of the managing director for the conclusion of the exercise.
The two-page internal memo entitled: “Staff recruitment” and addressed to the managing director, FAAN and dated February 27, 2007, signed by the Director of Administration, Adedeji Adebusi, stated: “You will recall that we had concluded the recruitment process for staff into various vacant positions in the authority and forwarded same to you for your review.
“… In view of our earlier commitment to the new employees to resume on March 1, 2007, it is hereby suggested that they assume duty immediately or as soon as management completes the on-going exercise.”
This directive, The Source gathered, came against the warning of the authority’s audit department headed by Muhammed Bello, who had suggested that the management reverse some grade levels allotted to some employees.
Bello had observed that Adewakin Omotayo Ayodeji who applied for the position of General Manager, commercial and was offered appointment on grade level 17, had no relevant qualification to be placed in that department.
“This is one of the many flaws in the lopsided employment carried out in FAAN. How on earth can job- seekers recommended for supervisory positions by FAAN, suddenly be employed on top grade level 15, 16, and 17, even without prior experience in the aviation sector,” ATSSSAN in a letter dated March 3, 2007 and addressed to the minister said.
Investigations by The Source reveal that while Aiesuebogun developed cold feet to carry out rationalisation in FAAN, the directive of Tuesday, July 8, 2008 by the chairman, senate committee on Aviation, that he (Aiesuebogun) will be sacked if the planned rationsalisation is not carried out by the end of July, 2008 continues to hang like the sword of damocles on the aviation parastatal.
The charge, The Source further gathered, currently paints a gloomy picture of the environment of the airport managers. The managing director of FAAN, sources said penultimate week, has, in accordance, dusted the recommendations of the committee preparatory to fishing out those that will be laid off.
The Source can exclusively report that the exercise which will commence soon will be in three phases.
The first phase of the restructuring is exepected to consume the directorates created by Fani-Kayode and the people in such departments; the second phase will see those that were last employed shown the way out; while the third phase will see redundant personnel of the authority kissing their jobs goodbye.
“For long we have expected this restructuring and it is coming at a time their godfathers are having problems vomiting the monies they swallowed while running the sector”, a source said. g