As aviation stakeholders clamored for an expert to be a new minister, an industry consultant and the CEO of Belujane Konsult, Chris Aligbe, said that for the aviation to development and grow as a viable economic entity, it is not necessary that the Minister of Aviation should be aviation professional.
Aligbe noted that the Sector needs a person that can function like an entrepreneur who has business sense to transform the airports and make them sources of generating wealth, adding that the places where professionals are needed are the aviation agencies.
“I totally agree that professionals should head the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the other agencies. But a Minister of Aviation is a person that should know how to grow the non-aeronautical revenue of the airports; somebody that will bring business into the airports so that the sector can contribute to the nation’s GDP. In some countries non aeronautical revenue generated by their airports is about 70 per cent compared to aeronautical revenue,” Aligbe said.
He recalled that in the defunct Nigerian Airways Limited (NAL), the managing directors that turned the airline round were non-aviation professionals, adding that pilots, engineers and others in the industry hold tight to their skills and are efficient in their fields but may not be efficient in transforming the industry into a viable economic resource, which is the trend in the rest of the world.
However, Last Saturday, aviation stakeholders consisting of the Airline Operators of Nigeria ( AON), Aviation Roundtable, and professional unions called on President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure he appoints a professional with technical background and interest of the sector as minister of aviation.
The stakeholders in a press conference held in Lagos said they had written a letter to Jonathan to express the seriousness of their agitation, which they said was non negotiable.
While addressing journalists, the convener of the meeting, the chairman of Airline Operators of Nigeria, Captain Nogie Meggison, said there could be no better time to appoint an aviation professional as Minister than now, given the enormity of challenges in the sector.
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