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 Daily Independent Online.
* Friday,July 16, 2004.
I will revoke more licences,
says Yuguda
Minister of Aviation, Mallam
Isa Yuguda, is a man of great guts. He is a former managing director of
Inland Bank Plc and one-time minister of state in the Ministry of
Transport before he was given his present portflio. A graduate of Ahmadu
Bello University, Zaria and University of Jos where he obtained his bachelor’s
degree and MBA respectively, Yuguda holds strong views on virtually all subjects under the sun
and he expresses those views with great vigour. Since he became Aviation
Minister in July last year, he has been involved in one controversy or
the other. During his national ministerial press briefing in Abuja last
Tuesday, Yuguda spoke with Aviation Correspondent, Rotimi Durojaiye and
Aviation Reporter, Shola Ogunode, on a wide range of issues,
concerning his ministry. Excerpts
.
What
is the budget of your ministry this year, and can you please give us the
breakdown?
Four billion was approved for the
Ministry of Aviation. N1.2
billion is for the rehabilitation of the airport in Lagos, N3 billion is
for the total radar project and the remaining balance is for the
rehabilitation of Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA), Kano.
The
reports of the management consultants and other committees to audit the
operations of the ministry’s parastatals have been submitted and we
understand that a number of people and organisations have been found
guilty. Will the ministry hand over the culprits to the police for
prosecution, or what steps are you taking to punish them to serve as a
deterrent?
It is true that we have received the
reports and they have been approved by Mr. President and I want to assure
you that all persons found guilty of committing any offence against the
system will be prosecuted accordingly. For those that are expected to pay
back money, either to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) or
the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) or the Nigerian Civil
Aviation Authority(NCAA), we have set up a committee and for the fact
that we will not want their businesses to crumble, we have entered into
agreements with some of them so that they can pay back over a period of
time, but with the warning that immediately they finish the payments, we
will never allow them to be debtors again to the agencies. Like I have
said before, all those who have committed offences against the system
will be brought to book. We will follow the processes of ensuring that we
do that.
About
four months ago, two airlines, IRS and Slok, had their licences revoked
for violating certain regulatory procedures. While that of IRS had been
returned, Slok is still being penalised. Can you please tell us when the
licence of Slok will be released?
Like I have always said, I know this is
one plus the end time that I have answered questions on this issue. It is
my own responsibility as the number one regulator of the aviation
industry in Nigeria to ensure that rules and regulations are complied
with, and to ensure that the laws that govern the aviation industry are
complied with. I am doing my job, I have to do it, because I have been
appointed to do it, I have done it, and I will not stop doing it as long
as remain in the Ministry of Aviation. If any airline breaches
regulations and poses a threat to safety and security of the travelling
public, I will not hesitate to revoke its licence. It is unfortunate that
we were all witnesses to how the aviation industry was mismanaged in the
past. We were all living witnesses to the carelessness that operators in
the industry had subjected the traveling public to. We also witnessed in
the past how the laws of this country were violated by the rich and the
mighty without being brought to book. The law is not only meant for the
poor, it is also meant for the rich and everybody in the country. If you
breach the law, the law will break you.
Precisely,
what is the fate of this airline now?
I have revoked the licence of Slok
airline and I have explained to the Nigerian public why I did that. There
was a serious breach of safety and security by the airline.
For
many years now, the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT),
Zaria, has not been graduating students. Students now spend six years to
complete a programme scheduled to last only 18 months. Some students of
the college even protested recently, asking the school authorities to
refund their money. What is the ministry doing about the plight of the
school and its students?
Training in the college is carried out
in four-well-structured schools namely: Flying School (FS), Aircraft
Maintenance Engineering School (AMES), Aeronautical Telecommunications
Engineering School (ATES) and Air Traffic Services and Communications
School (ATS/COMS). All the other schools, except the flying school, have
been graduating students. If you go to Zaria, before we were able to
reactivate some aircraft, the past administrations of the college bought
about 20 aircraft and none of them has ever flown. They have been there
for years. Nobody cared to provide the facilities for them to operate. I
visited some of the unfortunate students last Thursday to console them
and to tell them my efforts to make sure that they graduate soon. For six
years, they have suffered a lot of set backs, they have not been able to
graduate. But now, the government has approved money for us, we have
rehabilitated about four aircraft now, they are flying regularly on the
single engine. We have also acquired a twin engine aircraft from a
company in Ghana, and right now, the aircraft is in the school, they will
start their twin engine training and I have given the rector the next six
weeks to graduate the students, and I hope she will be able to do that.
Though it is a big challenge, but I hope she will be able to make it. It
is not their own making that they did not graduate, it is a fault of me
and you because we didn’t work towards making that school good and we
have to make it good. We have to make it the best in Africa. It has to
return to its past glory. It is the only one of its kind in West and
Central Africa. If you have the opportunity to visit the college, from
the environment, you will know that it is back to life.
Don’t
you think that FAAN should be allowed to source for funds from the
capital market or the banks to complete the international terminal for
the Port Harcourt International Airport instead of the present Build,
Operate and Transfer (BOT) contract agreement you have with a contractor,
considering the fact that such an arrangement on terminal one in Lagos
has not been a successful story?
There is no project that does not have
its own peculiarities. At the same time, on project implementation, you
may, because of the peculiarities of the project and the peculiarities of
the problems you encounter, realise that set-back can come up. In the
process of implementing the BOT arrangement in Lagos, some problems
arose, concerning the contractor, who was earlier given the contract and
when a new contractor came on board, the concept of the project changed.
So, this affected so many other things, especially the architectural,
electrical and mechanical drawings. Besides, the contractor also
encountered some problems, which he inherited from the original
contractor. This made it possible for a lot of problems to arise, which
made it impossible for us to achieve the targeted date of that project.
Like I have said recently, we have discussed with the new contractor, we
have agreed on a time table and we have all agreed that if there is any
breach of the terms of the agreement we have entered into with him, we
will revoke the contract. So, right now, from all indications, work is
going on, and I hope he will keep on to the terms of the agreement. I can
assure you that if he fails, he had better forget BOT. For the fact that
we have suffered set-back on the Lagos BOT project does not mean that we
are going to fail in Port Harcourt. It is not the same group of persons
that are working on both projects. They are different groups of people,
their capacities are different, their focuses are different . Government
has various ways of rating contractors, who apply for these jobs. I can
assure you that once the government accepts to build the new Port
Harcourt terminal on a BOT basis, we have to make sure that we get the
best. We have entered into an agreement, which will bring about an
immediate result. Like you said FAAN should source for money from the
banks. It should ordinarily not engage itself in a business which
ordinarily the private sector in Nigeria should partake in. That is why
the government is removing itself from all those businesses that the
private sector operators can partake in so that they can invest and run
it and the money that has been hitherto used in these agencies will be
devoted to the priority sectors of the economy, particularly security,
education and health and the likes. I want to assure you that if the
government goes into a deal with any contractor on the Port Harcourt
terminal, we have to make sure that it is first class and he has to
deliver in line with the agreements signed.
Efforts
to partner with the South African Airways (SAA) collapsed recently on the
issue of a national carrier, and perhaps, that is why you are dealing
with Virgin Atlantic Airways now. Should Virgin Atlantic refuse to grant
the Nigerian government 10 per cent equity in its airline, as was the
case in SAA, would you consider the option everyone is talking about, the
Nigerian Global project, to which many insinuations have been made
concerning your image?
This new arrangement will not fail and
if it fails, we have other alternatives. We are working hard to ensure
that it does not fail. On the Nigerian Global project, when I assumed office last year, I was
asked by Mr. President to investigate the company and I discovered that
the Nigerian Global Airline has a fake certificate of incorporation with
the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). I personally investigated the
company at the CAC and discovered that it was fictitious. This company
flew an aircraft into Nigeria in our national colours and used that fake
certificate to obtain an Air Transport License (ATL) from the Ministry of
Aviation. Those behind the project are playing pranks.
The
Skypower Aviation Handling Company (SAHCOL) is the only surviving
subsidiary of the former Nigeria Airways Limited. What are you doing to
revive other ailing subsidiaries of the airline?
Let me use this opportunity to correct
an erroneous impression about SAHCOL. SAHCOL does not belong to Nigeria
Airways and also Skypower Catering and Hotel Limited. The registration
was only completed last week. It was owned earlier by some private people
in Nigeria Airways. Nigeria Airways breached all that makes it a
responsible company that was why it collapsed. We are registering it now so that we can prepare it
for privatisation and its subsidiaries. We have to re-register it to give
it back to its rightful owners. That was a formality that was supposed to
have been followed. The C02 -C07 forms were not filled by the Federal
Government or Nigeria Airways. So, that is why the legal adviser to the
ministry had to complete the re-registration last week. Nigeria Airways
broke all ethics on how to run a company and that was why it collapsed.
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