By Chinelo Obogo
The Accident Investigation Bureau Nigeria (AIB-N) has changed its name to the National Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) following the new NSIB Act 2022 which earlier in the week was assented to by President Muhammed Buhari while the Supreme Court gazetted it on November 28, 2022.
The Bureau can now investigate serious incidents and accidents in the aviation industry, maritime, rail and road following the repeal of the AIB Act. Its Commissioner and Chief Executive, Akin Olateru, had in a presentation to the Senate Committee on Aviation at a public hearing in 2000, said multimodal has become the future of transportation accident investigation.
Olateru said,” Multimodal is widely accepted as the future of Transport Accident Investigation and the transition has always been made from the extant air accident investigating agency.
“It has become expedient that the provision of Section 29 of the Civil Aviation Act (CAA) be reviewed to establish the Nigeria Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) in a separate act to bring it up to speed with contemporary global best practices, to create a multimodal bureau of investigation for air, rail and maritime accidents. “The purpose of the NSIB is to enable the is not intended for apportioning blame, but to provide technically accurate, appropriate and timely information which can be used to implement measures to prevent re occurrences and potentially mitigate the damages caused by such accidents,” he said.