By Chinelo Obogo, Lagos
Chairman of Tropical Arctic Logistics (TAL) Emperor Baywood Ibe, has urged the Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Captain Musa Nuhu, to immediately convene a meeting of domestic operators to understand and resolve the difficulties airline owners are experiencing.
Speaking to Daily Sun, Ibe said that despite the promise of the Federal Government to create an enabling environment for businesses to thrive, some government agencies like the NCAA are making it difficult for domestic airlines to survive.
He said the refusal of the NCAA to renew TAL’s Air Operators Certificate for over one year has nearly killed the business and that many of its workers have been forced to leave they couldn’t afford their salaries. He advised that rather than take a ‘straight jacketed’ approach to regulation, there needs to be a middle ground where the agency and operators can meet and resolve issues preventing business growth.
‘We have operated for two years and before you are licensed to start operations, it means that you must have done your due diligence and gone through the procedure to even be awarded the initial AOC. It is expected that a company that operated and flew for two years without near miss, crash or operational default, it is expected that the company is new and as such, to renew a license should not take one year. The DG needs to take a more pragmatic approach to these things. Why would an AOC renewal take one year? We are talking about the ease of doing business in Nigeria, yet my operations have been grounded for more than one year. For an investor, this is very frustrating because you are throwing Nigerian workers out of business. I don’t want to join issues with the DG is that when a situation like this comes up, as a good administrator, what you should do is to hear from the company. They should think about safeguarding the investment of Nigerians,’ he stated.
‘Many of NCAA staff are persons who have worked with operators like us so it doesn’t mean that they are more experienced. I advise DG to engage with operators directly and find out what their challenges are and see how to meet them halfway. It should not be a win or lose situation. As a regulator, you should hold the hands of your operator because if the operators are not there anymore, then there is nothing to regulate. We are providers of employment and we have borrowed so much money from the bank to do this. My COO is very frustrated. He has over 42 years of experience in aviation, so he is not a rookie. He is not some guy that you can dismiss with a wave of the hand and toss around.
‘My core business is oil and gas and in the sector, the DPR is our regulator. We don’t go through such frustration from DPR because they would hold your hand. Even when you have shortfalls, they try to find a way to solve it and not to compound your problems. I advise the DG to invite operators and find out what the challenges are.
‘The issues that the NCAA raised are not germane. We applied for extension 47 days before the expiration of the AOC but we were turned down yet we have evidence that others who applied for the same extension were given. When we started the renewal process, we had met all the requirements but for some reason, we were denied. They are talking about post holders, if for one year you are not operating, who would not resign? We had post holders who were there and we were paying them salaries but for one year they couldn’t operate. At a point, the company didn’t have money anymore to pay the post holders, so they decided to resign. Since February 2020 till date, we have not earned any revenue, so it is very frustrating.
‘If I were the DG, I would have invited the Chief Operating Officer (COO) to ask him what the issues are. We want a meeting with the DG where we can table these issues. We are members of the AON but we have not officially submitted any report to the body but members exchange views all the time and TAL is not the only company venting.
‘We appreciate the fact the NCAA is working hard to ensure the safety of the skies but we are more safety-conscious than they imagine we are because no one will want his plane to crash. We can work together so that I will be in business and you would also be in business. The point is that we have been frustrated out of business. They are almost killing TAL and everybody has left. The ripple effect is that every worker that has lost their jobs has affected the lives of four or five persons. If we want to go through the process of proper auditing, NCAA can never exonerate themselves from a deliberate attempt to frustrate us. NCAA is playing by the books and no one is against that. But is there anything like waiver or extension? There is no operator who has gone through this process.
‘You don’t have to kill companies because you want to regulate. If you come with that mindset, nobody wins. The NCAA has an analogue system in this day and age. They keep asking for manual folders and I see it as a way of trying to frustrate us. We have only one aircraft and we were planning to bring in more and as we get bigger, we planned to bring in more people. As an investor, I feel so pained and I won’t advise anyone to come to Nigeria and do aviation business. The DG worked in Canada and I also worked there. In Canada, the government would hold your hands and help you so your business does not fail,’ Ibe said.
Speaking on one of the issues that the agency had against the operator, Ibe said their post holder has military experience but that the NCAA refused to accept him.
‘We had someone from the Nigerian Navy as a post holder but NCAA told us he is not qualified. So what they are telling the establishment is that the experience of a person who handled an aircraft in the Navy does not count. The anger of the staff at NCAA is that my COO comes to challenge some of their procedures and they got offended because they were challenged. The DG has worked in Canada just like my COO has worked abroad for decades as an engineer and pilot, so he can’t throw his experience away. There should always be a middle ground.
‘When your staff comes to lay complaints to you about operators, as a DG, you do not take everything that your staff tells you hook, line and sinker. Anyone can write a report and I am not there to defend myself. I have on my own made efforts to seek an audience with the DG because I needed to discuss the issue of TAL with him but I have never been successful. As a matter of fact, as a new DG, he should convene a forum of business owners to know what the challenges are.
‘In oil and gas, when you have a new director, you would want to meet with business owners to dinner to share ideas. But in aviation, regulators are killing the business. It is not supposed to be so. Since he resumed as DG, he has never met with business owners. I have initiated calls several times to schedule a meeting with him so that we can talk but it has never been successful. You don’t even need the business owners to make contact with you, at the resumption of office, you should be the one to take the initiative to meet with them,’ Ibe said.