Festus Keyamo, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, has stated that everyone professes to be an expert in aviation-related subjects, including the puff-puff sellers at the airport.
When Keyamo appeared on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday, he revealed this information regarding the action taken by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authorities regarding the health status of Dana Airline.
The NCAA subsequently canceled Dana Airlines’ Air Operator Certificate due to safety concerns, as previously reported by Wakadaily News.
The airline ban occurred less than 48 hours after a Dana Air aircraft (MD82 with registration marks 5SN-BKI) carrying 83 passengers and crew members had a runway incursion on Tuesday while landing at the domestic wing of the Murtala Muhammad International Airport Lagos.
Speaking about the backlash that followed the penalty, Keyamo clarified that he never wrote to the airline but rather gave the NCAA instructions to do so.
He went on to say that there would be “flying coffins” in the sky if the nation’s aviation sector’s aircraft are not thoroughly inspected.
He said, “The last thing I want to do is deceive Nigerians about the state of health of commercial aircraft.
“There was an audit two years ago that confirmed the unhealthy status of Dana aircraft, and then at some points, something happened, and I said, go back and review it and see how thorough was that before I allowed them to fly again.
“The problem with this sector is that we have people who claim to be experts everywhere. Everybody is an aviation expert. People who have sold puff puff at the airport will tell you that they have been at the airport for a long time, so they are aviation experts.
“And I have challenged them over and over again since I came to office to come on TV if they have ideas and better ways to run the aviation sector and debate with me because what we have done since we came was to set clear priority areas for ourselves,.”
The minister has previously urged a public discussion on aviation-related issues with a few specialists.
Keyamo visited the Toulouse factory of Airbus, a leading aircraft manufacturer, on March 14, while in France.
Some stakeholders claimed that Keyamo had become an Airbus sales agent after seeing a video of him touring the facility go viral.
However, Keyamo retaliated in a statement, declaring that the federal government would do everything within its power to make leasing aircraft for local businesses easy.
He also lamented the criticism leveled at the “experts,” who, in his opinion, had made no advancements to the sector.
In response to inquiries about his plans to stop the anomalies in the industry, Keyamo stated that there was systemic deep collusion and that the cleaning process would begin and go on until the issues were fixed.
“The cleansing process is within the system because you see regulators at times buying big houses and driving big cars. Regulators who are supposed to be public servants.
“They endanger the lives of Nigerians by cutting corners. Certain people, among them, falsify reports, checks, and training, among others.
“The commentaries by so-called aviation experts since yesterday is a system of corruption that we are fighting and we are going to bring it down within the sector. This sector is one of the most corrupt that I have seen because people bypass regulations,” he maintained.
