AON wants Najomo’s confirmation as NCAA DG, lauds transformative leadership

Abdullateef Fowewe

The Airline Operators of Nigeria has called for the confirmation of Captain Chris Najomo as the substantive Director-General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority.

Speaking at the International Air Transport Conference, the AON Vice President, Dr Allen Onyema and the spokesperson of the Airline Owner’s Body, Professor Obiora Okonkwo praised Najomo’s leadership, highlighting significant improvements in safety and operational efficiency since his appointment in 2023.

The leaders while passing a vote of confidence on Najomo emphasised that his administration has created a conducive environment for domestic airlines, making the NCAA one of the best regulatory bodies globally.

AON leaders commended Tinubu for appointing Najomo and the Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo stating that their leadership have bolstered Nigeria’s dignity in the global aviation community.

In his remark, the AON VP, Allen said,  “This is a man who has come into the industry; he is not a novice at all. This is one of Nigeria’s finest pilots ever created under the sun, quote me, Captain Chris Najomo is one of the most proficient pilots under the sun not just Nigeria. He has paid his dues.

“Not only that, he has also paid his dues in airline management, don’t forget that he was once the Managing Director of an airline. So he knows the pains of the operators. On the other side too you need to go to NCAA. When you go to the NCAA today, the people are full of smiles because of Najomo. This is the kind of thing nobody should pray to lose. If we take it for granted we will get our fingers burnt.

“The AON of which I am a leader is affirming today that the regime of Najomo has brought the ease of doing business to the fore and we are all enjoying it in the aviation industry today. I am speaking as AON not as Air Peace or Allen Onyema now. We have complete trust in him; we are enjoying what he has done. As one of the leaders of AON, I get reports, everybody is singing good things about the industry and  when I went before President Tinubu and thanked him for the appointments he brought to bear in the aviation industry.”

Allen further stressed that he had once told the President that the appointment of Keyamo had brought a positive revolution into the country’s aviation industry, emphasising that he deserves all the commendations.

“The problem we have in this country is that we are always celebrating negativity, wherever we see negativity we like to promote it, everybody will blog it, everybody’s platforms promote it, but do what is right, and nobody says anything about it.

“I want to affirm here that Festus Keyamo has brought a positive revolution into our industry. Any operator who says otherwise is economical with the truth. How do you explain taking the entire industry out of unofficial blacklisting? All the bigger airlines, the legacy airlines of this world, all those hundreds and thousands of aircraft they have been financed, they don’t really owe them. All they do is call on Original Equipment Manufacturers and say we need this number of aircraft what they do is that the financiers come in, I mean the lessors own and pay for those aircraft and lease them back to them and people here are talking about Nigeria Airlines not having capacity when Nigeria Airlines hitherto were not exposed to such opportunities.

“We were unofficially blacklisted by the leasing world because of the not-so-good incidents of the past when some Nigeria airlines went to court to stop lessors from taking their planes back. They then blacklisted Nigeria. So you must take your money there to go and buy the aircraft. Nigeria airline owners and investors deserve applause, it is not easy,” he added.

Allen further explained “What we use in buying one plane you could use that to lease over 50 aircraft If those aircraft are available. If you pay forty million dollars for one brand new E2, all you need to lease the same plane, paying rentals every month is less than three hundred thousand dollars, divide forty million dollars by three hundred thousand you will get over sixty aircraft if those aircraft are available.

“These are the things Keyamo saw when he came on board, it is not enough and mouthing Nigeria airlines that they don’t have capacity and asked foreign airlines to come and dominate, leech your country and take the monies out of your country. Everybody here will suffer it at the end of the day, your children and unborn children will suffer it. Let us be once patriotic.

“This government has done well for the aviation industry, look at the people appointed to the leadership of different agencies. Look at Bunmi in FAAN, she is doing very well, and all of them are doing very well. They are standing up. Then comes the regulator itself, this is the main thing also that has been dealing with airlines over the years. Captain Najomo has zero tolerance for anything unsafe, let me tell you that, so when he is talking about ease of doing business in aviation he is not talking about allowing us to go scout-free with blue murder, even there is evidence, this post-arrival inspection when you bring the aircraft into the country when they come and they inspect it and it didn’t meet regulatory requirements they send those aircraft back, he has done that.

“So what he is trying to do is to make sure Nigeria does not lose so much money so he has made inspections of aircraft seamless for us and saved us a humongous sum of money.  What he has done has saved Nigeria a lot of money that could have been expended on estacodes, air travel, and a lot of time wasting. Before this inspection of aircraft into the country might take over a month, as I talk to you now it is a matter of three days now as long as you and your lessors have agreed and made your payment, once you bring in your aircraft within three days they swarm on it and carry out the inspections, they have all the infrastructures within the country to do a good job.

“If it is okay they approve and if not they take it back, he tells the airlines to let the lessors know that if the aircraft is okay it will be approved and if otherwise, they have to take it back. We sign before he approves so he is not shortchanging safety in any way. That is why I said he has zero tolerance for anything unsafe. The ease of doing business is back in aviation I can tell you that. Kudos to President Tinubu because it is not easy to appoint bright people into positions.

“The appointment of Captain Najomo is a square peg in a square hole, we can attest to that and we thank Mr. President for restoring the ease of doing business in aviation.”

On his part, Professor Okonkwo described Najomo as a blessing to the aviation industry, stating that “During his citation, he was called jolly papa, that was then but today I seek your indulgence to rebaptise him as aviation papa.

“Sometimes there are appointments that are round pegs in a round hole. The problem sometimes is not about the regulations; the problem could be who is implementing the regulations. Someone might be in that office and proposing laws out of his sentiments but it is a different thing when you have somebody who is an all-rounder in the industry.

“He is a successful pilot. All over the world you see somebody with ten thousand hours of flight time is rare, so already he is a legend in the flying world, it is not easy, so doing twenty-something thousand is very rare. That means he probably spent his whole life flying.

“Aside from that for us as airline operators, we do find some pushback and résistance in the industry because some people who call themselves captains think that everything about aviation should revolve around them, yet they have not done anything to improve their knowledge beyond flying and have not had a practical experience to even be part of the management of aviation to understand other things that are involve beyond the cockpit experience. Unlike Captain Najomo he has done all those and more, he has also been an operator, a manager of business so a combination of all these things ladies and gentlemen gather here has given us the best aviation regulatory agency in the world.”

While narrating how effective Najomo is, Okonkwo said, “Recently I had an encounter with them, I called him around midnight and he was in Turkey, that should be about 2 a.m. in Turkey and I said sir, I have a machine that I must bring into Nigeria. I needed a document for a landing for a chartered flight, and in less than one hour he sent me the landing permit. I could not believe it.

“What he stopped is not anything that threatens safety and procedures but what he battled with is the bureaucracy in government. On the side of the operators, we meet all our requirements. He is not somebody who will compromise on the issue of safety. You know what bureaucracy does to this country, so as an operator if we tell them I want to do this or that in thirty days, they ask you why it should not be done in less than one week. I can attest to it that something we thought we should do in three months, I have done in one week.”

Conveying an experience he said “I brought two aircraft within one week, the post-arrival inspections were done the same day and our certificate of off-speck was done the same day. The next day we were doing our first flight, which has never happened in the history of aviation regulation in Nigeria. On Friday an officer who was to sign my document went on the weekend to Lagos, the DG got his people in the office to sign the whole of their part put the document in an envelope and sent it to Lagos, it was sent to the man’s house, the officer signed it and it was returned to us to ensure that we meet the deadline of the one-day requirement for that document to allow us to carry out the operation. We have never had it this good.”

Okonkwo while praising Najomo for eliminating regulatory bottlenecks and enhancing operational efficiency, was worried about the vacuum his departure could create. Calls have emerged for a comprehensive review of regulations beyond the NCAA’s jurisdiction to ensure sustained growth and development in the aviation industry.

He emphasised the need for strategic planning to maintain momentum and position Nigeria as a leading aviation hub in Africa.

“My worry is not how long he will be because he has to be here, confirmed and even stay as long as his tenure permits but my fear is what we will do without Papa Aviation when his tenure expires.

“So when you talk about a regulatory bottleneck in Nigeria, it is already a thing of the past for us with him on the seat, the only thing I want to say is for our nation to look at another aspect of our regulations that are not within NCAA purview to see how we can make Nigeria an aviation hub,” he added.