Keyamo’s ‘Clean Sweep’ Renders 33 Sirika-Appointed Aviation Directors Jobless

BY EDMOND ODOK – In what is obviously playing out as a bleak Yuletide for some actors in Nigeria’s Aviation sector, 33 directors have joined the ever-expanding job market in the country as senior applicants

No thanks to the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo (SAN), the affected directors, hitherto serving in agencies and parastatals under his ministry, have the Christmas presents of dusting their credentials in readiness for job search in the coming year.

Interestingly, aviation stakeholders see the current events as a “clean sweep and reversal of the last-minute appointments” made by the immediate past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari when Senator Hadi Sirika held sway as the Aviation Minister.

Coming just hours after Chief Executives of aviation agencies were booted out of office by President Bola Tinubu without prior notice, insiders hinted that “nobody saw it coming,” given that the Minister, alongside the agencies’ Heads, attended a conference of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) last week.

In a statement conveying the sack, which a competent source said; “None of them had the inkling that their sack would be this soon”, the Head of Press and Public Affairs in the Ministry, Odutayo Oluseyi, advised all the affected directors to hand over to the most senior persons in their departments or directorates.

Oluseyi’s statement read thus: “Following the change in the leadership of the Aviation and Aerospace Development Agencies’ CEOs and MDs aimed to reposition the aviation industry and ensure safety and efficient air travel experience by Nigerians in line with the Renewed Hope agenda of Mr President, I am directed to inform all directors of the following agencies that they have been relieved of their appointments forthwith and should hand over to the most senior officer in their various directorates with immediate effect.

“I am also to inform all the agencies’ board secretaries and legal advisers that they are not affected by this directive.

“All affected directors are to ensure strict compliance, please”.

Forefront News recalls that a week before the expiration of the Buhari administration on May 29, 2023, the then Minister Sirika, on May 23, 2023, amid stakeholders’ criticisms, appointed 33 directors as well as new Managing Directors for both the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).

Additionally, by his discretion, the former Minister singlehandedly created directorates that were hitherto non-existent in all the Aviation agencies and parastatals.