Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah, on Monday gave reasons why the Federal Government clamped a fresh suspension on Dana Ai, saying the action was due to operational issues.
Princess Oduah who spoke yesterday in Abuja, said: “Again those are operational issues. And the law, the policy says that the assessment, the certification is ongoing.
“In aviation, security and safety measures are work in progress, you don’t stop. You don’t say that I have attained this and so we stop, it never stops. You continuously, constantly assess operators to make sure they are in compliance.”
This was as she assured Nigerians that the country’s air space is very safe; saying last Thursday’s crash of a plane belonging to Associated Aviation was an isolated case that was an inevitable act of God.
She said: “We have the safest air space. Nigerians shouldn’t be afraid to fly, Nigerian airspace is very safe. We do not pray for accidents but it is inevitable. But all we do is to do everything to ensure that we do not have accidents. But is an act of God!
“Again, we do not speculate on the cause of accidents until that happens you can say this is the cause or that is not the cause. But what is obvious and is the truth is that, in aviation there are shared responsibilities, starting from the man that carries your luggage to the man that makes sure that your boarding pass is issued to you.
“And so the regulatory agency, the operators, the management, everybody has their responsibility and all must work in tandem for there to be an optimal, secured and safe aviation sector. And that is what we have been working.”
She said Nigeria has in recent past being given exemplary role in international aviation fora.
“There is no seminar; there is no conference where Nigeria has not been given what you call an exemplary role. For instance tomorrow (today), we are hosting global space conference, Nigeria is hosting it! We are not hosting it because we can afford it; we are hosting it because we are exemplary. Every nation wants to emulate what is it that we have done within such a short time to be able to have a safe air space,” she noted.
On allegation that she abandoned all issues relating to safety and concentrating on beautification of the airport, she said: “I think its ignorant to start with because you cannot have security and safety without funding it, it has to be funded.
“If you are talking safety for instance you need to have the infrastructure that address that, if you are talking security you need to have the infrastructure that address that and all that must be sustained and must be maintained. And if you do not do that you are not just being sincere.
“And then when you talk about the issue of renovation, the terminal itself is the first safety and security facility that any passenger comes across. And so in a plan you must start from A to Z. And in aviation is often said that if you think safety and security is expensive, wait until accident happens and see how expensive it is.
“And so everything we have done has been with security and safety as pivotal of it all. You cannot do anything in aviation without this. And what saddens me really is that ICAO says just last week that Nigeria is way above the global average, we actually scored 65 per cent. Secondly, ICAO says Nigeria is the 12th safest aviation globally.”
Commenting on the statement made by a former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode over the weekend, she advised the people not to listen to side comments as aviation is a very professional area.
Oduah said: “And then when you hear bar comments, drunks and addicts making comments that have zero bearing on reality is very annoying.
“What I will advise the public really is to recognise the fact that aviation is a very professional area, you cannot listen to bar comments because there are just unrealistic and totally untrue.”