Nigeria, a country of over 200 million people and the largest country in Africa with all the natural endowments available definitely has all what it takes to lock horns with the developed countries around the world.
In other words, everything the country requires to flourish for the subsequent progress and comforts of its citizens has already been provided on a silver platter by the owner of the universe.
From the country’s natural resources to its strategic position on this planet earth, it has no reason to have lagged behind as the situation is presently.
However, amidst all these God given opportunities and with the present predicaments the country has found itself which can be traced to the very bad qualities of leaderships that had, and still running the affairs of the entity called Nigeria, it may not be an exaggeration to say the country is sitting on a keg of gunpowder.
It is here in Nigeria that those elected into positions hardly put into considerations the would be effect of their policies and actions before lording them on the entire country.
Sadly, such policies often almost immediately explode on the faces of the entire citizens who unfortunately had not been considered or consulted before such bad policies were or are being formulated or implemented.
This backward vision of majority of these so called elected leaders and the appointed public office holders have remained the bane of the different organogram that makes up the different sectors of the society and its economy.
Absolutely, almost 90 percent of the critical challenges breaking down the soul of the country today can be traced to the miscalculated policy judgements of those belonging to this little but powerful clique.
The miscalculated policies which cut across all the different sectors of the government economy have almost turned the country into a banana republic where the actions of the leaders take the country one step forward and 10 steps backward.
In the midst of all this back and forth scenario, people keep questioning the depth of the thinking and genuineness of the leaders when taking decisions.
This brings to the fore again the recent policy of government on the relocation of the headquarters of the different aviation agencies to Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.
Though the policy idea which was mooted by former president Olusegun Obasanjo did not materialise under the governments of the late president, Umaru Musa Yar’adua and that of Goodluck Jonathan, who must have considered the financial and logistics implications of such relocation and decided to halt it then.
Unfortunately, the previous government, without thinking of the consequences and largely for emotional sentiments, finally supervised the relocation of the agencies even when no adequate arrangement was put on ground in Abuja.
The former minister of aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika spearheaded the relocation of the agencies’ headquarters to Abuja despite the protests and controversy that trailed the move.
Two years into the unwise relocation now, most of the workers relocated to Abuja are either sleeping inside their cars or in the offices, while the offices left behind in Lagos are wasting away.
The contradiction in the policy has become manifested in the sense that the offices being occupied by the agencies in Abuja are money guzzling through the billions of naira they pay to rent the buildings which have been found to belong to the owners some of whom are powerful members of the political class.
While the rented Abuja offices have continued to drain the revenues of the agencies, their offices in Lagos have almost become abandoned properties with the only few staff left behind being denied of funds to keep them running.
All these shenanigans are happening In Lagos where almost 85 percent of aviation activities are taking place just because of the myopic policy of bringing the agencies closer to the seat of power for the purpose of manipulation.
The essence of relocating the agencies’ headquarters to Abuja to stop waste of public resources as claimed by the then government has been found to be fake in view of the economic pressure the annual rent renewal is inflicting on the agencies.
Presently, the money that should have been used to strengthen the infrastructural facilities across the airports and upgrade the navigational equipments are either being used to pay for temporary rents in Abuja while the agencies still struggle to renovate the abandoned offices in Lagos.
The question is when will the federal government put an end to this wasteful policy in aviation all in the name of having the Chief Executive Officers of the agencies close them to manipulate?
If the reason for this relocation is not for the progress of the sector as it looks presently, but for the political class to continue to have its way of interfering in the agencies for selfish reasons, the sector may soon be financially grounded. The funds that should have been used to execute safety projects are now being used to pay for rents in Abuja and still renovate the Lagos offices.
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