•Make case for establishment of new regional offices
By: Shola Adekola | Lagos
The recent tragedy involving the collision between a BRT bus and a train in Lagos State has once again exposed one of the bad policies of the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika in the sector.
It will be recalled that the minister, had called for the demolition of the head office of the then Accident Investigation Bureau and now Nigerian Safety Investigative Bureau (NSIB) last year on the premise that the multimillion naira edifice housing the workers of the bureau and capital intensive gadgets was obstructing the move to expand the new terminal building at the international wing of the Lagos airport.
While the reason given for the demolition has been attributed to another gaffe committed by the government in the cause of erecting a gigantic new terminal building without the due diligence of making provision for enough space that can accommodate more wide body aircraft, the demolition of the NSIB building and the pending notice to also pull down other privately owned hangars at the same axis has continued to generate dust in the sector.
One year after the demolition of the bureau’s office, the reason for the action is still a mystery as the former office space has been taken over by weeds while many of the affected workers are still working from home.
However, the collision between a BRT and a train and the role of investigating the causes of the accident by the bureau under its new status of a multimodal agency of government saddled with probing the accident has again raised the question about the justification for pulling down Lagos NSIB office.
Some key players who spoke to Nigerian Tribune lamented how the absence of the Lagos office will affect the proper functioning of the bureau in Lagos in times of emergencies.
According to them, the demolition of the bureau’s office in Lagos by the minister was done in contradiction to the new role of the bureau which requires it to have offices in all the geopolitical zones for easy presence during any emergency.
Commenting on the development, the Managing Director of Centurion Security Services, Group Captain John Ojikutu (retd.), made a case for the establishment of regional or zonal offices where investigators from the bureau can operate from when the need arises.
He said, “Abuja is the headquarters but regional or zonal offices can be opened wherever necessary and investigators appointed to man them for easy dispatch to the scene of accidents.”
On his part, the Director, Zenith Travels in Lagos, Mr Olumide Ohunayo, while lamenting how the destruction of the former Lagos office of the bureau will incapacitate its new role, called for the creation of another office in Lagos.
“They are not only incapacitated for having one office Abuja and closing down the one in Lagos for only drivers and one or two staff. I think they need a major office in Lagos to take care of the South or South West and they need to have offices in all the regions. If they are actually taking up the multimodal role, they need to access all areas in order to reduce incidents and accidents in Nigeria. You cannot be in only Lagos or Abuja, they may need to be in the 36 states, that is my wish. Unfortunately, the bill may have to go back to the National Assembly.”
Mr Ohunayo used the opportunity to call for the detachment of the bureau from the Ministry of Aviation, saying, “That agency cannot be under the Ministry of Aviation, not even the Ministry of Transportation except the presidency. It has gone beyond the scope of aviation and transportation or who will the bureau listen to or take directives from like it happened during the recent collision between a Lagos BRT and a train which was a road transport. We need to address this before the NSIB is turned into a toothless organisation at the end of the day.”
