Mass resignations loom as FG restructures FAAN, demotes, redeploys personnel

ANTHONY OMOH
Following recommendations by the Presidential Committee chaired by the Head of Service, Winifred Ekanem Oyo-Ita, the Federal Government has embarked on massive restructuring of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) which may be the beginning of a tsunami in the agency many acclaim is over-bloated.
It has also been gathered that the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) may follow soon as both agencies also have their share of redundant departments and directorates as well as unproductive personnel.
This restructuring is coming on the heels of pressure from the unions who complained about inappropriate placements and other anomalies which indicated some senior management personnel who either did not have the qualifications or experience to man some of the sensitive positions they were thrust into.
The situation became more imperative after government discovered that the FAAN had no fewer than 40 General Managers, with more directorates created from existing directorates thereby raising overhead cost immensely.
As at the beginning of last week, the Ministry of Aviation acting on the recommendations of the committee had sent down the directive to the parastatal but the letters started circulating on Friday indicating the new order of things instructing recipients to report to their new assignment post haste.
Many of the directorates, that are not part of FAAN’s original organogram will be absorbed into the original directorate leaving a leaner agency while others that were formed as political compensation will be done away with, as the agency is top heavy and barely able to balance.
Apart from FAAN the same proliferation of directorates can be said of other agencies in the aviation sector as they have continued to expand since 1999.
The letters to FAAN personnel either demoted or transferred them following the irregularity of their appointment at the agency or just for the sake of restructuring the agency.
Also it was learnt that one of the female directors in the agency has been redeployed to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism while an acting General Manager in the Finance Department was taken down some notches from level 17 to level 10 and moved to the Information Communication and Technological department (ICT).
It was further learnt that through the review tagged ‘operation show your certificate’ that some personnel employed between 2012 and 2013 had just completed their National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) between2008 and 2010 and were given management positions without requisite experience.
Other affected officers were demoted from Grade Levels 17 and 16 to levels 10, 12 and 14.
Some demoted workers in FAAN had been handed their letters, asking them to report to their hitherto junior colleagues who had now as a result of the exercise become their superiors.
Some keen observers are of the opinion that this exercise would not only lead to some job losses as some of the directorates created housed hundreds of redundant workers especially at the headquarters in Lagos while other stations suffered.
They are also of the opinion that this bold move by government will also lead to mass resignation especially as some of the positions were created as political favours.