NCAA and its Efficiency- ThisDay

Ever since the unfortunate plan crash involving Associated Airlines happened, ten days ago, a lot has been unearthed, as more survivors continue to die, essentially in the rumor mill.

Already, there is a brewing brickbat between Fani Kayode, a former minister and the sitting minister, Stella Oduah. That is their business.

In pursuit of the transformation agenda of president Goodluck Jonathan, the airports began to wear radical new looks, with many of them really looking transformed, even though the finishing fit only standards Associated with the third worlds.

But I would have thought that the transformation will go beyond mere masonry. It has not. The airlines still delay flight s as much as five hours or even more, with no reasonable excuses other than, ‘’operational reasons’’ flights are still being cancelled arbitrarily, just like that. At the beginning of the year, NCAA rolled out passengers Bill of Rights.

All that is gone with the winds as nobody enforces anything anymore. Passengers are helplessly still at the mercies of the airlines whimsies. Touts still harass passengers, sometimes in collusion with the officials. Often, they tell you ‘’flights are fully booked’’ all to make you pay lots more than the face value of the tickets. And you get into the plane to find over a quarter of the seating capacity vacant.

But coming back to the associated Airline tragedy, what seems sure, though not confirmed, is that the airplane did not have insurance. The minister, the other day, dodged the question on it, preferring to hide under the perforated canopy of the so- called ongoing investigation. Pray, confirming that there is insurance cover or not is the simplest bit of investigation. It is a mere clerical check-up. Is there a valid insurance cover or not? Perhaps the arrival of the insurers from Uk Thursday puts paid to the controversy record of insurance details of the planes flying the sky? Why should confirming the insurance status of the plane take eternity? Why is the information being horded?

The hushed verbiages in the industry indicate that the airline was not insured! In a nation where even Okadas are required to have insurance cover, it is monumental negligence, if not wickedness, to allow a plane fly without a valid insurance cover.

Didn’t this same NCAA claim to be very efficient in clamping down Rotimi Amechi’s jet because it had some irregular clerical registration process? I had remarked at the time that it was a streak of strange efficiency motivated by political consideration. Didn’t the policy include that airlines must have insurance cover? So where was NCAA when such old, ill-serviced plane was flying and risking the lives of innocent passengers? Or is that class of negligence an act of God?