Pic : Osita Chidoka takes over from Ortom as aviation minister

Former FRSC boss, Osita Chidoka has officially taken over the office of the aviation minister. Below is a statement from the Ministry of aviation;

The Honourable Minister of Aviation, Osita Benjamin Chidoka has said that safety on air and security of the infrastructures in the airports are his two cardinal agenda.

Osita said this during the handing over ceremony in the ministry where he formally took over from the supervising Minister, Samuel Ortom

The minister pledged his determination and commitment to work assiduously to bring transformation to the aviation industry in order to justify the Government’s huge investments in the sector.

He remarked that the aviation sector is one of the central and vital sectors in the nation, therefore all hands must be on deck to realize its objectives and make it safe at all times.

Thanking the outgoing Supervising minister, Dr. Samuel Ortom,for his efforts to keep the ministry running, he promised to synergize the Permanent Secretary and all the staff to frontally confront the huge challenges facing the aviation sector to ensure success.

Osita Chidoka also gave tribute to the former Minister, Stella Odua for the innovation she brought to the aviation sector and promised to improve on her efforts.
He said, “We are not going to do anything different, but we will build on what already exists in line with the aviation master plan. We will measure where we are, and take further step from there. I hope we will have a fruitful working experience and, most importantly, deliver service to Nigerians.

The new minister also said he would bring regimentation and discipline to the work in the ministry. He said: “Our main job is to aid the parastatals to do their jobs. We are not going to interfere with their jobs, but we shall monitor supervise and improve”
The Supervising Minister, Ortom, earlier, welcoming the new minister, pledged his total support and cooperation to him.

He said the choice of Osita as a minister in the aviation ministry is a step in the right direction and shows that the President has the interest of transforming Nigeria.

The Supervising Minister further made clarification on the N174billion debt obligation tocontractors working across the various airports in the country, saying that the status of the commitments and debt has dropped to N153 billion.

The outgoing minister said: “When I came here, it became necessary to constitute a Committee to verify the entire commitments that we have and we received an interim report that brought up the figure of N174 billion. While the work is still going on as at today, because of further verifications and payments that have been made, we have been able to bring that down to N153 billion through the Committee verification going on”.

Ortom enjoined the entire staff to give the new minister the maximum support he got, adding that: “I am aware about the sensitivity of the aviation industry, but we must not allow any gap in order to help the minister to succeed.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Dr. Shu’ara Jamila in her welcome remarks pledged total loyalty of the management and staff of the ministry to Osita Chidoka, she added that working together as a team will give the sector a necessary push to take it to the next level.

Jamila further commended the outgoing Supervising minister, Samuel Ortom for bringing stability to the ministry at a very crucial moment early in the year.

Iyogun Asobumeh Sunday
for: AD(PRESS)
Federal Ministry of Aviation