Musa Nuhu, the Director General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), made this observation during an interview in Lagos.
He noted that despite not formally requesting an ICAO Coordination Validation Mission (ICVM), Nigeria achieved a 70 percent rating.
An ICVM involves ICAO experts visiting member states to gather and assess evidence regarding the implementation of accepted corrective action plans to ensure compliance with Corrective Action Plans (CAPs).
According to him, “I think there is a bit of misunderstanding on the whole ICAO Audit. Nigeria got 70 per cent for a full audit.
“It is almost impossible to go above 70 per cent with ICAO if you have not done your airport certification. We have not done our airport certification in Nigeria for the five international airports due to some challenges and difficulties.
“There is no need for me to sign airport certification when I know our airports do not meet the requirements. That will be more disastrous for Nigeria and there is also what you call the Significant Safety Concern, SSC.
“ICAO issues that to some states; that means the oversight function of a state is fundamental fraud. We did not get an SSC. There are things that people should be aware of. Believe me, in the next 12 to 18 months when we finish doing our proactive action plan, hopefully, we would have done certification of our airports and we would have closed some of the gaps.
“What we did was a full audit and the last time we had a full audit was in 2016 and after the audit, there is a period of time they will send you their report after 90 days and then, you have 45 days to do something.
“There is also additional 45 days, then, another 30 days. Then, a total of 210 days from my calculation before ICAO officially notifies us. During that period, you have an opportunity to rectify some of the issues and close the gaps.
