Festus Keyamo, the minister of aviation and aerospace development, has accused airlines in Nigeria of falsifying aircraft maintenance audits and bypassing regulations.

This ultimately puts the lives of passengers at risk, Keyamo said while featuring on Politics Today, anchored by Seun Okinbaloye of Channels Television, on Thursday.

Keyamo’s revelation came a few days after a Dana Air plane from Abuja ran off Lagos’ Murtala Muhammed International Airport’s runway. FIJ reported on Tuesday that there were no casualties from the incident.

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Here is a transcribed version of the interview in part.

“Before I came into office, I’m sure you have heard of series of incidents involving, perhaps, Dana Airline, to mention a few of them. I’m sure you heard at a point, on approach to the runway, a door (of an aircraft) flew open. You know that popular incident. A door of an aircraft flew open. Who are the engineers that are supposed to look at this? Who are the engineers that are supposed to check for the safety of the aircraft?

“There were also incidents involving one or two of its aircraft at different times after the fatal crash of Dana the other time that killed Nigerians. There were, of course, internal reports. I don’t want to deceive Nigerians because this involves their safety.

“As aviation minister, I owe a duty to Nigerians to be honest and frank to them when it comes to their safety. There were internal reports under my predecessor about series of infractions by the same airline and the conclusions were that they were not healthy enough to fly. What they did, how thorough they did it before they now said they should start to fly again, I don’t know. They have not convinced me.

“My own point is that, look, whilst we argue back and forth about who has power and who does not, the point is that the flying public is at risk. And if any tragic incident happens, you know it is the minister that they would call for his resignation. Nigerians would not spare the minister.

“So, if that is the case, what is my role as the supervisor? Am I a lame duck minister? And in any case, I’m sure you saw the release by the NCAA (Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority). The NCAA took that decision (about the suspension of Dana Airline after the recent incident) and I threw my weight behind them. I also gave them a directive to do their job.

“I did not write to the airline, take note. That will be taking over the powers of the NCAA. I told the people who are supposed to do their job: to do your job, which is my job. My job is to tell you to do your job.

“If, for instance, series of incidents are happening, I want to ask a question, as minister, should I not tell the regulators to do their job in respect to those incidents? That is the least I can do. Because if we don’t do that, I am sorry to say, we are going to have “flying convincing the air” in Nigeria and that will be the last thing I want to do. Like I said, the last thing I also want to do is to deceive Nigerians about the state of health of our aircraft that are carrying innocent Nigerians.

“There was an audit two years ago that confirmed the unhealthy status. And then, at some point, something happened and I said go back and review it. I said how thorough was that before you allowed them to continue to fly again. Is that wrong on my part?

“The problem with the sector I find myself is that we have people who claim to be experts everywhere. Everybody is an aviation expert. People who have sold puff-puff at the airport will tell you they have been at the airport for a long time and that they are aviation experts. And I have challenged them over and again since I came into office that, come on TV if you think you have better ideas and better ways to run the aviation sector, let’s have a debate.

“Because what we have done since we came is to set clear priority areas for ourselves and these priority areas, we are pursuing them with all honesty and vigour and with the renewed hope agenda of the president.

“Unfortunately, I would have to say this; I won’t run away from it that there is deep complicity within the system and the cleansing process will start and continue till I get to where I’m going. You see regulator at times buying big houses, driving big cars. Regulators who are supposed to be public servants. How do they do this? Because they are endangering the lives of Nigerians by cutting corners.

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“Do you know that certain people falsify reports? I’m not talking about Dana now. I not on air to campaign against Dana. I want them to survive. I want them to do the right things. I am here to support to make sure that they are safe and healthy as a company and Nigerians are safe when they fly these airlines.

“The truth of the matter is that there is falsification of reports in the system. Falsification of checks they do, falsification of training they do, pilots. This sector is one of the most corrupt that I have seen because people bypass regulations.”

In 2023, West Africa Weekly’s investigation showed how a passenger airplane belonging to Max Air had an emergency landing in Lagos with tonnes of water in its tanks, a development that suggested the aircraft had been poorly serviced over time.