A fierce row has erupted within Nigeria's aviation sector following a recommendation by the Joint Action Committee of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority calling on the Federal Government to commercialise or privatise the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency — a proposal that NAMA's unions have branded as misguided and a threat to national security and Nigeria's sovereignty over its airspace.
The NCAA JAC — comprising ATSSSAN, ANAP, NUATE, and NAAPE branches at the NCAA — argued that NAMA's continued reliance on government funding had slowed critical safety upgrades and infrastructure development due to budgetary constraints and bureaucratic delays. The committee said commercialisation or a Public-Private Partnership would enable NAMA to attract private investment, access capital markets, and deploy modern technologies including satellite-based surveillance systems and performance-based navigation procedures.
NAMA Unions' Counter-Argument
The coalition of NAMA unions — comprising ATSSSAN, ANAP, and AUPCTRE — responded sharply, emphasising that air navigation services constitute the infrastructure on which all safe flight operations depend. Commercialising these systems, the unions argued, would expose the national airspace to commercial risk and potentially compromise the integrity of services that are by their nature public goods critical to national security.
Citing Article 1 of the Chicago Convention — which affirms the complete and exclusive sovereignty of every state over the airspace above its territory — the NAMA unions insisted that air navigation services are strategic national assets that must remain under government control. "The aggressive advocacy for privatisation conveniently surfaced just as the Federal Government began reviewing the five per cent Ticket Sale Charge sharing formula," the NAMA unions noted, suggesting the NCAA JAC's call was driven in part by competitive interest in the TSC redistribution debate.
The TSC Connection
The NAMA unions' observation about timing is pointed. The NCAA JAC's privatisation call emerged precisely as debate over whether to increase NAMA's TSC share from 22 per cent to 40 per cent — at the expense of the NCAA's allocation — was intensifying. If NAMA is commercialised and funded through commercial revenue streams, the pressure to increase its TSC share would diminish, potentially benefiting the NCAA. The aviation industry's TSC debate has thus evolved into a multi-dimensional dispute involving airlines, multiple union bodies, regulatory agencies, and the National Assembly — with sustainable funding of Nigeria's aviation safety infrastructure at the centre of a conflict touching safety, sovereignty, labour rights, and the economics of the sector's rapid growth.
