Former Aviation Minister Stella Oduah Hands Over, Lists Her Achievements

Princess Stella Oduah has officially handed over to the Minister of State for Trade and Commerce, Dr Samuel Ortom after her two and a half years tenure as a minister in the Aviation Industry.

This follows the termination of her appointment by President Jonathan last Wednesday, February 12th 2014.

In her handing over speech, Oduah commended President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, workers and Stakeholders in the aviation sector for the opportunity to serve the country and for the tremendous support given to her during her two and a half years’ stewardship as Aviation Minister.

She also listed the achievements of the ministry during her reign.

See excerpts from her speech below:

“It was a great privilege to be chosen from amongst over 160 million Nigerians to serve in the Federal Cabinate. My profound gratitude goes to Mr President who provided me with this rare privilege. I also want to thank him for all the support he acorded me to pursue his Transformation Agenda in the Aviation Sector. I equally wish to thank my personal aides, aviator sector workers and stakeholders who partnered with me to realize our Vision and Mission in the sector”, Oduah declared, continuing:

“During my tenure, we gave our best to institute reforms in line with Mr President’s Transformation Agenda. We produced the Aviation sector Master plan and implementation Road Map. Using the Master Plan and Road Map, we were able to reconstruct and remodel all 22 federally-owned airports across the country. We also commenced the construction of five new international terminals in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu and Kano.

“We also introduced the Perishable Cargo and Aerotrolis concepts to drive the growth and development of not only the aviation sector, but also the Nigerian economy. Construction of the cargo terminals has commenced across 16 airports across the country while modalities have been completed to kick-start the Aerotropolis project. We also carried out institutional reforms, built the capacity of NCAT to produce enough professionals both for the local aviation market and for export.

“My greatest satisfaction comes from our accomplishments in the area of safety and security of the Nigerian airspace. We were able to procure, update and install safety-critical infrastructure that has repositioned the sector to achieve our objective of zero-accident rate in the Nigerian airspace.

The former Minister expressed optimism that the reforms instituted during her tenure will serve to propel the sector to greater accomplishments and expressed the hope that her successor will sustain the tempo and momentum of transformation in the interest of the sector, the air travelers and the Nigerian economy.