The National Union of Air Transport Employees, NUATE, on Wednesday decried the move by the federal government to scrap the ministry of Aviation following Tuesday’s restructuring of the federal civil service.

The Assistant General-Secretary of NUATE, Olayinka Abioye, who stated this in Lagos, noted that the federal government had effectively merged the ministry with the ministry of Transport as part of the restructuring of the public service.

Abioye argued that the merger did not make economic sense and might cost the nation a lot of money in future.

“Our argument is that it makes no difference because the structure of the ministry of Aviation will still remain”, except that “there will be one minister and maybe a minister of state,” he stated.

The NUATA scribe recalled that the ministries were merged under former President Olusegun Obasajo, noting however that this was reversed to the status quo in order not to destroy the sector.

The unionist said it would have been better to restructure various agencies in the ministry to cut cost and improve efficiency.

In spite of this position, he said that workers in the sector will not attack the government but make its views known to it.

“We believe that we will work together to ensure that the sustainability and turnaround that everybody is wishing for the industry comes to pass,” he added.