President Bola Tinubu has approved the removal of the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) from the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development to the Presidency.
The removal is to address a long-standing structural contradiction and also brings Nigeria to align with the practice in developed aviation climes .
It was also done in accordance with what some of the world’s most credible transport safety systems are practicing where accident investigation bodies operate independently and report near the centre of national policy oversight.
The presidential approval was transmitted to the Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo for immediate implementation on March 11, 2026.
The directive also directs the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation to amend the NSIB Establishment Act 2022 to reflect the new reporting structure and forward the proposed amendments to the National Assembly of Nigeria.
The NSIB was established through Act No. 35 of 2022, replacing the former Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), which operated solely within the aviation sector.
The transition from AIB to NSIB reflected a growing national recognition that transport safety risks in Nigeria extend beyond aviation.
As a result, the Bureau was mandated to investigate accidents across four transport modes: air, marine, rail, and tracked vehicle systems.
Presently and by law, the NSIB became Nigeria’s only multimodal accident investigation authority.
However, despite its expanded mandate, the Bureau remained administratively under the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development and this created a clear policy inconsistency.
An agency responsible for investigating train, ferry accidents and pipeline vehicle collisions continued to report to a ministry whose operational focus and regulatory authority are largely confined to aviation.
The aviation ministry neither exercises
cross-sector oversight across all transport modes nor maintains the institutional distance required to supervise investigations that may involve agencies and operators outside its jurisdiction.
In effect, a national accident investigation authority with responsibilities across Nigeria’s transport network remained structurally tied to a single sector ministry.
For this work to retain public trust, investigators must operate independently of the regulators and operators whose actions may come under scrutiny.
This principle guides several advanced transport safety systems. In the United States, for instance, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) functions as an independent federal agency responsible for investigating accidents across aviation, rail, marine, highway and pipeline transportation.
About The Author
