Regulatory Discretion and Administrative Accountability in Nigerian Civil Aviation: Rethinking the Powers of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority Under the Civil Aviation Act 2022

The Civil Aviation Act 2022 recast the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (“NCAA” or “the Authority”) as the sole and autonomous regulator of Nigerian civil aviation, vesting it with expansive discretionary powers over certification, licensing, emergency intervention and exemption. This enlargement of regulatory competence was designed to align Nigeria’s oversight architecture with the Standards and Recommended Practices of the International Civil Aviation Organization and to insulate safety regulation from political interference. Yet the same statute that liberates the Authority from ministerial control does comparatively little to entrench the accountability mechanisms that ought to accompany so wide a discretion. This article examines the structure of discretionary power conferred on the NCAA under the 2022 Act, situates that power within general principles of Nigerian and comparative administrative law, and identifies the procedural, institutional and judicial deficits that presently constrain effective oversight of the Authority’s conduct. It argues that regulatory autonomy and administrative accountability are not antithetical but complementary values, and that the credibility of Nigeria’s aviation safety regime depends on reforms that make the exercise of discretion more transparent, reviewable and reasoned. The article concludes with proposals including statutory guidelines for the exercise of discretion, a dedicated aviation appeals tribunal, a stronger duty to give reasons and structured legislative oversight, drawing on English and United States regulatory experience where instructive.