April 21, (THEWILL)- Political interference which had been the bane of aviation agencies is now a thing of the past since last year, when the new Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo assumed office.
Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Engr Ahmed Umar Farouk made the declaration at the weekend during an interview with newsmen.
According to Engr Farouk, the main problem of the agencies before now had been political interference which disallowed professionals from doing what they ought to do professionally.
The NAMA boss, however, pointed out that since the advent of this administration, what the agencies, particularly NAMA are witnessing is free hand for professionalism devoid of any political interference.
He said “The minister doesn’t interfere in the agency’s operations but makes sure they conduct the affairs of this industry professionally. Whatever we ask, it is given to us except it is beyond. He never interferes in the operations of the agencies. He is a thorough person. As a lawyer, he doesn’t want to fail.
Farouk also noted that, before now, most of the airlines avoided Nigerian airspace because they found it extremely difficult to communicate with air traffic controllers, adducing the reason to a communication system that was weak, over-saturated due to demand.
“As the industry is growing, you should expect more routes to open and there was no corresponding facility to match the emerging air traffic. So, what we did was to cause a huge investment in that regard by the Federal Government. We realised that there were so many openings, so many routes, we had to increase more stations to have signals that would cover the entire Nigeria.”
“The entire communication had been re-designed to make sure that everywhere, every blind spot is covered and where we are today, even if one system fails, the air traffic controller will not notice because there is an overlap and one overlaps the other; the other one will assist you. We realised also that our radios are working well and well positioned and we have addressed the challenges we met but then, we are still having issues. These issues have nothing to do with radios, now it has to do with electricity. That is why I declared an emergency on power and you will agree with me that power is a national issue for decades and has defied solutions and the government is still working hard to ensure that they get it right.”
Moving forward, Farouk said what they have decided to do, is to deploy solar energy to some of these facilities so that they can function well.
“We have two sources of power. We have the primary one which is the national grid and we have the second one which is generators, and plants and the third one is solar. We deployed all these three because ICAO frowns at a situation where you have a blackout even for seconds; so, we make sure that have an uninterrupted power supply”, he said.
On manpower, the Managing Director concurred that NAMA does have enough air traffic controllers due to a mistake in the past which has to do with improper manpower auditing or proper planning.
He therefore affirmed that even though it takes time to train air traffic controllers, NAMA is working toward making sure that that aspect is addressed which NAMA is very much aware.
On the possibility of reviewing navigational charges for the airlines, Farouk said “There was a meeting of aviation stakeholders that was convened by the NCAA and at that meeting; I raised the issue with airline operators of Nigeria. Since 2008, the navigation charge has been the same. At that time in 2008, the charge was N11,000 when airfare was N16,000. They have been reviewing the air ticket and today, the fare is N150,000 per flight, we are still charging N11,000. I think it is unfair and anything you draw their attention to it, they do not want us to review it.”
“We are a cost recovery agency and the huge investment we are making is to make sure that safety is not compromised. It is high time the airlines accepted the reality. We are going to review our navigational charges to match the current economic situation. That is where we are. We have written to the Ministry and when it is time to do that, we will call for stakeholders meeting so that we let them know and give them time to prepare and adjust to the new charges”, he emphasised.
Anthony Awunor, is a business correspondent who holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Linguistics (UNILAG). He is also an alumnus of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria Kaduna State. He lives in Lagos.
