The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) said that poor equipment and inadequate personnel impede the ability of its members to effectively manage flight movement in Nigeria’s airspace.
This was disclosed at the weekend by NATCA President, Mr. Abayomi Agoro who identified dearth of controllers, obsolete and poor equipment as some of the challenges threatening the safety of air traffic control in most of the airports in the country.
Agoro urged the federal government and the management of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) to urgently address these problems to ensure improved services from the controllers.
He said that for effective management of air traffic control, the body requires at least 600 to 650 controllers, disclosing that the current situation whereby one controller is left on duty at the tower is very dangerous because sudden sickness could render him ineffective and traffic management in the airspace would be jeopardized.
According to Agoro, a station like Kaduna airport has less than six air traffic controllers and the implication is that they would work only one per shift, even when NAMA has close to 4,000 staff; yet the personnel that ought to do the critical jobs in the agency is inadequate.
On Calabar Airport, Agoro said, “Calabar is in a serious deplorable state, even though we heard the management is looking to put things in order. NAMA should fully take over traffic management at the airport, but the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) should provide the needed stricture because the building where controllers stay and work is dilapidated.
“In Katsina it is the same thing, only one controller at a time. If he wants to relief himself it will be difficult because professionally he cannot leave the tower. So he would need another controller to take over for him to do that but there is no other person,” he explained.
The NATCA President condemned the recent recruitment of 40 air traffic controllers by NAMA management, stressing that NATCA found it so disheartening to hear that NAMA had arranged a recruitment exercise in which NATCA as an association was not even aware of it.
“The recruitment of ATCs has a due process to follow. First, you place an advert and where you don’t place, you ensure that you make the information go round as much as possible, so that people can apply. Then, they will now go for what we call technical evaluation and other assessments. From there, you select the best of them. In this case, we only heard that 40 people were shortlisted. Who are these people?” Agoro asked.
On the emergence of new airports, Agoro said, “We are getting new airports at least we know about Anambra, Bayelsa and Ogun States; we need air traffic controllers in those places. Where are we going to get them? Apart from retirement due to age, there is also the health aspect because of the nature and stress of the job. It causes a lot of stress. That is why the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has recommended annual medical checkups for us. It’s an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) requirement”, Agoro said.
