When the announcement came last week about the removal and replacement of some heads of aviation parastatals, industry stakeholders seemed relieved because most people were expectant that such changes should have taken place earlier.
Early in 2016, fraud cases involving the then leadership of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) were uncovered and the Managing Director was removed and later Emma Anasi was appointed on acting capacity as head of the agency.
But last week, after many months of speculation, the federal government announced appointment of Captain Fola C. Akinkuotu as Managing Director of NAMA. He replaced the acting Managing Director, Anasi.
Akinkuotu is a seasoned transport pilot, flight and aircraft maintenance engineer, airline chief executive and a trained Aviation Industry Regulator. He was once the Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and before his appointment the CEO of Aero Contractors.
The government also appointed Professor Sani Abubakar Mashi as Director-General, Nigerian Meteorological Agency, replacing Dr. Anthony Anuforom.
Captain Abdulsalam Mohammed, now the new Rector, Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, Zaria replaced Captain Samuel Caulcrick.
Also Akinola Olateru was appointed the Commissioner, Accident Investigation Bureau to replace Felix Abali.
Industry observers said that the clamour for replacement of the former agency heads was because people expected to see some actions taking place after a new government was sworn in May 2015. They said they expected changes in the industry but no positive surprises were coming so industry players became restive and impatient.
As stated earlier, despite the fact that some of the agency heads are running on tenure, many in the industry wanted all the agency heads to be removed, so they were not happy when some were left behind, despite the fact that their positions are tenured.
THISDAY investigation revealed that people wanted the changes because they are desperate to “to see something happening in the industry.” They noted that in the last 18 months there has not been any fundamental achievement in the industry.
But there are also views that the appointment of new leaders in the agencies is not a guaranty that positive changes will take place, unless the federal government begins to unfold and implement its plans for the industry.
However, there are critical things the new Managing Director of NAMA must have to tackle to restore confidence among pilots who sorely complain of poor communication in the airspace and inadequate and obsolete Instrument Landing System (ILS) at some of the airports, which adversely affect flight operations.
Frustrated by flight cancellations due to Harmattan haze last December, Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) threatened to suspend flight operations pending when the government would modernise landing aids that would enable them fly with minimum visibility, as obtained in other countries, including West African nations.
While it is the responsibility of the federal government to provide Category 2 or Category 3 ILS, the management of NAMA can carry out repairs of the existing ILS, which the pilots said have broken down at some of the airports and that is why it is difficult to land at these airports.
Air Traffic Controllers (ATC), who manage the radar and communication in Nigeria’s space, recently called for an urgent improvement in controller-pilot communication and were asking the government to declare a state of emergency on air safety so that it would attend to the problem with the seriousness it deserved before aircraft started falling from the skies.
They stressed that poor communication in Nigeria’s airspace has remained an intractable problem over the years and has defied all efforts by the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency to solve.
Also few months ago, the Senate Committee on Aviation visited the Murtala Muhammed International Airport led by the Committee’s vice Chairman, Senator Bala Ibn N’allah who is also a pilot. Ibn N’allah excoriated NAMA for poor and obsolete navigational equipment and other landing aids and narrated how he manoevred his aircraft to arrive at his destination and the experience of other pilots who go through similar challenges flying in Nigeria’s airspace.
Succinctly put, there is poor ground to air communication between pilot and air traffic control. In some parts of the airspace there is no communication and these areas are known as blind spots. This is very precarious because when the pilot cannot communicate with air traffic control he may not know his whereabouts and he will just rely on his intuition and experience. This, industry operators agree, is very dangerous.
There are also poor, obsolete and non-functional navigational aids, which do not provide proper guidance to landing and take off of flights. All these impede smooth flight operation in Nigeria’s airspace and also endanger safety of flights.
So it is now the responsibility of the new NAMA boss to tackle these huge challenges. This is why on taking over the mantle of leadership Akinkuotu urged the workers of the agency, who have not been under substantive leadership for almost a year, to give him full support so that most of these problems besetting the agency and the industry could be tackled.
Over the years NAMA has executed some projects including the Performance Based Navigation (PNB), the on-going work on the Aeronautical Information Service (AIS) and many others, but the critical navaids need rehabilitation and as ATC noted, NAMA should work on pilot-controller communication system, stressing that gaps or blind spots in the communication process makes flying in the airspace precarious.
Hopefully, because of his invaluable experience, training and positions held in the industry, many are confident that Akinkuotu in a better position to revamp the agency.
