The Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) recently expressed concern with regards to ensuring safety in the Nigerian aviation sector. This safety concern emerged due to increasing difficulty faced by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to retain its technical staff, as the Authority’s remuneration scheme does not compete well with salaries offered by individual airlines.
In a letter addressed to the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Aviation, Senator Smart Adeyemi, the AON President, Alhaji Abdulmunaf Yunusa Sarina notes that the NCAA was created to act as a regulatory body for the Nigerian aviation sector, and to ensure that the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) recommendations and standards for safety are followed to the letter by operators.
According to the AON boss, “In order to effectively carry out its important duties as highlighted above, the NCAA needs to attract and engage a team of technically sound professionals in virtually every field of aviation, notably flight operations, engineering, safety inspectors, dispatchers, cabin executives among others, so as to be able to conduct regular oversight of the industry.”
“Sir, it is however sad to note that there is a growing level of deficiency today within the NCAA in the area of human capacity due to its inability to attract and retain experienced industry professionals as a result of its inadequate recruitment and salary regime compared to the offers they get from working for the airlines.”
He goes on to observe that many inspectors are leaving the NCAA for greener pastures in the private sector, leaving a much dreaded chasm which cannot be bridged by those left behind, since these are either on the verge of retirement or do not yet possess the required technical know-how to do the job – a situation which breeds the Operators’ extant safety concerns.
In the words of the AON President, “No country allows its civil aviation authority salaries to be determined by civil service rules.” There is therefore a pressing need to “find a way to immediately address this problem in order to forestall a potential beckoning disaster”, he said.
