Abednego Galadima, President, National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) in this interview with OLUSEGUN KOIKI, spoke on the manpower challenges in the Nigerian aviation industry and the flouting of expatriate quota by airlines in the sector, among others. Excerpts:
Inadequate manpower has always been at the forefront of discussions in the Nigerian aviation industry, how can this be addressed?
Our take as unions or associations has always been that the Nigerian pilots and engineers, particularly those who are coming out from school don’t get the opportunities they need because of the lack of required experience and hours on the job.
On the other hand, we are saying that the airlines are gaming the system of expatriate quota; we expect that if you have young people coming out of school as pilots for instance and you are bringing in an expatriate, the law requires that you have an understudy. Apart from an understudy, you are expected to have in place a programme for developing local contents.
So, if you have this in place and you are not gaming the system and you are doing this thing regularly and in line with your developmental and strategic plans, we don’t expect that by now, we will still be having expatriates in the system, but the case is not the same.
As you are aware, airlines are always interested in poaching and getting ready hands, which is not in the strategic national interest and that is why we keep insisting that they have to be nationalistic even in the way they run their businesses.
Do you think some airlines are violating the expatriate quota system?
The truth of the matter is that the civil aviation policy is all encompassing. It stipulates that before a foreign pilot or an engineer is given that permit, the Ministry of Interior is supposed to work with the Ministry of Aviation through the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to know that there is no availability of hands and then the process would begin from there.
But recently, we discovered that there is a disconnect between the Ministry of Interior and the NCAA. That synergy needs to be brought into play so that the expatriate regime would be properly managed, but because people will always want to game the system, that is why we are saying no to some of the processes that bring in expatriates into the system.
If you want to follow the rules and regulations, some of these things; the airlines should properly advertise these positions so that everybody will know whether you have availability or not.
Another thing that we are saying is that the NCAA needs to have a robust data base for virtually every licensed personnel so that we can know. As it is now, we keep hearing bogus figures because some of these license holders have died, others have left the country and while the remaining are not available.
So, as a professional body, we have tried our best in ensuring that we partner with the NCAA and going forward, we are looking at meeting with Capt. Chris Najomo, the Ag. Director-General Civil Aviation.
A few weeks ago, Mr. Festus Keyamo, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, alleged that there is a huge corruption in the country’s aviation industry, do you agree with this allegation?
The issue of corruption in Nigeria is not something that is considered as a revelation, but I am not in the position to say whether or not the agencies are corrupt. As unions, we have always done our best to ensure things are done properly, we don’t know the finances.
The Honourable Minister is in charge. So, if there is corruption, what we want is that it should be flushed out and not something that we want to condone. I believe that due processes must be followed in all we do so that people are not just victimised or tagged corrupt.
The minister also alleged that some documents are falsified, while those who are supposed to embark on training don’t do so, how true is this?
Like I said earlier, I am not privy to that information; he’s the minister and I don’t understand what he meant by manipulation of training documents. I don’t know if anyone that is sent on training doesn’t attend. To me, training is a personal thing. If you are due for training, it is not something that you can manipulate because you are not the approving authority. I believe that every authority when they send people on training, they expect you to come and give them your reports.
So, if there are such issues, you can easily fish such out. I don’t believe that it is a general practice, but if there are elements like that, they can always be fished out.
If you go for training as a professional, it is a competency training and something that everybody looks forward to because that will bring you up and that is what is going to make your job proficient and efficient. But if you have a situation whereby somebody is sent and without any reason you don’t attend, I don’t think so.
