Captain Toritseju Ogisi served variously as chief pilot and director of flight operations in the liquidated Nigeria Airways. In this interview, Ogisi who retired from the defunct national carrier in 1988, speaks on his accidental journey into the aviation industry, working for the airline, its politics vis-à-vis government’s interference, acquisition of four new Airbus aircraft without back-up engines, the nostalgia about the carrier, among some other issues.
Ime Akpan
Becoming a pilot
I schooled in Delta State, did my Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examination Government College, Ugheli. After that I got an admission to study civil engineering at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. And I was then working in UBA on Broad Street, Lagos. I was waiting to resign when coincidentally, let me say by accident, some Lufthansa pilots came into the bank. And they came in uniform. And from the day I saw them, I looked at them, I admired them. I said what do they do? I didn’t know then. I was told they were aircraft pilots. Eventually, the encounter took me to the director of civil aviation. I met the secretary to the director of civil aviation and explained what I wanted, that I would like to be a pilot.
He advised me to write a letter to the director, which I did. Two weeks after submitting the letter, I got a telegram from the ministry…saying they had received my application. They asked me to go and do an aptitude test in Yaba. So I went for the aptitude test. After two weeks or three, I got another telegram saying that I had been selected and I should proceed to Zaria for evaluation. That was how it all started. That was in 1967.
So, I had to try to undo all of some things, explain to my father and mother why it was flying I had resolved to do. It was a big problem because as of 1967 little was known about flying. I talked to my father, took an uncle of mine who was a lawyer to go and talk with him and we settled it. So, I went to Zaria. That was how I went into aviation. And of course at that time even people who were in the aviation industry or who were pilots didn’t think that you could train pilots in Nigeria.
In aviation training school
Apparently, the school in Zaria, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Training Centre for that was the name at that time, had barely started. We didn’t know then; as a matter of fact, it had started before the problems in the north. And because of the first wave of trouble when they killed people and all that, they had to close down the school.
When they wanted to restart, which was around June or July, they needed people to fill the gap left by the Igbo students who had gone back to the east. They were among the first; they were looking for people to fill their places to start the course. I didn’t know that. I just walked into it, myself and a few others who joined.
We started the class around August, as SP1, the first class of pilot students. I finished that course in 1969, by which time the school had decided I must stay behind as an instructor. We didn’t quite end up resolving it because I agreed to stay for two years. And I did. They trained me on the condition that I would go and be trained in the UK, Perth, and then come back as an instructor and leave after two years.
I didn’t leave Zaria until about a year after that, by which time they had trained me as an assistant flying instructor. I started as an instructor under supervision. And by the time they brought our visas, a year had gone.
Working for Nigeria Airways
I joined Nigeria Airways because from the beginning, I told them that it was Nigeria Airways I wanted to work. I wanted to fly a big airplane, F27. However, I didn’t see how I would go and come back, and after six months or three and say I’m going back, it would be a problem. So I just got up one day and left. I submitted a letter of resignation and left. They were very upset. Yes, and I joined the Nigeria Airways. That was in 1970 when the war was about to end.
Aircraft flown
I trained and started flying as a co-pilot on Fokker. It was a different environment then because, first of all, we were the first group of people trained in Nigeria to be pilots.
By 1973, I was flying on B707 as a co-pilot; we had gone to be trained in Trans World Airline (TWA) then.
By 1976, I was captain on the first F-27, and then B737. And that’s how I moved on and on, and then after B737, I went on the B707 back as a captain in 1978, and then DC-10 in 1980. DC-10s were flying to UK and New York, Frankfurt, Zurich, Paris, New York. We were going to New York, so I did that on the DC-10, even on the B707 at some point when the DC-10 was bad, but earlier in 1978 and then B747. I think it was in 1981 or 1982 that I was appointed chief pilot of Nigeria Airways, that is the technical head of all the pilots in the airline, and at that time, we had two B747s, two DC-10s, three B707s, two B727s, six or eight of B737s. We had 20-something airplanes flying. By 1986, I was director of flight operations; I was also made a training captain on the B747. Then the B747 was the biggest airline in the world. Nigeria Airways was the only black airline in the world with Nigerian pilots that were flying that airplane as captains.
Nigeria Airways and its politics
The Nigeria Airways always did things right if it was allowed. But there was so much politics, and that was the problem. Around 1988, I flew an Airbus aircraft. Nigeria Airways acquired Airbus aircraft but for some reasons they didn’t come with spare parts. There were so many problems. What used to happen was that the government used to acquire the airplanes for the airline but the arrangements were not satisfactory. The airplanes came without spare engines because people who did not know anything about aircraft acquisition were involved. When you buy a new vehicle, you know there must be a spare tyre, a jerk and all that.
The new airplanes, four of them, started flying from the first day. Eventually, one aircraft was parked while parts of it were cannibalised to keep the other ones flying and it went on like that. Eventually it was more than one aircraft. That problem continued untill I left the airline. It was an abnormality which became a culture. For the B737 and even DC10 we had spare engines.
Liquidation of NAL
The Nigeria Airways would have survived if there was a complete change in orientation. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to turn things around in this country. Ethiopia is still running an airline. The airline went through the Nigeria Airway’s experience. The Nigeria Airways was bubbling; we would be in Ethiopia Airways’ position today if we had a management that was disciplined and focused, but we never had. Every day the government would bring people to run the airline and most of the time the people they brought had no knowledge of the (aviation) industry and their first and foremost obligation was to everything else but the government. And so, we had situations where you take an airplane and when you get to Kano you are told there was a problem somewhere; people were on board. And you found yourself offloading the passengers and then going to somewhere else. We had national interest that subordinated commercial interest.
NAL staff and entitlement
I am part of the people who have not been paid. The government is most unfair to us. The government still owes us some money which they agreed to give to us. When I left in 1988, I was hoping that I would be getting my pension, that if I am sick and NAL were still alive I would take my walking stick and go to the place. I am diabetic and I spend a lot of money on drugs. The airline would be sorting it out for me. And if I wanted to go and meet my daughter in the UK or US at least twice a year I would get a rebate ticket. Can we put a value to that? You liquidated a company, are you not supposed to compensate people like us?
All of us are in a mess. Even the money we are waiting for, where is it? Now, the yam I used to buy for N300 I cannot get it for N5, 000. So, nobody from the Nigeria Airways is happy.
Growing Nigerian domestic carriers
Now let us say Arik Air wants to go to the US. They have to earmark funds first; they have to get the approval from the US aviation authorities that they want to start operating to the US in June next year, for instance. If you want to go next year, they will spell out the things you need to do. Then you start doing them.
You want to fly to the UK? The people in the UK want to see your aircraft maintenance record. Everything is done according to certain standards so that you don’t come there and cause confusion for them either in the airspace or on the ground. So, they are very particular about these things and they want to ensure that these things are complied with. They set up specific instructions and minimum which you have to comply with.
If the airlines want to grow and expand their route structure they must be ready to put money down and train their personnel and position them to start long haul operations.
Our problems are many because also the airlines don’t have the funds because all of these require a lot of money. There is nothing wrong with what the minister is doing now but the airlines he is talking about have to invest in training and in equipment.
Pilot unemployment
That problem has been there since 40 years when I was still flying. There are many young pilots in the country now. A lot of them have no work; many of them have not flown airplanes since they qualified. The last time I checked…up to two years they never touched an airplane after graduation. In Nigeria Airways and because we were a government, what we did was to recruit young pilots who would be flying supernumerary as observers. They learnt the work as apprentices and gathered experience. When you do that, of course, you know that it means you have to adjust your finances to be able to accommodate them. And we will be paying them stipend. Whenever there was an opening, they were employed.
As a private operator it is very difficult for them (Nigerian airlines) to say they are going to train pilots. These new airlines can’t even pay the people who are working because everybody is running on tight rope. So, it is a problem. When they can’t pay the people who are working and you are asking them to employ trainee pilots. However, that has got to be done if you want to have pilots in a year or two, down the line.
Nostalgia
Nigeria Airways made me fulfill my dream. It is difficult to say how much I loved working for the airline. The thrill, the pride of landing a DC10 and a B747 in New York and had all the white engineers flocking to the airplane and some milling around and asking who the captain was and coming into the cockpit and seeing a black man as the captain, cannot be quantified. The pleasure it gave me and the joy I know it also gave to the black engineers who also made the voyage I cannot forget. It is going to live with me throughout my life.
