The managing director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Capt. Fola Akinkuotu, has said that acute shortage of professional air traffic controllers resulted in the conversion of non-technical staff to technical personnel.
Akinkuotu disclosed this yesterday at the 50th annual general meeting of the Nigerian Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) held in Abuja
He said NAMA was also disturbed by the death rate recorded among ATCs in the last few years.
To close the gap created by the unfortunate development, Akinkuoto said a lot was being done to address the shortage of ATC personnel.
Apart from converting non-technical staff in the system into ATCs, he said most of the retired ATCs were being re-engaged after their retirement
He also disclosed that government had provided funds for the upgrade of safe towers in the country.
In his goodwill message, the managing director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Capt Hamisu Yadudu, acknowledged the contributions and the role of ATCs and urged stakeholders to celebrate them.
In his welcome address, NATCA president, Mr. Abayomi Agoro, said normalcy was gradually returning to the aviation sector after lull caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He called on the government to reciprocate the good gesture and sacrifices made by the service providers and safety personnel by looking into the various challenges in the industry with a view to finding lasting solutions to them.
He reiterated NATCA’s MAY-DAY alarm for the review of the ATC scheme of service saying the matter had lingered for too long.
He said it would not be a bad idea if the issue was revisited with a view to drawing the attention of the relevant authorities to resolve it once and for all.
“NATCA executive council took it up head-on and we sincerely cannot shy away from admitting that identified solution to the problem requires…special interventions.
“The numerous efforts deployed to the issue almost yielded the required result when a draft was agreed by all parties at a final meeting.
“However, in a twist…some of the agreements were wrongly captured in the document released to NAMA as ATC scheme of service.
“This came to us as a rude shock and we have reacted to it accordingly in a letter to the ministry of aviation and other relevant agencies of government,” he said.
Agoro also expressed concern about the seemingly stalled NAMA condition of service stressing that NATCA drew the attention of the appropriate authorities to vital issues that challenge professionalism and threaten industrial harmony within the agency in the negotiated draft of the staff condition of service
“We raised these concerns purely in the interest of justice, equity and fairness. The roles of every professional in NAMA and the nature of licenses held by them are clearly stated in the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulation (NCAR) Part 11. We therefore urge NAMA management and all the relevant unions to urgently address this issue,” he added.
