My vision is to make AIB- Nigeria world-class institution- Olateru, AIB CEO
The commissioner of Accident Investigation Bureau, AIB – Nigeria, Engineer Akin Olateru has stated that his plans for the Bureau is to make it a world-class institution.
Speaking during the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents, LAAC webinar gateway forum in Lagos over the weekend, Olateru said he would also like to make AIB an enviable place to work in.
He observed that in the last few years, AIB has performed excellently well in that regards.
Olateru said he want to add values, make positive change and leave AIB a better place for people.
He noted that the process of AIB expanding the scope of incident and accident investigation to other modes of transportation in the country will start once its bill is approved by the National Assembly and assent by the President.
Olateru added that AIB has been able to mitigate so many risks and managed to learn from its lessons in serious incidents.
The AIB boss explained that: “Currently, we are set out to investigate air accident and there is a proposed bill in the National Assembly. At the House of Representatives, it has passed the second reading; we are waiting for public hearing on the new AIB bill. At the Senate, we are waiting for second reading and public hearing. Thereafter, it will be transmitted to the President for assent”.
He disclosed that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the construction of AIB headquarters and its training school in Abuja.
Olateru stated that the training school will save AIB all the US dollars it is spending on training overseas, as the Bureau too can train Africans, people from Europe on accident investigation and the auxiliary costs that go with it.
“We have drawn up curriculum from Crowdfield University, Singapore Training Institute and the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, NCAT. So, we want to make it a world-class institution because we want to push this training through, so that we can earn some good money from it for the country and save us money as well,” he said.
He noted that the Bureau is constrained in the area of short fall in funding, equipment, infrastructure, human capital and system processes and procedures
According to him, we have two laboratories – flight safety and material science. For the material science laboratory, it’s a work in progress because we want to transform the material science lab to an avenue where we can make money. We cannot charge for what we do. We don’t charge for accident investigation; we don’t invoice anybody. We can look for little areas where we can use our resources to make money. That is the way we are going so that we can be able to address the issue of funding.
The AIB commissioner explained further that under the United Nations (UN) Charter, AIB cannot charge for its services, which is accident investigation which is core its mandate, but that there is nothing stopping the agency from looking at other areas.
He said the Bureau has signed an MoUs with the University of Lagos, University of Ilorin and also talking with a university in the United Kingdom on the things it need on the material science laboratory so that it can start earning money from it.
The AIB CEO noted that the training school is another way it want to earn money, adding that as a responsible government agency, AIB is looking for a way and ways of improving its funding positions.
Olateru emphasised that what AIB is doing is in conjunction with the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, NCAT.
In his words: “We are not licensed to train, but NCAT is. We developed this curriculum together with great inputs from world-class institutions around the world, because this is new to NCAT as well. Once the training school is built, we will move in. we want to produce world-class training with what we are trying to achieve so that we can make the best from what we are trying to do”.
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