There is no Nigerian airport where things are working 80% – NATCA President
The President, National Air Traffic Controllers Association, NATCA, Mr. Abayomi Agoro, has expressed dismay over the state of nation’s airport infrastructure, saying there is no airport today in the country that you would say things are working 80 per cent.
Agoro who stated this in an interview with aviation Journalists in Lagos, expressed concern over the alleged plan by the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA to arrange a recruitment exercise without carrying the body along.
Agoro noted that the recruitment of ATCs has a due process to follow.
“First, you place an advert and where you don’t place, you ensure that you make the information go round as much as possible, so that people can apply.
Then, they will now go for what we call technical evaluation and other assessments. From there, you select the best of them. In this case, we only heard that 40 people were shortlisted. Who are these people?”, he queried.
He said NATCA still have the challenges of equipment upgrade and shortage of manpower.
He disclosed that the controllers are still battling with terrestrial radio frequency communication problem here and there.
Agoro noted that the working environment is becoming deplorable, adding that some airports do not even have functioning equipment.
He explained that: “Do you know that if you get to some control towers, ordinary chairs to sit, we have to go and beg? This year, I have met the NAMA management asking them that ordinary chairs we can’t have for controllers who will sit 6-12 hours. Are you saying these persons will not have back pains and again these people have climbed the multitude of stairs because the elevators are not there or don’t work, it’s not ideal. Even, when our members complain to us, we are in tears we don’t know what to say”.
He pointed out that Kaduna Airport does not have control tower as what they are using there is watch room (for fire fighters), which is not built for that purpose.
NATCA president stated further that once it rains in Sokoto today, controllers need to look for umbrellas to sit at the control tower.
He said the industry should have at least 600 to 650 ATCs.
According to Agoro: “Let me also tell you, there is no point in leaving one controller on duty in the tower, it is dangerous and we must say it and while a station like Kaduna has less than six Air traffic controllers, definitely they will work only one per shift, but I can tell you that NAMA has close to 4,000 staff.
Even, in some departments you see them drawing a roster, ‘if you come this week, don’t come next week.’ So, what are we trying to say? NAMA at a point, we tried to do internal recruitment just to see whether we can bring some of these redundant staff and train them. At least, it would help the system, but they don’t want, and those who agreed to convert are regretting that decision today”.
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