Aligbe attributes aviation sector’s competence gap to Nigeria Airways liquidation

BY CHUKWUEMEKE IWELUNMO

The Chief Executive Officer of Belujane Konsult, Chris Aligbe said the absence of a national carrier for the country for over two decades has impacted technical competence and managerial ability and the dearth of technical competence of the country’s entire aviation value chain.

Since the liquidation of Nigeria Airways, manpower development of the country’s aviation has ebbed leading to a dearth of technical know-how as the sector is witnessing the erosion of critical manpower.

After the liquidation of Nigerian Airways, there was a dearth of technical personnel because, during the interregnum before the emergence of new airlines, many Nigerian pilots and engineers left the country and existing airlines began to rely on expatriates.

Seasoned aviators have said variously that it was not only that it costs airlines hugely to employ expatriates; the expatriates majorly spend six months in Nigeria and six months holidaying overseas.

READ ALSO: AKSG Announces Extended verification for 8,924 public servants

The Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria has always provided the needed technical personnel in the aviation industry.

But before its reawaking, there was a time when the federal government allowed the college to decay. It was abandoned. That was the hiatus that caused the draining of airlines’ funds, as they bled their financials paying expatriate pilots and engineers.

NCAT does not only train pilots and aircraft engineers. They train air traffic controllers, aeronautical engineers, marshallers, firefighters and others.

As a result of this, Aligbe noted that had the country established a virile national carrier to replace the liquidated Nigeria Airways, dearth of manpower would not have hit the aviation sector the way it is experiencing now.

This among others he said informed his support for the establishment of a national carrier for the country.

Aligbe said, “We have lost ability, managerial ability, we don’t know how to. We lost ability, competence, technical competencies in those areas. Nigerians can grow fast”.

He noted that the government can decide that it wants to set up an airline with between $700 million for instance with a good manager of great competence like Capt Dapo Olumide adding that we have a very limited number of people with managerial capability like the CEO of Ibom Air, George Uriesi whom he said is ‘Still growing’.

“He has not managed a large fleet, but he (Uriesi) is still growing. So, we don’t have any. None of them can stand up and say I manage, or I can manage an airline. We don’t have the competence. That is one thing we lost when Nigeria Airways was liquidated.”

“We have lost ability, managerial ability, we don’t know how to. We lost ability, competence, and technical competencies in those areas. Nigerians can grow fast. If you put them through training, they can grow fast, but you have to put them through training, through modern equipment.”

“That’s why eventually maybe the struggle about who manages and who does not manage. But I think that’s why I am saying if you are setting up the airline, maybe when the government says the government will now hire management.”

Aligbe further stated that the nation has to invest tremendously in training and get management from a legacy airline, stressing that if it gets management from a legacy airline depending on if they want to take the job, it will be fine.
He disclosed that the lack of interest from many countries to be technical partners to the Nigeria Air project made Ethiopian Airlines the last resort for the take-off of the carrier no person wanted to talk about this to the point that Emirates and Etihad refused when the former Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Hadi Sirika and former President Muhammadu Buhari were hoping that Qatar would come to the rescue.