Poor hostel facilities, bane of NCAT pitiable condition- Investigation

By Chukwuemeke Iwelunmo

All is not well in the foremost aviation training college in Africa, the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) Zaria, as the one time pride of Africa in the training of aviation personnel especially Pilots and Engineers, is now in shambles, investigations by The Daily Times has revealed.

The Nigerian College, which was known for hosting students from other African countries, is now a shadow of itself, due to rot in the system.

Findings by our correspondent have shown that poor administration by the management has led to inadequacies in the aviation college especially low students’ enrolments arising from lack and poor accommodation facilities.

Investigation showed that lack of accommodation has stopped the college from admitting students.

A reliable source disclosed that mismanagement of hostel fund has been rocking the college for a very long time especially with the coming into the system of politicians through the imposition of personnel on the management.

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It was learnt that the immediate past Rector of the College, Captain Abdulsalam before he was removed from office made proposal for the building of a new hostel to accommodate more students but the money was converted to renovate the old hostel.

This has increased the sufferings of the students as over 20 student pilots were sent back from NCAT as a result of inadequate accommodation.

Also, some professionals in the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency throughout last year, were denied training as they were told that there was no hostel accommodation. This has negatively affected their performance.

The training of some personnel from the former Accident Investigation Bureau also suffered a setback as they could not be trained following the hostel challenge

Abdulsalam, former Rector of the College in 2019, during a chat with aviation reporters in training in Zaria, disclosed that the Federal Government approved N300 million for renovation as it was part of government efforts to upgrade facilities in the college hostels for the comfort and safety of the students.

He then said the government has concluded arrangements to build a 100-hostel bed facility for males and a 150-hostel bed facility for females under a Public, Private, Partnership deal.

Over the years, students’ intake has been on the increase without corresponding infrastructure expansion to handle the expected upsurge of students from within and outside the country.

The last hostel blocks were constructed by former rector of the College, Captain Chinyere Kalu.

Stakeholders have called on the management of the College to liaise with some training institutes in Zaria for accommodation in order to meet with ever growing demand in training professionals in the aviation sector.

Contacted, the Senior Public Relations Officer, Mr Jude Amadi told this correspondent that NCAT was passing difficult times in terms of hostel accommodation.

Amadi assured that the problem will be resolved this January as most renovation works will be completed in few weeks.

He said: “Accommodation challenge actually is real, giving that two of our hostels were given out for renovation. As at August last year, one ought to have been but the contractor kept shifting the date. But we have a new date this January. Hopefully, it will be available for students and the second one in this first quarter this year”.

Amadi said the hotels were upgraded to best international standard to accommodate different level of categories of students both the very high profile and basic students.

He noted that once the hostels were delivered, those on waiting list will come back for training.

The Nigerian College of Aviation Technology Zaria was established in the in 1960 to provide training for aviation personnel.