Air Safety: Aviation Workers Raise Concern over Paucity of Personnel in NAMA

Chinedu Eze

Engineers and Air Traffic Controllers in the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), have raised concern over the continuous reduction in the number of personnel that offer critical services in the management of flight operations, warning that this may impair efficiency and jeopardise flight safety in the country. 

They said the reduction in the number of engineers who maintain the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON) and other related equipment and operations staff, like the Air Traffic Controllers (ATC), that manage the movement of aircraft in the airspace, could affect air safety management in Nigeria.

THISDAY learnt that in the engineering department instead of two or three people running a shift of 24 hours, only one personnel run it currently, overseeing the equipment, which the operations staff, ATC, use to manage aircraft movement at aerodromes and at the airspace.

A senior engineer in the agency told THISDAY that the challenge of inadequate staff had remained real, disclosing that operations area is the most affected and confirmed that one staff work for 24 hours without assistance from co-staff as it used to be. The senior engineer was worried that the shortage of personnel could give rise to fatigue and stress, which according to him can lead to serious mistakes during operations. 

According to the engineer, international standard practice stipulates that TRACON and other equipment should be manned by three persons at any time but now only one person mans the system at a time because the agency has lost many of its engineers to oversea jobs.

“We are facing acute problem about inadequate staff right now and I fear that if action is not taken to recruit and train competent staff, we won’t have people that will efficiently manage the system in the near future and this will be a threat to flight operation in Nigeria. For example, two people left in my department and since then they have not been replaced. The existing staff members are now making up for the vacant positions. That is energy sapping and could lead to fatigue, lack of concentration and lack of coordination. You won’t be able to take the right decision,” the official said.

It was learnt that although there is inadequate number of technical and operations personnel but few years ago, there was recruitment, and those recruited cannot do the job because they were not receptive to the training given to them at the Nigeria College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria due to poor entry behaviour.  

“They were not intellectually prepared to take additional mental tasks, especially in complex areas like engineering and ATC. So, the newly recruited could not take on the jobs they were trained for, hence lack of adequate personnel in the recommended number, as stipulated by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO),” the official added.

“The challenge is real. One person works 24 hours. The newly recruited refused to come down to the airports where they are needed. All of them are in Katsina. I heard that NAMA may embark on another recruitment exercise, but the most affected currently is in the operation area. When one person works for 24 hours there will be fatigue and he or she will make more mistakes, which is not good for this sensitive job,” the officer said.

The rapid reduction of NAMA personnel is attributed to the endless japa syndrome and lack of the requisite experience among the young officials, while the older ones are at the verge of retirement and this makes recruitment of new batch of new officers very important.

THISDAY spoke to the newly elected President of National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), Edino Emos, who highlighted the planned recruitment of new controllers. According to Emos, it is not easy working with inadequate number of personnel, considering the critical role Air Traffic Controllers play in airspace management.

“Recruiting the personnel that can make meaningful contributions to the job that we do, takes some time. You must work for three years. From the year you are employed you will spend at least two years at the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria. This is why it is important that there should be consistency in the recruitment process; that there will not be a lacunae which will give rise to the present shortage we are going through now and the right persons should be recruited.

“Ideally, Air Traffic Controllers should not work more than two hours at a time because of the sensitive nature of the job they do. But now we work more than that. We work up to three to four hours. This is not good for safety because it leads to fatigue. This is the reason why we are clamouring that adequate hands should be employed and there should not be gaps. Recruitment should be a regular process,” he said.

Former Managing Director of NAMA, Captain FolaAkinkuotu, told THISDAY that when he was heading the agency about three years ago, he made sure he was employing both engineers and ATC every year.

“All the years I was there I was recruiting and training them. I made efforts to train. I made sure training was conducted in order to mitigate shortage. Every recruitment I did I followed the requirements. I made sure tests were conducted at NCAT, Zaria. I cannot say what happened after I have left. But I made sure I did not employ substandard people,” he said.

THISDAY gathered that the airports adversely affected by paucity of personnel are the busiest airport in the country, the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, Port Harcourt and other airports located in the southern part of the country because the young personnel recruited few years ago refused to work at the airports. Some of them, according to inside source, were not even poised for the job.

“The job was just given to them without their asking. The Minister then just wanted to recruit as many of them as possible. What they do now is to just get their salary and stay at those their preferred airports. They are not bothered,” the source told THISDAY.

So, while there are personnel who earn salaries from NAMA every month, the agency is not making use of their skills or knowledge because they do not have anything to offer.

The paucity of engineers and Air Traffic Controllers is also affecting the deployment of such personnel to the new airports built by various state governments. While the states pay NAMA for such services, the agency does not have the required personnel and therefore cannot deploy them to these airports.

Even if the airports decide to train its own persons, it will take time to train them and expose them to acquire the requisite experiences that will enable them to work efficiently in a less supervised environment.

Some Aviation workers that spoke to THISDAY said the recruitment and training of engineers and Air Traffic Controllers should be a continuous exercise