Why 22 Nigerian airports still lack ICAO certification

In spite of Nigeria being reffered to as the West African hub in the aviation sector, none of its 22 airports are yet certified by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

This is mainly because policy makers in the country have failed to pay proper attention to most of the international standard requirements of the body since 1980.

Disclosing this on Friday, in a phone-in programme on Radio Continental, Lagos, two experts, namely Group Captain John Ojikutu, (rtd) and a former Director of Operations with the defunct Nigeria Airways, Captain Dele Ore, said until Nigeria accords aviation regulator, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) its independence in decision making, the international agency would have no authority to base its certification of any of the airports on.

But they said that experts have already advised the government to put plans in place towards ensuring that it secures certification for at least two of the country’s major airports: the newly renovated Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja and the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Ikeja, as the ICAO inspectors are expected to visit Nigeria mid of June 2017.

Said Ore, “What the regulators are interested in is not the airport buildings, because they are seen as mere shopping malls. Rather they are after the functionality of the aviations facilities, including navigational aids, aeronautics devices and illumination on the runways.

“But what has been regarded as important in most developing countries, especially Nigeria is undue emphasis on building structures, but what the inspectors are after is the safety measures in the airports.

“Until recently most airports in Nigeria were not allowing planes to land or take off from its airport from 6pm, because of poor lighting of the runways, but it calls them international airport.”

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Answering a listener’s question on the financial difficulties that the sector is passing through, Ore, who is the former Chairman of the Aviation Round Table, a think tank for the industry, regretted that the operators missed the opportunity given them by the Goodluck Jonathan-led administration, which in 2013 doled out a N34 billion life-line to the operators.

“The irony is that rather than utilize the money to turn their airline around, they used greater part of it in settling some old debt with banks, as against re-negotiating the loan servicing, and today the same banks are still after the operators for the balance of the loans whereas the sector is becoming insolvent.”

On his part, Ojukutu frowned at attempts to have any private airline fly the Nigerian flag, by way of meeting up with the country’s Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA), without such airline first being asked to get quoted on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

“There are two sides to the coins,” the former Air Force officer said, adding “rather than government floating another national carrier at this time, it could jolly well encourage merger of the airlines and ensure that one or two of such merged companies have their shares, which Nigerians could buy, as investors, before they are allowed to fly the national flag.”

Ojikutu insisted that the government should have an aviation policy, as contained in the Aviation Act of 2006.

“The NCAA should no longer be subordinated to the ministry, just like ICAO does not take orders from any government.

“The law establishing NCAA makes its chief executive officer independent of the Minister, but rather, he is a consultant to the minister on aviation matters.

“But we need the officials in the agency to understand this and take up regulation duties professionally, as the Act stipulates”.

On the safety of Nigerian Airspace, Ojukutu said there have been some improvements, as per having some navigation instruments in some places, but stated that the air controllers (ATCs)s are still being over tasked.

“The standard practice is that at no time will less than four ATCs be on dirty, meaning that a maximum of three hours is supposed to be spent on the control room, but in Nigeria, an ATC spends more than six hours.”

 

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