By John Oba
Sixty-six pilots and 61 aircraft maintenance engineers have been trained by the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, which oversees the Presidential Amnesty Programme for former agitators in the Niger Delta.
The aviation professionals were trained at the Afrika Union Aviation Academy, Mafikeng, and Flight Training Services, Midrand, both in South Africa; Lufthansa Flight Training Network, Germany, Fujairah Aviation Academy, United Arab Emirates, Jetstream Aviation Academy, Greece, and Royal Jordanian Air Academy, Amman, Jordan.
Speaking in Lagos at the unveiling of the aviation professionals, the Senate President, Senator David Mark said the national assembly would continue to support the Presidential Amnesty Programme for the training of youths in the country in order to close the gaps in manpower needs in the aviation industry.
Mark, who was represented at the event by the senate deputy leader, Abdul Ningi, also said the lawmakers had considered a revolutionary local content regulation for Nigeria’s aviation industry.
When passed into law, it would be mandatory for both domestic and foreign airlines operating in the country to set aside a certain number of indigenous pilots and engineers that they would engage.
He said the proposed legislation “is part of efforts to deepen local participation in the aviation sector where there is influx of expatriates as pilots, aircraft engineers and other aviation professionals.”
The senate president added that the proposed bill had become imperative as one of the ways of creating an avenue for Nigerian aviation professionals to get jobs in the aviation sector currently dominated by expatriates.
“The amnesty programme is working. It is one of the programmes initiated by government that is adding value. The national assembly will continue to support it. It is for this reason that it is going to create legislation for local content regulation in the aviation sector. This we will pursue as much as it does not conflict with international regulations,” he said.
In his remarks, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Aviation, Capt. Shehu Usman Iyal, said the relevant agencies of government were collaborating to ensure that pilots and aircraft engineers type-rated after their training from the amnesty programme were absorbed in the aviation sector.
Iyal described the type-rating of 66 pilots and 61 aircraft engineers as historic in the aviation sector, affirming that their engagement would help fill the gap of ageing indigenous professionals in the aviation sector.
He commended the national assembly’s move to create legislation for local content saying “it is key because in some countries of the world, such laws have been created as an avenue to give jobs to their qualified aviation professionals.
“We will liaise with the office of the special adviser to the president on Niger Delta and indeed the Amnesty Office to provide jobs for these trainees. The office has its list and their qualifications. Some are pilots of helicopters; some are for fixed wings while some have more training to do. We will start with the database and from there we know where we will place them.
“This is good for the development of the Nigerian aviation industry. The Amnesty Office has done very well. But what is striking and unique about this is that besides the military, no civil organisation has been able to graduate this large number of pilots. It didn’t even happen during the days of the defunct Nigeria Airways.
“To have 66 pilots, 61 engineers graduating at the same time; I think this is phenomenal. It is something that has to be celebrated. This is something we as Nigerians should be proud of. This is going to bridge the manpower gap for the successive generation. Some of us as pilots have aged and these are the young professionals that will take over from us,” he said.
Iyal, who also supported the proposed local content legislation in the aviation industry, described it as “one of the best things to happen to the aviation sector.”
“That (the legislation) will be excellent. In fact, in places like Malaysia and Indonesia they have specific rules and regulations whereby any operator that comes in must employ an indigene of that country as a co-pilot or trainee engineer to understudy the expatriate pilot or engineer. So, it is an excellent idea and I can assure that Nigerian pilots, engineers and technicians have what it takes to fly or work on any machine in any part of the world.
On job opportunities for the pilots, Iyal said: “That is a possibility. They have gone as far as giving them jet conversion. That goes a long way. When you get jet conversion, it is an advantage and it goes a long way. This is the area we are going to look into. The other 200 that are unemployed, what can we do for them because the opportunities are there? The job is there; the machines are there.”
In his remarks, the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, urged airline operators and players in the aviation and allied sector to employ the pilots and aircraft engineers saying “they have the requisite competence and licences having being trained in some of the foremost institutions across the globe.”
“The Nigerian government will take further steps to complete on-duty training for these pilots and aircraft engineers to make it difficult for any employer to reject them,” he added.