Industry deficient in skilled and experienced man-power due to
Neglect of training and manpower development
According to the World Bank African economic Outlook Nigeria Nigeria experienced steady GDP growth from 2010 to 2012; (average 6.5%). Yet our unemployment rate is on the increase now standing at 23.9% compared to 21.1% in 2010. Meaning we have 33.7 million people unemployed out of a population of 162 million. what quality of Human resource can reproduce with such a high level of illiteracy? GDP growth average of 6.5% within those 2 years we've still been able to create 4.5 million unemployed people; unbelievable!
60% of our population is expected to be below the poverty line and that is surviving on less than $1 a day. In perspective 97.2 million people leave on approximately N4800 a month. It shows that we still suffer very serious inequalities in the distribution of wealth leading to serious socio-economic consequences.
For the past 7 years, a major obstacle in Africa's inability to meet its safety oversight functions is the lack of requisite competent manpower. It is obvious that for the past few years a lot of training has taken place within both the administration and professional cadre of aviation agencies.
However it is hoped that the NCAA will strive to retain these personnel by offering realistic prospects for secure and rewarding professional careers in Nigeria. According to the World Bank tertiary enrolment for developing Countries stands at 10% of the population compared to 56% for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Countries. It is evident that Africa will find it challenging to produce the number of development professionals needed to sustain economic growth in the aviation sector without a serious change in educational and labour policies.
Note that a conservative estimate from Boeing last year dictates that Africa needs to provide and additional 715 pilots and 960 aircraft engineers every year for the next 20 years to be able to man it's aviation sector planned capacity. Nigeria's' population is 18% of Africa's hence we are expected to provide the appropriate 18% of the manpower. This comes to precisely 128 additional pilots and 172 new engineers every year. Failing to meet this target means Africa will have to mitigate the shortfall by employing expatriates. These will eventually repatriated both the acquired skills and revenue back to their home countries to the detriment of this continent. The problem could have been eliminated if the promised academic upgrade and expansion of the Nigerian College of Aviation technology (NCAT) had been carried out as planned. I carried out a census of ICAO recognised aviation training institutions in Africa. The result showed that the United Kingdom has more ICAO recognised aviation institutions than the 54 African countries combined.
Brain drain caused by security concerns and poor psychological contracts
The current security concerns experienced in some northern parts of the country has result into movement of people and businesses away from the perceived hot spots. The psychological contract is a series of unwritten expectations that employees expect from their employer and vice versa. The remuneration (pay) is only a tip of the iceberg when it comes to expectation. Principal among these latent expectations are security and safety, training and development, recognition for the work and efforts invested in the organisation. Most employment contracts for aviation professionals make no provision for loss of license insurance, medical cover, pension, union representation and unbiased conflict resolution processes. The current proliferation of expatriate staff within the Nigerian aviation industry this leads to disparity of conditions and local staff disaffection. A scenario where there is no employee engagement and group synergy provides the perfect environment for the emergence of latent pathogens that will threaten the fragile state of safety the industry is trying to balance against mounting economic and financial pressures.
Lack of enabling laws to provide a safety net for professionals in safety critical organisations.
Aviation professionals in Nigeria are exposed to excessive commercial pressure without any legal protection. These happens because managers insist on meeting target OnTime performance (OTP), schedule integrity, fraudulent dispatch reliability targets, achieve cost savings, etc. The end result is safety is compromised for economic benefits.This include pilots, engineers, air traffic controllers, dispatchers, handling agents, ground equipment operators, etc.
Some operational safety issues reported include:
Engineers are cajoled into signing certificates of release to service (CRS) when the aircraft is obviously unserviceable.
Dispatchers encouraged to falsify weights in order to carry all commercial payload.
At traffic controllers required to work:
- without required serviceable equipment.
- overtime due to low manpower levels.
- Safely executing go-arounds from an unstable approach.
- Writing serious defects in the aircraft technical log.
- Refusing to fly an unserviceable aircraft
- Insisting on taking the legal amount of fuel for flights.
The prebendal culture and the absence of the whistle-blower protection policy
Nigeria needs to evolve a whistle-blower policy that insures protection of both the system and its users. This this will serve to reduce the spread corruption within the system. It would also help in identifying hazards and taking mitigating actions before the entire group is compromised. The absence of this feature has left our aviation system constantly being overrun by corruption. Good people within the system who observe anomalies such as unsafe practices or misuse of public funds are left with the difficult choices. Speaking out and sacrificing their careers and livelihood or keeping quiet and hoping that nothing goes wrong and nobody else finds out. The result is an unsafe system built on false security, devoid of transparency and accountability that fosters a contagion of corruption and unethical practices.
The inherent prebendal culture leads to depletion of the much needed manpower. It is unfortunate that with every change in Administration the top level management are usually prematurely retired or fired irrespective of the competency and integrity. This unwarranted high turnover of our top professionals deprives the sector of the much-needed manpower required for capacity building. Some of management staff anticipate this cycle and begin looting the system in preparation for undignified exit.
Conclusion:
Nigeria needs a clearly defined and understood transport policy
The entire transport policy for Nigeria needs to be re-written. We need clearly defined policies and their respective strategies with specific objectives and time-lines for safety, reliability, efficiency and sustainability.
We have to be proactive and attempt to address issues at the policy and strategy level. Though the implementation level is very important, it tend is expected to be driven by the policy and strategy. Historical evidence indicate implementation is usually reactive and prone to serious adverse interference due to the absence of a clearly understood policy. The aviation policy should be part of an over-arching transport policy that integrates road, rail, sea and air travel. With a big picture view, our civil aviation policy must reflect elements of the African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC) continent-wide programme especially the implementation Yamoussoukro decision (1999) and the drive for regional integration.
It is quite obvious that the implementation of programmes within the sector is not supported by processes to ensure the objective is achieved; checks, balances, transparency and accountability.
A cursory look at the activities of both the regulator NCAA and the Federal Ministry of aviation in the last one year shows a sector without direction, stakeholders buy-in and synergy. A clear indicative of what transpires when a reactive regime attempts to drive a system with cogs already embedded in the wheels; slow, painful and inefficient.
Obviously most of our system managers see policy and strategy as just theoretical postulations and thus have traditionally ignored them. Emphasis is placed on the hurried acquisition of tangible assets and physical structures like airports and air planes. Myopically oblivious that without processes that will ensure sustainable levels of skilled competent man-power and supporting maintenance processes, the infrastructure and equipment will quickly translate into liabilities. The prevalence of corruption in the polity requires that transparency and accountability be clearly defined in policy and strategy. Where classified information is involved, there must still be verifiable checks and balances using a secure structures. One of such is the board of trustees of an aviation advisory council.
For any policy and strategy to succeed, it is indispensable to obtain stake-holders buy-in and create the synergy required to effect the change. I believe we are in a transient stage in our national development. To stagnate in its pupa stage, a butterfly larva will not survive for long. So, in the words of Maya Angelou “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty."
