The Immediate Past General Manager, Safety Department, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria FAAN, Mr. Elifue Agbi has called for more firefighting equipment and training for fire personnel in the agency.
This is just as he said that the pace in the training of the staff was not good enough.
In an interview with reporters at his retirement/60th birthday ceremony in Lagos, Mr. Agbi stated that capacity building was key if the personnel were to discharge their duties effectively.
He also emphasized that ensuring firefighting staff were trained to
competency level; they could be relied upon in the event of any
emergency in or around the airports.
“They should continue with capacity building which is very important.
When you train staff to competency level, that is one, they should be
provided with the equipment to work, and then there should be opportunity to interact among them and be introduce to the public or the organizations around the airport.”
Agbi harped on firefighting facilities for training, while commending
the Federal Government for the purchase of firefighting simulator for
the training of personnel, however noted that the simulator should be
complemented, “with the fire tenders, appliances and fire fighting
machines with which they should practice. Equipment should be
sufficient.”
He added, “We must look into their curriculum as well, are the
objectives meeting the demands of the organization, how do we know
this? We look to the safety, what are the type of incidences we are having, what are the mitigation factors, when we notice we have been having a particular type of incident, where can we practice should such thing happen in future, who are those to be train that will respond, they must be taught with the purpose for them undergoing such training, map out the units that will be engage, enumerate the areas they will have both theoretical and practical knowledge before we can deploy them for such emergencies.”
The Safety expert called on the federal government to support the FAAN management with the wherewithal to enable it equips the Fire Department with necessary equipment and knowledge to be at par with global standards.
“The authority is not having the wherewithal to fund this. It is up to
the Federal ministry of aviation to support faan in doing this such
that they can rely on the workforce they have because if that workforce is competent, you can discipline any officer that fails or engages in dereliction of duty or that is not responding as required.”
While urging organizations within the airports to support the fire department to boost their morale, the former Safety GM noted that “When I was doing my OJC at the Newcastle airport, you found that the companies and organizations around that airport always donate one item or the other to the fire service especially thing that has to do with their welfare, why do you think those officers will not be perform when they are call upon, that is motivation and something our people should imbibe too. I want a situation where organizations and firms operating within and around the airport to support the emergency
services. They will be motivated when you do that.”
On radioactive hazards, Mr. Agbi noted that the country must train it
emergency services to handle incidences of radioactive hazards and
other dangerous substances that could pose dangers to the aviation.
“If we have a radio active issue or a bio-hazard challenge, can our
people handle it, the answer is no, are we or can we prepare for it, I can say yes, we have the university of Lagos nearby and other institution close by, are they equip so that they can be able to give advice on issues like this, no, so we must be looking at where we can get the knowledge and training for such condition should they arise.”
“We are growing whether we like it or not, the fact remains that
Nigeria is growing despite all the challenges we are having and the
aviation industry is growing so in our attempt to catch up with modernity and the latest trends in the industry”.
“We have developed an all encompassing curriculum that covers all aspect industry. Some of the things we thought will never happen in
the country have started happening, so we must prepare for all types
of emergencies foreseeable and the only way to do that is through
competency base training.”
Commenting on his predecessor,Mr. Nath Mac-Abraham, who officially
takes over from Mr. Agbi described him as a man with vast knowledge
and experience of safety processes and procedures the agency was proud
of.
On what he intends to bring to his new assignment, McAbraham said
“Safety has four basic components. One of them is Safety communication, education and promotion, my background is training, so my goal essentially is to ensure that all staff of FAAN is very safety aware, and imbibe it as a culture”
He explained that he intended to achieve the vision of “making safety
principles available to staff through training awareness creation, and
then we are going to bring the best practices of safety procedures we
have observed around the world and work with the staff on ground to
ensure that we reposition FAAN and make sure that safety take the
central place it is suppose to take in the system.”
Family members, friends, colleagues and well wishers who came to felicitate with Mr. Agbai took turns to pour encomiums on him at the
event held in Lagos.
