.. We ‘re addressing lapses…NAMA MD
If there is anything Members of National Airtraffic Communicators Association of Nigeria (NACAN), will like very much is to see the malfunctioning radio equipment in some stations across the country fixed.
The NACAN President, Comrade Nkambo George in an interview said the malfunctioning radios was putting a lot of stress on their members, adding that it was difficult for some stations to read each other beyond 9am and 10am in some cases.
According to Nkambo, this situation had led to the use of telephone lines which ought to be the back up as the primary source.
“We resort to telephone, we are using this close user group telephone line which ought to be back up. It’s more or less the major equipment we are using now in most communication centres except for Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Port Harcourt where Alt is still functional”
According to NACAN boss, the southern network with the HF radios that was deployed as a stop gap to assist HF modulates from frequency to frequency and causes delay in messages as long as the network is bad.
“Normally messages are not supposed to be delayed, when you receive a message, it ought to go. ICAO recommend that three minutes at most five minutes, as you receive a message let it be sent out. So you receive backlog of messages in some centres as a result of equipment malfunction”
He noted that in some centres the radios were not functioning at all saying that it was good for the image of the association as it will not give the needed messages.
On manpower, Comrade Nkambo commended the management of NAMA for the great transformation in the system through training of its personnel since Capt Akinkuotu took over but said more trainings needed to be done.
Nkambo revealed that 40 of its members were undergoing training at the Nigerian college of Aviation in Zaria while 16 graduated in August this year adding that 28 were yet to be trained.
According to the NACAN boss, the non employment into the department in the past two decades has negatively affected Communicators and called on the government to commence the recruitment of between 20 and 50 every year to fill the gap.
Nkambo disclosed that 27 staff will be retiring in January next year which will also affect the department as the newly recruited personnel have no job experience.
On his plans for NACAN in the next three years, the president revealed that the association will diversify noting that there were some big stations where Hajj operations took place such as Bauchi, Kebbi, Jalingo, and and Dutse without the communicators department stressing that efforts will be made to deploy equipment to those areas.
He assured the flying public of safe skies as all navigational aids were functioning well.
Meanwhile, the reelected national Secretary of NACAN, Mr Famuyiro Kayode has said that the coming of the Managing director of NAMA has brought positive changes in the system
According to Famuyiro, professionals were being trained while new workers were being employed and urged workers to give the management team the needed cooperation to enable them succeed in the quest to reposition NAMA.
Meanwhile, the management of NAMA has said that the provision of relevant technology was important for professionals to perform their roles.
Mr Ayodele Otitolaye who represented Capt Akinkuotu at NACAN AGM in Benin City said NAMA will continue to provide modern facilities required to perform the task of Air navigational services.
According to him, the issue of inadequate manpower due to aging workforce was being addressed gradually across all sections of the agency.
