At least 30 un-employed licensed Nigerian pilots and engineers, yesterday, stormed the office of the Nigerian Association of Aircraft and Pilots ( NAAPE) protesting the influx of expatriates in the country’s aviation industry.
The protesters, who demonstrated within the airport environment of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, MMA, Lagos, lamented that the incursion of expatriate pilots and engineers in the industry had rendered them jobless, despite their qualifications for the job.
One of the protesters, who did not disclose his identity, alleged that aeronautic engineers’ graduate, not even type-rated on any aircraft, were given employment by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, to issue license to aircraft maintenance engineers.
The aggrieved protester also purported that NCAA had not conducted any license examinations for upcoming aviation practitioners for almost a year, stressing that the situation was not good for the development of the sub-sector.
He said: “With a deeper research by design of their profession, aeronautic personnel are supposed to be in the factory where aircraft are being manufactured.
“Aeronautical engineers are destroying the future of licensed aircraft maintenance engineers in the country.”
The protesters also challenged President Gioodluck Jonathan to appoint a technocrat from the industry, preferably an air traffic controller, cabin crew personnel, pilots and engineers as the minister of aviation in this dispensation.
They said, “In the air transport industry, aeronautical engineers belong to the designers and the manufacturers of aircraft, they have little relevance in the airline operation because they are not licensed in practise.
In Nigeria, we only fly and maintain aircraft and the core professionals are the aforementioned professionals that are licensed.”
Addressing the aggrieved personnel, the National President of NAAPE, Engr. Isaac Balami, urged the protesters to be patient with the government and assured them that President Jonathan would listen to the voice of stakeholders and professionals in the industry by appointing core aviator as the next minister of aviation.
He said: “As far as NAAPE is concerned, you should be patience, because this agitation commenced not too long ago and we should not raise any dust in the sector. NAAPE and other professionals are trying to canvass for the appointment of aviation professional as the Minister of Aviation and I’m sure we are on course.”