NAMA: TWO YEARS OF UNALLOYED SERVICE

NAMA: TWO YEARS OF UNALLOYED SERVICE

BY OLUCHY AGBAGWU

In the not too distant past, the nation’s air transport business was not a spectacle to take delight in, mainly because of safety concerns arising from the parlous state of navigation aids.

Indeed, stakeholders were scandalized that these aids, critical to enhancing air safety were deteriorating steadily because of the prevailing culture of negligence in the maintenance of existing infrastructure in virtually all spheres of the economy.

Even in these times of poor service delivery imbued by the inordinate desire to unashamedly steal from the national till by managers of our public institution to the detriment of the larger society, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) under the leadership of Engr. Mazi Nnamdi Udoh, has chosen to be an exception this past two years.

Right from its inception, the management team made the bold step to ignite the fire of service delivery and set the tone for a total restructuring of the old order in line with the transformation agenda of the federal government.

NAMA from the inauguration of the two year old management team on October 4, 2011 took the bull by the horn to make a statement of intent as Nigeria’s Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP) by redefining its goals and objectives to place the parastatal on the pedestal for service delivery and efficiency.

The new goals, according to the organization’s helmsman, Mazi Udoh were anchored on a tripod of making NAMA a leading ANSP in African, a low-incident ANSP (zero-accident) and an ambitious N30 billion revenue earner-a project he had set to accomplish within three years.

Thought this objective appeared daunting a task, the NAMA boss was full of optimism that it would be achieved within the time frame.

According to him, NAMA would make a success of this plan of action by being sustainable on internally generated revenue (IGR); access to funds for capital projects; diversification to non aeronautical revenue sources; human capacity development efficient human resources as well as taking advantages of emerging technologies such as the ADS-B project to capture low level flights in the Gulf of Guinea: CNS/ATM plan for Nigeria and performance based navigation (PBN) to make the 13-year old agency the flagship of navigation provider in the continent.

However, the management was not oblivious of the fact that to attain this enviable height, the agency must have to grapple with the existing status that was critical to enhanced performance namely: skilled but ageing workforce, high cost of maintenance of CNS/ATM infrastructure, high operational and running costs in comparison with its revenue and a hybrid of digital and analogue technologies among several others.

Buoyed by government’s transformation agenda, the Agency swung into action with investment in some capital intensive projects including the total radai coverage of Nigeria (TRACON), safe tower, total VHF radio coverage, AIS Automation,WGS-84 survey, procurement of navigational aids for designated airports, 13 control towers rehabilitation and solar power project.

Indeed, with the completion of the TRACON project, it is not going to be possible for any aircraft to operate in the nation’s airspace without being detected by air traffic controllers; which in effect makes the airspace a no go area for the enemy airplane.

Before now, some stations of the agency were hampered by communication challenges which was inimical to efficient operations of the airspace.

Having at the back of its mind that communication remains a basic tool in airspace management and operation, Mazi Udoh’s team surprised industry watchers when it successfully executed the safe power project in a record time with the factory acceptance test of the equipment carried out and certified; that, today, those hiccups have become a thing of the past.

Perhaps, it was in appreciation of these accomplishments in a record time that the Federal Ministry of Aviation in line with government vision to reposition key sectors of the economy for optimal performance, transferred some operations and services of other agencies in the  industry to NAMA.

They include: Airfield ground lighting and operation, birdstrike and other wildlife hazard control and vegetation from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the calibration unit (NAFIS)from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

This policy decision is somewhat being justified following the successful installation of mobile airfield lighting on Runway 18L of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos with 66 CALKIT brand of emergency  airfield and additional two approach lights being effectively deployed in December 2012 by its engineers with the equipment certification okayed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)  and UK Civil Aviation Administration (CAA), thus bringing to an end the closure of the runway after sunset and theresultant diversion of domestic flights to RWY18R.

These giant strides in repositioning the Agency as a 21^st century ANSP leader were not lost on stakeholders who appreciated the feats in equal measure going by the harvest of awards NAMA had been bestowed with both locally and internationally

Among these are: Allied Business Corporate/Gold Award 2012, Windhoek, Namibia; 2012 Aviation and Allied Business  Leadership Award for outstanding individual, September 2012, Windhoek Namibia ;  ‘This Day top 50 parastatals in Nigeria, Nigerian Society of Engineers Ikeja branch (Award for enthronement of professionalism ), 2011 and the Nigerian Red Cross Award of excellence for safety and crisis management among numerous others.

Amid these honors and accolades, NAMA on several occasions has had to fight some battles waged against it by persons who consciously or unconsciously tried to circumvent the rules  of the game for their selfish interest.

How would a high ranking member of society with political clout encourage private flight operation without submitting the manifest of the souls on board its aircraft to NAMA as compulsorily required by the regulations governing the practice?

Now when such persons are called to order by the grounding of their airplane, hell is let loose as they cry foul describing NAMA’S action as politically motivated especially if they are from the government's opposition camp.

It has been no doubt a worthy experience for Engr.,Udoh and his management team as the industry expects more accomplishments in service delivery.

 

Agbagwu is a Lagos based aviation analyst

Email Oluchya @ gmail.com