Government needs a policy to address over 500 unemployed licensed pilots …Meggison

Government needs a policy to address over 500 unemployed licensed pilots …Meggison

 

Captain Nogie Meggison

 The  grand patron of Nigerian Professional Pilots ( NPP), who is also the Chairman of Airline Operators of Nigeria, AON  Captain Nogie Meggison has called on the Federal Government to put in  place a proactive policy that will address  the projected 500 Nigerian licensed  pilots   that  are unemployed  .

 He said the number of unemployed pilots is increasing from  the current 200 to an astronomical number when the over 100  student pilots sent to Jordan by the Kano State government would graduate  later this year.

 Meggison spoke in an interview in Lagos .

 This is  in addition to the 52  youths trained under the Federal Government Amnesty programme as well as the fresh batches 100 graduating from the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology ( NCAT), and the 40 from International Aviation College ( IAC), in Ilorin, Kwara State .

 Meggison said unless something fast is done, such development constitutes a disincentive to the growth and development of the Nigerian aviation industry .

 He said well over 400  Nigeria licensed  aircraft engineers are also out of job, urging the Federal Government to put in place an employment policy that would ensure these aviation professionals  are engaged by both indigenous and foreign carriers operating in the country .

 Meggison said though, some domestic carriers have done well and are engaging some of the pilots but there still room for improvement.

 He said an enabling policy that would check the influx of foreign pilots and engineers   by foreign carriers.

 Meggison said there are over 1,000 foreign pilots engaged by both local and foreign registered airplane  flying in Nigeria .

 He stated that apart from the 1,000 foreign pilots , there are over 500 foreign aircraft engineers  employed in the country .

 He said:" The  government  should compel foreign carriers to set up a line station for aircraft maintenance in the country and employ local engineers to assist in turning around  the growth of the sector .

 They should look into other avenues, if policies are not put in place the challenge of unemployment of pilots and engineers may not be resolved as soon as possible.

 It is shameful that Nigerian  licensed youth  pilots are now driving  " kabu  "  " Kabu "  to make ends meet .

 This is totally unacceptable ! Not that there're no jobs but jobs at taken by foreigner

 Over the years , the aviation industry has grown . About six years ago , the number of private jets have increased from 20 to 150.

 Even, commercial airplanes  have grown from 20 to  100, but it has not reflected on the employment of our youths, who are trained as pilots."

 He said it was time the Federal Government implemented the local  content  policies  in the aviation sector to create room for the employment of indigenous professionals , as it is the practice in most parts of the world.

 Meggison cited examples from India ,  Cameroon , Russia and Egypt where policies exists that prescribes that on every airplane cockpit there must be a national passport holder inside.

 " For any aircraft  that is flying in such countries, whether  local or foreign registered, once the  airplane has stayed in the country for more 30days it must comply to cockpit laws."

 He said apart from the implementation of the policy , another way to generate jobs for indigenous professionals is the establishment of aircraft maintenance centres.

 Meggison said :" Government needs a policy to create avenues for qualified youths to get employment in the aviation sector .

 About 2000 skilled professional jobs can be created in first year , while  5000 skill jobs  could be created by the next three years easily .

 One of the ways of getting this achieved is to compel  foreign airlines to  opening of aircraft maintenance line station in Nigeria, where aircraft engineers could be employed .

 " We need policies  to drive employment of both indigenous pilots and aircraft engineers .

 This is the practice in other countries of the world, government creates a conducive policy to drive employment of key aviation professionals.

 In countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa and Egypt, their governments have perfected plans on how to use their aviation sector to create jobs for their youths .

 This explains why these countries now export skilled aviation professionals including pilots, aircraft engineers , cabin crew ,quality assurance managers and  technicians to other parts of the world .

 There is no reason Nigeria with her over estimated 170 million population should not be exporting skilled aviators to other parts of the world .

 If one of every five black man is a Nigerian why can't   we  produce one aviation professional out of every five African aviator .

 Government needs to address this problem. Even, the last batch of 30 aircraft engineers that graduated from the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology ( NCAT),not even one is yet to get job.

 Whereas, there are over 500 foreign aircraft engineers working in Nigeria. Most of the foreign carriers are putting flying spanners (engineers ) on board in the business class to fly to Nigeria  instead of setting up a line station  .

 There  is need for government policies to  make them  open line maintenance stations to provide hands on job training  for  Nigerian  youths  . So that they can gradually start transferring skill to our Nigerian youths

 On board any Emirates or Qatar Airways flight, there is always other nationals from other countries who are aviation professionals exported to other countries .

 Whereas  Nigerian with her huge population, is nowhere to be found on the international aviation scene. It's time we create jobs for youths in the aviation sector."