By Chuks Okoh
Members of the Nigerian Air Traffic Controllers Association NATCA say they may be embarking on strike Monday to protest the spate of failures of CNS/ATM equipment within the Nigeria’s airspace.
A statement signed and issued by the Victor Egaru and Olawode Banji, President and General Secretary respectively, said it was disheartening that in the last two months that the CNS/ATM equipment has been epileptic and alarming, thereby increasing the workloads of both ATCs and Pilots.
“Presently, the Instrument Landing System (ILS) serving the Lagos Runway 18R has been unserviceable for close to three months while the one serving the Second Runway (18L) have been epileptic for more than one month”.
“The distance measuring equipment on located with the VOR in Lagos has been out of service for a long time as well. Equipment in many airports including communication facilities suffer that same fate”.
They argued that at NAMA headquarters and station levels that provision of operational vehicles for ATC operations, including runway inspection that required dedicated and specialized vehicles, have been unattached to by Air Navigation service provider.
The ATCS explained that some employees in the agency have spent so much time and energy they would have expended in making facilities function optimally to feed the public with falsehoods as to the semi ability of the CNS/ATM equipment to cover their ineptitude.
The statement read “we can, however, say categorically that it is either the personnel responsible for the equipment are incompetent or the incessant failures are as a result of acts of sabotage on their part”
They recalled what would have been an incident involving a presidential jet on February 18 2015, when on a final approach to land, the glide slope of the runway 18L in Lagos went off owing to its epileptic nature since January 30th 2015.
According to them, despite all these failures in equipment, the controllers still worked daily under difficult conditions to keep the / airspace safe.
The association urged the government to call to order some principal officers in NAMA that were hell bent in destroying the agency by working against the air traffic control which was the primary function and major sustenance of the agency.
According to NATCA, since the NAMA management has decided to disregard the agreement it willingly signed with NATCA/ATSSSAN on 18th January, 2015 and owing to the fact that the time agreed will elapse on march 1st 2015 the ATCS in NAMA have no option than to resume the action earlier suspended as from march 2nd 2015.
Meanwhile, the management of NAMA has agreed to meet the demands of ATC.
At the end of a meeting between the supervising minister of labour and productivity Alhaji Kabiru Tanimu and the permanent Secretary ministry of aviation Mohammed Abass, it was resolved that the issues raised were right.
They resolved among other things, the advancement of recently licensed ATC should be on going while letters conveying approval for advancement be concluded within one week.
That the redesignation of directorate of operations as directorate of Air Traffic Management be effected
On the sponsored World Bank Training it was resolved that NAMA is to pay the differentials in the Course allowance to eligible staff who attended the training in accordance with extant Public Service Rules as well as NAMA Conditions of Service and present evidence of payment at the next meeting in the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity.
It was resolved that based on NAMA income and expenditure profile, and in compliance with requisite due process, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Aviation will package proposal on the issues of allowances payable to Air Traffic Controllers as agreed, and forward same to the Chairman, National Salaries, Incomes & Wages Commission for necessary action.
It was also agreed that the proposal should be immediately acknowledged by the NSIWC as part of the resolutions of this meeting. It was further noted that the NSIWC will complete the process of forwarding the proposals to Government within two (2) weeks for further necessary action.
Based on the above conclusions, the leadership of NATCA agreed to brief their members on the outcome of the meeting and communicate to the Federal Ministry of Labour & Productivity within 48hrs with a view to suspending the intended withdrawal of services.
