Galadima Abednego, President of the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE)
The aviation industry in Nigeria faces numerous challenges, from unemployment and expatriate quota issues to the need for a robust Maintenance Repair Overhaul (MRO) infrastructure. Galadima Abednego, President of the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE), shares his insights on these challenges and the steps NAAPE is taking to address them. In this interview with IFEOMA OKEKE-KORIEOCHA, he discusses the impact of Air Peace’s MRO initiative, the need for a national carrier, and the association’s efforts to promote the welfare of its members and drive industry growth.
Do we still have the challenge of unemployment of pilots and aircraft engineers in Nigeria?
Nigeria is having difficulty establishing a very robust Maintenance Repair Overhaul, (MRO) that will absorb massively our members. So, most of the airlines, because they don’t want to train, would rather prefer to be poached from companies and thereby leaving these young maintenance engineers at the mercy of some of the startups, and therefore, lacking the experience that they require. So, in the case of Nigeria Airways, you see that so much training was going on and helping these young people.
The airlines, like I said, would prefer to poach from airline A to B. They are just migrating and recycling them. Before they get employed these days, they have to pay over N30million to get type rated. This is very huge for parents and sponsors and nothing to fall back to. And most times you come back, there are no guarantees because of the lean carrying capacity of the industry. So this has been a very huge challenge.
Do we still have challenges with the expatriate quota?
And one of the other core challenges we have faced is the issue of expatriate quota. So despite some of these lapses, some of the airlines, particularly in oil and gas, across, you see them bringing expatriates from Eastern Europe, which they consider is maybe cheaper because they will be ready hands.
So you find out that because the highly experienced ones are aging out, and then the young ones are the ones struggling for themselves to get experience, it becomes a difficult situation. So, sometimes you experience some huge gap. And that’s a huge challenge. I believe that having a government pay attention to these is important.
What do you think will be the impact of the establishment of MRO by Air Peace?
I heard recently that Air Peace and Embraer want to build an MRO. I think it’s a welcome development. It’s something we look forward to. This will open up the space and give more opportunities for young engineers to practice. MROs are the way to go because, like you know, one of the key expenditure components in airline business is maintenance. So, if we are not able to pay attention to that, our airlines will continue to struggle and unfortunately they will not be able to grow. Today, if you go to Ethiopia, you see many aircraft. But as it is in Nigeria now, again, it’s a work in progress. I look forward to having carriers that will have such capacities.
Do we still have the situation where pilots and engineers leave the country for greener pastures outside the country?
You see, it’s in human nature to always gravitate towards part of least resistance. If you are here facing these challenges where you queue up with probably little hope of gaining employment, and then you are getting a better deal somewhere in Emirates, Qatar or in BA, you will definitely want to go for it. And it’s not only pilots and engineers. You know it’s happening in the medical field, for the nurses or doctors. But what we are saying is that there’s a need for us to pay attention to Nigeria so that these things can be obtainable here; so that if one will need to migrate, it will be a matter of choice, not a necessity. I will not shy away from the fact that we need a national carrier.
We need a national carrier that will have capacity, because there are no investors that will come and begin to put in so much money. But a national carrier, no matter the arrangement, I’m not saying is wholly owned by the government, but we need a carrier that will have such financial muscle that will drive this industry. Already Nigeria is signatory to the Single African Air Transport Market, (SAATM).
There are two issues that have continued to be the subject of discussion, especially with NAAPE. You have been talking about airlines not agreeing for their members to join the unions, and the issue of unemployed pilots. Over the years, this has been a recurring thing, and we have been talking about it. What steps has the association taken to be able to address these issues?
Clearly, yes, while we have refrained from being disruptive, we have tabled this matter where it needs to be tabled. If you are aware, the last engagement unions had with the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development in Lagos last year, he actually asked the director general of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to organise a meeting between Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) and the unions so that they can engage and build understanding with regards to this because this is fundamental.
We are talking about the constitutional right to associate and the right to unionize. So, it’s not something that is open for cherry picking. It’s something that is the law of the land. So, the airlines cannot choose which law of the land to obey and which one not to obey. So, but like I said, because of the assurances given by the minister, we have been civil about it. And let me tell you what most of the employers don’t know; some of them are members and pay their dues on their own. The law is for the dues to be paid by the employers. So, we try to insist that the law is followed. So, whether our pilots are members? Yes they are.
We have member pilots and we have engineers. That’s why it’s the Association for Aircraft Pilots and Engineers. So, pilots are members, of course, and everywhere we have a branch, we have pilots, we have engineers. So, it’s not something that is on expatriate quota, this complaint has been laid time and again. I remember there was even very good work done on this by one of the journalists, using freedom of information to explain this. But what did the government do? They kept mute.
We are not to enforce the law as an association, as a legal entity. Ours is to obey the law. Where there are infractions, we complain. And if you complain and action is not taken, you don’t blame us. And I don’t think for an industry like aviation, which has global impact, we cannot be disruptive. So, we are trying to be civil to ensure that we engage. So, on expatriate quota, again, we have tabled it. It’s a documented thing in what they call a civil aviation plan. It’s already there. Expatriate quota is a law. Currently, the Minister of Interior is doing a great job on that. But even at that, the employers try to circumvent some of these things. It’s not only in aviation. So, the Minister of Interior that authored the expatriate quota law should be the one to watch.
Take us through some of the reforms you have initiated at NAAPE in the last eight years?
The last eight years have been the most transformative, under my administration. We have strengthened the governing structure through appropriate amendments of the constitution following due process and ensuring that everything is properly gazetted with the Federal Government of Nigeria. We were able to acquire a standard office accommodation four years ago that now serves as our National secretariat from being perpetual tenants over the years we are now landlords. This is significant because what we inherited was rents being owed by the Association and we cleared all the debts and never to pay or owe rent again.
Apart from the office space, we also have two classrooms for rentals and for use by PEN Aviation Institute which is an Approved Training Organisation (ATO) undergoing certification and owned by the Association. We believe strongly that the ATO certificate will soon be issued in a matter of days. We also have part of our property under renovation to serve as a travellers lodge with a capacity of eight rooms. All these are geared towards financial dependence and sustainability of the Association to enable it contribute more to the growth and development of the industry and the welfare of our members.
We may mainstream the Association by affiliating to the biggest labour centre in Nigeria (NLC) with the view to leverage on their strength and enormous workers resources. Knowing that aviation is a global business we are also affiliated with the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) which has membership in 147 countries and membership strength of 18million giving us global reach and influence.
As a way of encouraging the women folks on day one of my first term, I inaugurated the women commission and appointed a National Woman leader to drive it and since then the Women Commission has been active and part of our National Administrative Council (NAC) for the past eight years. The women commission have organized several events for the good of the industry and our members.
They have participated in several women related activities nationally. In terms of promoting our members welfare, we ensure regularly that all our branches have robust and negotiated conditions of services that are fair and reflective of current realities. We relentlessly protected their rights and their jobs. In collaboration with other industry Unions we have advocated and made presentations both at the Ministerial and National Assembly levels on matters of interest to the industry. Most especially during Covid-19 pandemic we advocated and supported a bailout package to save the industry. We have engaged in safety promotion activities.
We conducted safety workshops and came up with a safety evaluation index for the industry and used the same to award deserving airlines and other aviation entities. In order to encourage excellence and selfless service we created a compendium of 50 outstanding Pilots and Aircraft Engineers using very strict criteria and saw to the release of well detailed profiles of our fore bearers and recognizing their service and sacrifices thereby providing a reference material and opportunities for direct and indirect mentoring. We ensured relevant and regular training of our leadership every year thereby developing their capacities. All these and more were achieved because our predecessors were able to hand over to us an Association in peace and with great potential.
