THE director at the Zenith Travels in Lagos, Mr Olumide Ohunayo has commended the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, for the recent move to install category III Instrument Landing Systems (ILS) in 15 airports across the country.
Ohunayo while saying the efforts will further aid the takeoff and landing of aircraft, urged the government to ensure the urgent calibration of the ILS as soon as they were installed in order not to leave it as abandoned project.
He used the opportunity to add his voice to the ongoing controversy over the recent announcement by the minister that the first set of locally assembled aircraft at the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology Zaria will commence flying in the next four months.
According to Ohunayo, contrary to the insinuations about the probability over if four months will be enough to complete the project, the government will be able to meet the four months deadline for the completion of the project since they were not starting from the scratch.
Equally, a frontline labour leader and the secretary of the Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals (ANAP), Comrade Abdulrasaq Saidu has described the minister’s statement as political.
Saidu premised his position on the fact that nothing is on ground to show that aircraft will be flying in the next four months.
His words: “l don’t believe that, what is the magic? What is on ground to show? Aircraft components involve so many things and I have not seen anything on ground to give me the confidence to believe that it is feasible. It is a political statement. If one has vision, such vision must be followed by mission. A vision that does not have a follow-up mission is bound to fail.”
The labour leader who queried how many professionals have been trained to take over from those coming to assemble the aircraft, wondered if after the importation of the aircraft components, the government will also import those to assemble the plane while few Nigerians will understudy them.
