By Hillary Asemota
The Director General/CEO, of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) and Permanent Representative of Nigeria with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Prof. Mansur Bako Matazu, on Tuesday asserted that the unique and precision-made services and products of the agency are critical for the safety of air operations both for civil and military purposes.
The NiMet boss made the disclosure at the 2021 Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) Safety Week, in Abuja.
Recall too that in a recent briefing with Aviation Reporters, Matazu, had hinted that NiMet is set to provide marine tailored forecast services as mandated by the 2003 Act establishing it, as according to him, this realistic move will save Nigeria several billions of naira which has been going out of Nigeria as capital flight.
This revelation came to the fore at the sideline of the GCRF-Africa SWIFT Workshop on the Pre-Tested 3 Users and Co-Production which held recently in Abuja.
On aviation safety, he said: “From the beginning to the end of every flight journey, weather events are critical. Hence, the importance of availability of adequate information regarding current and predicted weather cannot be overemphasized.
“NiMet, under my watch, ably supervised by the leadership of the Minister, Senator Hadi Sirika, is well committed to improving infrastructure and equipment for weather observation and forecasting.”
Prof. Matazu, admitted that climate change, climate variability and associated impacts has increased uncertainties around weather occurrences and their intensities have added to the need for the delivery of timely, accurate, and reliable aeronautical meteorological products and services.
According to him, this will ensure that the ever-increasing safety standards in the sector are not only met but continually maintained.
In a move to ensure that the giant steps taken and gains made in the sector in recent years are not eroded, on my assumption of office earlier this year, my office and the management of NiMet constituted an aviation task team, he said.
“The work of the team is to assess and evaluate the state of our equipment and infrastructure across all the airports in the country and make recommendations where necessary, for improved safety and service delivery.
“The team has so far assessed the nation’s airports at Abuja, Kaduna, Lagos, Katsina, Kano and currently in Port Harcourt enroute Calabar airports. Assessments of other airports have also been scheduled to commence soon.
“It is my desire that the outcome of this event leads to safer air navigation and all-round development of the aviation sector in Nigeria.” The NiMet boss, said.
According to him, the annual 2021 safety week event will facilitate and strengthen the recovery of Nigeria’s aviation sector from the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to him, the federal government through the ministry has at various points over the past years demonstrated its readiness to ensure that our nation’s aviation sector is safe and secure for stakeholders and passengers.
He commended FAAN, for ensuring that the nation’s airports meet the new safety standards for both local and international flights.
“The approach by FAAN management, to cascade this year’s Safety Week events in order to ensure there is a buy-in of this laudable initiative, by all the internal and external stakeholders in the aviation industry is reminiscent of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency’s Seasonal Climate Prediction downscaling initiative.
“In this initiative, the general SCP document is modified and spatially targeted to states and their entire Local Government Areas thereby making our predictions more impactful and further engendering ownership from the localities mapped.
“Events such as this are the right avenue to sensitize stakeholders and the general public on the “New Normal”: safety measures being championed by the Authority.
“The continuous emergence of the multiple variants and waves of the virus is still presenting the aviation sector with huge challenges but also with an opportunity to explore alternative means of maximizing potentials in the sector.
“The challenge of the pandemic has redefined ‘safety’ as regards to air travel in particular and airport management in general.”
To me, the theme: “Taking a step back to focus on safety and training as a key to resuming activities” is apt and germane because better training means better processes juxtapose with the prevailing COVID-19.
