… Sirika commissions state-of-art pilot room facility
By Hillary Asemota
For its innovative projects tailored towards air safety and security, across the country, the Federal Government through the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika on Tuesday rolled out commendation drums to celebrate the Director General (DG/CEO) of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), Prof. Mansur Bako Matazu.
Sirika declared: “NiMet has the capacity and they have been doing just that. We commend and celebrate the new management of NiMet. They have been doing many projects that are innovative and they have been taking the lead to promote safety and security in the industry.”
The Minister, while expressing excitement after inspecting the newly built facility at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, acknowledged that NiMet has brought up to speed the capacity to deliver the most accurate weather forecast for airport operations.
He said: “Well, you know that our operations are weather dependent and we have gained the capacity in Nigeria today through the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) to give you the most accurate weather for our operations.
“Before now pilots go through the rigours of walking distances to collect the briefing on weather status from NiMet.”
According to him, the agency in pursuit and drive of its professionalism and mandate decided to narrow it down and put in very convenient and comfortable air conditioning (Pilot Room) right in the airport for pilots to get their briefings, adding: ‘this facility is a state-of-art equipment to give you the most accurate weather.’
Sirika, said: “This is a new innovation by NiMet to increase efficiency and also to give the pilot the comfort because they need the most accurate weather forecast for their operations.
“This is part of the activities in collaboration with other agencies that have developed software where you can now begin to have these briefings on your phones.
“But this one for now will serve the pilots in a more efficient, more friendly environment.”
On the replication of the facility across the country, the Minister, added, we just lefty their office at the Headquarters and we have seen what they have done there to commission a lot of projects including the security training centre at NCAA and that also dovetails into the general thing that we are doing to improve inter-agency interaction.
“We have seen the Central Weather Forecast (CWF) room that they have which is state-art including the conference room which we opened today have opened. Please go there and see for yourself I will say that NiMet has changed and transformed and change from what it used to be in the past.
Sirika, added that President Muhammadu Buhari, has given the approval for the construction of the second runway in Abuja at almost 12,000 hectares.
He said: “This land is about is about 24,000 acres of land that the President Muhammadu Buhari in his wisdom decides to avail aviation so that we can have a well-planned airport system with aerotropolis which will house the second runway, cargo shades, MRO and the Aviation University.”
The runway, he said has been awarded to contractor, even as the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr. Mohammed Bello by himself came and gave us the certificate and we will visit the site with him next week to properly take over and handover.
“What you saw today is the technical team between the Ministry of and FCT that sat down to discuss and earmark the area and put all the necessary beacons and to claim it.
“FCT has gone ahead to remove all those people that encroached on the land and to free it for us because we don’t want to end up with another Ikeja in Lagos where the airport will become restricted because of the presence of the city.”
The Minister attributed the drastic reduction in air crash over the years to the grace and mercy of God, explaining that I wish to add that the best safety is a well-trained aviator and a very strong regulatory agency that is up to speed and doing its job.
“Once the industry is well oversighted and also the staff of the industry are well trained and re-trained, they improve on their proficiency.
“With this you are likely to have an increased and improved safety standard.
“I think the decision by government to improve on the safety of the industry through training and re-training and the best proficiency test, I think its being the dividends that we are seeing which is increased safety.
“So, we attribute this to the mercy God and the wisdom that he has given the leadership to be able to oversight the industry very well and also to train and re-train the staff because in everything there is the input of human being and that human being must be well trained and re-trained and he must be very proficient to discharge the privilege of his lessons whether he is a pilot or an engineer instructor controller or he is weather man.”