FG set to establish aviation university

THE country’s aviation sector may soon record a historic achievement as the President Muhammadu Buhari’s government has expressed its readiness to establish an aviation university to train highly qualified professional managers for the air transport industry in Nigeria.

Dropping this hint was the Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, during an interactive session with aviation journalists in Lagos.

The minister, while saying the establishment of the school would be able to tackle the problem of poor management confronting airlines in the country, added that the proposed university would handle all aspects of administration and management saying the sky is the limit for the development and growth of Nigeria domestic airlines.

According to Sirika, “people have the wrong notion that once you are a pilot or an engineer you can successfully manage or administer an airline without adequate training in the art of aviation management. This is what we want to correct with the establishment of the aviation university.”

He pointed out that since the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) was established over 50 years ago, the institution had not gone beyond producing pilots and engineers with basic licence, adding that the country must move beyond that by producing aircraft designers, scientists in every field of aero-dynamics apart from the training of aviation managers.

Senator Sirika said it was a shame that trainings in Aviation Fire and Safety were being carried  out in Cameroon for Nigeria and not in NCAT, saying “all that has to stop.”