Nigeria’s airspace is very safe —NAMA

“There is nothing like epileptic communication in our airspace or any airspace, It is either you are communicating or you are not communicating.”

These were the words of the Director of Safety Electronics and Engineering at the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Mr Farouk Umar, while reacting to an insinuation making the rounds over an alleged poor navigational facilities across the country’s airports.

Maintaining his ground about the standard of navigational facilities at the airport, Farouk declared that if actually the facilities at the airports were not up to international standards that foreign airlines would have been avoiding the country’s airspace.

Farouk, while assuring that the Nigerian airspace was as safe as it can be anywhere in the world, cited “the relative safety in the nation’s airspace over the last few years is indicative of the fact that NAMA is alive to its responsibilities.”

He equally declared that there were no areas in Nigeria’s airspace where there was no communications.

Like Farouk, the Airspace Manager of Murtala Mohammed International Airport Lagos,  Mr Lawrence Ajayi said it was farther from the truth to say that the Instrument Landing System (ILS) at Runways 18L and 18R were unserviceable.

According to Ajayi, “Runway 18R has precision approach lighting system which is one of the best in the industry, while 18L has simple approach lighting system because it is not busy at night, saying that both of them are working at optimal levels.”