The death of ATC Aniekan and matters arising

This week started with a sad tale of how a promising young Air Traffic Controller, Mr Aniekan Inuktitut Effiong met his untimely death while carrying out his professional job of ensuring adequate separation of aircraft during landing and takeoff.

Controllers, according to their training, carry out these sensitive jobs by directing the pilots’ movements and monitoring where other aircraft are at all times in order to avoid any collisions or accidents.

Obviously, to carry out this job, an Air Traffic Controller must be in his/her best frame of mind as the job requires absolute calculations devoid of any distractions.

In other words, to make the job of an ATC seamless, he needs every support from the employers consisting of the immediate employer, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and the Ministry of Aviation as the overall supervising ministry.

All these, with a friendly working environment, a good state of health and commensurate emoluments, will give room for good ATC systems.

This is how it is done in normal climes like Europe, Asia and America where their ATCs are pampered just because they realize the danger of doing otherwise.

Prior to now, NATCA, the umbrella body of all air traffic controllers operating in Nigeria had, at every available opportunity, raised questions about the terrible conditions under which they are made to work.

Many times, they had complained about the number of ATCs being forced to overwork in the absence of the required numbers expected to work on shift.

Many are forced to work extra hours even when their brain and health can hardly continue. Above all, they still need to struggle before they receive their salaries and other hazard allowances.

Sadly, whenever this important group talks about the plights of its members, they are tagged as blackmailers and insatiable and this has remained the norm.

From all indications, while other countries, even the smaller ones around Nigeria, take the jobs of aircraft safety seriously, Nigeria despite the wherewithal that abounds, toys with her own.

Rather than make the working environment more comfortable for such sensitive functions, the officials, led by the Ministry of Aviation, prefer to put hands into so many other lesser needed projects.

They divert energy and funds to unnecessary projects and continue to starve better things like training and good conditions of service.

It is as a result of the many years of failure and the refusal to yield the warnings of the ATCs by the NAMA management backed by the Ministry of Aviation that brought the latest development on the sector.

Unfortunately when the negligence on the parts of the officials boomerangs as it did this week, it is all stakeholders that suffer the consequences.

It is the height of this negligence that forced the ATC group to embark on a warning strike and subsequently directed all controlling units at the international airports to operate ‘flow control’.

The result of that development led to flight disruptions with many travelers thrown into untold hardships.

Apart from the psychological trauma passengers were subjected to, the airlines suffered operational losses and flight disruptions.

It is unfortunate that the Federal Government often shies away from its responsibility unless coerced into doing so.

It is at this juncture that the Crucial Moment is calling on all the relevant authorities to tackle the demands of the ATCs and similar professional bodies rendering safety services at the airports.

The death of Aniekan would have been avoided if the working environment had been made friendlier. All those funds set aside to execute mundane projects should be diverted to taking care of essential needs like this.