Nigeria Air Traffic Engineers Can’t Achieve Excellence – President

The National Association of Air Traffic Engineers (NAAE) has raised the alarm that Air Traffic Engineers cannot deliver the level of excellence the aviation sector demands.

The president of NAAE, Seizling Miri, who spoke at NAAE’s Lagos Branch AGM, lamented that many engineers were overstretched, saying cases of continuous shifts and repeat of duty rosters were a norm.

Miri said without the right work environment, including tools, transportation, functional workshops, adequate staffing, and fair remuneration, engineers would not deliver the level of excellence the aviation sector demands.

He said, “No one can think straight on an empty stomach,” he said, noting that engineers must be in the right frame of mind to problem-solve and innovate. To make a lasting impact, the management must play its part by providing the right environment for us to thrive.

“The management has a part to play in ensuring that we are given the rightful environment to thrive, the rightful environment to make that lasting impact, and I must also add that a good remuneration is good for an engineer.”

He further lamented that inadequate tools, poor working conditions and lack of operational support as constraints undermining their performance.

Miri, said the lack of critical test equipment and modern tools were impediments to operating effectively, noting that the absence of such tools stalled work.

“In the field, I have seen our foreign partners bring out tools that seem magical in the way they solve problems. But they aren’t performing miracles; they simply have the right equipment.

“We have been crying for operational vehicles. My predecessor fought this battle for five years as NAAE president, but we couldn’t achieve that. This is my third year as NAAE president, it has been the same cry. I went to Jos to work, and the only operational vehicle they brought to carry me to the site, even animals, you wouldn’t want them to enter that kind of vehicle.

“I am not exaggerating and worse still the vehicle did not start, the driver had to open the engine trying to cross a lot of cables before they moved that vehicle to the site, I was ashamed of myself, I was ashamed of the station, I felt so bad, this is how bad we can be and today, no vehicles in Jos and many other places.”