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The Aeronautical Information Service Association of
Nigeria (AISAN) has countered the claims of the Nigerian Airspace
Management Agency (NAMA) on the sufficiency of manpower requisite for
the smooth running of the country’s airspace.

The president of the body, which comprises of
professional Aeronautical Information Engineers, Paul Igene disclosed
to airport reporters at the weekend that Nigeria needs a minimum of
about 250 personnel to man the 27 airports across the country, while
noting that 15 officers out of the 126 members of the association will
be retiring between 2011 and 2012.

He said the claims by NAMA that the agency recruited
aeronautical personnel last year was “misleading,” Mr Igene said that
the most recent employment into AIS was done between 2002 and 2003 and
that no recruitment has taken place since then, adding that the current
shortage of manpower will bite harder on the agency when its top 15
senior officers disengage from service.

Mr Igene said that the government has been promising
to recruit more hands into the service after series of request but
lamented that nothing has been done to ameliorate the stress and
fatigue experienced by members of the association on daily basis as a
result of manpower shortage.

“We want the government to create a directorate of AIS in NAMA to boost our operations and meet our operational needs,” he said.

The president of the association, however, said that
Annex 15, document 8126 of the International Civil Aviation
Organisation (ICAO) Act, has it that the basic purpose of AIS is to
ensure the safety, regularity and efficiency of civil aviation.

Last week, Supo Atobatele, head of public affairs, NAMA, said, “NAMA
has a succession plan. This year we expect some of our engineers to
retire. In the last 12 or 15 months, the agency embarked on intensive
recruitment of fresh graduates,”. “Late last year, we recruited over 40
engineers and right now some are in the field while some have gone to
NCAT (Nigerian College of Aviation Technology). We also recruited AIS
officers last year.” He added. The AISAN president urged the airspace
agency to visit its aeronautical department for details concerning
technical AIS issues and the actual number of officers present.“15 top
AIS officers out of the 126 we have now will be retiring from the
organisation between 2011 and 2012 and right now, we have shortage of
personnel to cover the 27 airports where our members are operating. We
are in need of 250 staff to adequately man these airports,” he said.