Members of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Aeronautical division, have charged various government agencies to imbibe the maintenance culture on its equipment to keep the system going.
Bola Bido, president of NSE (aeronautical division), who gave this charge in Abuja when he led members of the association on a courtesy visit to the director-general of Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), noted that lack of maintenance culture was responsible for the folding up of some companies in the country.
Bido stressed the need for parastatals heads to engage the services of local engineers in the aviation sector to handle all equipment maintenance related issues.
According to Bido, with the dwindling resources in the country, there is no way organisations will survive by seeking the services of expatriates where Nigerian engineers are capable of doing the job. “With the dwindling resources, it is necessary to look inwards by challenging our engineers to learn. Jobs that can be done by Nigerians should be given to Nigerians in order to encourage them,” Bido said.
Bido decried the high rate of ageing workforce in the aviation sector, saying it remained a source of worry to the association and stakeholders.
While commending the NIMET boss, Anthony Anuforom for the transformation in the agency, Bido noted that the ICT department of the agency remained a reference point and requested for the integration of NIMET services in Air Traffic management in all the airports to enable all the airlines get its information.
He described the success recorded by Anuforom as enormous, as a result of continuity in office, and appealed to government to allow heads of parastatals to transform various agencies during their tenure.
He called on the Federal Government to allow heads of agencies served their tenure to ensure meaningful development in the system, like that of NIMET that had been transformed.
He noted that the NIMET calibration laboratory, the only one in West Africa, would save the country a lot of capital flight and bring about investment.
