…As Authority promises more training, health insurance for staff
By Chinelo Obogo
Firefighters of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) attended 61 emergencies and crashes across the country in 2023, the Authority has revealed.
The station commander, Aerodrome Rescue and Fire Fighting Services, Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Mrs.Dolapo Fakunle, stated this during the cancer awareness symposium organised by the Nigerian Aviation Fire Safety Association (NAFSA) which was held at the weekend in Lagos.
She called on the management of FAAN to carry out more training for firefighters across the nation, pointing out that during one of the emergencies which involved an air force aircraft, firefighters lacked the knowledge on how to handle the crash because they didn’t have the requisite training of the aircraft type.
“We need a lot of training. Last year, we attended to 61 emergencies, 20 aircraft emergencies in Lagos with crash and even one was outside the airport. We over 39 domestic incidents and we were not found wanting in any of the operations.
“There is a particular one we attended, an air force aircraft crash. We have been told about military aircraft but none of us have gone for any training in this area. When we got to the scene, we were rushing to save those onboard the aircraft but we didn’t know the type of aircraft it was. We didn’t know if it was fighters jet or not. We didn’t know if there was a bomb there or not. If we had done training of that aircraft type, things would have been easier. At a point, I told my people that I want to be in the front to protect others. So we need lots of training and it should be across board,” she said.
Fakunle also urged that healthcare insurance be made available for firefighters, saying: “We have been crying for health check up. We usually expose ourselves for long to carcinogenic substances. We need health insurance because our job comes with a lot of risk. It was one of the senior managers in MMA took it upon herself to ensure that all officers in the firefighting department pass through the health check up. She did it two years ago with the hope that it would continue but since then, that is the only one that we have done. We want more regular general check up to be carried out for firefighters. Many of our colleagues in other stations have not even had this check up for one day. We want the management to look into this.”
Responding to the request from the firefighters, the Managing Director of FAAN, Mrs. Olubunmi Kuku, who was represented at the event by the Director of Human Resource and Administration, Mr. Luqman Eniola, told Daily Sun that the Authority has already commenced training of some officials and that plans are underway to ensure that the training needs in each department is addressed.
“There are plans for more training across all levels in FAAN. Learning is a continuous process. Certain situations will bring up certain emergencies and certain responses. With the development they had and with the communication that has been done, management will also incorporate that training activity into the plans that we have.
“Already, there are measures to put up a complete training plan for FAAN with contributions from all the directorates to tell us what training needs that they have. If there are some specific areas that they need , I am sure that they would put it into their training plan and all of that would be considered.The plans we have a needs specific. Before I came here I approved training recommended for some officials by the director of airport operations and such trainings would continue.
“On the issue of health insurance, the aviation medical team has been meeting to put together a comprehensive national health insurance plan. The team has come to do inspections and a response is supposed to come from them. Once that response comes, we are going to take it up from there,” he said.
The national president of NAFSA, Sunday Ugbeikwu, thanked the management of FAAN for its commitment to staff welfare and urged that the issues raised by the firefighters department be addressed with the urgency it needs.