Follow Us on Google
Chinelo Obogo
The National Meteorological Services for Nigeria (NIMeT) has accused the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Nigerian Air Space Management Agency (NAMA) of refusal to pay N2.3 billion it claims both agencies owe it.
The Director, Weather Forecasting Services, NIMeT, Dr Clinton Nzekwe, made this claim at a one-day interactive session organised by the Flight Crew Association of Nigeria (FCAN), National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) and Air Traffic Controllers (ATCO) held in Lagos.
Speaking on the theme, “Airport Collaborative Decision Making, Capacity Development and Planning as Catalysts for Aviation Safety”, Nzekwe said lack of collaboration between aviation agencies is one of the key challenges the industry is facing. He said even when there is a memorandum of understanding with sister agencies, the level of collaboration is not commensurate with what is written on paper and that a system cannot make progress without other components of the system. He said NIMeT has made several efforts even at the ministerial level to get out money from FAAN and NAMA to buy the equipment but that till date, such steps remained unsuccessful.
“Incidentally the theme of this gathering emphasis collaborative decision making and one of the key challenges we have had in service delivery has been collaboration. Even when we have had memorandum of understanding with sister agencies, you realise that sometimes the level of collaboration is not commensurate with what is written on paper. As a system, you cannot make progress without any other component of the system because if one part of the system is not functional, that system will not operate maximally.
“The life blood of any organisation is money and NIMET incidentally is a very small organisation with a very big responsibility. The power of an organisation depends on it fire power – finance. Now, in responding to the issues of the RVR, it is tied to the Migration Information and Data Analysis System (MIDAS) programme which is a national programme and not a NIMET programme. I think it was an attempted at integrative airport management system and currently what is required to resuscitate the MIDAS is about N9 billion which is like two time NIMET’s yearly budget; that is why I said it is a small organisation with big responsibility.
