As stakeholders clamour for a full implementation of the autonomy of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to enable it regulate other agencies in the industry according to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standard, the Chief Executive Officer, West Link, Captain Ibrahim Mshelia, has said that enacting a bill for the rightful position of the Authority should come with an attractive salary structure.
Speaking in a recent aviation zoom meeting, the CEO attributed the manpower shortage in the industry to a bloating of support staff over the technical, a narrative that needs to be corrected.
He said the industry ought to have 90 per cent technical staff and 10 per cent support staff but regrettably, the reverse is the case currently.
Mshlia therefore, advised members of the House of Representatives and Senate while on the look out to provide jobs for their constituencies, only qualified candidates should be sent to the aviation industry.
However, he explained that an attractive package was necessary to attract and retain professionals in the NCAA which would aid the Authority to achieve its rightful place being solicited for.
In view of this, the airline operator posited that he NCAA must send a bill containing the salary structure which it would submit to the National Assembly for the latter to pass it into law.
“The legislators at the National Assembly have agreed to look at all the issues raised at the stakeholders meeting,” he said, adding that they should legislate the right salaries and people will troop into the NCAA.”
In the interim, the West Link CEO said the NCAA should use designated inspectors as stop gaps while more professionals undergo training.
Designated inspectors according to him include retired pilots like he, who may not be employed as full-fledged staffers but as designates who may carry on the job based on invitation by the NCAA.
“They should allow the NCAA to introduce designated inspectors, examiners, holders,” he requested, adding that many pilots including he (Mshelia) are willing to work for the NCAA as designates.
Mshelia commended the Minister, saying that the stakeholders meeting was the right step in the right direction as it provided stakeholders an avenue to inform him of the happenings in the industry.