History as Nigerian becomes first African president of ICAO

A Nigerian and aviation expert, Olumuyiwa Bernard Aliu, was on Monday unanimously elected president of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the world aviation standards body.

Aliu’s term is to commence on January 1, 2014 through December 31, 2016.

Stakeholders, who commented on the development, hailed the election, saying it will in no small measure raise Nigeria’s aviation bar in global market.

Nnamdi Udoh, managing director of the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), said that it signals the approval rating of all the efforts put in place by the Federal Government to improve air transport in Nigeria.
 
“The election of Aliu is another major positive development in Nigeria’s aviation sector. It shows the world is seeing the progress being made in the industry over the years and it also shows that while we attack ourselves at home, the world is taking cognisance of the improvement going on in our country’s aviation sector,” Udoh said.

Chris Aligbe, industry consultant and the CEO of Belujane Konsult, described Aliu’s election as very good development for Nigeria and said that over the years the world community had not seen Nigerian aviation as having improved until the last six years when government started making tremendous efforts toward improving safety in the airspace.

“So today, the standard of the aviation sector is above the world average and in Africa we can hold our shoulders high. Now, we have incidents and occasional accidents but in the past aircraft were dropping from the sky due to poor infrastructure. Those things have been taken care of. The air traffic control has improved; we have radar which helps to give the pilot the right course to his destination and our weather prediction has improved tremendously”, he said.

Also speaking, aircraft engineer and the CEO of Centre for Aviation Research and Safety, Sheri Kyari, said that Aliu’s election is good for Nigeria and for Africa which would create awareness for other African countries to improve air safety.


source: Businessdaynews.com