ICAO President Engages Nigerian Leaders.

Courtesy: ICAO

The President of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Dr Olumuyiwa Bernard Aliu says the organisation has been engaging ministers of aviation globally in discussions in view of recent airport attacks to strengthen security across the globe.

Speaking in an interview with aviation reporters in Abuja after a dinner organised in his honour by the ministry of aviation, Dr Aliu said aviation security being a sensitive one, will not disclose the strategies to be implemented but he assured of collaborations with Nigeria in order to nip any threat in the bud as security was one of the critical issues in aviation.

According to the ICAO President, "Few months ago, I did send a team to do assessment in Nigeria and also in some neighbouring countries including Chad and Cameroon"

Dr Aliu said ICAO was working very closely with the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) Zaria to transform the college to a regional training college of excellence as a means of capacity building, adding that the level of infrastructural development and implementation has been encouraging.

On his challenges as the ICAO President, Dr Aliu said one of the challenges was to see how to raise the level of implementation of ICAO standards of recommended international practices among member countries not withstanding their level of resources.

Dr Aliu declared that for Nigeria to be a hub, strong indigenous carriers and well developed and equipped airports need to partner in order to make the country a hub.

He expressed the hope that with the determination of President Buhari to rid the nation of corruption that the country, especially the aviation sector, will bounce back as corruption has eaten deep into the system including the civil aviation in the country.

Aliu explained that with a professional as the minister of state for aviation, there was no doubt that the sector will be transformed soon especially by pulling ICAO resources together at the disposal of Nigeria to develop the aviation sector.

"We launched a campaign few years ago so that no country is left behind, the focus of which is to support our developing states. ICAO is an organisation of 191 countries, some are much endowed and some are less endowed. All the member states have to fulfill the same standards and recommended practices; there is no short cut. In doing that, we cannot cover the whole 191 states; we have to work with regional offices. In Africa, Nigeria will be the number one candidate," Dr. Aliu noted.