As expatriates continue to grab available jobs in the aviation industry, unemployed Nigerian pilots face a gloomy future, TEMITAYO FAMUTIMI reports
Jeremiah Ola was on the first floor of one of a leading cargo airline’s office at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos. Looking through the window, he watched as two small jets taxied into the hanger below. He was obviously lost in deep thought, wondering when he would ever find himself in the cockpit of an aircraft again.
The last time the 35-year-old South African-trained pilot flew an airplane was in 2011. He was still a student of the Madiba Bay School of Flight in Port Elizabeth then and the future had looked quite bright.
About three years later, he returned to Nigeria with a Commercial Pilot License. But there was no job anywhere and the future lost its shine as he remained jobless.
From hope to despair
Ola is just one out of an estimated 300 qualified and licensed Nigerian commercial pilots still hoping that they will find jobs in the aviation industry here after spending millions of Naira on training at home and abroad.
With his dreams of flying an airplane crashing, Ola tells our correspondent that he has become a subject of pity among his friends and relatives.
Recalling how he struggled to qualify as a pilot, he says, “It is very sad. Look at the money I spent on the training. If I get that kind of money now (N12m) now, I know what I can do with it. I should have started a business with it and even get married.
“After spending so much on aviation training to become a pilot, I still depend on my family members to feed me. Recently, I delved into hire purchase business after my parents loaned me some money.
“I bought a bus for transport business and gave it to someone else to drive and pay back in installments. It is quite a shame that at my age, I still depend on my aged parents to eke out a living.”
Driven by the need to make ends meet, another trained pilot, Adeyemi Taiwo, had no choice other than to take up a job as an office assistant somewhere.
Describing his joblessness as a “huge setback,” Taiwo says he is saddled with the burden of repaying the N7.5m loan that he had obtained through his uncle for the funding of his training at the Nigeria College of Aviation Technology in Zaria, Kaduna State.
The young man, who dumped an offer to study mechanical engineering at the Ahmadu Bello University to train as a pilot, says, “Everybody in my family had expected me to get a job after completing my training. But two years on, I am yet to find an opportunity to work as a pilot. I have applied to virtually all the airlines I know for a job without success.”
Huge investments wasting away – Economist
An Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Lagos, Dr. Femi Saibu, describes the present condition of scores of unemployed pilots in Nigeria as “very bad.”
Saibu, whose research interests focus on transport and urban economics, public finance and economic development, warns that the Nigerian economy is losing its huge investment in the training of the unemployed pilots.
Noting that pilots should not be taking up lowly jobs as bus drivers, estate agents and office assistants, he argues that if the problem of unemployment in the aviation industry remains unsolved, young Nigerians dreaming of a career in the industry may be forced to seek alternatives and there would be shortage of such skilled labour in the future.
Saibu said, “The Nigerian economy is losing the investment on the lives of this category of skilled labour. From the stand point of economics, their continued unemployment means that the Nigerian economy has wasted all the resources invested on their training.
“Therefore the development is not good for our economy. The young pilots are facing a demand-deficient form of unemployment. If this trend is not checked, it may have a negative impact on our economy.
“For instance, the upcoming generation may shy away from pursuing a career as pilots, leading to shortage of such skilled labour in the future. This is something that should bother the policy makers. They (policy makers) should look at ways of expanding opportunities for these set of young pilots.”
Ex militants getting preferential treatment
While the problem of pilot unemployment bites harder, the two flying schools in the country – Nigeria College of Aviation Technology, Zaria and the International Aviation College, Ilorin – keep churning out graduates for the seemingly saturated aviation job market.
Investigation shows that the NCAT, Nigeria’s premier aviation training academy, which currently has a total student population of 529 at different levels of training, turns out no fewer than 20 pilots every 18 months.
Our correspondent gathered that the 127 ex-Niger Delta militants, who were sent to different world class academies for aviation training, have yet to secure jobs in the industry since returning to the country.
Out of the 127 militants, 61 trained as pilots and the rest acquired skills as aircraft maintenance engineers in various institutions in North America, Europe, Asia and South Africa.
But, on realising that career opportunities for the militants turned pilots were limited, the Federal Government under the auspices of the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, sent 30 of them who had already secured the Private Pilot Licenses and Commercial Pilot Licenses for further aviation training to boost their employment chances.
Nine of them proceeded to the CAE Oxford Aviation Academy, England; while 21 others are at the Lufthansa Pilot Training Institute, Frankfurt, Germany, to undergo various type-rating certifications.
Also, Ola and Taiwo note that a handful of freshly trained and highly connected pilots still get employed straight from aviation school.
“The few employment opportunities that are available to Nigerian pilots are fast becoming stuff for caucuses. You have to know some people in positions of authority before you are the able to secure the scarce jobs,” Ola says.
As if to confirm Ola’s statement, a competent source in the Presidency, told our correspondent that the Federal Government has already secured employment slots for the militants in one of the leading local airlines in the country.
According to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the FG is currently making efforts to secure employment opportunities for the remaining 46 pilots in the aviation industry.
When contacted, the Head, Media and Communications, Presidential Amnesty Programme, Daniel Alabrah, stated that it was true that “measures were being taken” to secure employment opportunities for the ex-agitators turned pilots.
The measures, Alabrah added, would make the ex militants to be given what he described as “the right of first consideration” for the few opportunities existing in the aviation industry.
“We have met with aviation stakeholders. There is something in the works to create opportunities and space for them in the Nigerian aviation sector. One of the airlines promised to employ 15 of them (militants turned pilots) when they finish their type rating certification,” Alabrah explained.
A frustrating situation
Gone were the days when airlines recruit Nigerian pilots fresh from aviation school and put them in their cockpits to work as First, Second or Third Officers.
In doing so, the airlines ensured that the young pilots, who often graduated with about 250 flight hours, understudied the captains in charge of the aircrafts they were assigned to and acquired more skills and training on the job.
In addition, the young pilots were sent overseas for further training and to acquire various type-rating certifications to fly bigger planes.
Nowadays, such opportunities are almost non-existent in the industry as the airlines have become more inclined to employing foreign pilots with no fewer than 1,500 flight hours (even when they are expected to work as First Officers or co-pilots) than their Nigerian counterparts.
With the employment door being literally closed to fresh Nigerian pilots – many of whom have only about 250 flight hours – top industry players in the aviation industry are quick to describe their joblessness as a “Catch-22 situation.”
Catch-22 is a situation that results from rules, regulations, or procedures that an individual is subject to but has no control over.
Regarding the situation, Taiwo has this to say, “They say we pilots that have just left aviation school cannot get a job because we don’t have enough flying experience. But, please help us ask them how we can acquire experience without getting jobs. Without a job we cannot definitely get the experience.”
A former Director of Operations of the defunct Nigeria Airways, Captain Dele Ore, notes that it was impossible for the young unemployed pilots to get experience from the “bedroom.”
Expatriates taking over the industry
Ore, who is also the President of the Aviation Roundtable, blamed the pilots’ joblessness on the absence of a well thought out government policy.
He added that the development had led to a situation whereby the “whole industry was being taken over by Filipinos and other foreigners.”
According to him, government cannot force the local airlines to employ Nigerians as some of them are facing hard times to survive.
But he advocated a “deliberate government policy” that would encourage airlines to ensure that a Nigerian passport holder sits on the cockpit of every aircraft flying in the country’s airspace.
He says, “Let’s face it. Parents sell property to train these unemployed pilots abroad and many of them return with the basic minimum training. Yet, there are no jobs for them.What I am saying is that the Federal Government must put in place a deliberate policy to get the airlines to employ these young pilots and also invest in their further training. The airlines might be given some kind of tax holidays and waivers.
“We cannot force them. We can only induce them with tax incentives in some areas so that they can employ Nigerian pilots. You must do some things for the airlines so they can also survive. I pat your back and you pat my back.
“If they are struggling to exist they won’t employ people. It is not only pilots that are affected as this problem is also extending to even the cabin crew. Many of these airlines are employing expatriates despite the fact that we have Nigerians who are well-trained. Many of these unemployed pilots have received world class training, but there are no jobs.”
Also, the President of the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, Mr. Benjamin Okewu, describes the joblessness of the young pilots as a “fundamental challenge” to the growth of the aviation industry in Nigeria.
According to him, the “generational gap” between upcoming young pilots and the experienced captains with more than 5,000 flight hours was widening.
Arguing that the present crop of aviation professionals, especially the pilots were “already getting old”, Okewu warns that with a general dearth of the indigenous hands to replace them, the whole industry may soon be taken over by foreigners.
He says, “These unemployed pilots cannot suddenly wake up and become captains. They need a place where they can work, fly and gain more experience. There will be a time when the few Nigerian captains we have in the country will become too old to fly.
“If the young unemployed pilots are not given the opportunity to start a career, needless to talk of replacing the aging captains, what happens to the aviation industry in the not-too-distant future?”
In their conversations with our correspondent, all the unemployed pilots agreed that foreigners are taking over their jobs.
They accuse the airlines of habitually abusing the country’s expatriate quota rules by employing foreigners to take up jobs that Nigerians have been trained for.
The Expatriate Quota, our correspondent gathered, gives a company the power to employ foreign experts to occupy certain positions, for a fixed period of time.
However, while the fixed period lasts, a certain number of Nigerians are expected to understudy them and eventually take over from them on the expiration of their fixed term of employment.
But the unemployed pilots alongside some industry stakeholders, in separate interviews with our correspondent, insist that the Expatriate Quota rules are not respected by the airlines.
Airlines not comfortable without expatriates – NCAA
The Acting Director General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority – the regulatory body for the aviation sector – Engr. Benedict Adeyelika could not have described the preference of the airline operators for foreign pilots better.
In his words, it is bad enough that some airlines are not comfortable “until they have foreigners in their workforce.”
The NCAA quotes Adeyelika on its website as saying that the training investment on expatriates could sometimes result in a huge loss to the industry as they may relocate to their home countries and thereby create a vacuum in the industry.
“I don’t have anything against the expatriates, but my duty is to look after our own people by growing them. I believe that there are proven professionals in this country. Invest in your members of staff, pay them well, and respect them,” Adeyelika says.
Sadly, despite the increasing number of private jets that are arriving in the country, employment opportunities are still next to nothing, as many of the aircraft owners fly the planes with foreigners as members of their crew.
Frowning on the development, the ATSSSAN President continues, “They say the aviation industry is expanding, but the numbers of private jets are more than the commercial planes flying in Nigeria.
“Most of them (private jets) come under different lease agreements with foreign crews. Government should put up an administrative policy that would insist that there must be local content when such leasing is done.”
But the Federal Government has stated that it is not turning a blind eye to the plight of scores of jobless Nigerian pilots who roam the streets without job prospects.
Federal Government reacts
Coordinating General Manager, Public Affairs, for all aviation parastatals in the country, Mr. Yakubu Datti, has denied allegations that the Federal Government is exercising apathy to the plight of the young pilots.
He explained that although it was impossible for the Federal Government to “force” the airlines to employ the jobless pilots, it was putting measures in place that would translate into employment opportunities for them on the long run.
He noted that what the Federal Government has done was to provide the enabling environment that would lead to a reduction in the cost of operations of local airlines and which he said was expected to translate into advantages to the average unemployed Nigerian pilot.
“The Federal Government also has very stringent conditions for imported private jets who come in with foreign pilots and crew members and operate in Nigeria. When they come with foreign registered aircrafts the conditions are usually that the planes come in with their foreign pilots.
“We are encouraging people who want to operate private jets to register in Nigeria because it is only when they register in Nigeria that they can employ Nigerian pilots.
“These have been at the crux of our trying to indigenize and create a situation where most private operators register as Nigerian operators. That way our pilots would get employment,” Datti added.
While noting that government was working round the clock to ameliorate the situation, he expressed optimism that a handful of airlines starting operations would look the way of some of the pilots.
According to the aviation spokesman, the benefits of employing indigenous pilots cannot be overemphasised as the majority of them “understand the local flying environment” better than their foreign counterparts.
“We believe that someday these things will come to an end. For somebody to go and train as a pilot, the cost is high. Many of these unemployed pilots are expected to contribute to the growth of the aviation sector and Nigeria as a whole.
“They are capable and they can do all what their foreign counterparts can do. We are trying all we can to encourage and persuade the airlines to employ and accommodate them,” Datti said. Copyright PUNCH.
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