By Amos Tauna
Nigeria’s Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar Thursday in Kaduna, says, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), has provided 2,000 housing units across its bases in the country to ensure the welfare of its personnel.
The CAS who spoke through Air Officer Commanding, Air Training Command, Air Vice Marshal Christopher Okoye at the 46th convocation lecture of Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), added that the Nigerian aircraft sustainability has moved from 35 percent to 65 percent within the year under review.
“NAF has been well funded within the past two years and we are grateful to Mr. President and commitment of CAS for his unrelenting efforts at making NAF better than they met it. Our aircraft sustainability has also moved from 35 percent to over 65 percent within this two years. That’s an incredible speed.
“As regarding barracks upgrade, we have added about 2,000 buildings constructed across the NAF bases across the country which is good for the country. What that means is that, the NAF personnel have where to comfortably work and add value to our efforts as pride of the country.
“If you can recall, the CAS has been emphasising the importance of capacity building and that is why all the phases of development you see in NAF today have human face. NAF is spending good resources to build the capacity of its personnel and we are still doing it.
“If you look at the key note presentation, its all about capacity building. And that is why we are collaborating with 13 Nigerian universities. As it is now in NAF, we are building the capacity of our airmen and airwomen. We are looking at the future when we don’t have to go anywhere to repair our crafts and that will save us foreign exchange,” AVM Okoye added.
Earlier, Commandant, AFIT, Air Vice Marshal Isiaka Bukar, while speaking on the topic, ‘Contemporary issues in aircraft maintenance in the 21st century’, noted that aircraft maintenance was responsible for making available serviceable aircraft for all operations hence the need for the NAF and the civil aviation industry in Nigeria to rise to conquer the challenges of aircraft maintenance.