By Kehinde Okeowo
A trained Pilot, who graduated from Bayero University, Ishaq Ibrahim Abubakar, has taken to tailoring and teaching in a desperate bid to survive.
He and other 99 young graduates were sent in 2013 to Jordan to train as professional pilots by the Kano State government and he was duly certified as a Commercial Pilot, licensed in the ‘A’ rating category in multi-engine aircraft.
According to Daily Trust, Abubakar, just like a lot of the Kano indigenes, who were sponsored by the Kano state that year is yet to find a job and has not flown a commercial plane since they returned to the country in 2015.
His certifications include the Multi-Crew Course (MCC) certificate and Crew Resource Management Certificate (CRM) with RELTER exam – an English Telephoning specialty for pilots, so his ordeal has nothing to do with poor communication either.
The 38-year old’s inability to find a job is said to be related to his inability to get the needed funds to specialize in a particular aircraft, as is a requirement after certification.
“It is a requirement that any pilot in any part of the world after graduating from the flying academy needs extra training for specialisation.
“His/her license alone is not valid for him/her to be directly employed in the commercial aviation sector unless he or she has a speciality in one particular aircraft based on the company’s choice or based on his choice.” He said
Abubakar further stated that it is mandatory by air law to select one particular aircraft to specialize in and the specialization course will help increase the number of hours a pilot has flown an aircraft, which is a requirement by some companies.
He however said the money to achieve this type-rating specialization training is a major challenge for him and most of the Kano government-sponsored pilots.
He added: ““By the time we graduated from the flying academy, we had about 226 hours on piston engines. And you know in commercial aviation we are dealing with jet engines.
“So they want you to have a certain minimum number of hours on that jet engine. Still, some companies may say you have fewer hours for the jet engine therefore you must undergo another special programme called line-rate which most of us could not afford, “
He also pleaded that the huge amount of taxpayers’ money spent to train him and most of his colleagues should not be allowed to go to waste, as Kano state and Nigeria are yet to benefit from the knowledge they acquired.
I used to say time without number that if a substantial amount of money can be spent on some people or somebody, I think it is not right to leave such investment to go in vain.
“At least N11million is said to have been paid for the training of each of these 100 pilots. That amount, I think is enough to develop other sectors of the economy and positively touch the lives of our citizens. That is why many people looked at the government gesture as a waste,” Abubakar said.
He finally appealed to the federal government to intervene through a Ministry of Aviation and private operators partnership deal, just the way it has intervened in other sectors of the economy saying :
“I want the government to intervene, to sit down with the airline operators, to see how people like me who have been trained with public funds can be employed.
“We are aware that several interventions have been offered to various sectors of the Nigerian economy. We are soliciting for similar intervention to be extended to the aviation sector with terms and conditions,”
