As aviation stakeholders continue the debates on whether or not to establish a national carrier, the former Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria, Capt. Adebayo Araba, has warned against Using Quota System.
Araba, who gave the warning in an interview in Lagos, added that though Nigeria needs a national carrier, but that quota system should not be used if the project must succeed.
Araba said that Nigeria needed a national carrier for the sector to compete with other airlines in the world, provide jobs for qualified Nigerians and increase the Gross Domestic Products (GDP), of the country.
He posited that quota system was good for the development of the country, but warned that it should not apply to every sector of the economy especially the critical ones such as aviation.
He further warned that implementing quota system in the airline project might spell doom and that the airline might go the way of the liquidated Nigeria Airways Limited (NAL).
The former Rector pointed out that NAL lost about six or seven aircraft and hundreds of lives to accidents.
The former NCAT boss added that quota system prevented over 20 students from a particular state in the country from gaining admission into NCAT for their preferred courses when he was the rector of that institution, adding that the school had to look for another course for the students for them to be in the system.
According to him, “You see, Federal Government is very clear concerning some certain issues. For instance, we are talking about quota, which government is very clear about, but when it comes to some specific disciplines, we have to be very careful how we manage the quota system.
The former company I worked with so many years back, Nigeria Airways, we tried the quota system, we lost. Because of that single act of quota, we lost about six to seven airplanes and so many lives. The airline is gone now and we can’t rectify the past, but we should be able to learn from what happened in the past and implement it with the future.”
He continued, “At NCAT where I worked for about five years, we put the quota system on ground anytime we had any new intake, we go strictly with the quota system, but once you are in, and the flag is down, for you to continue in that college, would be whatever you have in your head. Anything short of that, forget about quota system.”
Source : Independent