Fighting insecurity is not only military affairs – Air Chief

By Solomon Ikechukwu

The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar said that fighting to ensure that Nigeria is secured is not only a military affair but a collective responsibility.

He observed that the disconnection between the military and the private sector needs to be bridged.

The Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar said this during his visit to Caverton Helicopters Limited in Ikeja, Lagos.

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Nigerian Air Force, Air Vice Marshal Ibikunle Daramola provided detail of the visit in a statement in Abuja.

He disclosed that  the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) is set to partner Caverton Helicopters in the areas of maintenance of its rotary wing aircraft, capacity development of its engineers, technicians and pilots as well as software support.

AVM Daramola added that the partnership is part of the NAF’s continued efforts to ensure adequate and increased serviceability of its aircraft to boost the tempo of its air operations to tackle insurgency and other forms of criminality in the country.

The Air Chief said that NAF and Caverton would put together a joint team to take the partnership between the two Institutions to a higher level by quickly working out modalities to operationalize the various areas of collaboration.

Air Marshal Abubakar noted that the NAF, in collaboration with Sister Services, was working round the clock to tackle insurgency and other security challenges confronting the nation.

He said that capacity building could also be boosted through such military-private sector partnerships.

He added that Caverton Helicopters is one of the indigenous Companies that the Service was keen to partner with, especially for the maintenance of NAF aircraft such as Agusta Westland 139, Bell 412 and Agusta 109 Power Helicopters.

 “I am also very excited that we can benefit from training. Training is a very important area that we are very interested in because we believe that the human being is the most important resource and that human being cannot function effectively if he/she does not have the right knowledge or skills,” the CAS said.

He further disclosed that the NAF would immediately start sending technicians and pilots for simulator training at the Caverton Helicopter Level D Simulator, once completed.

The Chairman Caverton Offshore Support Group, Mr Aderemi Makanjuola said that Caverton Helicopters, a 100 per cent indigenous Company, has many things to thank the NAF for; one of which was the fact that many retired NAF officers were now working with the Company.

He noted that in recognition of the immense contributions of the NAF to the security and development of the nation as well as the areas of convergence in terms of training and maintenance requirements, he felt that Caverton Helicopters, with its team of competent hands, has a lot to offer the NAF.

The Chairman further stated that, in the area of training, the company has very strong national content development strategy.

He disclosed that the company’s investement in the first full flight Helicopter Level D Simulator in Africa is expected to be completed in March 2021.

He noted that this would ensure that all simulator training is done in Nigeria, thereby saving foreign exchange whilst also generating revenue by attracting clients from Europe and other parts of Africa.

He said the areas of training  collaboration include type-rating courses, recurrency training as well as search and rescue training, amongst others.

He said the Company would also be offering type-rating training for the engineers.

The Chairman promised that the Company would work assiduously with the NAF to ensure that everything the Service requires to succeed is provided and delivered with utmost urgency and transparency.