I WILL LEAVE NAMA BETTER THAN I MET IT- NNAMDI UDOH

•Nnamdi Udoh
Engineer Nnamdi Udoh's appointment as Managing Director/Chief Executive of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) was akin to an army general drafted to restore normalcy in a troubled state.

While friends and relatives clinked glasses rejoicing over his appointment, Nnamdi was busy marshalling his strategies to ensure the agency, rapidly tearing apart along certain lines, becomes one strong dependable force, as it should be.

On learning of his appointment, alleged loyalists to his predecessors literally sharpened their swords, spoiling for war, as they saw him as an ambitious man capable of blocking avenues they fed fat from.

Luckily for him, he was privy to the cliques in NAMA while in acting capacity and, when he came in as a substantive Chief Executive, those who felt they had hitherto stepped on his toes, thought he would strike back.

Some feared that his attack might mean their sack, but many were shell-shocked that he became a preacher whose sermon centered on unity, peace, handwork, progress and success of NAMA.

His vehicle for the corporate evangelism was seminars and workshops where staff had opportunities to bare their minds. At the seminars, success strategies were articulated, all pointing towards upholding the mission and vision of NAMA.

He told Daily Sun in an exclusive interview that bringing all various polarized interests together to form a solid bloc was necessary, because NAMA cannot possibly boast of safely harmonized skies for airlines when there is disharmony among staff.

Interestingly, the tension that hitherto enveloped NAMA has substantially reduced - a development that plants the airspace agency on success track.

Now armed with a workforce with common goal, he is tackling other infrastructural challenges headlong, emphasizing that his legacy would be to leave NAMA far better than he had met it, which will be the pride of the nation. He speaks more about the agency and his passion for the job.

Excerpts:
Airspace management over the years
The truth of the matter is that we came into an industry that had just been left by foreigners - the AIL Consultants, Astro Consult and the Telecomms Consultants of America, Austria and the UK, respectively. We found a phasing out technology and we were coming in when new technologies were coming on. The valve-based equipment were being de-commissioned and we were going into solid state and, suddenly, there is the computer-based technology. So, it's like I saw the old one, the middle stage ones and here we are today. It's quite exciting. In fact, a lot of people coming in now don't know about valves; they don't know about solid state. All they know is computer based technologies. They must have seen these things but they are really not in-depth with its functionalities. So, it's quite exciting to have seen these technologies become what it is now. Nobody would have believed in 1970 that we would be where we are today. That's why we make bold to say that with all the projects we have done, the technologies are sound; they're robust, they're scalable. You move them from one level to the other; you can expand them. So, it's not like you de-commissioned and removed them completely. Like you have Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON) airspace. From there, you build multilateration; you build other aspects of surveillance technologies like arrival sequencing, maestros, long range primary radar for joint military coordination etc. That is what we are in today. It's a major breakthrough. Like in harmattan season, all we need is proper technology, and delays and flight cancellation would be reduced to the barest minimum.

Attraction to aviation
Motivation for science and technology, that's one. Number two; everything that is in the air is assumed to be closer to God. So, aviation was attractive to every young man - flying, engineering, air traffic control etc. But technology was more like it for us at the time.

Nucleus of NAMA
The nucleus of NAMA of course is to provide a safe, functional air navigation service that will meet international standards. It has to be efficient, it has to be safe, it has to be economical for the airlines who are our major customers … and any other airspace user. And, of course, we must reduce cost and enhance service quality. We see ourselves as a symbol of air safety because for you to go up, we're there, for you to come down, we're there as well. So, we are praying that with time, all these will be sorted out.

Journey to realizing TRACON
Don't forget that the TRACON project started in 2001 with the survey, the studies with the Air Force and the Economic Group etc. and, suddenly, it was awarded in 2003. Then we were nowhere near policy. We were young men at low-level management but we thought it would be finished by the time we got there. But after five to six years, there's still drama over this project. So, when I found myself appointed General Manager, Surveillance and Project Management, I told myself that whatever it takes to finish this project, I'll do it. Thank God we had a National Assembly that was technologically exposed; we had a minister of Aviation. So, money was appropriated to take care of the funding that was hitherto an issue. I remember very vividly that I didn't have an office.

I used a portacabin for three years, working assiduously to make sure that this project was accomplished. The sites had to be acquired; the procedures, local government issues, communities, land owners, power problems in those places, like Numan in Adamawa State, was a virgin land; Talata Mafara, Obubra and, of course Maiduguri and Ilorin. Those were the non-ACC sites which is the MSSR sites; the remote sites. The project was completed by a team of dedicated Nigerians. It just needed dedication to succeed. The ministers of Aviation - from Kema Chikwe to Babatunde Omotoba, to Fidelia Njeze and this present one - who had worked, saw the TRACON project as one that must be finished. So, if your minister is encouraging you to fire ahead; go to Paris for training, go here and do this, then you just had no option than to do it. Nigerian Customs even supported hte programmes.

They granted us waivers at the beginning; granted us goods on release because, at some point before we fully took over, some parts for the project were at the ports for eight months. And, immediately we took over, we swung into action, got the goods released, called the experts in and installation started and works progressed and, today, it is finished. A lot of people just couldn't imagine or believe how these hurdles were scaled.

They can't believe it has been achieved because it's not normal for Nigerians to do projects, and it is done in that speed. They thought by now, we'll have done three, but we've done the entire nine and that's why they are wondering and saying ah! There's no total radar coverage…It's a lie…it's not possible and all that. They're speaking out of ignorance and it's unfortunate. And some of them claim to be experts but, like one of our distinguished engineers, Group Capt John Obakpolor would say: 'Those are analogue brains and we're digital, so they don't understand how it was done.

How TRACON works
Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria Airspace simply means that wherever you're flying in Nigeria, you're covered by a radar service. And it's divided according to the Flight Information Region (FIR) of Nigeria by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), with the execution directive on the African Indian Ocean (AFI) region of ICAO. Under that platform, we've one FIR in Nigeria divided into two Flight Information Centres (FICs), which is Lagos and Kano. So, TRACON is divided into two, Kano and Lagos, and sub-centres in Port Harcourt and Abuja. It's done that way because no Air Traffic Controller (ATC) can stay in Lagos and be talking to an aircraft in Yola; in Port Harcourt. So, everyone has his own sector, but there's what we call behind the back scale. We see all these at the engineering platform, not the operational platform.

So, a lot of people will come to Lagos and they'll see aircraft in Port Harcourt and Lagos, and see aircraft and say ah!, it's not covered. That's just ignorance. And the best thing to do is go to those places and see effective radar coverage of Nigeria airspace.

However, it is important to also know that each of these sites creates 250 nautical miles coverage and, with their overlapping, it creates 500 nautical miles as each overlaps. So, it's not magic that you can now stay in Lagos and watch aircraft land in Port Harcourt. And because of our flight information jurisdiction and FIC jurisdiction and sub-centres, what will the man in Port Harcourt be doing when the man in Lagos is controlling his aircraft? So, they get to what we call terminal boundaries (TMAs). You simply transfer the aircraft to the next available controller. And that's why we have tower, approach and aerial controllers. Even in Lagos, Abuja, PHC, Kano or any ATC unit, they have jurisdictions. If you call for start-up, you're talking to tower controller, you take off, you're transferred to approach and you go higher, they transfer you to aerial controller, depending on the jurisdiction of that airport.

For instance, if you're taking off from Owerri Airport, you cannot climb above a certain height until Port Harcourt, Kano or Lagos ATC clears you because Owerri has its own jurisdiction, PHC has, likewise Kano or Lagos. Otherwise, flights leaving Kano, Owerri, Lagos, Benin, Port Harcourt will depart and fly into each other. So, the jurisdiction each unit has is a mathematical analysis of air traffic control. If look at the map, you cannot manually manage aircraft there because it is complicated. So, every aerodrome has its jurisdiction and with that, the airspace is efficiently managed. People perish for lack of knowledge and the knowledge is that Nigeria today, enjoys total radar coverage for her airspace.

Multilateration versus TRACON
ADSS is Automatic Dependent Surveillance System and we have ADS-B, which Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast, we also have ADS-C, which is Communication. ADSB is like giving precision by reference of three trajectories. It gives more precise location like in oceanic areas or non-land places. You can deploy them there because it's expensive to deploy radar in such terrain. You can deploy ADS-B in Niger/Delta region for helicopter operations and all that. It's like a GPS kind of thing.

Even your telephone can tell you you're in Ikeja but it won't tell you the exact coordinate. If you get a sophisticated technology, it would tell you are in NAMA headquarters or MMA2. It's a question of having advanced positioning system. ADS-B won't give you ATC separation. You need a surveillance radar technology to provide you with that because the ADS-B will ride on a platform which is a radar monitor to achieve that. Of course, it's something we'll go into in subsequent years.

Total radio coverage of Nigeria
For every radar, it comes with a radio. But, in airspace engineering, there's another aspect we call Total (Very High Frequency) VHF Radio Coverage of Nigeria airspace. That is having a total coverage for radio communication of the airspace. You know there was some years they said there used to be blind spots in our airspace. That's history now because the radios are all overlapping through what we call Remote Controlled Air to Ground (RCAG).

So, you cue a radio here, it's not cued here alone, it's also cued in Lagos, Port Harcourt. If you go up north, it's also cued in Wukari, in Kano, Abuja and so on by means of a modem, which works with a computer. So there are computerized things. And we're achieving total VHF coverage 90 percent. The reason is that that of Kano Airport is just awaiting the final completion of the control tower there and in Wukari, which will be the remote site for it. Once that is done, we integrate it.

So that what you're cueing in Kano is also being received in Wukari to complete that sector. That is the total VHF coverage. But, for every radar site, as they see you and you're under radar control, they communicate with you on the VHF that is attached to the radar. And we also have what we call long range VHF. It's like a Frequency Modulated kind of technology, in other words line of sight. That's why if you have a walkie-talkie, you cannot talk to somebody in Victoria Island from Ikeja except you have a remote station, which we used to call repeater station or booster station. But today, it's remotely managed by means of a modem of computer technology.

Solar panels for alternative power supply
The solar energy equipment has arrived and installation starts soonest, 9th of January to be precise. It's one of the projects we inherited and we're executing it in earnest. We're building solar panels in nine airports across the country and it'll power the navigational aids. In this year's budget, we're going to the next phase and gradually we'll have solar panels in most of the airports across the country.

Challenges
Let me start with the work. We have a workforce that was more or less polarized along certain lines. So, we've been running seminars to address that. In fact, the last one, which we're going to do by second week of January, is a realignment retreat. We've done one themed: 'Yes We can.' We have also done 'Change Management Retreat.'

So, the human factor is a major challenge but you stoop to conquer, even when you know the man has it wrong, but you keep preaching the sermon of repent ye or thou will perish. That is a higher veto; that is a Godly veto; to preach the sermon of togetherness; the sermon of let's work together and that's what we're doing and I think that is moving us forward because if you look around, there's some peace here. For me, that's a major step to realizing our mission of ensuring the airspace is safe. It cannot be disorganized on ground and you boast of safe airspace in the skies. It's not possible.

Secondly, there's another challenge of funding. The airlines owe us. Most of those bills have been on ground for many years and some have litigation on them. So, we're in court.

Thirdly, you know the issue of Hydro Air that has led to the garnishing of our accounts. Well, it's a matter that is in court and we hope it will resolve soon.

Ageing workforce
One of the problems that we saw as human factor, which I said led to polarization along certain lines was the fact that some persons figured out and said we'll to do all the trainings and when we retire, you can continue with others. Some of us said no, it cannot happen and that on its own created apathy among some groups.

But people are beginning to see that mentoring and succession planning is a process of a good management. Like the TRACON project, we've trained enough engineers; we also have a maintenance agreement in place that in the next five years, technology transfer would have been it. And, we can even determine the new kind of technology we want because young engineers who are first class graduates in Computer Science and Electrical/Electronic Engineering are working closely with the manufacturers. We expect that these young guys in the next five to 10 years will make Nigeria proud. We're also not allowing officers who are retiring very soon to go on technical courses. So that the knowledge is not wasted when they leave thus we're compelled to bring back a man that is retired, who should honourably go home and rest, into the saddle, because there's no young person to fill in the gap. I'm not saying it's not good to engage someone who has retired.

But that would be when the person has something extraordinary to offer and others don't have and not when you deliberately refuse to plan. So, you now hold back a man who should deserves to go and rest to be working. Some of them think they should be working till they die, but we know it's not the best. In this part of the world, people should be allowed to go on vacation, retire, rest and enjoy their lives.

ATCs allegation of being overused
In the last two years, we've been recruiting 50 ATCs every year being trained in NCAT, Zaria. That was why we cried out that we needed to beef up our ATCs and we started recruitment immediately. And the ageing workforce is already catching up with us. Every worker, it's good and easy to say you're overworked so you can negotiate your take home envelope.

I'll agree that if you're overworked, well enjoy the work. Everyone who is overworked, there's psychology of work ethics; you're encouraged to enjoy it. Don't see it as being overworked. However, we're equally managing fatigue and stress of workers. It's not terrible like that anymore because more and more ATCs are being trained every year. Am sure you know we've doing training in the USA on radar, we've also been training in Egypt lately, South Africa too. So, we're churning out more ATCs.

NAMA and PPP
Our major projects are security sensitive. We cannot bring in Public-Private-Partnership into our major infrastructural development. Perhaps, we can try that in buildings like our corporate headquarters, offices, staff quarters etc and may be, the Aviation Minister might approve that. But for now, you cannot do PPP with Instrument Landing System (ILS) or with radar; you'll release your high-in scripted technology to people and they'll know what you're doing.

Don't forget that the airspace is used by the President, the military and there are certain things you cannot let go.

Legacy
I want to leave NAMA, that robust organization, where I would be proud to ask my son or my daughter to go and work. I want leave NAMA, where I can say, oh! I want to go and see the General Manager of NAMA Consult Limited; where we can all come back and put our experiences on the table for the benefit of the coming generation.

Who is Engineer Udo?
Well, I was born May 8, 1960 into a political family of a Senator, Sen Henry Nwafor Udoh. Shortly after my primary education, I went to National High School Aba, which is a school that has been built out of the Ibo State Union Movement in the days of clamouring for independence.

I left there and went to the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, Zaria. After that, I was given a scholarship by the then Civil Aviation Department under the drive of technological development in civil aviation. It was called then the signals department. Thereafter, I went on to Canadian Transport Institute.

Thereafter, I went to German School of Aviation; from there to City University London. I hold both the Canadian and German Air Traffic Safety Electronic Personnel Licenses and of course the Nigerian one. I have a Master of Science degree in Air Safety Infrastructure from City University. I had done Strategic Management in Aviation in IATA Training Institute in Montreal, Canada and other managerial exposures, as my work would allow me. And of course, I have done several engineering courses, specializing in surveillance, which is radar. That is what created the opportunity me to manage to completion, the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON).