The Nigerian Air Force, NAF, has expressed dismay over the rising expense and operational difficulty of obtaining an operation license to import Jet A-1 or aviation fuel.
The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Isiaka Amao, stated this on Wednesday during a lecture for Senior Executive Course (SEC) 44 students at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS, Kuru, Plateau State, as part of the security study week.
According to Air Mashal Amao, improving Nigeria’s governance would require addressing issues with the country’s low level of budgetary releases, insufficient air situational awareness, insufficient air defense organizations, and insufficient air defense personnel.
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Speaking on the topic: “Management of current and emerging air threats: Implications for strengthening governance in Nigeria”, he noted that “Air threats management has a direct relationship on airspace security and by extension good governance,” hence, the need to have adequate air defense organization to effectively protect the Nigerian airspace.
According to him, there are two solutions that might be used to address the issue of insufficient air defense organization: “NAF could establish an Air Defense Command or National Air Defense Corp to primarily defend the Nigerian airspace against airborne threats and airspace violations…”
He said, due to the Jet A-1’s high cost of acquisition and growing scarcity, “Granting NAF operational license to import Jet A-1 will save cost and help sustain air operations. Requirements have been articulated in this regard, a coastal reception depot could be built for the NAF as an immediate term measure…”
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Amao also argued for the flexibility of appropriations to provide “additional funding for NAF through extra-budgetary appropriations, aircraft acquisition could be moved from capital to extra-budgetary expenditure and aircraft maintenance could be moved from recurrent to capital expenditure…”
The National Security Advisor, Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno (ret.), who spoke on the topic: Bottom-up intelligence approach to strengthening local governance in Nigeria: Intricacies successes and challenges pointed out the issues impeding the bottom-up intelligence approach.
Monguno through the Deputy Director, Defense Affairs, Commodore Abubakar Mustapha said the issues included, “gaps in the provisions of the 1999 constitution, criminal use of information and communication technology, lack of local government security council, withholding of local government budgetary allocation, the poor synergy between security agencies and traditional institution.”
In order to improve local administration, he argued that the constitution should be reviewed and that traditional institutions and security forces should work closely together.
In the meantime, Professor Ayo Omotayo, Director-General of NIPSS, urged for strong coordination among security services and other pertinent stakeholders to guarantee a secure society and sound governance.
