Remember the NAF base as the only airport in town too before Omagwa was built, use to be great fun, had a small flying club there then and a friend of my folks had a Cessna with the club and he would take me up all the time..................
Your quite right about the plan for radars in Nigeria and might just agree with you on the issue you have raised about the one in PHC. On the other hand I am not aware of any contracts with an Italian firm to install any radars in Nigeria, the only one I know about is the one that went bust when the Chairman of NAMA was fired for inflating the price of a contract by one million dollars which caused so much controversy early last year when I returned to Nigeria, I have attached a report that was put out during the heat of the crisis for you below, I hope the contract you are talking about is more recent because it would be a great relief for us down here.
As for the NAF base, well its still closed to civil operators and I think that is how it will be for a long time, Its civil operators are finding it tough at Omagwa with the others but you see some of them have retained their clientel, like my friends at Skyline are still operating their Dash 7s into Omagwa and doing not too badly.
Our controllers are trained here locally in Zaria and this I do not approve of at all, I believe strongly that all if not most of their training be done abroad either in the UK or USA and new, young fresh bloods be brought in to that area of aviation so as to allow that laid back I dont care charactars who dominate that sector to either get motivated and do the proper job or retire.
Thanks for your reply Sir.
Zazoo
PS: WHO DID YOU FLY FOR DURING YOUR SOJURN HERE!
Why NAMA Boss was Sacked - Gana
Presidency yesterday explained Monday's removal of Chief Rochas Okorocha as Chairman of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Professor Jerry Gana, said the former NAMA chairman had attempted to inflate the cost of a contract for a Radar from $14 million to $15 million.
Gana said that the Federal Executive Council meeting approved over $14 million for the Radar, but Okorocha, instructed that the contract be inflated by $1 million in the covering note of the contract.
The minister who condemned Okorocha's action said that if any other chairman of any board or minister is caught, that person will be dismissed the same way as the former NAMA chairman.
Okorocha's removal on Monday came via a two-paragraph statement. He was accused of tampering with contract procedure and influencing the contract price of Radar.
However, Okorocha has called on President Obasanjo to institute a probe into the Radar contract scandal as, according to him, there is more that meets the eyes in the whole issue.
He was reacting to the allegation that he was sacked because he inflated the Radar contract from $14 million to $15 million.
He said that he suspected that there was something wrong and funny in the whole question over the Radar contract, insisting that President Obas-anjo was misinformed.
Okorocha insisted that in his short stay in NAMA, no contract was awarded, let alone inflating it.