President Muhammadu Buhari has received the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) certificate for improved aviation security in the country.
The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, briefed State House correspondents yesterday after presenting the certificate to the President at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
The minister said Nigeria was among 16 countries, which had recorded improved aviation security from a survey conducted by ICAO among 193 countries. He added that Nigeria scored 96.4 per cent in the survey and received the certificate in Canada.
Sirika said it took Nigeria three years of hard work to achieve the feat.
The minister noted that the certification would boost Nigeria’s aviation sector.
According to him, the government’s consciousness of improving the security and safety architecture of aviation management led to trainings of airport personnel in safety and counter-terrorism in collaboration with the Department of States Services (DSS) and other security agencies within and outside Nigeria.
Sirika said 721 aviation security personnel had been profiled and trained by the DSS on gun handling.
The minister said more personnel would soon be deployed to enhance security at the country’s airports.
Reassuring Nigerians of government’s readiness to continue to improve on the security and safety of travellers at the nation’s airports, Sirika said the government would put in place a system to sustain the current achievements.
The Federal Government, he said, was also making efforts to ensure that other aspects of the Aviation sector get ICAO’s positive approvals.
Sirika said: “We delivered to him something that we are very proud of as Nigerians – a certificate for improved security in civil aviation.
“As you are all aware, civil aviation is about safety and security; safety and security at departure point to landing in another point.
“We developed a template for security and engaged experts and got the approval of Mr. President that we should organise the system to make it better.
“We included the appointment of key individuals, including the Head of Aviation Security in the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) where we found a seasoned Group Captain who was a security expert and got him trained on aviation security and deployed him as Head of Security.
“We put things in place to deal with, especially internal and insider security, which is more challenging than external challenges. And that got us somewhere on the world map of aviation security.”
