NigerianFLIGHTDECK Travel and Business Reportage 
MINISTER of State, Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika has told the international aviation community that Nigeria is in full support of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) “No Country Left Behind” initiative stating that the new initiative should make air transportation safer, secure, efficient.
This is just as he rallied support for the candidature of Dr. Olumuyiwa Bernard Aliu the President of ICAO Council for re-election to the post of President of the Council in November 2016.
Sirika made this known in a presentation to the 39th ICAO General Assembly in Montreal, Canada where the group aimed at reflecting on the developments that have taken place in Aviation industry and to seek new ways of improving them beyond the next triennium.
According to the Minister, it was pertinent that member states especially the developed countries, financial institutions and donor agencies; support the initiative with a view to assisting this to implement ICAO’s Standard and Recommended Practices.
He further went on to disclose that with Nigeria’s support for safety that no state in the sub region of West Africa is a state with significant safety concern despite rising security challenges all over.
Sirika said, “Nigeria, even prior to this initiative have been collaborating with ICAO and African Civil Aviation Commission, AFCAC to promote safety in the West Africa sub-region through the hosting and subvention funding of Banjul Accord Group Aviation Safety Oversight Organisation (BAGASOO), the Aviation safety organization which has its headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria Federal Capital Territory.
“It gladdens my heart to say that as of today, there is no state in our sub-region on the list of state with significant safety concern.”
According to him, Nigeria will continue to champion the advancement of civil aviation in the sub-region through the continuous hosting and sponsorship of ICAO’s safety, security, air transport and environmental programmes including comprehensive regional implementation plan of aviation safety in Africa.
He stated that Nigeria has continued to record significant improvement in the area of aviation security. With the installation of modern security equipment at the nation’s airports with continuous implementation of our national aviation security programme and up to date training of aviation security personnel.
His words,” Only recently we carried out vulnerability analysis of our airports and put in place measures to curb any act of terrorism. Nigeria’s excellent outing at the last ICAO security audit which took place in June 2015 attest to our efforts in this area. We however believe that ICAO and member states must continue to put in place proactive measures to curb ever-increasing threat to security of civil aviation.”
On the re-election of Dr. Aliu, he said:
“Nigeria will like to use this opportunity to solicit the support of ICAO member state for our re-election into PART 2 of ICAO Council. In addition, Nigeria also request your support for the election and re-election of those African states which has been endorsed by AFCAC to the ICAO Council.”
“Nigeria is also delighted to refer to the candidature of Dr. Olumuyiwa Bernard Aliu the President of ICAO Council for re-election to the post of President of the Council in November 2016. We solicit and thank ICAO members’ states on his candidature. I will not conclude and I will not belabour you with too much but I deem it very important to sign-off by appealing to entire member states to ensure that, No Country is truly Left Behind in their region.”
