NigerianFLIGHTDECK Travel and Business Reportage 
MANAGING Director, Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Capt. Fola Akinkuotu has said that “aviation has no room for I am sorry” which is why the agency is putting together sustained effort to enhance safety of air navigation in the country by embarking on the training of various categories of its workforce in safety management.
The training which will dwell on areas such as Safety Audit of Air Traffic Services; Safety Oversight Management and Practical Preparation for International Civil Aviation Universal Safety Oversight Programme (ICAO USOAP) and Air Traffic Management Safety Investigation and Analysis among others is targeted at equipping critical staff of the agency with the capacity and proficiency to investigate and analyze air traffic incidents with a view to mitigating or eliminating future occurrence.
Capt. Fola Akinkuotu who made all this known while signing the NAMA Safety Policy and Commitment to Safety Management, noted that safety management has become key in a highly sophisticated and dynamic industry such as aviation.
He disclosed that management was putting a machinery in motion to drastically reduce or eliminate incidents while maintaining zero tolerance for accidents. Akinkuotu also charged top management staff of the agency to buy into the NAMA Safety Policy and also ensure that the message cascades down to the entire staff, adding that “everything we do in the agency, one way or the other impacts on safety.
We must therefore focus not only on the obvious, but even the non-obvious things, and by this, every NAMA staff should key into the safety policy and also be passionate about it.”,
The signing of NAMA Safety Policy by Capt. Akinkuotu is in compliance with the prescription of ICAO Document 9859 (Safety Management Manual) Annex 19 (Safety Management Systems) which requires that the Chief Executive Officer of an aviation service provider must sign a commitment to safety as the Accounting Executive for Safety Management Systems (SMS).
