SENATOR OLUREMI TINUBU CALL FOR INCLUSION OF FEMALES
AT THE TOP OF NAF AFFAIRS
By Warrant Officer Ishola Rukayat Ajoke
A member of the Senate Committee on the Nigerian Air Force, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, representing Lagos Central has canvassed for an increase in the number of females involved in strategic decision-making roles of the Nigerian Air Force, insisting that women are still very much in the minority in NAF higher echelon, representing less than 1%. The Senator made this assertion during the Committee’s oversight tour of capital projects of the NAF in Lagos Area that was approved in the 2017 appropriation budget.
Senator Oluremi Tinubu argued that it is essential that measures to open all positions to them to develop flexible career paths and systematically take the gender dimension into account in all operations be carried out by the Nigerian Air Force. She stressed “Issues concerning women in the Air Force should be seriously and systematically pursued by military planners. They should examine questions and policies pertaining to women to ensure the participation of women in top management”. This is coming just as 2 female officers trained in Westline Aviation, South Africa were recently winged to join the rank of fighter pilots in the NAF.
Senator Remi Tinubu in a discussion with a female pilot of the C-130 Aircraft during the oversight tour.
Meanwhile the Chairman Senate Committee on Air Force, Senator Duro Faseyi has commended the NAF for the excellent maintenance of its platforms and helicopter gunships during the oversight function. He expressed satisfaction with the level of performance and compliance to procedure displayed by the NAF across the country, “I am really satisfied with the safety level I see here, I am impressed and I am speaking honestly. We noticed that the NAF has performed excellently well as we toured your formations around the country”.
While enumerating the enormous roles the NAF plays in nation building, Senator
Faseyi said there was the need to continue to strengthen the Air Force to enable it
carry out both its primary and secondary roles and secondary roles of defending the
nation’s territorial integrity, containing insurgency and securing the air defense for
all NAF fleets in the country, while assuring to continually ensure funding of all
capital projects.
Chairman Senate Committee on Air Force, Senator Duro Faseyi receiving a quarter guard salute during the visit
Earlier, the Commanding 631 Aircraft Maintenance Depot (ACMD), Air Commodore MO Onilede took the Committee on a tour of the Hangar showing them the C130 HNAF 197 under Periodic Depot Maintenance (PDM) as one of the projects in the appropriation. He showed them of repair of the aircraft, indicating June as the timeline for the completion of the project, while emphasizing the challenges of the project.
“The training of our people is part of the contract in order to enhance technology transfer. In addition to training of our people, we also have embedded in it the inventory of all the spares that we have in Nigeria, we have a major store here and we have another one outside this facility, we have contracted a company based on their experience overtime, they help us go to the store, take inventory of all our spare parts, so that anytime as we are repairing aircraft, we should be able to check from the computer whether we have the item or not. It will alert with a red indicator if an item is expiring. We always take the shelve life into consideration when we are ordering spare parts”.
The Commander, 631 Aircraft Maintenance Depot Ikeja, Air Commodore Onilede raising a point of order to the Committee during the visit.
The Air Officer Commanding Logistics Command, Air Vice Marshal Ibrahim Yahaya who was also a part of the entourage stressed that the reactivation was been done locally to further build the capacity of NAF Technical personnel while, equally saving cost, adding that the NAF invited foreign technical experts to execute the project in conjunction with its engineers and technicians.
Senator Oluremi Tinubu in a discussion with Chief of Budget, Nigerian Air Force, Air Vice Marshal CA Ogbeche during the oversight tour
L-R, Chairman Senate Committee on Air Force, Senator Duro Faseyi, Senator Oluremi Tinubu and the Air Officer Commanding Logistics Command, Air Vice Marshal IJ Yahaya in a discussion after the team inspected a stripped C-130 Aircraft during the tour.
On the Committee was Senator Ibn Na’allah representing Kebbi Central Senatorial
and Committee Staff, Senior Officers from the Defense Headquarters were also
present for the inspection.
Chairman Senate Committee on Air Force, Senator Duro Faseyi receiving a quarter guard salute during the visit.
Also read:
Nigerian Air Force shock communities, goes on environmental sanitation in Lagos
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