Why we give dialogue with host communities priority – NCAT Rector
Captain Sam Akinyele Caulcrick
is the new Rector of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria. In this interview, he explained the college’s relationship with its host communities, challenges facing it, among others issues. Excerpts:
Insinuations in some quarters are saying that the crisis in NCAT led to your coming on board as Rector?
Well, you know NCAT is a mini Nigeria. If you know the challenges of Nigeria; they are similar to what we have in NCAT. When you have such scenario, there is likely to be one problem or the other, but we are doing our best to overcome them.
The good thing about what we are doing in addressing some of our problems is the fact that I have been following the developments that were taking place in the college even when I was not in the college. I was able to do that because I worked here and when I left, I was working with one of the authorities overseeing the affairs of the college.
Things are coming back to their normal shape. The college is growing but it may not be at the speed that we like. We would try and speed it up. All aspects of the college would be touched, with priority of students’ training in accordance to international standard. Every head of an establishment would always wants to see the development of his institute.
NCAT has been the pride of Nigeria in the aviation sector. We would continue to ensure that it remains so. Government doesn’t want this place to fail, because they know its importance. With the support of the federal government, which is doing everything possible to ensure that NCAT did not fail in the discharge of its mandates, the sky would be our limit and Nigerians with the interest in the aviation sector would continue to get the best from us.
One of the issues that NCAT is being accused of is neglecting its host communities who always see the college as denying them their due rights.
What is your take on that?
When we came on board, the first thing we gave priority was dialoguing with our host communities. Even though they are encroaching into our land, but they are contributing to the growth of the college in one way or the other. We have an existing runway where aeroplane take off and land and there are regulations guiding the closeness of any structure. They have infringed on that safety issue.
We would appeal to them to let them understand that right now we have done the operational fence. That fence has to be secured by another fence that we call the parameter fence, and we were able to secure one of the best in the world from UK.
As part of the dialogue with the host communities, we would try to address their grievances with the college to the best of our ability. We feel that would ensure peaceful coexistence.
On their part, they should cooperate with us and stop doing anything that would be inimical to the growth of the college, especially encroaching into our land and erecting illegal structures. We are Aviation College and there is limit to which structures are allowed around the college.
Sometime ago the college was being accused of violating training standards?
As I said earlier we are doing our best to address all the challenges of the college. Don’t forget, this is where we form the aviators. We get students, train them and remodel them according to the standards. Our target is always for our students to be the safest on the field. Our goal is to produce the best aviators for the country.
We are going to expand beyond what we had for the past 50 years. What is holding us a bit is the act governing the college. When it is amended, the sky would be our limit.