Plight of Nigerian Pilots
It is quite annoying for individuals to spend millions of Naira or thousands of dollars to train to become pilots only to go back home and be struggling to looking for work. I think it is high time every pilot most especially the unemployed ones fight for what they deserve. They cannot continue to be fighting to be slaves when they can be living like kings in their own country. A Nigerian pilot invests about 12m to train and ends up competing with foreigners for jobs that should ordinarily be his. How did they get to this state? first of all the airlines argue that they are looking for experience and the Nigerians do not have it. That's on one angle. Another angle boils down to the hard reality that is tormenting the Nigerian airline industry.
The Nigerian airline industry is relatively small and struggling. The average fleet size of Nigerian airlines ranges between 2 to 5 aircraft. Only Arik, Aero and Air Peace have a fleet of 26, 16 and 10 aircraft. The small fleet size of the average airline in Nigeria means it is almost impossible to employ all the 500 pilots. Even some of those employed are even facing hard times as the airlines in most cases owe them several months salaries. The poor financial situation of most airlines explains why they are unwilling to employ guys that just graduated from flight school. However despite their poor financial situation, there seem to be a trend in airlines employing foreigners to fly on the right side of the cockpit. There is a law that stipulates that an employer should only employ a Nigerian citizen first before the expat and the expat can only be employed provided the employer can show that there are no Nigerians with the right skill that they are looking for. The law didn't stop there, it requires that a Nigerian should also be appointed under the expat to understudy the person and gain experience for at least a year provided that there are no Nigerian with the right skill. By employing expatriates to fly on the right side of the flight deck, are the airlines saying that the over 500 pilots in Nigeria do not have the right skills to fly? How can they be competing with expats to be flying on the right side of the cockpit? Ideally, the airlines should only employ expatriates as captains then employ these young guys as first or second officers who will now learn under these expats and gain the experience. How do you expect them to get the experience when you refuse to employ them? You don't feel comfortable without expatriates. This suggests that you are labeling Nigerians as dullards who will just end up crashing planes and be smuggling cocaine and money. Get out of your colonial mentality and be profitable. You cannot be struggling financially and be spending huge amount of money hiring and training foreigners when there are Nigerians who can do the job even better than the so called expat. I have nothing against the expats but the fact still remains is that it will be pretty difficult for a Nigerian to get that pilot job in that expat's country because of their immigration rules. Why make it easier for them when they are making it harder for us? why treat the Nigerian unemployed pilots like nonentities and be treating the expats like kings and be giving them benefits that they can never enjoy in their own country?
I think it is high time the unemployed pilots fight for what is theirs. They cannot continue to be treated like slaves while some strangers are being treated like kings in their own country a privilege these strangers will never enjoy in their home country. It is really unfair.
The Nigerian airline industry is relatively small and struggling. The average fleet size of Nigerian airlines ranges between 2 to 5 aircraft. Only Arik, Aero and Air Peace have a fleet of 26, 16 and 10 aircraft. The small fleet size of the average airline in Nigeria means it is almost impossible to employ all the 500 pilots. Even some of those employed are even facing hard times as the airlines in most cases owe them several months salaries. The poor financial situation of most airlines explains why they are unwilling to employ guys that just graduated from flight school. However despite their poor financial situation, there seem to be a trend in airlines employing foreigners to fly on the right side of the cockpit. There is a law that stipulates that an employer should only employ a Nigerian citizen first before the expat and the expat can only be employed provided the employer can show that there are no Nigerians with the right skill that they are looking for. The law didn't stop there, it requires that a Nigerian should also be appointed under the expat to understudy the person and gain experience for at least a year provided that there are no Nigerian with the right skill. By employing expatriates to fly on the right side of the flight deck, are the airlines saying that the over 500 pilots in Nigeria do not have the right skills to fly? How can they be competing with expats to be flying on the right side of the cockpit? Ideally, the airlines should only employ expatriates as captains then employ these young guys as first or second officers who will now learn under these expats and gain the experience. How do you expect them to get the experience when you refuse to employ them? You don't feel comfortable without expatriates. This suggests that you are labeling Nigerians as dullards who will just end up crashing planes and be smuggling cocaine and money. Get out of your colonial mentality and be profitable. You cannot be struggling financially and be spending huge amount of money hiring and training foreigners when there are Nigerians who can do the job even better than the so called expat. I have nothing against the expats but the fact still remains is that it will be pretty difficult for a Nigerian to get that pilot job in that expat's country because of their immigration rules. Why make it easier for them when they are making it harder for us? why treat the Nigerian unemployed pilots like nonentities and be treating the expats like kings and be giving them benefits that they can never enjoy in their own country?
I think it is high time the unemployed pilots fight for what is theirs. They cannot continue to be treated like slaves while some strangers are being treated like kings in their own country a privilege these strangers will never enjoy in their home country. It is really unfair.
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