In keeping with its commitment to promoting scientific and technological development in the country for rapid and inclusive development, the current administration established a couple of Advanced Aircraft Engineering Laboratory (AACELabs) in the country in 2017, including the one located in Gusau, Zamfara State. The decision to establish the aeronautical training centres in the country stems from the realization that development of aircraft engineering retains within it, enormous potential to create considerable economic and financial benefits for the country through its large-scale spill-over effects.
Strategically, the operationalization of the aircraft engineering laboratories would create room for the Nigerian Airspace Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) to play increasingly important roles in aeronautical technology progress, the very essence of its establishment as a statutory organ of the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Nigeria stands to benefit greatly from further development of its aeronautics technology. The AACELabs are tasked with the responsibility of conducting advanced research and development in aircraft engineering such as civil aviation aircraft (trainer version), thrust generating materials, wind tunnel simulation, navigation guidance and control. They are to specifically provide an avenue for advanced research for the development of turbine engines, airframes and wings, combustion of fuel combination, avionics and control, aircraft communication system, and space vehicles material engineering analysis.
All these are with the view to developing the engineering and scientific capabilities necessary to produce space transport vehicles with aircraft engines in accordance with NASRDA’s roadmap (25 years) and timeframes. The operational and strategic mandates of the AACELabs, if faithfully driven free from any political trappings or other vested interests, are such as will profoundly affect the cost and the speed of aircraft design processes as well as the efficiency of future aircrafts in the country.
The vision for the future of aeronautical technology can be realized only through investments in computational and experimental infrastructure and in the development of indigenous competitive aircraft engineering skills and capabilities. For this aspiration to be met effectively, science and engineering efforts require that the sector be reinvigorated through adequate appropriate investments and careful assessment of investment strategy. This development charts a new course for NASRDA to traverse towards the specific aerodynamics goals needed to achieve competitiveness and set the country on the trail of advances in aircraft engineering development. Indeed, NASRDA attached great importance to technology development needs for higher and more efficient and productive functioning of aviation vehicles and the general technical operations of the nation’s airports as well as the need to upscale its facilities’ capacities through the wind tunnel simulation but overall constraints have limited its ability to establish the kind of aggressive research efforts needed to advance Nigeria’s competitiveness in aeronautics.
Two recent developments at NASRDA points to near realization of these dreams – the recent emergence of Dr Halilu Ahmad, a thoroughbred professional given to sustained deliberation and constructive approaches to work and relative issues, and the creation of the AACELabs. But it is still not uhuru. The decision to locate the AACElab in the northwestern town of Gusau, Zamfara State cast shadows on the achievements because for reasons of practical utility and overall functionality optimization, having the lab in Gusau under the present circumstances is inappropriate, inefficient and counter-productive. Whatever the considerations that underpinned the choice of the location, they certainly aren’t sound investment decisions. Why have we chosen to let things fall apart when the centre can still hold? There is a more befitting centre in Zaria!
Let me put my reasoning in clearer perspectives. Gusau, to say the least, is somewhat far-fetched. It is one of the cities unfortunately being overrun by banditry, and exposed to the nefarious activities of a marauding band of dacoits and kidnapping gangs. The consequent high tension and the temper tantrums that have enveloped the society in recent times combined with the high incidence of banditry pose security threats to that society and therefore render it an unsafe location for such a sensitive national project. Added to that is the fact that the AACELab is the first and only aviation facility in Gusau for now. This implies starting everything about it from the scratch which will deprive the project of any backward or forward linkage advantages. Going headlong to locate the AACELab in Gusau only shows indifference to the cost to government for its operationalization. The project being in Gusau will in no efficient way benefit from advances in similar outfits or carry out any valid testing and verification.
It is a fact of experience that close proximity to other agency facilities and organizations contribute to cost saving resulting from less travel, more prompt on-site support and ease in technology sharing. Besides, the laboratory is also expected to attract other talents from across the world, especially the ECOWAS sub-region. Therefore, the location of such a facility must be one that admits itself of an appealing ambiance.
Zaria city in Kaduna State offers all these advantages and more, and because of its more central location. It is, to a considerable extent, less exposed to the kind of security threats that has decimated Gusau. I find it quite puzzling that the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, who supervised the process, agreed to Gusau as a location for the laboratory. However, the minister may, at this point, wish to reflect further and rethink the decision with a high sense of national priorities.
Basically, two broad steps should guide the decisions in choosing locations for an agency. The first step is to determine whether a given location is functionally suited to achieve the purposes of the office that is to be located. The second step is to test the location for its ability to meet a range of factors that have been shown to be important in meeting required goals. Zaria by its evolutionary design is the West African sub-region’s centre of aeronautics. The Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, National Automotive Design and Development Council, Zaria are all found in Zaria and there is the Airforce Institute of Technology, Kaduna which lies a few kilometres away from Zaria. Or do economies of scale not matter now?
Source: Nation
