One hot Thursday afternoon, Tony Osagie was seen leafing through a newspaper in one of the offices at the domestic wing of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos. His laptop computer was placed on the right side of his desk. At another time, he was seen checking his Facebook status. His job description was not particularly challenging, he told this correspondent.
The fact is that the changing times in the aviation industry is taking a toll on his career, as he certainly never had the slightest premonition that he could take up a job as an estate agent.
The 29-year-old Canada and America-trained pilot holds a Private Pilot Licence, Commercial Pilot Licence and a Boeing 737 Type Rating Certificate. He was at the Lagos airport to attend a meeting of unemployed Nigerian pilots that used to hold on Thursdays.
Only 12 people were in attendance at the meeting when this correspondent visited the venue. Many of the job-seeking pilots — initially they were over 100 — had stopped attending the weekly gathering because it had failed to provide a solution to their joblessness.
Shattered dreams
“I would have owned a house in Canada by now. I had an opportunity to use that initial $60,000 for a mortgage in Canada rather than train to be a pilot,” Osagie yelled in anger, on noticing the presence of our correspondent at the venue of the planned meeting.
Later, he agreed to speak with our correspondent on the condition that his photograph would not be used in this report.
“The industry is a very small one. Talking to you is a risk on its own and I wouldn’t want them to tag me and my picture as someone who is a rebel querying the status quo. My chances of getting a job in the industry might be ruined,” Osagie explained.
Narrating how his love for aviation began, Osagie said it had always been his lifelong dream to be a pilot. Even after bagging a first degree in Computer Science from Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State in 2007, his eye was still set on accomplishing the childhood dream.
He worked as an accounts officer at the United Bank for Africa after completing the mandatory National Youth Service. But he did not get the basic job satisfaction as a bank employee.
Obsessed with aviation, he eventually took a loan of N2.5m from the bank and weighed it upon his father, who had just retired from the services of the State Security Service, to loan him a larger percentage of his terminal benefits.
Soon, he tendered his resignation letter to his employers and his father rallied round and took some loans from some financial institutions and cooperative societies to augment the shortfalls to make up for the $60,000 needed for him to train as a pilot in Canada.
He left for Laurentide Aviation School, Les Cèdres in Quebec, Canada in December 2008 at the age of 23 — in high spirits. But, along the line, the $60,000 which was said to be the overall cost for his training, was no longer sufficient to pay his fees.
He said, “The training at Laurentide Aviation School was too expensive. Just after I got my night and multi-engine ratings, they were demanding more money. They began sucking me like a cow that was being milked.
“I had to start doing manual jobs, such as dish washing, cleaning, cab driving from airport to various destinations on a part-time basis, while I was still a student.
“But I didn’t have enough money to continue because it was pretty expensive and I had so many bills to pay. So, I dropped out of the aviation school in January 2010.”
After dropping out of the school, Osagie began to work full-time. He had to take up different menial jobs in order to raise more money to pay his tuition fees at a cheaper aviation school in the North American country where he hoped to qualify as a commercial pilot.
He worked for one year to get back on track and also dated a white girl who, according to him, was very “understanding” and assisted him while his financial crisis lasted.
While raising fund for his tuition, he also started saving some money to settle debts that had begun accumulating interests back home in Nigeria. He was anxious to safeguard the property his dad used as collateral for the loans he secured for him.
Osagie also asked his dad to sell off the land he acquired in Benin City when he worked as a banker to free up funds for his training.
“I really wanted to fly as a pilot, but there was no money. I later extended the menial job to bartending and working as a factory hand. I met a white girl who was working at a telecommunications firm that was very understanding. She really helped me all through 2010 and 2012.
“After working for one year and with the support I got from various sources, I was able to raise $40,000 (Canadian dollars) for aviation school and I also repaid some of the loans my dad got for me so as to prevent some of his property, especially his house, from being taken over by his creditors,” he adds.
But Osagie was only able to see himself through Air Richelieu Aviation School in Saint-Hubert, Canada, after accepting to work part-time as a front desk officer at the institution due to his inability to raise enough money to complete the programme.
In August 2012, he qualified as a commercial pilot and was happy to return to Nigeria to get his dream job and start flying in the Nigerian airspace. But it wasn’t as easy as he had expected.
For five months, he applied to virtually all the local airlines operating in the country, but he did not get an offer of employment.
“I came back to Nigeria immediately and did the compulsory medicals, licence conversion, including the local examinations, and was in high hopes of getting a job.
“I didn’t wait banking on the premise that since I trained in Canada, I was going to get a job on the platter of gold. I applied everywhere. From Arik, to Aero, First Nation, Medview, Dana… name it! I have applied everywhere.
“They gave me hopes that they would get back to me. But when I spoke with other young pilots, I realised I was in for a long-drawn employment battle.”
A grim struggle for survival
Unfortunately, in spite of the situation he found himself, Osagie still had a lot of debts to pay. Perplexed, he sought the advice of senior and experienced hands in the aviation industry and was encouraged to complete his aviation training by getting a type-rating certification.
The phrase, ‘Type-rating,’ is used to describe a regulatory agency’s certification of an airplane pilot to fly a certain aircraft type that requires additional training beyond the scope of the initial basic licence and aircraft class training.
Heeding the advice of those he took as mentors in the profession, Osagie returned to Canada to work and raise money in order to train and get a Boeing 737 type-rating.
However, the best job he could get as a trained and Canada-licensed commercial pilot was a ramp attendant — the title given to those who handle cargo and baggage and perform other ground support duties at airports.
“In December 2012 after my near five months of unemployment, I realised that I could not just sit down, fold my hands and watch my licence expire, when I know I can go somewhere and work and get some money to pay off my already burgeoning debts.
“I got a permanent residency permit and I returned to Canada. But I was only able to secure a job as a ramp attendant at the Toronto Billy Bishop International Airport, Toronto, Canada. I was a baggage boy and my job was simply to put bags on and off the plane,” he said.
He raised about $9,000 over a period of 13 months in Canada, working as a baggage boy and doing other menial jobs for the type-rating certification before proceeding to the Pan Am International Flight Academy in Florida, United States. In Florida, after paying the fees, there was no money to secure accommodation. As a result, he was forced to take shelter in a church close to his training school. A Good Samaritan who happened to be a Nigerian pilot based in the city later sheltered him in his personal residence.
Osagie got certified to fly a Boeing 737 early this year and, again in March, he returned to his fatherland to get his dream job in Nigeria. But getting the additional certification has not changed his fortune: He is still waiting for his first job. His regrets, “People advised me. Many people asked me: Why do you want to do this (become a pilot)? My female friend in Canada is tired of helping me.
“There is no job for me here in Nigeria; and in Canada, the best offer of employment I get is a baggage boy, as they prefer to employ their citizens rather than foreigners. But airlines operating in Nigeria employ foreign pilots over Nigerian passport holders.”
Jobless and still searching
Osagie is one of the scores of Nigerian pilots who roam the streets in search of the elusive aviation job. To make ends meet, the North America-trained pilot now works as an estate agent.
“It is sad that I can’t put my technical skills to use. I now work as an estate agent. I bring people who want to buy or sell a house together. If the person buys the house, I get something; and if he or she doesn’t, I get nothing. I earn peanuts,” he said, with a note of disappointment.
Nowadays, many people no longer consider a pilot’s job to be as glamorous and desirable as it used to be. In the past, after watching aircraft take off and land at the airports, many visiting primary and high school pupils often dreamt of being in command of an airplane some day and flying to various destinations. But it seems that the plight of young and unemployed pilots in Nigeria will, no doubt, discourage them from pursuing such dreams.
Like Osagie, scores of other unemployed pilots have resorted to earning a living by taking up jobs that are totally unrelated to their training. While a good number of them now work as lowly office assistants, others have simply taken to commercial transport business to keep body and soul together.
Mike Imoukhuede, who trained as a pilot in Flight Training Services in South Africa, has remained unemployed for over two years since he returned to Nigeria. While waiting for his dream job, he now works part-time as office assistant with JedAir Ltd., one of the pioneer private aircraft charter firms in Nigeria.
Findings by our correspondent revealed that no fewer than five pilots are currently working with JedAir Ltd. as office assistants, not as Captains or First Officers.
President and Chief Executive Officer of JedAir, Captain Nogie Meggison, who has been in the fore front of the campaign to create employment opportunities for the young unemployed pilots, was said to have extended the gesture to them as a means of easing their plight.
‘Foreigners have taken our jobs’
Imoukhuede, who had graduated from the Department of Agricultural Economics of the University of Ibadan in 2005 before travelling to South Africa in 2008 for aviation training, expressed dissatisfaction with the current situation in the aviation industry in Nigeria.
He said, “More foreign pilots are coming into the country every day. They have taken our jobs. Many of us are on the streets while these foreigners keep coming in and taking our jobs. I shouldn’t have returned to this country only to sit down at home while somebody else comes from outside and gets a job that I am supposed to be doing.”
Efforts to take the picture of Imoukhuede and Osagie for this story were rebuffed, as they stressed that they could be witch-hunted for speaking their minds on the sorry state of the industry. But Imoukhuede said he still longed for a chance to fly, with all the responsibilities and privileges that come with the occupation.
According to Imoukhuede, who is married with a kid, his passion for the profession wasn’t borne out of the comparatively high monthly salary of between N450,000 to N600,000 which a fresh graduate pilot earns.
“It cost me about N11m to train as a pilot in South Africa. I don’t know how I am going to put it together with the situation I have found myself. But what I would say is that the money expended on my training was in furtherance of my passion. I had always wanted to be a pilot since I was young,” he added.
Imoukhuede and Osagie are two of the scores of unemployed pilots whose dreams of piloting aircraft are crashing. Employment opportunities for this category of skilled labour are next to nil, as job placements continue to elude them.
Yet, attending a flying school costs a fortune. The rigorous training they undergo requires pilots under training to put in no fewer than 250 flight hours to get a commercial licence in a process that can stretch over two-and-a-half years, if not more.
The basic training in Nigeria, according to findings, costs between N7m and N9m, while oversees training could be well above N11m, depending on the training institutions.
Despite undertaking an arduous journey to realise their ambition to become pilots, with many of them and their sponsors, especially their parents, landing themselves in huge debts, still there are no job opportunities.
In spite of the fact that it is quite expensive to hire and maintain foreign pilots, airlines operating in the country have continued to shun Nigerian pilots. The argument of these airlines, according to industry players, is that fresh out-of-school pilots do not have enough flight hours to sit on the right side of the cockpit reserved for co-pilots.
Fresh, out-of-school Nigerian pilots who trained either in the Nigeria College of Aviation Technology, Zaria, the International Aviation College, Ilorin, or overseas usually graduate with between 250 and 500 flight hours.
But the airlines have since raised the bar and simply placed premium on employing pilots who have between 1,000 and 1,500 flight hours even when they are required to work as co-pilots.
Sadly, as acute as the pilots’ unemployment situation is, the aviation authorities do not have the statistics of the number of this category of skilled labour that is unemployed.
The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority is the agency which licenses all local and foreign trained pilots who operate in the country. The NCAA Deputy General Manager, Public Relations, Mr. Samuel Adurogboye, said he could only give a record of the number of people carrying its certification and not the figure of the unemployed pilots.
But a former Director of Operations of the defunct Nigeria Airways, Captain Dele Ore, put the number of unemployed pilots in the country at over 300.
“They number over 300 and everyday, more and more of these young pilots come in from South Africa, North America and all over the place and join the growing list.
“Whenever I meet them, I give them words of encouragement and urge them not to throw away their books. They shouldn’t forget the basics,” Ore, who also doubles as the President of the Aviation Rountable, noted.
As Imoukhuede continues to express hope that the sorry state of the industry would change for better, he noted that the last time he had the opportunity of getting into the cockpit was in 2012 when he was a student in the South African flight academy.
“I don’t want to lose my proficiency. I now practise with a flight simulator which I downloaded on my computer,” Imoukhuede said when asked by our correspondent how he had been coping with his joblessness.
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