Nigeria and the United States are scheduled to meet shortly to address issues pertaining to security at the nation’s airports.
Ahead of the meeting scheduled to take place in Washington, the Minister of Aviation, Mr. Osita Chidoka, and the US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. James Entwistle, met in Abuja on Tuesday and held preliminary talks.
Speaking to journalists at the end of the closed door meeting, Chidoka said Nigeria needed to tap into the US expertise to make the nation’s airports more secure.
He also confirmed that the Category One certification, which the US granted to Nigeria some years ago, would also be top of the agenda of the Washington meeting.
Chidoka said, “There is a Category One issue. We shall be tapping into USA expertise on security issues; and on the Category One, we are doing a lot on our safety and security standards at the airports and we want to deepen that by ensuring that not only do we have the Category One status; we are also going beyond that by ensuring that all our safety and security systems are world class.
“We want to ensure that the next certification process will be just per functionary. So, we are thinking that there is a lot of cooperation from the US in terms of capacity building and regulatory improvements, and also in terms of commercial improvement. We want to encourage more airlines to grow their fleet and have the capacity to provide service to Nigerians.”
On the other hand, Entwistle said, “I am here because I want to pay my respect to Chidoka in particular, because aviation is an area in which USA and Nigeria have always worked and collaborated on.
“He is travelling to Washington shortly to have discussions with the relevant agencies. So, we had to talk about that because aviation is a crucial sector when it comes to safety and security. Also, I talked to the minister; we want to create the opportunity for US products to come to Nigeria.”
