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Olateru, Ola Brown: Standout aviation personalities of the year

Since eight years ago, the Chief Executive of Nigeria Aviation (NIGAV), Mr. Fortune Idu has promoted and continued to honour the best in the aviation industry with his annual awards.
There is no doubt that virtually all the awardees had distinguished themselves in their different fields of endeavours to promote best practices in aviation and the media.
Aside that, the firms that carted home prizes equally showed that they were deserving of the awards.
It is tonic to them to aspire to greater heights. It is also a constant reminder to them of their service to humanity and to the industry.
Most of the people and companies that bagged awards were CEO, Flying Doctor Nigeria, Dr. Ola Brown, Commissioner, Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), Engr. Akin Olateru, Director General of Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Capt. Muhtar Usman, Managing Directors of Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Capt. Fola Akinkuotu and Saleh Dunoma, Spokeswoman for FAAN, Mrs. Henrietta Yakubu.
Others were Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc (NAHCO), Skypower Aviation Handling Company Limited (SAHCOL), Aero Contractors, Arik, Dana, Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL), Aviation Editor, New Telegraph, Wole Shadare, Publisher, Nigerian FlightDeck, Mr. Anthony Patrick Omoh and Aviation multiple award winner, Mrs. Nosa Osula-Aituamen of Radio Nigeria among others.
Two individuals, Olateru and Dr. Brown stood out for their super outstanding roles in the aviation industry.
Olateru and AIB won the coveted Most Innovative Aviation Leader of the Year award, while his agency, AIB won Most Valuable Aviation Safety Strategic Partner Award.
In a little over a year, Olateru transformed the hitherto moribund AIB to a respectable height, brought out of obscurity to live up to its reputation as an accident investigation agency.
Never in the history of AIB has there been a vibrant Commissioner who has galvanised the work force to bring back the best in the agency.
Since his appointment, the agency has released over ten accident reports that had hitherto remained on the shelf for several years. There are plans to release six more before the end of the month, which would bring total number of accident reports released to the public to 16.
When he assumed duty, there were 27 pending reports that were gathering dust on the shelf, with some dating back to 2005.
Olateru said: “When I assumed duties, I did a review. We had 27 pending accident reports. Some date back to 2005 and we were in 2017. I was wondering what really went wrong. We set everything in motion. Funding was another problem.
“In carrying out accident investigation, you need a lot of resources – manpower and finance. We pushed everything in motion and through the support of the Minister of State for Aviation, he gave us maximum support and we did what we were supposed to do. To the glory of God, we released 11 reports by December 2017. One year, 10 final reports and one safety bulletin are some of the things we did last year among other strides we took to reposition AIB.”
The consummate Dr. Ola Brown is a British-Nigerian medical doctor and managing director of Flying Doctors Nigeria which is based in Lagos, Nigeria.
She was motivated to start her business of air ambulance services after experiencing the loss of her sister under difficult circumstances and to improve medical services in the Nigeria.
Undaunted by difficult challenges, she successfully established Flying Doctors in Lagos, Nigeria in 2007.
She is a member of both the American Academy of Aesthetic Surgeons and the British Medical Association. She was listed among Young Global leaders by World Economic Forum in 2013.
She has lectured on entrepreneurship at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Flying Doctors have 20 aircraft and 44 doctors who can deliver care en-route to any of Nigeria’s hospitals. The company hire out their services to major events in Nigeria as well as offering insurance to wealthy companies and families in the country.
Brown believes that improvements in her country’s position in the world will result from the action of entrepreneurs and not the government.
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