The Provost, College of Engineering and Technology, Kwara State University, Prof. Leo Daniel, and the Head of Department, Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, CET, KWASU, Dr. Christopher Odetunde, have called for an improvement in the country's aviation sector.

They spoke at a summit organised by KWASU on Monday.

Daniel, in an interview with journalists, attributed the cause of air crashes in Nigeria to inadequate maintenance.

He said there should be absolute maintenance and holistic checks of the aircraft.

"We have to really look into that issue and see where the government can come in to help maintain the aircraft and create capacity for that. "Creating capacity means training and also building infrastructure to have the ability to take care of all the aircraft in our airports, particularly the international aircraft that come to Nigeria.

"They do not have their maintenance here and that is a very risky business because for aircraft landing in an airport, the airport should have the ability to maintain that aircraft to see whether it is ready to fly again," he said.

Daniel said the country's aviation industry needed training and capacity, adding that aeronautics and astronautics were part of the capacity.

According to him, Nigeria lacks this capacity.

"KWASU is the first university that established Aeronautics and Astronautics. If that's done and we train people, from now on to about 15 years from now, we would be able to have the capacity to look at the aircraft system, to have personnel to look into what happens to even those that come from overseas, we would be able to have personnel on ground to check aircraft system before flying," he said.

Odetunde in a lecture entitled, "World view of aviation: A care for better Nigerian aviation policies," called for better aviation policies in Nigeria.

He said aviation accidents occurred in Nigeria, but most of the results of the accidents were often swept under the carpet and so the accidents continue.

According to him, legal issues in Nigeria are personalised, often based on ‘who you know.'

He said there were numerous enforceable aviation laws that the Federal Government could establish in order to punish those committing aviation-related misconduct that jeopardised passengers and crew and made the nation's aviation space unsafe.

He said that there should be a ban on the use of aircraft to transport hazardous and illegal materials; falsifying maintenance logs and operating an aircraft into the country without proper registration.

Odetunde also said the ban should include interference with the performance of the duties of a flight crew; use or possession of unauthorised aviation certificates; use of alcohol or drugs that result in fatal accidents.

"There should be a legislation against false aviation statements with the intent to defraud the government; and making sure that prices, both for national and international flights, are well within the economic ability of the average citizen.