Finally, African policy makers have acknowledged the fact that we need aviation experts. The Secretary of African Airlines Association, Mr. Christian Folly-Kossi lamented the brain drain wave that has hit this industry. During an aviation conference held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Mr. Folly-Kossi asked African leaders to use their 'political and diplomatic weight' to stop non -African carriers from luring away African pilots, engineers and cabin crews.

The Aviation industry in Africa will continue to lose personnel if governments in this region fail to open up the airspace to competition. It is competition that will lead to high quality service and drive up demand for local pilots and engineers. We should be cautious not to push politics and diplomacy to limit the freedom of individual African experts aspiring to achieve their dreams elsewhere.

African experts, on the other hand, should not go overseas with a constrained vision. Like Asians, they should go out with a view of studying how the world works out there, in order to improve their continent back at home.