Former Nigeria Airways workers urge NCAA not to grant operating license to Nigeria Air

As efforts to finally bring to reality the floating of a new national carrier, Nigeria Air reaches top stage, some former workers of the liquidated Nigeria Airways and the children of those already deceased have petitioned the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to stop the process of granting an operating license to the new national airline until the balance of their outstanding final entitlements is settled.

The former workers who spoke to some journalists at the weekend, attributed their petition to a notice put up by the airline announcing its application to the NCAA for a license to operate scheduled and non-scheduled passenger and cargo services.

The notice also stated that any person or organization with objection should make it known before 28 days’ expiration.

The notice read in part, “This is to inform the general public that Messrs Nigeria Air Limited has applied to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) for the grant of an Air Transport License (ATL) to operate scheduled and non-scheduled passenger and cargo services within and outside Nigeria.

“Any person or organization that has an objection or representation with regards to this application should do so within 28 days from the date of this application. Such objection or representation should be forwarded to the Director-General Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Domestic Wing, Abuja,” the notice said.

Speaking for the former workers, one of the affected who simply gave his name as Adeyemi to avoid victimization said the former workers had lost interest in the leadership of the ex-workers’ unions to protect their interest and to mount pressure on the Federal Government to pay them the last tranche of their severance benefits.

While demanding that some of the ex-workers who are still alive be included in the Nigerian pension scheme, the former workers declared:

“There is a notice published in the media that anyone who has a complaint on why the proposed Nigeria Air should not be issued a license should come forward with their complaints within 28 days. We are not against the setting up of Nigeria Air. What we are asking is that they should pay us what is left of what we are owed before a new national carrier comes on board.

“What concerns us is for government to pay the remaining balance of what they owe us. We would have left this to our unions to do but they do not give updates on what is happening,” they said.

The aggrieved workers confirmed that the Federal Government had earlier paid N45 billion to them remaining a balance of N33 billion which had been approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.

They alleged that their union leaders under the Aviation Unions Ground Alliance (AUGA) were no longer motivated to pursue their cause even after they got 45% of N45 billion paid a few years ago as commission.

“We are suffering in silence. We heard that Nigeria Air is coming and we got a published notice that anybody who has an objection to why the carrier should not be granted a license should bring it forward. We have written a letter. We should be sending the letter to NCAA any moment from now,” they claimed.

According to the ex-workers, the total severance package for workers of the airline was supposed to be N78 billion out of which the Federal Government said it would be able to pay N45 billion with the balance of N33 billion yet to be paid.

“We are demanding that workers of the liquidated airline that is still alive should be put under a pension scheme. The liquidation of Nigeria Airways was at the instance of the government. We believe that the leadership of our unions has been compromised. There are things that we see that show compromise.

“People in Diaspora have resigned to fate. More than 80% of ex-workers of Nigeria Airways have had broken marriages. Many have been left to their fate with many life-threatening ailments,” the ex workers claimed.

While the Nigerian workers of the former workers are yet to be paid their full benefits 23 years after the liquidation of the airline, their colleagues in Europe and America were almost immediately paid off by the Obasanjo government for fear of violating the labour laws of the foreign countries.

Over two thousand of the former workers died without receiving their entitlements just as thousands were left in abject poverty until the administration of President Muhamadu Buhari through the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika approved payment for the workers with N45 billion released towards the end of 2017 remaining a balance of N33 billion.

(Nigerian Tribune)