National carrier confusion

As plans takeoff of a new national carrier, Nigeria Air, trouble brews over the possibility of the commencement period as experts have expressed doubts over its possibllibity.

As the Federal Government planed the airline would commence operations before the end of the year.

But experts doubted the plan, saying the modalities for the new national carrier were yet to be spelt out.

Reacting to the development, a former Minister of Aviation, Air Vice Marshal Anthony Okpere (retd), lamented that Nigerians along with stakeholders in the sector are yet to know the details of the new national carrier project.

He noted that the current Minister of Aviation Sen. Hadi Sirika has not been carrying aviation stakeholders along in his bid to launch another national carrier for the country.

Okpere was also the Managing Director of Nigeria Airways between 1984 and 1986 said: “Most stakeholders are kept in the dark about the Nigeria Air project and its partnership with Ethiopian Airlines.

“Why is Sirika so hasty to establish a new national carrier for the country after seven years of failed efforts, even as the current administration winds up in the next six months?

“The details of the new national carrier project are not known. Meanwhile, this administration winds up immediately after the general elections. What is the guarantee that the people coming in will continue? Has the country been carried along?

“Who are we partnering with? What are the terms of the agreement with Ethiopian Airlines? People need to know. So, when the administration winds up, who knows what?

Okpere reiterated that Nigeria Airways should never have been liquidated.

He lamented that when the airline was liquidated by the government, no staff was paid severance packages. And this led to the untimely death of some of them.

But he commended President Muhammadu Buhari for later paying the severance packages of the former workers. He also maintained that Nigeria needs a national carrier, although the process of establishing one must be transparent.

“I think it is commendable. We were very sad indeed when we lost Nigeria Airways, but now that it is being proposed to set up a new airline, I think it is one of the best things to happen to the industry.

“Most countries in Africa have national carriers and I think it is about time that Nigeria, the biggest country in Africa, should, of course, take lead in the comity of nations. Nigeria will be better for it and I am looking forward to it. Now in floating a new airline, I don’t know the politics behind it, I don’t know the consultation they made.”

Also, the Chief Executive Officer of Azikel Air, Dr Eruani Azibapu, has cautioned the Minister to partner Aviation giants across the world in order to stay afloat.

He said: “You know, the aviation industry is a very sophisticated industry with several levels of endeavours in making it a success. Nigeria, indeed, needs a carrier.

“Nigeria cannot operate a sustainable carrier without the right partnership. So, securing partnerships is very important and securing the right partnership is the way to go, and securing it with people that have already made success.

“You cannot be in isolation in operating or participating in the aviation industry, particularly in Africa. There is no part of the airplane that is produced in Africa.

“So, you need the right training, the right people, the right environment, the right organisations, so I believe very strongly that Nigeria can make a great success, particularly if we stand with others that have proven success. So, the right way to go is not for us to stand alone in the ocean, we are going to fail.

“By the way, the technology is not made by us. It is foreign. So, we cannot say we want to do this all alone. It’s not possible. You need those parties that can build this together.

No rational court can stop Nigeria Air – Sirika

Meanwhile, the Sirika in a meeting in Lagos, noted that no rational court in the country can stop Nigeria Air from fying.

He said “I cannot see any rational court that will say that I am stopping somebody from establishing a company because Nigeria Air is a limited liability company known to the Nigerian laws in the corporate affairs commission.

“If anybody wants to come and invest in that company, there is no law in Nigeria that stops him from doing so. If there are foreigners coming to invest, nobody stops them from investing. You can own a company 100 per cent. What would you say to Shell, Unilever, and Julius Berger? There are companies in Nigeria registered by Nigerian law and people are coming to invest. This is what we want. We want Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). If people or Nigerians are investing in the airline with over $200 million in Nigeria and so what.  We want more of them”.

He took a swipe at people whom he said claimed that they were not carried along in the floating of the carrier, asking how come they knew about the carrier if they claimed that they were not carried along.

Sirika disclosed that when the airline was still in its embryonic stages, he reached out to Air Peace chairman, Mr. Allen Onyema, Azman Chairman, Abdulmunaf Yunusa Sarina, and others to invest in the new airline but was rebuffed by the airline owners, stressing some of them later accused him of not making the request verbal.

“I heard that the airline owners said that they were not carried along. If you were there at the National Assembly, I told them where I met them like the Max Air, Azman, Air Peace, Ibom, everybody where I met them and told them to please come and partner in this airline and own it, telling them that it is meant for the private sector. I told Air Peace to come and invest in this one and one of them said to me that I should make it formal.

“I said to him that I met you in your own place, met with you and invited you and told him that I have put it in all places as adverts. I also put it in the Economist, on television, and also put it on the website.

How formal can that be? I always beg them to say all you stakeholders are invited to be owners of the airline as private sector people. Nobody will say he was not invited.”

(Vanuard)