Former Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, has accused Hon. Nnolim Nnaji of bribery in relation to the Nigeria Air project, while he was still serving as a Minister.
During a hearing by the House of Representatives, Nnaji, who is the Chairman of the House Committee on Aviation, had declared the launch of Nigeria Air a fraud.
He also faulted some aspects of the project, criticising the Federal Government for what he described as poor handling.
In response to the fraud allegation, Sirika, on Sunday, during an interview on ARISE TV, accused the lawmaker of demanding five percent shares of the national carrier from him.
He said, “On the issue of Hon Nnaji, who called Nigeria Air launch a fraud, I will respond now. I will say exactly what I told him in private when we spoke.
“Hon Nnaji asked me that I should give him 5% of Nigeria Air to carry him along with his people, and I said to him at that time, Honourable, a bidding process has taken place, and some people won. So, I think you should go to those people and ask for the 5 percent.
“Let’s be fair, Hon Nnaji didn’t say other members. He said he wants it for himself and his people. His people could be his family, could be members and it could be leadership. I don’t know, but he insisted on 5%. I said that he should relax and approach the owners. That’s exactly what I told him.”
The former Minister also criticised Nnaji and the Aviation Committee for conducting what translated to a “predetermined hearing” on the Nigeria Air project.
“I was a member of the House of Reps 20 years ago, and 10 years ago, I was a Senator. I know the workings of the National Assembly. He called for public hearing, and right under the public hearing, he just turned the paper and read the riot act.
“The practice in the National Assembly is that after hearing people and the complaints, you now go and sit down as a committee, discuss the issues, raise them, approach the whole House of Reps and take a position of the House plus leadership and come back and make your findings known, but not immediately you just read the riot Act out. It means it’s pre-determined,” Sirika added.
On the amount spent on the failed project, the immediate past minister of aviation said the unveiling of a chartered Ethiopian aircraft as Nigeria Air was a demonstration of commitment to the national air carrier project, stressing that the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari did not pay for the chartered Airline plane.
The former minister, however, said only N3 billion was released for the Nigeria Air project, and the funds were spent on consultancy services and office maintenance.
According to Sirika, the total money budgeted for the project since 2016 was N5 billion, out of which N3 billion was disbursed.
He refuted the allegation of spending N85 billion on the project.
His words: “From 2016 to 2023, all of the money voted and budgeted for Nigeria Air is N5 billion. But, all that was released was in the neighbourhood of N3 billion, not N85 billion, and not all of the N3 billion has been expended as of the time I left office.
“What has been done with the money is nothing but to get special advisory services, the AOC processes, salaries, consultative services, and the maintenance of the office in Abuja.
“No contract was awarded by Hadi Sirika, these are the things the money was used for. And there is the Freedom of Information Act, people can apply and get all the information about what the money has been used for. The N85 billion being mentioned is only in the imagination of the people carrying it about.
“The AOC owned by Ethiopian Airline is known to Nigeria and the NCAA. They are permitted to come in either with scheduled passengers, chattered or cargo. They have to come in under one of the 3. So, they came as chartered. Being chartered does not mean that anybody paid for anything. The government did not pay a dime for that aircraft to come in.
“Secondly, there was no revenue passenger in the aircraft because that would have been totally against the law and wouldn’t have been allowed. It was their own marketing strategy as equity partners. They came to do this unveiling on a special allowance called chartered and it does not mean that we paid for it.
“If anybody was to pay for it, it would have been the Ethiopian Airline, not the Nigerian government. No penny was paid.”
Anthony Awunor, is a business correspondent who holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Linguistics (UNILAG). He is also an alumnus of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria Kaduna State. He lives in Lagos.
