Former President Muhammadu Buhari left office on May 29, 2023, after eight years in office, without establishing the national carrier, which he had promised when he was first sworn-in in 2015. However, over N85 billion was blown on the ‘phony’ project supervised by the Minister of Aviation, Alhaji Hadi Sirika.
From the outset, Sirika pursued the project in a manner that suggested his priority for a personal carrier over a national carrier. He committed humongous public resources to the Nigeria Air project in the most unconscionable manner from the outset.
The Take-off
The project was greeted with outcries over the outsourcing of the Nigeria Air logo to a Bahraini company by the Federal Government at an allegedly outrageous sum, despite the abundance of similar service providers in the country.
There were claims that the contract was worth $600,000 (N183 million), which the government denied without providing evidence. Coupled with the huge expenses incurred in freighting a large contingent of government officials and other Nigerians to the Fanborough Fair in UK in 2018 for a mere unveiling of the National Carrier, it was obvious that the project was billed to thrive more on controversy than in reality.
Broken wings manifest
Incidentally, the proposed airline, which was expected to gulp $8.8 million preliminary cost and $300 million as takeoff cost, had to be suspended before the December 2018 take-off date, following the discovery that no budgetary provision had been made for the venture.
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, revealed that investors who were supposed to partner with the Federal Government on the project eventually backed out, a claim Sirika denied.
“Among the reasons being bandied around for its (Nigeria Air) suspension, especially in the social media, is the absence of interested and ready investors. This couldn’t be farther from the truth, as the national carrier project has an avalanche of well-grounded and ready investors”, Sirika said in a statement issued on his behalf by James Odaudu, deputy director, media and public affairs, ministry of transportation.
The anomaly that Sirika was pursuing the Nigeria Air agenda, without a concrete government plan, expectedly launched the project on the inevitable ‘Uncertainty Expressway’ where it sojourned before the inglorious unveiling of ‘Nigeria Air’ on May 26, 72 hours to Buhari’s exit.
Idea in the sky
But a huge chunk of taxpayers’ money had been invested in Air Nigeria, a project that has remained an idea in the sky.
President of Aviation Round Table (ART), Elder Gabriel Olowo, in January 2019 criticised the Federal Government for earmarking N8.5 billion for the suspended national carrier, Nigeria Air, in the 2019 budget proposal to the National Assembly. He also took a swipe at the government for setting aside the sum of N500 million for Transaction Advisers in the budget.
Olowo observed that a little of such an amount of money, if allocated to technical professionals in the country, would give the government appropriate advice on how to go about the floating of a befitting national carrier for Nigerians.
Data by the National Bureau of Statistics and compilation of budgetary allocations showed that the government spent N85.42 billion on transaction advisers, working capital and consultancy bills for Nigeria Air between 2016 and 2023.
In April 2023, Sirika was under fire for spending a whopping sum of N12 billion to acquire 10 firefighting trucks in Nigeria Airports. The minister had disclosed that he commissioned 10 firefighting trucks for the Federal Airports Authority, FAAN, in the guise that FAAN had not bought firefighting trucks in 15 years.
According to then presidential candidate of the African Action Congress and an activist, Omoyole Sowore, the aviation minister and President Muhammadu Buhari had finished Nigeria.
In his tweet, Omoyole said: “Wow! You mean you bought a single fire engine for over $2 million each. Wonders shall never cease. You and @mbuhari really finished Nigeria!”
Desperation unlimited
In April 2022, former Virgin Nigeria Airways boss, Captain Dapo Olumide, was named as the interim managing director of Nigeria Air with plans to float the new airline with Qatar Airways as a major stakeholder. The Nigeria/Qatar arrangement failed.
On June 6, 2022, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) presented Nigeria Air with its Air Transport Licence (ATL) in a development that will make the airline a legal entity.
The ATL is one of the licences received by airlines before they can commence operations as they await the all-important Air Operator Certificate (AOC) that fully guarantees them the right to begin air services. Regrettably, NCAA declined to grant an AOC to Nigeria Air.
As Buhari’s tenure-end approached, Sirika intensified the effort to make his dream of Nigeria Air a reality before leaving office. The opaqueness in the deal with Ethiopian Airlines has been condemned by experts and stakeholders.
Sensing a serious threat to Nigeria’s aviation industry, the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) went to court to secure an order to stop the Air Nigeria/Ethiopia Airline deal. But the move did not prevent Sirika from flying ahead.
Indigenous players act
In a press statement, entitled “Nigeria Air: Recent So-called Flight Inauguration and AON Concern”, signed by the group’s spokesperson, Prof Obiora Okwonkwo, the AON condemned the desperation in Sirika’s blood to inaugurate an ill-conceived airline that had not been licensed to commence air operation.
“Nigeria Air has not been issued with an Air Operators Certificate (AOC) by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), which is the legal authority for the issuance of such certificate and as such, cannot conduct flight operations,” AOC said in a statement seen by THEWILL.
“As indigenous operators, we are happy and grateful to the NCAA for saving us from this punishment by resisting the pressure from Minister Hadi Sirika to grant an AOC to Nigeria Air without going through the due process.
“The Ministerial Committee on the Establishment of a National Carrier recommended the establishment of a National Carrier that is private sector-driven with minimum government involvement.
“That was jettisoned by the minister who is the person doing everything from designing the logo, unveiling it at the Farnborough Air Show in the UK, establishing the company, providing offices etc, while the so-called private investors are saying and doing nothing,” AON stated.
However, Sirika, said that the Federal Government was going ahead with establishing a national carrier, despite the subsisting suit challenging the project.
During a stakeholders’ appreciation forum for the reconstruction of Lagos airport runway 18L, Sirika insisted that aviation stakeholders and unions had sufficient time to participate in the process and “cannot stall the project with legal suits”.
He said he did not see the possibility that any court of competent jurisdiction will erect a roadblock to the emergence of the national carrier.
Sirika said he personally and individually engaged indigenous carriers to participate in the project including Air Peace, Azman Air and Max Air but they turned down the invitation because it was not formal.
Most stakeholders contacted by THEWILL through phone calls, text and WhatsApp messages did not respond. These include the spokespersons of the Aviation Ministry, Seyi Tola and Ibom Air, Annie Esienette respectively.
NCAA spokesperson, Sam Adurugboye, said the Ministry of Aviation is in a position ot answer all questions on the issue.
A highly respected Aviation expert, who requested not to be named, told this newspaper that Sirika pushed ahead with the Ethiopian Airline deal because AON was not a registered legal entity and that not all the indigenous airline owners such as Ibom Air and Aero, are members of the group.
When contacted, media aide to Okonkwo, Achileus-Chud Uchegbu said Sirika should have honoured the court invitation and use the opportunity to defend himself.
To pave the way for the arrival of the aircraft bearing the questionable Air Nigeria logo in Abuja a few days, ahead of the inauguration of the new government, Sirika embarked on massive demolition of structures, both physical and organisational. He sacked the executives of strategic aviation agencies in a bid to push through the arrival of the ‘Nigeria Air’ 72 hours to the tenure-end of the Buhari-led government.
Media reports have confirmed that the aircraft was indeed belonged to Ethiopian Airlines, but it was re-painted and presented to Nigerians as truly Air Nigeria.
“Ethiopian Airlines knows that the aircraft it landed in Abuja on Friday, May 26, 2023, does not belong to Nigeria Air and is not registered in Nigeria as required by Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations. The question is:
“Will Ethiopia allow a Nigerian airline to brazenly flout the orders of an Ethiopian court or violate the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Regulations as it did in Abuja on Friday, May 26?
“This goes to show that Ethiopian Airline Operators have no iota of respect for our country, our laws, and regulatory agencies. It is our hope that Ethiopian Airlines does not get away with this disrespectful action,” AON said in their statement.
THEWILL learnt that the aircraft has since returned to its owner.
Sam Diala is a Bloomberg Certified Financial Journalist with over a decade of experience in reporting Business and Economy. He is Business Editor at THEWILL Newspaper, and believes that work, not wishes, creates wealth.
