Before President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office in May 2015, he had mooted the idea of floating a new national airline as a replacement for the defunct Nigeria Airways Limited – 12 years after it was liquidated by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration in 2004.
During his election campaign, Buhari had also promised to satisfy the yearnings and aspirations of air travellers in the country, who were feeling the devastating impact of the absence of a national carrier in a rapidly developing world.
With his appointment in 2015 as Minister of State for Transport, with specific responsibility for Aviation, Mr Hadi Sirika soon hit the ground running. But his efforts have remained an endless length of resource-gulping pipe with little to show that the dream of a national carrier will materialise any time soon. This perception was reinforced by a series of activities that followed the grandiose unveiling of a ‘Comprehensive Aviation Roadmap’ at the Shehu Yar’adua Conference Centre, Abuja in 2016. The event, which was packed-full of stakeholders, including airline operators, aviation unions, service providers, bankers regulators, travel agencies, serving and retired professionals in all facets of the aviation sector, was not seen as a mere jamboree at the time.
Furthermore, in April, 2018, Sirika, at the newly built Air Force Conference Centre, Abuja, unveiled the six Transaction Advisers approved and appointed in all the areas of the Roadmap, following an advertised call for Expression of Interest and competitive bid. The minister promised to hold another stakeholders’ forum when Transaction Advisers’ report would be ready.
When in August 2018, Sirika, unveiled the logo, livery, ownership structure and funding requirement of Nigeria Air at the 2018 Farnborough Air Show in Hampshire, United Kingdom, with a retinue of Nigerians invited from home and the Diaspora to witness the event, it became clear that the Buhari-led government was championing the course in an opposite direction. Yet many Nigerians remained optimistic that the nightmare would eventually be over.
About five months after the Farnborough show, Sirika released a public statement announcing that the Federal Government had suspended the Nigeria Air project. This was after he had claimed that at least six potential investors, including two reputable airlines, three reputable financial institutions and the two leading global aircraft manufacturers, had not only expressed interest in Nigeria Air, but also offered incentives.
In what seemed like an embarrassing twist, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, disclosed that the Nigeria Air was stepped down because there were no investors.
With the separation of the aviation schedule from transport and Sirika’s return to Buhari’s cabinet as Minister of Aviation in 2019, Nigerians were optimistic that Nigeria Air would begin to fly very soon, given the enormous resources that were committed to the project – all at the “preparation” level.
Sadly, since it was launched several years ago, different dates have been given for the take-off of the airline, but none of these dates has been feasible. Nigeria Air, which was originally scheduled to commence operations in December 2018, could not start as preparations for the 2019 general election caught up with it. The outbreak of COVID-19 and its effects further led to the extension of the take-off date. The aviation minister had at several fora announced that Nigeria Air would begin to fly in April 2022. That, again, failed to happen.
There are indications that the new national carrier will eventually take to the sky in July 2022, after the first out of the three wet-leased aircraft for the airline may have arrived in the country in June.
It was also gathered that the airline’s Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC), which would enable it to commence as a scheduled operator from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), may be granted in June or earlier than that.
The transaction team for the project is reportedly on ground to ensure the issuance of Request for Proposal (RFP) for the establishment of the national carrier. It is commendable that the Federal Government has adopted the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) approach to the project, with the government owning a maximum of five per cent stake.
The proposed shareholding structure allows a maximum of 49 per cent to foreign investors, minimum of 46 per cent to Nigerian investors and five per cent non-interactive shares to be retained by the Federal Government as a prerequisite stipulated by international laws for the establishment of a national carrier.
With this ownership structure, the national carrier will turn out the pride of Nigeria and the training of technical personnel in the industry will be easier. Also, this will enable Nigeria to take full advantage of the Single Africa Air Transport Market (SAATM), reduce air rates through competitive pricing and improve the country’s position with Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASAs) with other nations, in terms of access to funds and reciprocity. That way, billions of dollars lost annually from non-payment of royalty by foreign carriers will be reversed.
However, local airline operators, last week, expressed some reservations about the proposed National Carrier. The operators under the aegis of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) are not entirely against the establishment but are opposed to the process which they described as non-transparent. One of their arguments, which is also the view of most Nigerians, is that there is no way an enterprise where the Federal Government is said to hold 5% equity can be called a National Carrier, insisting that private people should not use the commonwealth of Nigeria for their private business. A lot of Nigerians are also against a situation where foreign airlines are allowed to dump idle assets in Nigeria as equity in Nigeria by way of either dry or wet lease which will amount to a further drain on our scarce foreign exchange. Their reservations must be looked into by the appropriate authorities
