•President Tinubu must point the way forward on Nigeria Air

Nigerians who have been anxious to know the position of the Bola Tinubu administration on the country’s airline, Nigeria Air, may have to wait a little longer. But then, the ‘snippets’ given by the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, tend toward reviewing the terms of the agreement signed with the airline’s private investors, Ethiopian Airline.

Keyamo, who gave this hint while responding to questions on the status of the airline at the post-Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the State House, Abuja, said the agreement was skewed in favour of the investors, to the detriment of Nigeria. Hence, it had to be reworked and he had already made his observations known to the president who has the final say on the matter.

“I have deliberately not granted a full press interview, I have heard all kinds of things going on, all kinds of brickbats in the social media, but I cannot preempt my President. I cannot. All the documents, all the reports, everything, we have forwarded to Mr. President, the issues we’ve met on the ground”, Keyamo said.

Nigeria Air was supposed to be Nigeria’s flag bearer. Its name and logo were unveiled at the Farnborough Air Show in the United Kingdom in July 2018. Not a few wondered why the unveiling had to be done in a foreign land. That it was billed to begin operations on May 26, 2023, three days to the exit of the Buhari administration, was another puzzle.

And, when, on the D-Day the airline was eventually launched, after several postponements, it turned out to be a bundle of embarrassment. But President Buhari launched the controversial Nigeria Air in equally controversial circumstances. Even though the Ministry of Aviation claimed the airline was only unveiled and not launched, we knew this was mere semantics. How many times would it be unveiled after the Fanborough unveiling? Anyway, the launching, or unveiling, was the highpoint of the shenanigans that had dogged the airline.

In the first place, Nigeria Air had no aircraft of its own. It therefore had to get Ethiopian Airline to paint one of its aircraft in Nigeria’s logo, to make it look like an authentic Nigeria Air aircraft. Many Nigerians saw through the deception.

Moreover, as at the time it was launched, the airline had also failed to secure Air Operating Certificate (AOC) from the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). To crown it all, the launching was done in spite of a court order that it be put on hold, pending the determination of the substantive suit on the project.

After failing to fly despite the so-called unveiling, Ethiopian Airline gave a new take-off date of October, with eight aircraft and 12 wet-leased aircraft from Boeing.

Given the circumstances of its conception and ‘still-birth’, it would have been a miracle if the project, in which Ethiopian Airline had 49 per cent stake, Nigerian private investors — SAHCO, MRS and other institutional investors — 46 per cent, and the Federal Government, five per cent, had been able to fly.

We agree with the aviation and aerospace development minister that the five-year tax waiver which the airline got was unfair advantage over existing airlines. We also agree with him that ceding of the appointments of employees at all levels to the Ethiopian investors was detrimental to Nigeria’s interest.

We therefore urge President Tinubu to scrutinise the file passed to his table and, if necessary, bring in experts to advise him on the way forward. Nigeria has suffered too much embarrassment on this matter. Aside the ones already pointed out, Ethiopian Airline only recently came out to say that Nigeria came begging to get it involved in the project.

Enough is enough. A country our size, with all the potential in air travel, does not need to be so ridiculed just because we want to have a flag bearer.

As a matter of fact, we call for a thorough probe of everything that pertains to Nigeria Air. Nigerians want to know the truth, the whole truth on this project. Who played what role in the entire saga. It is only when these are ascertained that we can know fully the next step to take.

Update news