Aviation expert and commentator, Dr. Dan Amosu has disagreed with the Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission (NCPC) over its calls on the federal government to create a bail-out for the nation’s aviation industry.
The executive secretary of NCPC, Rev Tor Uja, had on Tuesday averred that a bailout would help the aviation sector to develop and to compete favourably with its counterparts globally.
While noting that Nigeria airlines presently do not have competitive edge over other airlines in the world and local airports do not rank favourably with other airports in the world, Uja said a bailout will do the magic of upgrading the performance of local operators.
However, in an interview, Dr. Amosu faulted the call for another round of bailout for the aviation sector, saying “Any suggestion for a bailout is dead on arrival because government and the industry is still suffering the shocks of abuse that trailed the initial bailout given to the local operators”.
“I think we need to ask ourselves how operators managed the first bailout under the former administration where some airline got the multibillion allocation and divested the money and nothing happened up till today.
“I clearly remember a young that got the bailout, about N35 billion and within less than one year, it collapsed and nothing had been heard on the bailout repayment till today.
The expert said the best reform needed in the sector is to review certain regulations of the industry and encourage domestic operators to enter into international partnerships as it is done elsewhere than looking onto the government for free money.
