Sack Sirika, recover funds used to deceive Nigerians’ on Nigeria Air, Nigerians roar
Since the announcement of the indefinite suspension of build up to the December 24 take off of Nigeria Air by the federal government after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja, mixed reactions have been engulfed the scenario.
Many Nigerians are of the view that for the fact the scheme did not receive ab-inito, the approval of the Economic Management Team (EMT), all the tax payers fund sunk in it be the Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika must be recovered.
Others are already calling for the sack of the minister and all top government officials who are part of the national scam that may have drained billions of naira ranging from transaction advisers, souvenirs development, estacodes to London Air Show by a ministerial delegation numbering over 20 and the embarrassment caused on the collective intelligence of Nigerians to international investors.
Business Hilights gathered from a reliable source that the EMT, chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo clearly recommended ab-initio that government should not set up a national carrier with public funds, but this was tactically overlooked.
The source also added that another major factor that compelled government to jettison the scheme was based on the fact it was not covered in any national budget both 2017 and the latest 2018 or even the emerging 2019 appropriation bills.
It would be recalled that the Sirika has at the July 18th Farnborough Air Show in England, unveiled the name and logo of the national carrier with fanfare even though there is nothing on ground to show seriousness in the first place.
Some experts that barred their minds called for the sack of the Director General, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Engr Chidi Izuwah for joining in bleeding the economy in the wastage by issuing the Outline Business Case Certificate of Compliance for the establishment of the Nigeria Air when he would have done a study to understand that it would not fly at last.
Another pointer to the eventual collapse of the scheme was when the minister was running the build up without any private sector even though he kept on telling Nigerians that it will be private sector driven after naming it and fleeting it with unknown fund.
At the beginning of ‘the game’ by Sirika, many aviation professionals picked holes on the apparent veiled way and manner the federal government through the Minister of State for Aviation, Capt. Hadi Sirika was going about the emergence of new national carrier.
Business Hilights observed that Sirika started soft-paddling since after returning to Nigeria after the launch in London without any serious targeted foreign investor to buy in the deal.
With this development, it has risen to three, the number of deep pocket schemes by the current administration in the transport sector that are failing.
The first was the preliminary move by the Minister of Transportation himself, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi to set up new national shipping earlier last year as nobody is hearing anything from him again; the second was the postponement of the delivery of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway from December 2018 to next year without any given dateline and now the wastage of over N10bn in road show and failed build up to Nigeria Air which up till now has no office, website, staff and registered name of any aviation certification.
