Stop listing the merits, tell us when, how Nigeria Air will work, Experts tell Minister
Aggrieved industry stakeholders’ and Nigerians, who are worried on the back and forth movement of the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika on floating of a national air carrier, have advised the Minister to stop embarrassing the collective intelligence of Nigerians with known advantages of a national carrier, but come up with realistic action that will tell when and how the scheme can become a reality.
It would be recalled that the Minister had went on a self serving journey of floating a national carrier which he magically unveiled in the July 2018 London AirShow alone without recourse to the critical members of the Federal Executive Council or even industry stakeholders.
According to him during the flamboyant unveiling of the logo and name which came without any form or structure in Nigeria, Nigeria Air will deepen and reshape the continental aviation space.
While being economical with sources of the carriers’ airplanes, he only noted that talks are on with leading aviation manufacturing giants which up till now never materialised.
However, in a shocking revelation during his last media chat before the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s first tenure, the returned Minister of Transportation, Chief Chibuke Amaechi revealed that Nigeria Air can’t fly because the proposal was faced with discordant voices at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) as it was never captured in any annual budget.
Giving further credence to Amaechi’s revelation, the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed in one of his media chats at Lagos Airport, made it further clear that Nigeria Air idea was dropped because the body language of earlier interested investors suddenly become blurred.
Responding, the Minister of Avaition brushed aside both ministers’ explanations, saying investors are still intact and that the scheme will takeoff sooner than later.
Now, everybody has been waiting for that sooner than later, still yet, the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, Tuesday in Abuja at the 2020 Aviation Workers Week, asserted that the government was determined to float the national carrier soon without any detail on either the form, funding or time.
