The recent ruling by Justice Ambrose Lewis-Alagoa of a Lagos High Court has finally put Nigeria Air in perfect perspective. The learned judge granted that the agreement between the federal government and Ethiopian Airlines which ceded a majority shareholding in the suspended Nigeria Air to Ethiopian Airlines was exclusionary. He duly declared it null and void and of no effect. Although the judge granted most of the reliefs sought by the plaintiffs, it is instructive that he held that they did not suffer any injury from the nullified transaction and duly dismissed the N2 billion damages they claimed as recompense. So, who are these traducers? They are the Registered Trustees of the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Azman Air Services, Air Peace, Max Air, United Nigeria Airline and Topbrass Aviation. These are the self-same entities that have held the Nigerian civil aviation sector by the jugular, keeping it from rising above utter mediocrity. In spite of all their grandstanding, air travel has recessed into infantilism since the
ill-advised liquidation of Nigeria Airways, an action that marked the surrender of the Nigerian civil aviation airspace to local operators.
No less a body as IATA has rebuked them for poor services and sustainability issues and, accordingly, supported the popular call for the establishment a Full-Service Carrier (FSC) in the country. Whereas it is incontrovertible that the former Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika, was woeful in his birthing of Nigeria Air, he confessed that no Nigerian airline showed interest in the project before he concluded the ill-fated alliance with Ethiopian Airlines. These local airlines are the main agonists who trenchantly declaim that government has no business in airline business (and, probably,
all other businesses). It is unfortunate that the golden opportunity offered them through the liquidation of Nigeria Airways has been abused and wasted. If you ask them, they are mute and cannot explain why Ethiopian Airlines,
a wholly government-owned business is very successful even without government subsidies. They are also lost with respect to the success of Egypt Air, Royal Air Maroc and many other government- owned airlines including the almighty Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airlines. If Nigerian government truly has no business in aviation business, why did the Minister of Civil Aviation travel to faraway Seattle in the United States to negotiate a concessional deal for the perennially defaulting Nigerian private airlines with Boeing, the mammoth American aircraft manufacturer?
Regrettably, Nigerian government has proven to be complicit in the infamy in the airline business in the country. Having vigorously campaigned for foreign investment, we are now told by Festus Keyamo, the current Aviation Minister, that the deal with Ethiopian Airlines was unfavourable because it would have facilitated foreign domination of the aviation industry. So, what manner of foreign investment do we want in the civil aviation sector? How is the 49% equity in Nigeria Air offered to Ethiopian Airlines different from the 49% equity in Virgin Nigeria offered to Virgin Atlantic Airlines by the same federal government of Nigeria? Doublespeak by officials is the hallmark of our double standards and inconsistency which make us look unserious in the international community. Pursuant to our notorious policy inconsistency, Mr Keyamo had suspended the new airline indefinitely in May 2024, a suspension earlier announced by the federal government in June 2023, the same month the House of Representatives recommended
its suspension. Imagine government agencies and representatives competing with each other to suspend a government venture! Such inconsistency and contradictions are entirely responsible for our failure to develop all spheres of the Nigerian economy and society. You may recall that government unveiled Nigeria Air with fanfare at the Farnborough Air Show in England on 18 July, 2018, a bold step taken to replace Nigeria Airways which was liquidated in 2003 ostensibly because of corruption and mismanagement. Why was liquidation the preferred option of the federal government? It is public knowledge that American and European airlines that were troubled by incompetent management and malevolent market forces at the time were rescued by governments, not liquidated. Without government bailouts, it is unlikely that most airlines would have survived the devastating effects of COVID-19. As you read these lines, Belgian authorities are deploying legal and political strategies to save the ailing Air Belgium, a private airline. By rescuing their troubled airlines, American and European governments saved thousands of jobs while we shunted employees of Nigeria Airways into unemployment, poverty and misery. It is most disquieting that the belated but welcome effort to replace Nigeria Airways is now being scuttled by a few stakeholders to protect their narrow selfish interests.
Assuming that the federal government was not inclined to bailing out its own airline (Nigeria Airways) because it was not interested in business, why did it also refuse to prosecute the shenanigans that crippled the airline even when two Panels of Enquiry which convened at public expense had publicly identified them?
Why do we blame mis-managers and corrupt administrators when government chose to let them off ?
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The established norm of naming corrupt persons or suspects adopted by the EFCC is of no effect if the culprits are allowed to enjoy their booty in freedom. Without deterrent action against corrupt individuals, wars against corruption
are invariably futile. In the midst of the current economic crunch, how are we going explain a budget provision of N85.6 billion between 2019 and 2023 for a failed airline? What about the preliminary costs of US$8.8 million and
the projected take-off costs of US$300 million? Hopefully, these monies have not all been frittered and may still be available for the new airline.
Rather than throw away the baby with the dirty bathwater as was the case with Nigeria Airways, we should not allow Nigeria
Air to die. We should be circumspect about recent revelations that Dangote Refinery in Lagos is being deliberately put down by foreign interests who are intent on sustaining Nigeria’s dependence on imports of refined petroleum
products. Local interests including NNPCL have also been fingered in
this importunate melodrama.
*To be continued
*Prof Okolocha writes from University of Benin
