At 64, Nigeria’s aviation still far from Eldorado

TWO days ago, Nigeria marked its 64 years of gaining independence from its colonial master, Britain. The event is held annually to commemorate the absolute freedom from the foreign masters, which subsequently entrusted the running of the affairs of the country in the hands of its indigenous citizens.

Though the independence took place on October 1, 1960, there are, however, barrage of questions on whether the independence has actually fulfilled its purpose taking into consideration where the country and its various sectors of economy and development ought to be.

While celebrating 64 years of independence was not out of place as done two days ago, rather than get carried away in the euphoria of the moment, every Nigerian, particularly those in government, should equally use the opportunity to reflect on the present status of the country in comparison to other countries that gained their independence around the same time as Nigeria.

Without much ado and without any bias, judging from the present situation of happenings at the different sectors of the country’s economy not to talk of the political and other critical sectors, the country is still crawling at 64 in view of reasons ranging from bad governance, corrupt tendencies, selfish leaders, compromised judiciary with the subsequent effects tearing down the different sectors.

Though the country’s aviation sector, like other sectors, joined in marking the 64th independence anniversary on Tuesday, the fact remains that the sector, as sensitive and highly regulated as it is, is far from taking its position due to years of neglect.

Recalling the progress made since 1960 when the Nigeria Airways for example, came into operations and how the formidable activities of the now defunct national carrier placed the country’s aviation sector at the centrepiece of air transport, all the goodwill started collapsing between the late 1980s and 1999.

Since then, the sector has never recovered from the different bad policies of subsequent governments which were complicated by the crazy and high turnover of ministers, many of whom came to execute their personal agenda.

In 64 years, it is sad that after the fall of Nigeria Airways over two decades ago, the country is still wobbling in establishing another national carrier despite the huge public funds the previous administration had sunk into the project.

In the 1980s when the government deregulated the domestic air transport, which gave rise to the emergence of many domestic airlines like Kabo, Okada, Concord, Oriental, ADC, Freedom Air, among others, the big airlines of today like Ethiopian and Kenya Airways used to see Nigeria’s aviation sector as their role model.

Unfortunately, Nigeria gradually started losing its glory, no thanks to the policy somersault of successive governments through the majority of the aviation ministers that had been appointed to manage the sector.

The policy somersault, which has remained the bane of the sector, is responsible for various flaws that have made it almost impossible to largely transform the sector.

The effects of the long years of bad governance, which gave birth to negative experiences including the litany of litigations, political interferences, nepotism, injustice, lopsided recruitments, coupled with the overbearing attitudes of many of the past ministers as witnessed during the last adminstration, particularly as it played out during failed Nigeria Air project, have contributed to the woes of the sector which has put a question mark on the essence of the 1960 independence.

While it looks uncertain if the sector can regain the good old days, the present Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo and the leadership of the aviation agencies are not doing badly in their attempts to make the sector more attractive for seamless air transport as seen in the moves by the minister to engage all critical players outside the country including aircraft manufacturers, leasing companies, insurance companies on the need to change their previous narratives about aviation business in the country.

All these attempts by the present government will not only reposition the sector but pave the way for strengthening both the domestic and international air transport.

At the rate the minister and his team is going to reposition the sector, in the nearest future, the negative impression about the country and its aviation sector will in no time die down.

As much as one acknowledges the genuine efforts of the minister, there is the need to focus on certain areas which will help in making the hitherto unfriendly business environment friendly.

The areas calling for attention include lopsided air transport agreements, need to urgently inaugurate the board of directors for the agencies, the need to resolve long years of litigations between the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and its concessionaires, especially the face-off with Bi-Courtney over the approved years for the management of the private terminal and status of the General Aviation Terminal (GAT) both at the local airport.

Above all, in all honesty, the government should divert every energy to strengthen the domestic airlines rather than embarking on a wild goose chase of establishing another national carrier.

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