TO say the myriad of challenges bedeviling the country’s aviation sector which have been dragging it backward stemmed from the deep level of corruption that has permeated and still permeating all sectors of the country’s economy is responsible for its woes is definitely stating the obvious fact.
This level of corruption which has continued to be the cog in the wheel of fortune of the entire country has not exempted even the sensitive sectors like aviation which coincidentally is one sector that is answerable to international standard and recommended practices.
Among the groups mostly responsible for the high level of corruption and bad policies are: the political class and the civil servants who, due to the long time of deep decadence in the system, had perfected the illegal act all for selfish purposes at the expense of the general wellbeing of the image of the country.
Ordinarily, Nigeria’s aviation sector which should have been competing with big countries like America and the Great Britain, and leading the African continent, is gradually losing its position to smaller countries like Ghana due to corrupt and unfriendly induced policies.
It is no longer news how many foreign investors that would have originally pitched their tents with Nigeria had ended up shifting their patronage and investments to smaller countries like Ghana because of corrupt and unwise policies and other bottlenecks.
While this sad development continues, it is unknown to many Nigerians how the roles being played by the government officials and the political class are responsible for the gradual shunning of the sector for other African countries even when none of the countries have the wherewithal abound in Nigeria.
Dropping this hint at a seminar organised by the aviation journalists in Lagos last week, the Chief Operating Officer of Tropical Arctic Logistics Limited, Mr Femi Adeniji who lamented how recently the gesture of the United States to invest US$2.5 million dollars on a feasibility study of a Maintenance Repair Overhaul (MRO) facility in Nigeria was frustrated by some Nigerian government officials due to corrupt tendencies.
The $2.5 billion which was originally set aside for Nigeria was subsequently diverted by the U.S. to a Ghanaian company to carry out a feasibility study for an aircraft maintenance facility (MRO) because some Nigerian officials made some unwise demands.
Adeniji traced the lack of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the country to what he called the innate corruption in the system including the existing aviation policies and attitudes of aviation authorities towards organisations and individuals that indicate interest in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
Citing how instances of such corrupt attitude had discouraged people trying to invest in building private airports in Nigeria from investing in the country due to unreasonable demands, Adeniji declared “Why are we doing things backwards? The system is completely corrupt. I would give you an example, I have two friends who wanted to invest, Americans who want to invest in this country, build their own private airport accessible to the state, the answer I got from FAAN and NCAA is that one of them should go and bring N35 million, in the United States all those things are waived if you are spending your money but in this country it’s all hog.
“I have a very strong relationship with Boeing Aerospace, they are now in Ghana and I am talking of four months ago. They were trying to come in here and they said: ‘Femi sorry, we cannot contribute when we are trying to create employment, they are making life difficult for us’. This is what we get from Accra, Ghana.”
Unfortunately, the unreasonable demand for N35 million from a global company that wanted to use its own money to help develop an MRO facility that would not only have met the yearnings of airlines in Nigeria and the West African region and still generate funds to the country’s purse, has become Nigeria’s loss and Ghana’s gains.
Still not done, Adeniji lamented how the unfriendly policies of government had discouraged 15 Nigerians doing well in MROs and related businesses in the United States and around the world from coming to invest in Nigeria.
It’s painful how unfriendly policies of government and corruption are greatly denying Nigeria many opportunities like having a required component like an MRO facility in the sector which would have greatly reduce the financial stress Nigerian airlines face in having to fly their planes outside for different maintenance checks at exorbitant foreign exchange.
Adeniji’s revelation is one of the many ways the unfriendly and corrupt policies are working against the progress of the sector and yet people often rush to cry over how foreign investors including airlines are now relocating their businesses and head offices to little Ghana.
For sure, serious business owner will prefer a better friendly environment to the one full of anti business policies where officials will still demand for money from a company willing to invest its own hard earned money for the general progress of any country.
In all honesty, government and its officials with the political class need to review the policies many of which are based on selfish ideas before the country’s aviation sector becomes a toothless bulldog that cannot bite despite the strategic position it occupies.
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