Categories: Business

Key players express divergent views on Nigeria Air/Ethiopian Airlines’ deal

The latest unveiling of Ethiopian Airlines as the preferred bidder in the new national carrier, Nigeria Air, by the Federal Government has continued to elicit mixed reactions with some totally opposing the deal while others expressed optimism about the partnership.

Among the key players who have expressed reservation for the choice of ET is the Managing Director of Centurion Security Services, Group Captain John Ojikutu (retd), who argued that choosing a fellow competitor already foraging into different routes in Nigeria would put the general interest of Nigeria at a disadvantageous position.

Speaking to Nigerian Tribune on the arrangement, Ojikutu, said, “I am not in support of having any of the foreign airlines and a competitor with us on the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) routes as our technical partners; the foreign airline’s interest in the partnerships comes before ours.

“Secondly, similar partnerships with the KLM and the SAA in the early 90s did not benefit us. We should therefore look for partnerships outside the competitors in the BASA routes in countries like Canada, Australia, etc.”

Ojikutu attributed one of his major reasons for opposing the Nigeria Air/ Ethiopian Airlines deal to what he called the bad record of the African carrier in terms of the huge number of drug traffickers that had found the airline an easy access to trafficking in drugs into and out of the country.

His words, “Ethiopian airlines has not gotten good records in Nigeria when it comes to drug trafficking. The records are there with the responsible authorities, especially with the NDLEA except we want to cover up some interest groups or want to be diplomatic about it. My personal experience with the airlines in the 90s during the time of the then Commissioner of Police, Oyakhilome in the NDLEA and what the media is reporting today on drug trafficking has not changed my mind about the airline and we must be careful about our choice of the airline.

“The NDLEA should come out boldly with its report on drug trafficking at our major airports and give statistics records of the airlines involved. What criteria have been used for giving ET five destinations in this country more than any other airlines? In its days, Nigeria Airways paid a lot of fines to the UK and US for carrying passengers carrying drugs into London and New York. I do not know what has happened to us here and why we have not meted such sanctions on any airline, particularly on ET.”

While agreeing that Ethiopian airlines might be the leading carrier in the continent, Ojikutu wondered if other countries in the continent “provide the airline the same latitude as we do here or do their environments allow what we chose to turn our eyes away from?

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