Obviously, it is no longer hidden from the public that in Nigeria, there are different types of laws applicable to any individual who violates the laws of the land.
In other words, there are categories of laws for different categories or class of Nigerians and this has made things almost different from other climes.
It seems that in Nigeria, once you belong to the upper class consisting of politicians, corporate groups and moneybags, you can do and undo and still get away with your folly. On the contrary, God help you if you belong to the ordinary class and you commit the minutest of offence. You will be visited with a sledge hammer punishment.
This can be witnessed in the manner those in the upper class use their positions to rub mud on the faces of majority of Nigerians who belong to the lower class.
These powerful set of people, who are very few but have taken over the strategic areas of the governance of the country, have remained the bane of the different sectors of the economy.
They either use their status to oppress the lower category who are in the majority, steal from the commonwealth of the country, or embark on fraudulent activities in their various fields of private businesses.
The shenanigans can be seen in how they use their private business interests to strangulate the economy of over 200 million Nigerians as they violate the rules guiding the principles of doing legitimate businesses.
In this ‘almighty and powerful’ group you will find, state governors, ex-governors, ministers in service and out of service, uniform personnel, corporate gurus, lawmakers and even local government chairmen who believe they are above the law.
Once you belong to this notorious group, you can afford to leave your home 10 minutes to the departure of your flight and expect every other road user to clear for you as your driver blast the siren to rush you to catch an already missed flight.
God help the airline workers on duty who dare tell such a big man that the boarding gate has closed in line with the aviation rules if they are not subjected to thorough beating and other abuses by the overzealous aides following him.
This brings to the fore the continuous violation of the Nigeria Civil Aviation (NCAA) rules guiding private, chartered or commercial flight operations by these members of the upper class.
The NCAA, like the civil aviation bodies around the world, provides regulations for private jet operations. According to these guidelines, the private jets must only be used for non-commercial purposes. In other words, no compensation or reimbursement must be received for flight operations.
While the NCAA rules clearly states that only holders of Air Transport Licence (ATL) and Airline Operating Permit (AOP) with a valid Air Operator Certificate (AOC) are authorised to conduct charter operations, most of the private jet owners in the country have been found culpable of illegally converting their jets into chartered operations.
Besides using the private jets to conduct operations on hire and reward basis, the owners are been accused of using their jets to engage in some criminal activities like money laundering, flying wanted and questionable people out of the country, among others.
Though it has been confirmed that illegal conversion of private jets to commercial purposes was beyond Nigeria as such illegality also abound in places like Europe and America, the bottom effect of such illegality, if not totally prohibited, is that it will continue to deprive registered charter operators the expected revenue and their inability to pay for the services rendered by the government through the NCAA.
Although the NCAA had earlier promised to do some sting operations on the illegal chartered jet operators to ensure that operators who are not ready to comply should go and get AOC, almost two months after the threat, it has been discovered that private jet owners still continue with the illegality. In other words, they do not regard the warnings of the regulatory body as they continue with the abuse.
NCAA, as an autonomous agency of government, should at this time come out of its shell by applying the big stick against these violators who are enemies of the sector and the country in general. Their actions are tantamount to economic sabotage; hence, they must be treated as saboteurs irrespective of their statuses. In aviation, no one should be above the law.
Also Read: Eight Ekiti varsity students arrested for cultism
and then