Mixed reactions trail Sirika’s interview

The recent interview granted by the former Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, on the Nigeria Air unveiling on May 26 at Abuja airport and other policies that took place in his eight years tenure have continued to elicit reactions from the sector.

During the interview, Sirika, had extricated himself from the condemnations that greeted the unveiling of Nigeria Air aircraft.

A renowned labour leader in the sector, Comrade Olayinka Abioye, accused Sirika of twisting the arms of Nigerians rather than use the opportunity to convince them of his role in the national carrier’s controversy.

Abioye said, “All through his answers and explanations, he opened up more on what went wrong rather than what he did right and gave unacceptable excuses for a lot of issues. Bottom line, the entire project deserves a searchlight otherwise it is a dead on arrival project.”

In his reactions, a former military commandant of the Lagos airport, Group Captain John Ojikutu (retd), said he had long time seen that the Sirika’s national carrier project was bound to fail in view of his decision to partner Ethiopian Airlines, a very strong competitor on the Nigeria’s Bilateral Air Services Agreements’ routes in the deal.

“I said long ago that the airline would not fly if Sirika was considering partnership with any of our competitors on the BASA routes. The option is for entities that are out of the BASA routes or two flag carriers not national carrier but flag carriers one for regional and continental and the other for intercontinental,” he said.

For Lanre Bamgbose, another aviation analyst, the former minister’s comments during the interview was full of contradictions and a confirmation that there was no basis for the unveiling of the airline in Abuja since the supposed shareholders were yet to sign any agreement as stated by Sirika.

“The former minister referred to the so called shareholders and yet he said shareholders agreement have not been signed. That simply means there are no shareholders. He simply posited there is no basis for that logo unveiling or supposed static display that took place.

“Perhaps he should have referred to the concept and project marketing for interested investors rather than claim it was the shareholders that brought that static air show with a branded aircraft to Abuja in the first place. Otherwise that contradiction showed either ignorance or a plot went bad that someone is trying to cover.”