Gradually, the country’s aviation sector, particularly, its domestic airlines are collapsing obviously because of the overwhelming negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic which has dealt a serious financial blow to the entire sector.
For five months, the sector has been shut down with private and government investments put on hold even though the situation is not peculiar to Nigeria.
As a way of wriggling out of the disaster, governments across the world have made and are still making efforts to cushion the bad effects of the pandemic on the different sectors of the economy with the aviation sector being among those receiving priority.
Countries like the U.S, United Kingdom, Germany, France and many more have since announced the different regimes of palliatives to help the various sectors of economy and private businesses in their countries survive the pandemic.
Like these countries, the federal government of Nigeria had recently announced plans to also provide bailout for the domestic airlines and other relevant businesses in the sector, including the aviation agencies, ground handling companies and others to help them surmount the challenges of the Coronavirus pandemic.
When this plan was announced, many stakeholders, particularly the already troubled airlines, applauded the government with the hope that this life saving measure will be their only hope for survival.
In other words, the hopes of the airline owners and the entire sector were raised with the announcement made by the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, that the palliatives would soon be released.
Surprisingly, almost two months after the minister’s declaration about the readiness to release the bailout measures, nothing has come out of it; meanwhile, the airlines continue to sink deeper and deeper into murky waters of uncertainty with some of them now being forced to lay off their workers.
The questions on the lips of many key players across the sector include: why the delay in the release of the bailout, what manner of a bailout should be expected, who partakes in it and many more.
There could have been no reason for these questions if the government had been more transparent and proactive in this critical situation involving the survival of domestic airline business which hitherto the pandemic had been confronted with hardships laced with unfriendly policies.
Agreed that the government may have other sectors to contend with, but the obvious fact is that it does not have the luxury of time to delay anymore in releasing the bailout aids as witnessed in the dangerous predicaments the airlines and the entire sector are operating in.
The government should know that aviation is run in line with punctuality devoid of unnecessary politics or bureaucracy as the involvement of any of these two can lead to a national regret.
The time has come for the government to put aside any distraction coming from different interested groups on this bailout and make its decision known on the bailout issue.
It should not be rocket science to assemble all the teams required to give recommendations to the government on the mode of the bailout and who and who should take part in it.
Time is no longer on the side of government to continue to foot-drag any further in view of the pathetic situation the airlines are operating in just as the agencies of government and other relevant players in the sector.
Should the government delay further in releasing the bailout, it could be very sad that in view of the glaring signals, the country may not have more than one or two domestic airlines remaining and this may spell doom for domestic air transport in the country.
The consequences of this is that the foreign airlines which are presently controlling Nigeria’s airspace on the international network will take over the domestic air transport meaning, more money for them and their home countries.
This dicey situation will only discourage private investments on one side, and further lead the government agencies to compromise safety in the face of overwhelming pressure that the government’s failure to treat matters concerning the sector with speed devoid of unnecessary politics will bring.
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