Why national carrier should not be Nigeria’s priority

Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo may have spoken the minds of many Nigerians both within and outside the sector about the now botched Nigeria Air project shabbily executed by the former government.

One year after the mysterious national carrier was controversially unveiled to Nigerians and with the frenzy that followed the unveiling from the public, the failed national carrier project continues to raise dust.

Recently, the minister while fielding questions from journalists during the second day of the ministerial sectorial update in Abuja maintained the project was a fraud hence remained suspended.

His words: “It was never Air Nigeria. It was Ethiopian trying to flag our flag and not Air Nigeria. That is the truth; it was not Nigeria. It only printed Air Nigeria. It was an Ethiopian airline trying to fly our flag. If it is so, why not allow our local people to fly our flag? Why bring a foreigner to fly our flag?

“So nobody should deceive you that it is Air Nigeria. Air Nigeria must be indigenous, wholly Nigerian or must be for the full benefit of Nigerians. Not that 60 percent of the profit is given to another country. How does that benefit us? It remains suspended. It remains so,”

While Keyamo’s declaration fell in line with the positions of the different stakeholders, questions are however being raised about the final position of the President Bola Tinubu’s government agenda on the issue of still nursing the dream to float another national carrier in place of the Nigeria Air.

Those asking the question have based their opinions on what they called the body language of the minister with the particular reference to the word ‘suspension’ used in describing the status of the national carrier’s project.

Using the word ‘suspension’ becomes suspicious in the sense that it may be interpreted to literally means the act of stopping something temporarily, meaning, there is the probability that what is being suspended can still very much be brought back.

There is no doubt that for obvious reasons ranging from the population of the country , its strategic position and the not too friendly gestures from many countries around the world, having a national carrier would not have been a bad idea at all.

Sadly, in view of many factors confronting the sector which deserve urgent priority, particularly regarding the poor infrastructure, insufficient navigational equipment, shortage of core professionals like air traffic controllers, bad runways forcing aircraft to veer off into the bushes, bird strikes, lack of training for relevant professionals,  to the regular darkness the airport environment often face due to obsolete cables which have outgrown their usefulness and many more, the question that comes to mind include: if floating a national carrier amidst all these unquantifiable number of challenges deserves better priority than meeting these critical safety needs.

Shouldn’t the minister realise that focusing attention on another national carrier and ignoring these critical safety needs will be tantamount to putting the cart before the horse.

Since the minister has three or more years to spend, wouldn’t it be better to first put the airports vis a vis the physical outlook and other safety measures that are capable of making flight operations more safe and seamless to travelers on the front burner the wisest decision.

How can a national carrier that will cost humongous public funds, if established, blossom in airports that lack standard facilities listed above?

It is on record that most of the Airlines operating in the country today are bleeding in the face of the poor services the poor infrastructures and other laxities they are confronted with at additional operational cost.

The country has lost unquantifiable amount of public funds to the botched Nigeria Air in the last eight years as it was used as a conduit pipe through where billions of naira was sunk with nothing to show for it.

Obviously, if this money had been spent on the upgrade of part of the bad structures if not all, it would have gone a long way in shoring up the airports facilities to at least give travellers better value for their money.

It is at this juncture, that Crucial Moment is calling on the minister to prevail on the government at the centre to divert its energy to giving Nigerian travellers standard infrastructures needed to make air travels more conducive for them rather than continuing to feel comfortable with archaic terminal buildings adorning the airports.

The name of the present government will not be forgotten if it uses the first tenure to provide good services through the upgrades of the airports facilities to international standards as against pursuing the establishment of another carrier that may end in pains for the country again.

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