By Chinelo Obogo
The furor trailing the unveiling of Nigeria Air, the country’s proposed national carrier especially within the industry has continued and was yet to simmer down when the immediate past Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, raised more dust with his many controversial claims, some of which have been disputed.
Sirika had despite a Federal High Court ruling which ordered the Federal Government to stay action on the setting up of Nigeria Air, on May 26, unveiled a Boeing 737 800 Max with “Nigeria Air” inscribed on it, registration number, ET-APL, Mode S Q4005C and serial number 40965/4075, after it flew into the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja amid fanfare by Sirika and his team.
Hardly had the aircraft touched the runway than the registration number showed that it belonged to foreign airline. It later emerged that the aircraft belongs to Ethiopian Airlines (ET) but was previously operated by Malawian Airlines, one of ET’s other subsidiaries.
Apparently, Sirika had contacted ET and asked them to provide an aircraft which would be presented as Nigeria Air in order to beat the deadline he gave the Nigerian public.
But the unveiling had since caused much backlash, first because the carrier was yet to get an Air Operators Certificate (AOC) among other issues like its ownership still being contested.
For instance, the National Assembly Joint committee on Aviation had described the unveiling as a farce with Nigerians now calling for the former minister’s prosecution.
Sirika who held a vice-grip on the industry during his time as minister, responded last Sunday on Arise TV and in trying to defend his actions, made many vexatious claims.
Claim one: Shareholders, not government, organised unveiling
Sirika denied having any direct involvement in the unveiling, saying that it was the decision of the shareholders of Nigeria Air to unveil the aircraft as a marketing strategy. When it was pointed out to him that SACHOL, which is one of the shareholders with 15 percent holdings in the carrier, said they were not invited to the event, he said it is for the shareholders to answer. “The decision to do that unveiling was taken by the shareholders. As for SACHOL not being invited, it is for the shareholders to answer. I was invited for the unveiling and I went there,” he said.
Fact
On May 24, Sirika announced that in two days from that time, the first aircraft belonging to Nigeria Air which will land in Nigeria will be unveiled and after the unveiling, it will go back for refitting then come back to start operations. Afterwards, an invitation card from the Ministry of Aviation which has been at the forefront of the project for over four years, was sent out, inviting people for the unveiling.
The spokesperson of the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Obiora Okonkwo, disputed Sirika’s claims that he had no hand in the unveiling and that it was the doing of the shareholders. Okonkwo pointed out the absence of SACHOL at the event despite purportedly holding 15 per cent equity call to question the former minister claims.
“When Sirika announced that the aircraft would be unveiled, we thought he was just making an ordinary statement but shortly after that, we saw invitations to attend the unveiling. We got into this because, saying that the aircraft was coming to start operations and indeed landed at the airport with water shower and we felt that it would have been wrong since the aircraft does not have AOC.
“The Minister saying that it was the shareholders that organised the event shows inconsistency because the same person said that they have not signed the shareholders agreement and no one has invested a kobo into the airline. So, if you do not sign a share agreement that confirms your share of ownership in a company and you have not invested money, you cannot claim to be a shareholder, so you cannot be party of organising anything.
“We are aware of the roadmap for the aviation industry and the AON has said that the recommendation of the presidential committee on Nigeria Air was overturned after the submission and hijacked by the Ministry of Aviation. The original plan was that the investors could come together, sign the shareholders agreement based on their shares, make their own investment and register Nigeria Air with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). But today, there is no single shareholder in the company called Nigeria Air with the CAC except the Ministry of Aviation and its own directors. So we were surprised that the government took the front seat when they were supposed to take the back seat. If it were to be a private sector driven process, we would have supported,” Obiora said.
Claim two: AOC has gone past stage one at the NCAA
Sirika claimed that contrary to statements credited to the AON that the AOC of Nigeria Air was still at stage one, the AOC had in fact reached stage two.
“I was asked when the airline will start operations and I said it would start when the Air Operators Certificate (AOC) is issued. The AOC has gone past stage one because the contract of the post holders of the airline expired on May 31 but they were renewed. If they had changed, it would have gone back to stage one. I was also asked what if the current administration decides not to continue with the project and I said if the government decides not to continue, those that own the larger shares will continue because the Federal Government has only five percent,” Sirika said.
Fact
In a letter titled “Request to proceed to phase two of AOC certification,” written by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and addressed to the management of Nigeria Air, the agency implied that the certification process of Nigeria Air cannot progress to phase two due to the unavailability of a “formal application form” and other “necessary documents.” Based on this, the authority said that the certification process of the carrier cannot progress to phase two without the required documents.
“The authority is in receipt of your letter dated May 25, 2023, on the above subject matter. Quite contrary to our earlier letter of 16th May 2023, which enumerated the documents to be submitted with the formal application form OPS 002, your letter of request to proceed to phase two has no inclusion of a formal application form and the necessary documents referenced in the formal application form. Please be reminded that your post holders’ letters of commitment to Nigeria Air have a tenure of three months and, as such expire now,” the NCAA letter read.
Claim three: Air Peace leased two Boeing 777 aircraft, incurred $19 m loss,
Sirika during his interview, claimed that that domestic airlines lack capacity to operate as flag carriers and to buttress his point, he said Air Peace, Nigeria’s largest domestic carrier had to cease their Dubai operations because of lack of capacity. He also claimed that the airline leased two Boeing 777 aircraft on a monthly lease fee of $250,000, parked the aircraft for several months and incurred losses of $19 million.
Facts
The chairman of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, refuted this claim, insisting that Air Peace didn’t cease its Dubai operations due to lack of capacity but because the United Arab Emirates had stopped issuing visas to Nigerians, a fact which made the country’s carrier, Emirates, also suspend its Dubai to Nigeria operations.
Onyema also denied Sirika’s claims that the Air Peace leased two Boeing 777 aircraft on a monthly lease fee of $250,000, parked the aircraft for several months and incurred losses of $19 million, insisting that the planes were bought.
“This is a former minsiter trying to fool the entire nation in his desperate bid to fool everybody to win the nation. He was peddling falsehood on Air Peace. So, how do we as a nation believe every other thing he was saying out there?
“The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority is there. You can contact them, they are the regulators. He was in charge. He signed the import permit of those aircrafts.
You cannot import any aircraft into the country without the minister of aviation approving. He did all that and he knew that those airplanes were not leased. They were not rented. They were fully paid for and he told the entire world that we leased those airplanes just to make us look bad and at the same time, praising his Ethiopian partners,” Onyema said.
Claim four: FG budgeted 5bn and spent less than 3bn
Sirika denied reports that the Federal Government budgeted N85 billion for the Nigeria Air project, saying that from 2016 till date, the Federal Government earmarked N5 billon for the national carrier and that out the amount, N3 billion was released from which expenses were made.
“From 2016 to 2023, all the money that was voted for Nigeria Air was N5 billion and not N85 billion. What was released was N3 billion and that is where money for transaction advisers, salaries and others, was spent and all of it had not been utilised before I left,” he said.
Fact
The Budgetary allocations for Nigeria Air in 2016 was N605 million (Transaction advisers and others), in 2017 it was N755 million (Transaction advisers and others); in 2018 it was N90 million (Transaction advisers and others) in 2019, it was N47 billion (Working capital for Nigeria Air): in 2020, it was N4.8 billion (Working capital); in 2021, it was N1 billion (appropriation bill); in 2022, it was N29.87 billion (Working capital) and in 2023, it was N1.3 billion (Appropriation bill), making it a total of N85.42 billion.
Claim five: House of Representatives Committee Chairman on Aviation Nnaji demanded 5 percent shares
Reacting to the statement from the National Assembly Joint Committee on Aviation which described Nigeria Air as a fraud, Sirika alleged that the House of Representatives committee chairman, Nnolim Nnaji, approached him and demanded for five per cent shares of the airline for “him and his people”, stating that he has proof of this conversation on tape. The Minister however didn’t clarify if the rep member offered to pay for the shares or if he demanded it as a condition for supporting the airline.
He said: “On the issue of Mr Nnaji who called Nigeria Air launch a fraud, I will respond now. You know I record all my things anyway and I have it very clear. I will say exactly what I told him in private when we spoke. Nnaji asked me that I should give him five per cent of Nigeria to carry him along with his people, and I said to him at that time that a bidding process has taken place and some people won. So, I think you should go to those people and ask for the five per cent,” he said.
Fact: Sirika has been unable to provide evidence to verify his allegation
Responding to Sirika’s claims, Nnaji said in a statement that they are false allegations from a ‘’drowning man struggling to grab anything on his way to survive the barrage of attacks he has been receiving since his controversial unveiling ceremony of the so called Nigeria Air.”
Nnaji said the former Minister was not happy that he had demanded transparency and due process in all matters relating to aviation sector, especially Nigeria Air project. He added that the House suspended further questions when the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) sued the Ministry and Nigeria Air to court and got injunction to stop it.
“It is on record that last year when the Minister announced Ethiopian Airlines as core investor in Nigeria Air, my committee which was also inundated with petitions from various stakeholders regarding that announcement invited the Minister and his team to furnish the committee with the details of the project.
“The committee requested for the evidence of the bid process that gave Ethiopian Airlines the award and, the full business case as prepared by the Nigerian Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, (ICRC) which was supposed to spell out the details of all the investors and their equity contributions.
“Sirika at that meeting said it (Full Business Case) was still being worked out by the ICRC and promised to make it available to the committee as soon it was ready which he failed to do before Airline Operators of Nigeria, (AON) took the Ministry to court and got injunction restraining it from going ahead with the project. Of course, we suspended our discussions and enquiries on the project the moment court got involved. Normally when a matter is before the court the parliament does not discuss it.
“However, on May 20th 2023, l received reports of threats of mass resignations by key personnel of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, (NCAA) due to pressures from the Ministry to give waivers to Nigeria Air to enable it secure Air Operator’s Certificate, (AOC) so that it could take Off before the exit of the last administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“I quickly issued a statement warning the former Minister against subverting the authority of NCAA because of its severe consequences on the Nigeria’s air transport sector. It is also a common knowledge that the Nigerian institutional investors he mentioned as participants have all denied him. It is not strange that Sirika came up with this spurious allegations against my person because l remained consistent in demanding that he followed due process,” Nnaji said.