From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
House of Representatives Committee on Aviation has called for the arrest and prosecution and sanctioning of everyone involved in the controversial unveiling of the proposed national carrier, Nigeria Air.
The Committee also directed the “Federal Ministry of Aviation and its partners in the Nigeria Air project to immediately suspend flights operations and every other actions with respect to the Nigeria Air.”
It also urged President Bola Tinubu, to urgently constitute a high level presidential committee to undertake a holistic review of the processes of the whole Nigeria Air project.
The chairman of the Committee, Nnolim Nnaji, made the call after a parley with aviation stakeholders, including officials of the Ministry of Aviation, regulatory agencies as well as Airline Operators of Nigeria ( AON), in Abuja, on Tuesday. Immediate past Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, had unveiled the controversial Nigeria Air, few days to the sunset of President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
However, the Committee chairman, noted that the lawmakers were dissatisfied with Sirika’s action in going ahead with the flag-off of the Nigeria Air, despite subsisting court orders.
He said “the Committee after careful evaluation of the issues on deliberation is totally dissatisfied with the actions of the former Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirka, in going ahead to flag off the operations of Nigeria Air despite a standing Court injunction against such, and without any provision to sustain the operations of the airline.
“We are equally irked by the role played by Ethiopian Airline in this whole process. It does not speak well of the excellent brotherly relationship existing between our two nations. A careful review of the process indicates the exercise to be highly opaque, shrouded in secrecy, shoddy and capable of ridiculing and tarnishing the image of Nigeria before the international community.
“We want to put on record, that the Committee and indeed the National Assembly had no role in the purported launch of Nigeria Air or anything related thereof. While the Committee and indeed the parliament is not opposed to Nigeria having a National Carrier, as a matter of fact having a National Carrier is highly desirable to us as a people and Nigeria, as a nation.
‘However, such a process should be transparent and all embracing. We as a Committee would not accept any attempt by any individual or group of individuals or organisation to hide under the project to siphon our commonwealths”.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Aviation, Emmanuel Meribole, told the lawmakers that contrary to media reports, Nigeria Air was unveiled and not launched. Meribole, who insisted that the Ministry followed due process in the “unveiling”, said the government did not incur any cost for the ceremony.
The Permanent Secretary, who was responding to claims that N85.42 billion has been spent on the proposed national carrier said “as the accounting officer of the ministry, no kobo was paid for the unveiling”. There is no N85.42 billion anywhere. From the beginning that is 2017 till date, we have appropriated about N3.8billion. No Kobo was spent for the unveiling.”
The Director General of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) Joe Ohiani told the panel that the processes for the kick off of the National Carrier has not been concluded, owing to litigations over the project.
Ohiani said: “So because it’s in court, we had a consultation with the Ministry of Justice. Even though ICRC is not joined us as party on the case, the Ministry of Justice asked us to stay off.
“The next step will be the shareholders agreement has not been finalised. Negotiation to resume as soon as the court injunction is lifted. Full Business case is to be prepared and submitted to Federal Executive Council for approval.
“This has not been done. We have no issue Full Business Space certificate. Once it is presented to Federal Executive Council and it is approved, it will now be forwarded to Federal Ministry of Justice for Vetting. Then there will be contract execution. But because of the court matter, the Ministry of Justice advised us and we took their advice. That’s the reason we have stopped on further processes with the Nigerian Air. You will also notice I was not at the unveiling.”
On his part, a former Director General of Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA, Captain Roland Iyayi told the lawmakers that the national carrier project would not be beneficial to the Nigerian be public.
Iyayi said “the dealings are not entirely transparent. There are undue privileges given to this new carrier which domestic operators aren’t enjoying. For instance, the government proposes a 15-year tax moratorium for the national carrier. Again let us be very clear, this is not a national carrier in the context in which it is being presented. This is a flag carrier.
“ This is because if you are bringing strategic investors at 49% and it has other institutional investors, one of which is 60% owned by a foreign entity. In the long term, what you are putting together is a foreign airline being allowed to operate in the Nigerian space in variant with Article 7. This is not in the interest of the Nigerian public”
He added “now we have a situation where supposedly shareholder are allocated shares. The Nigerian government has appropriated 85. 2 billion. How much has Ethiopian Airlines provided for 49 per cent t? How much has SACHOL provided for 15 per cent ?”