Nigeria’s politicians like many politicians in many countries are always in the pageant of promises, false promises to be exact. These promises often constitute the core of their election propaganda. For them electoral promises are like a pencil and eraser affair, you write it with a pencil and you erase it with an eraser. When they do that it means that nothing happened, no promise was made, so there is nothing to bind the politician to the community where the promise was made. They make these grand and grandious promises in order to gain the blaze and dazzle of popularity. That popularity translates to votes which translate into election victory.
In 2014, when Mr Muhammadu Buhari was campaigning for the presidency of Nigeria he did everything to overthrow the incumbent President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan who took over the office of President when President Umaru Yar’Adua died. Buhari told Nigerians that if he won the election and became President he would convert the 10 presidential jets used by Jonathan into the nucleus of a national carrier which Nigeria hadn’t at the time. Nigerians must have believed him because since Nigeria Airways which had been Nigeria’s national carrier for about 40 years died in 2003 many Nigerians had been agitating for either its resurrection or the establishment of a new and viable national carrier. Nigerians were agitating for the national carrier apparently because they thought we could learn more from one failure than from our success in the aviation business. Buhari won the election in 2015 and three years later it appeared that he was ready to make his electoral promise on national carrier a reality. On July 18, 2018 his Minister of Aviation, Mr Hadi Sirika announced the name, logo, colour scheme, structure and types of airplane of Nigeria’s national carrier at far away Farnborough International Public Air Show in London. He also told the world that $308.8 million had been set aside for aircraft acquisition and running costs for the airline’s take off. He also told us that five of the 30 aircraft needed for the business was expected to arrive in Nigeria by December of that year. The new national carrier was to operate 40 domestic and regional flights and 41 international routes. To assure Nigerians who are often skeptical about the viability of government owned businesses that this would be different he said that the Nigerian Government would have only 5% shares while Nigerians would own 46% equity and 49% would be reserved for strategic foreign investors. It all sounded very sweet and alluring. I do not know how many people believed him and clapped for him but there were many, very many, that doubted the veracity of his proposals. This doubt was based on the gross incompetence of the Buhari government in the management of virtually every sector of the economy. That government managed the country with underwhelming success and there was no hint of any kind that it would perform the magic of delivering a national carrier. A few days to the end of Buhari’s tenure Mr Sirika brought a single aircraft borrowed from Ethiopian Airlines to Nigeria. No one knew why he brought it and he gave no credible explanation. As we speak today Nigeria doesn’t have a national carrier and no one truly knows how much of Nigeria’s hard earned money had been thrown down the rabbit hole. The National Assembly had said sometime ago that it was going to investigate the shameful mismanagement of the country’s resources. So as at today the dream of having a national carrier remains a speck in the distant sky and those involved in the mess seem to have gone scot free.
This is nothing novel. During the tenure of President Jonathan, the Minister of Aviation, Ms Stella Oduah got N330 billion from the Federal Government for some airlines as Aviation Intervention Fund. That money was apparently not used for the purpose it was meant for because they are reportedly owing AMCON huge sums of money. None of them is wearing the white garment of honour today. In Nigeria that is how the cookie crumbles. Luckily for us we have a bit of good news that should put smiles on our faces. On March 30, 2024 one of Nigeria’s private airlines, Air Peace performed the feat of airlifting Nigerians to Gatwick Airport in London after several years of absence by any Nigerian airline on that lucrative route. Air Peace founded in 2013 by a Nigerian businessman and lawyer, Chief Allen Onyema has grown to become the biggest airline company in Nigeria today. It provides charter flights and scheduled flights to major airports in Nigeria, West and South Africa, Europe, Asia and Middle East as well as the Caribbean. Its entry into the London route has changed the fare pricing dynamics which the foreign airlines were using to exploit Nigerians. For that route British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airlines were charging between N13 million and N15 million for business class and between N3 million and N5 million for economy class ticket. Now Air Peace is charging N4 million for business class and N1.2 million for economy class. With this lower fare the foreign airlines have been forced to bring down the fares they charge on that route.
The Nigerian Aviation authorities must ensure that the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) is respected by all concerned and that justice, equity and respect are delivered in a reciprocal manner. That is the only way to protect the interest of Air Peace and Nigeria in the aviation sector. It is not the fault of the British authorities that Nigerian airlines that got the franchise to operate on that very lucrative route did not put their axe together. We are confident that Air Peace which has proved, so far, to be a well run airline will do what is needed to stay on that route without any disruption of its service or any embarrassment to Nigeria.
So far Chief Allen Onyema has run the airline in a very humane fashion, protecting, whenever possible, the core interest of Nigerians wherever they are in the world. At the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrain war the airline airlifted Nigerians speedily out of the war torn area. During the xenophobic attack of Nigerians in South Africa, the airline helped to lift Nigerians out of harm’s way and even during the Covid-19 epidemic the airline was a source of help to those who needed help out of Covid-19 infested territories. These activities indicate that Onyema is a businessman with human sympathy, a man of genuine compassion, a good samaritan who is not afraid of losing a little money in order to render a little help to those who need it.
Nigeria has had a multiplicity of local airlines since independence in 1960 but most of them have not made the right level of investments or have not put in place the right quality of management and technical expertise that can sustain the business. Here are some of them: Albarka, Okada, Oriental, Concord, Harka, EAS, Triad, Harco, Savannah, Bellview, ADC, Flash, Hold Trade, HAK Air, Gas Air, Air Midwest, NICON Airways, Air Nigeria, Falcon Air, Chanchangi, IRS, Intercontinental, Jambo Express, Nigerian Eagle and Nigeria One. A lot of these airlines were not properly conceived by their owners in financial terms. Some of them only realised on entry into the market that the aviation business is a big money investment both in dollars and in local currency. And as it is the tradition with many Nigerian businessmen they abhore mergers. They will rather walk alone.
It is heartwarming that Air Peace which is just eleven years old now has a fleet of about 30 aircraft. This large haul will give it the muscle to meet its obligations to the travelling public and give the travellers confidence in its service. I was very excited to see the crew members in their tear-rubber blue and maroon uniform. They all looked sweet, sexy and well groomed; they didn’t look like people from a country where there is wide-ranging hunger. If we have an airline that is well run like Air Peace why should we be talking about having a national carrier? We have had a national airline before that was brought down by corruption, mismanagement and interference by government officials. There was a time that Nigeria Airways was the only domestic airline in Nigeria. It was always fully booked but the government did not make money from it because of mago mago. Some of those who ran the airline even reportedly printed their own tickets for sale, put their friends and family members into the aircraft without boarding passes. They did all sorts of things to enrich themselves and bring the airline to the ground. So anyone who is pushing for a national carrier today is simply looking for awoof money to chop. Which government company has made money, the kind of money that private sector organisations make in Nigeria? None. Government business in Nigeria is regarded as everybody’s business and everybody’s business is nobody’s business. Do government businesses render account to government? No. Do the shareholders query them the way shareholders in private companies query their Managing Directors and Chief Executive Officers at annual general meetings? No. Isn’t it because government organisations are not making money that the government is now resurrecting the Oronsaye report which was submitted many years ago? The truth, the bald truth, is that businesses owned by government are regarded as social services that are not supposed to make profits even if such businesses are making humongous profits in the private sector. Some governments in Nigeria that established breweries were running them at a loss while private breweries were and are making huge profits. And part of the reason that breweries make much money is that more than 90% of what they put in those bottles of drinks is water.
Let Mr Sirika tell Nigerians what he did with the money that was voted for the national carrier since there is no such carrier anywhere on this planet. That is a task for the National Assembly.