Real reason Nigeria Air failed – Ex-Minister Sirika

Former Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Hadi Sirika, has revealed that some Nigerian domestic airlines played a major role in frustrating the Nigeria Air project, which was meant to be a flagship partnership between the Federal Government and Ethiopian Airlines.

Speaking on Morning Brief, a Channels TV programme, Sirika explained that the deal went through due process, receiving approvals from both the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC). He maintained that the agreement was transparent and in line with global standards.

According to him, however, members of the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON)  including Air Peace, Azman Air, and United Nigeria Airlines opposed the project, largely because of Nigeria’s limited stake in the proposed airline. This opposition, he argued, ultimately led to the collapse of the deal.

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According to him, he formally sought a partnership with Ethiopian Airlines because no domestic carrier had the capacity to compete with the mega carriers.

His words: “I think I was on either Channels or Arise during the controversy of Nigeria Air. First and foremost, it was a public-private partnership (PPP), regulated by the ICRC, which issued a certificate for the OBC and ABS, and which actively participated in the process. It was not our process.

“It was the process of the ICRC. It was not a bad deal. I read in the papers that I spent around 100 billion, and it was lost in the process. That was a lie. Between 2015 and 2023, the total budget for the national carrier was 5 billion. The total amount released was 3 billion. I left there with over a billion.

“Nearly a third of the 2 billion that was spent went into the consultancy that was used during the time and the balance of the money, of course, into staff that were hired. By the way, we went through every single step of the ICRC process, and we got it to end.

“We had an airline, but some people (Air Peace, United and Azman) went to court to say that we cannot establish an airline where we take five per cent. That was what stalled it. If there was no court case, and the government that came in had pursued the court case, by today, we will have an airline.

“Talking about Ethiopian Airlines. Approximately 95 percent of all airlines operating in Africa are not African. British Airways, Qatar, Air France and others. Ethiopian Airlines has been running an airline for 79 years. They have made a statement of how to run an airline, and they are Africans.

“They came to partner with us to be able to open up the world to us. Today, the price of a ticket from Abuja to London is more expensive than Accra to London, and the reason is that- we do not have a formidable airline with the capacity to continue to do so. We have seen Air Peace before, we have seen Azman before. When I say we have seen them I mean we have seen Kabo, which was much bigger than all of them. We have seen Okada, Arik. They all came and went. What is amiss is the capacity they need to build to compete with people who have 250 aeroplanes.

“I do not think an airline that has five aircraft can compete in the global market with well-established carriers and expect to operate and make profit. To sum it up, all that we did to establish Nigeria Air we had taken to the final step before these people now went to court. There was no fraud. If there was, they would have said it.

“If the minister (current Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development) is saying it is a bad deal, Nigerians should invoke the Freedom of Information Act to go to the Ministry of Aviation and get the document. They should also go to ICRC to get the document and establish where the fraud is. It was not a fraud, it was a lie.

“This airline (Nigeria Air), whether now or in the future, will come to be because we did not arrogate to ourselves the knowledge of aviation alone. When the bid (for Nigeria Air) happened transparently, in which some of those airlines participated, Ethiopian Airlines won fair and square.”