Air of uncertainty has continued to hover round the country’s aviation sector as the probability over if the federal government’s proposed national carrier, Nigeria Air, will be able to take off comes up in a federal High Court in Lagos on January 16.
The back and forth packaging of the national carrier which has been in the agenda of the government since 2015 had suffered many controversies ranging from the model, the style adopted by the minister of aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika which many stakeholders have opposed.
Besides the barrage of opposition the packaging has attracted, the sign that the project may run into some murky waters became obvious when the minister chose to launch the logo of the airline in far away London during the Farnborough Air Show in 2018.
The argument then was that ordinary unveiling of the logo of an airline that carries the nomenclature of a national carrier should have been unveiled in the country to at least carry the citizens on whose behalf the project was being packaged along.
The height of the drama reared its head when after so to unveillng the logo and with a date set aside for the take off of the airline, hope was shattered when the project was suspended over lack of clarity.
While many Nigerians had given up on the airline as a result of too many loopholes, the government through the minister, rekindled its commitment towards floating the new national carrier when it announced an interim management which was given the mandate to package and deliver the national carrier to Nigerians
The composition of the management led by Captain Dapo Olumide, a well known professional pilot and businessman drastically reduced the tension with the belief that with this type of management, the government will bring back the lost glory that came after the liquidation of Nigeria Airways.
The high expectations permeating the air transport sector in particular was again dampened when the minister announced the investors in the national carrier with the volume of their shares.
A breakdown of stakes as announced by the government showed that Ethiopian Airlines will own 49 per cent equity, the federal government will control five per cent equity, while a consortium of three Nigerian investors MRS, SAHCO and the Nigerian Sovereign Fund (NSF), will have 46 per cent even though the NSF has since pulled out of the deal.
The involvement of Ethiopian Airlines with its largest sole shares in the deal almost brought down the ceiling with the different key players particularly the domestic airlines crying blue murder for different reasons ranging from the undue advantages given to a foreign though African airline over the domestic airlines, the would be dominance of Ethiopian in an airline tagged Nigerian national carrier.
Even the high shares to be controlled by SAHCO was also condemned in view of the foreign involvement in the handling company.
While many stakeholders have disagreed with the earlier position of the government to float a new national carrier on the premise that there is nothing Nigerian about the proposed airline, amongst the unjust advantages the deal will enjoy is the grant of a whole 15 years moratorium and other privileges which may at the end see Nigeria playing a second fiddle to ET and the foreign airlines it has alliances with.
As the oppositions against the style of the packaging continues, the government was forced to shift the airline’s take off date for four times with the latest shift in the December, 2023 following the decision by the domestic airlines to drag the federal government, the minister, Nigeria Air and its core partner, Ethiopian to court.
The suit filed by the domestic carriers at a Lagos federal high court, led by the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), United Nigeria Airline, Air Peace, Azman, Max Air and TopBrass had challenged among other reasons the shareholding structure in the project which automatically nullified the December take off date.
The airlines while approaching the court to look at the extant laws and in¬terpret such to know if the pro¬cesses following the planned re¬birth of a new national carrier did not violate¬ the law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, had further argued that the Ministry of Aviation did not comply with the three stages of public procurement process as stipulated in the Act of the Infrastructure Concession Reg¬ulatory Commission (ICRC), which include advertisement and review.
The airlines had on November 16, 2022, approached the court to halt the project, declaring that Ethiopian Airlines, the second defendant in the suit was incompetent to bid for shares in the deal and therefore prayed the court to set aside the entire bidding/selection process(es) for the “Nigeria Air” project as well as the approval, grant, or selection of the 2nd defendant by the 1st, 3rd, and 4th Defendants in the process.
The presiding judge, Justice Lewis Allagoa who after hearing the case fixed February 13 as the date for the suit to be determined however, after carefully considering the oral application of the defendants, granted an order to adjourn the matter to January 16, 2023.
With four days to January 16th coupled with the ongoing election campaigns and for the obvious fact that the present government has less than four months to exit the stage, uneasy calmness has continue to reign amongst the different key players over the fate of the new national airline project.
While the aggrieved domestic airlines are anxiously waiting for the January 16th to come for them to argue their position and get justice, the federal government/Ministry of aviation may however been playing a strategic game as up till now it’s yet to file a defense to argue its position.
As the air of uncertainty continues to blow over the Nigeria Air/ET project, many stakeholders are calling on the court to urgently decide the case so as to enable the sector to be more focused on safety issues in the new year.
