Nigeria Air: Stakeholders call for forensic audit, seek sanctions for Ethiopian Airlines
Barely 48 hours after the exit of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, players in the Nigerian aviation industry have called for a public enquiry into some of the projects embarked upon by the former Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, especially the Nigeria Air project.
The stakeholders also asked the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to investigate Ethiopian Airlines to unravel its immediate and remote involvement in last Friday’s display in Abuja, during which a Boeing 737-800 aircraft allegedly owned by Ethiopian Airlines was presented to the public as a Nigeria Air plane.
Some stakeholders who spoke to journalist said that some of the former Aviation Minister’s last-minute activities should not be allowed to go without investigation.
A Policy Analyst, Prof. Anthony Kila, insisted that it was necessary for the new administration to institute an independent public inquiry on the failed national carrier project; Nigeria Air.
According to him, this should involve the examination, conception, process negotiations, partnerships, expenses and parties involved in the project.
Kila regretted that Nigeria Air generated so much controversy and became a public concern, most especially in the last few weeks of the past administration.
He insisted that the best response the new government could give to this was to establish an independent body to look critically into the project, which some stakeholders claimed gulped about N85.42 billion in eight years.
He said, “Nigeria Air project has generated too much controversy and has now become a source of public concern, rather than the laudable achievement it was planned to be due to the way it was handled with stakeholders alleging a series of malpractices and calling attention to an un-respected court pronouncement.
“The best institutional response to give in this circumstance is for the government to create an independent and authoritative public inquiry that will allow all those who have issues and questions about the Nigeria Air project to table their concerns, give those involved in the project to respond without fear or intimidation and for all interested Nigerians to know what really happened and what to expect from the project.”
Speaking further, he challenged the airline operators and other stakeholders in the sector to find ways of organising themselves into a visible force that would compel the new government to shed light on the Nigeria Air project.
Also speaking, the Director of Research at Zenith Travel, Mr Olumide Ohunayo, called on the NCAA to institute a probe panel into Ethiopian Airlines’ involvement in the entire Nigeria Air project.
According to him, last Friday’s display of a foreign registered aircraft by Sirika and Ethiopian Airline was a show of shame, which should not be allowed to scale without investigation.
He explained that the former Minister had attempted to arm-twist the NCAA to violate its law by granting an Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) to the airline when it was still in phase two of the five phases pre-registration exercise.
Note that the five stages an applicant must scale before being granted AOC by NCAA are: Pre-Application Phase, Formal Application Phase; Document Evaluation Phase, Demonstration and Inspection Phase and Certification Phase.
He, however, expressed sadness that the project may have gone with the former administration despite the billions of naira expended on it in the past eight years by the Federal Government.
“I think Nigeria Air is dead and buried. The new administration should just pull out the funds that have been used for that project and most importantly, ask for the record of the disbursed N27 billion given for COVID-19 palliatives. The N22 billion that is outstanding must be accounted for by Sirika.”
