Senate: Nigeria Air shrouded in secrecy

The Senate Committee on Aviation has declared that the unveiling of Nigeria Air was shrouded in secrecy.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Aviation, Sen. Biodun Olujimi, made the declaration during a meeting with the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Aviation, Emmanuel Meribole; the Interim Managing Director, Nigeria Air, Capt. Dapo Olumide; and heads of aviation agencies in Abuja on Tuesday, June 6.

Olujimi said it was unfortunate that the former Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, failed to involve the committee and other stakeholders in the Nigeria Air project.

She stated that Sirika hurriedly unveiled the national carrier on the last day of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

“To state the obvious, he failed to carry members of the committee along in virtually all ramifications despite the degree of respect members accorded him any time he was invited for meetings,” the senator added.

Speaking, Capt. Olumide said the aircraft that flew in with the logo of the airline was chartered from Ethiopian Airlines for the purpose of unveiling the logo.

Olumide stated that the airline had yet to secure an operating licence for full flight operations, saying the processes were still at the early stages.

He said the aircraft was used pending the completion of the processes required for the operation of the airline, adding that his mandate was to secure an air operating certificate for the airline not necessarily to operate the airline but to secure a licence to fly.

The Nigeria Air director said: “The aircraft that came in and left was a legitimate charter flight.

“Anyone of us here if we have a destination wedding in Senegal, we can charter an aircraft.

“You don’t need to have a licence to do that, you just charter an aircraft, an aircraft you paid for it, it will be brought here, take your passengers and off you go.

“And that is what we did. But in this case, it was to unveil the Logo of Nigeria Air.

“Ever since 2018, all you have ever seen about Nigeria Air were pictures, drawings not the real aircraft, and we thought it was time to show what the real aircraft will look like also to let shareholders see.

“We have institutional investors, they are not in aviation but they are putting their money for 10 to 15 years, so they need to see what the actual aircraft will look like.

“So we brought it in here to show them what the aircraft will look like, then the social media dimension came into it.

“For us to get that licence which is my mandate, we must among other things have three aircraft before the NCAA will give us a licence and those three aircraft must be Nigerian registered aircraft.

“So when this aircraft came on a chartered flight, everybody said we have launched Nigeria Air. There are learned people in the aviation industry who could have countered that when social media came out, but they chose not to.”

The Star