- The minister disclosed that the airline was never a Nigerian airline but an attempt to use a foreign airline to pose as a Nigerian national airline.
The Nigerian government has announced the indefinite suspension of the controversial Nigeria Airline project.
Minister of aviation and aerospace development, Festus Keyamo announced the suspension of the highly-criticized project on Monday.
Keyamo made the announcement on Monday at the ministerial briefing to mark the first year of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
The minister disclosed that the airline was never a Nigerian airline but an attempt to use a foreign airline to pose as a Nigerian national airline.
He wondered why a foreign airline was pencilled to fly as Nigeria’s national carrier when there are local airline companies that can fly the nation’s flagm
He further noted that the proposed national carrier that was supposed to be an indigenous project and a source of pride for Nigerians was dogged by fraudulent activities and many of its vital details were shrouded in secrecy.
According to him, “it was never Air Nigeria, it was Ethiopian trying to flag our flag. It was not Air Nigeria. That is the truth. It was not Nigeria. It only printed Air Nigeria. It was an Ethiopian airline trying to fly our flag. If it is so, why not allow our local people to fly our flag. Why bring a foreigner to fly our flag?
“So nobody should deceive you that Air Nigeria, Air Nigeria must be indigenous, must be wholly Nigeria or must be for the full benefit of Nigerians, not that 60 per cent of the profit is given to another country. How does that benefit us? It remains suspended. It remains so”.
Recall that the Nigeria Air project was a subject of controversy as many Nigerians weighed in on whether the project is feasible seeing how Nigeria’s national carrier in the past was badly managed and eventually went under.
The project and former minister of aviation, Hadi Sirika, who pushed for its materialisation despite glaring inviability, came under intense criticism due to how many critical details of the project were shrouded in secrecy.