Techrectory
Festus Keyamo, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, has said that no local airline will be designated as the Nigerian national carrier, remarking that doing so would be unfair to other local airlines. He made this assertion on Wednesday during an interview with Politics Today on Channels TV. Rather than encouraging a local airline to become a flag carrier, he claimed his ministry was working on creating a legitimate national carrier.
He added, “I will push for one national carrier and I am working on one,” declared the minister. “Let me state this clearly up front: no local airline will operate as a flag carrier or a national carrier”.
“So, whoever thinks, I am working to promote one to be a flag carrier, I am saying it as a matter of policy, it will be unfair to all the local operators. No local airline will be designated as a national carrier, I will not do it. We will establish a proper national carrier. And people are talking to us, the Arabs are talking to us, the Chinese are talking to us, the Americans are talking to us on this already.” He was puzzled as to why his precursor had given the option any thought.
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“There were better deals on the table, why did we settle for this? If you give me one hour, we will go into the intricacies of the proposed agreement,” he said.
Hadi Sirika, the country’s minister of aviation, controversially established Nigeria Air as the nation’s national carrier during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
With Keyamo certain and insistent that the agreement was not in the best interests of the country, the disputes surrounding Nigeria Air remained unsolved.
He added, “A flag carrier is different from a national carrier. So, when we were being told that a national carrier was coming, it was not a national carrier, it was a foreign airline trying to fly Nigerian Flag.”
Keyamo also said that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is still looking into the contentious deal through criminal investigations.
Sirika was asked to testify before the House of Representatives last year over the contentious National Air Carrier, Air Nigeria.
The motion was sponsored by Tarkighir Dickson.
Dickson stated, “The House is aware that the last administration spent billions of naira ostensibly to acquire the said new national carrier but the status of the project remains unclear regardless of billions of taxpayers’ funds utilised on the project. The House, therefore, resolved to invite Sirika to brief the Committee on Aviation on the status of the project at the point he handed it over and to provide insights on a wide range of controversies and allegations surrounding the project.”
Techrectory with Agency Report.
