The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has described ‘Nigeria Air’ unveiled by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari as a fraud, stressing that it remains suspended.
While giving details about that project, Keyamo explained that the ‘national carrier’ that was supposed to be an indigenous project and one that was supposed to stir hope for Nigerians, was flawed with a lot of secrecy and fraudulent activities.
Answering questions from newsmen during the second day of the Ministerial Sectorial update, held on Monday in Abuja, the minister declared that the Nigeria Air remains suspended, adding that it was anti-Nigeria.
“It was never Air Nigeria, it was Ethiopian trying to fly 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 it is Air Nigeria. Air Nigeria must be indigenous, must be wholly Nigerian 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,” he said.
Speaking on some of the steps so far taken to improve economic development in the aviation sector, Keyamo highlighted the commencement of cargo flights to Saudi Arabia, noting that it would enable Nigeria to tap into the $6 trillion global cargo market.
“We have agreed that we’re going to resume cargo flights between Nigeria and Saudi Arabia. This has been suspended for a long time but now cargo flights are back.
“Guess what? Air cargo trade accounts for 35 per cent of the world trade deficit and air cargo trade according to the International Air Transport Association, IATA, attracts about $6 trillion annually and we’re missing you know, within that sector we were missing in many routes around the world and we have achieved that,” he said.
