It’s not too late for Nigeria Air to take off

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AS key players across Nigeria’s aviation sector continue to doubt the possibility of the take-off of the much talked about national carrier, Nigeria Air, before the end of the present government, a foremost union leader, Comrade Kabiru Gusau, has said that it is not too late for the project to kick off.

This came just as he called on the incoming Federal Government to appoint an aviator as the next aviation minister in order for the sector to move forward.

In an exclusive interview with Nigerian Tribune, the labour leader of the Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals (ANAP), said nothing could be termed late for any government to achieve if it so desired.

Gusau, who described the act of governance as a continuous process, noted that a particular government must not start and complete a process or project.

He said, “In a government, it does not not mean everything you start you must complete; another government that comes can continue with the national carrier project. If it is the will of God that we must have a national carrier it will happen but if not it will not come to pass.”

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Reacting to the controversial dominance of the proposed national airline by foreign investors with Ethiopian Airlines being tipped as the single largest shareholder with 49 percent, the union leader said he was not comfortable with the arrangement, but exonerated the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, from the controversy this generated.

“Though am not comfortable with the idea of having foreign investors enjoying the highest chunk of percentage in the national carrier, but by my understanding of what the minister said that when he invited the domestic airlines to come and invest in the proposed carrier, they all shunned him, I believe that was why he approached Ethiopian Airlines.

“For me, it is better to have something. We cannot be stagnant, we must move ahead. There is nothing bad in allowing foreigners to come in if Nigerians are not ready, but they should allow Nigerians to have higher shares,” he said.

On his expectation from the incoming government, the Comrade said, “My advice is that the incoming government should consider somebody who is grounded in aviation. If you look at the health sector, the minister is mostly from the medical field.

“In aviation we should also have someone who is an aviator. Hadi Sirika has tried his best so let them bring another aviator that will continue from where he will stop so that he will not drag us further back.”