Nigeria Air Saga: Unveiling nat’l carrier with ET Airlines informed by shareholders, not FG – Sirika

AS reactions continue to trail the unveiling of the controversial national carrier, Nigeria Air, the immediate past minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, has said the chartered Ethiopian Airlines used to unveil the national carrier, was not a decision influenced by the Federal Government, FG, but rather came directly from the project’s primary investors and promoters.

Responding to questions during an interview session on Arise TV, monitored by our correspondent, on Sunday, in Abuja, Sirika explained that a dime was not paid to pay for the chartered aircraft used to unveil Nigeria Air.

He said: “The unveiling in Abuja, this was done by the government, and then the purpose of going to Farnborough was not just in vain, but to take advantage of it and to discuss with OEMs and discuss with would be partners and do a roadshow.

“But, coming back home now, when Nigeria had its own shareholders the bid was done, the bid was won by some people in their marketing strategy who decided to unveil this airline to come into Nigeria and showcase where it will be pending when the AOC has been completed and they begin to fly. So, the strategy that they did marketing, is their own, is for the owners, is for Ethiopian airline, MRS, ET and whoever they are.

“The AOC owned by Ethiopian airline is known to the general laws and the NCAA, they are permitted to come in as either scheduled passenger, charter or cargo. Now, they have to come if they’re coming under one of the three. So, the came on charter. That does not mean that anybody paid for anything, to answer your question, government did not pay a dime for that to come in.

“Number two, there are no revenue passengers going out. That would have been totally against the law and would have not been allowed and like I said, also is their own market strategy as partners, Equity Partners. They they came to do this unveiling on a special allowance, which is called charter. It does not mean that they paid for it. If there’s anybody who would have paid for it, it would have been the Ethiopian Airline and not Nigerian government at all. No penny was paid. I heard figures like N139 billion was used to pay for the aircraft and bring it in, how ridiculous can that be?”

The ex-Minister, while falsifying N85bn as being brandished as purportedly spent on Nigeria Air, said that the budgetary allocation voted for Nigeria Air was N5 billion, but less than N3 billion has been expended so far.

He also said the bulk of the money was spent on consultancies, salaries, administrative costs, among others.

“So, in 2016 to 2023, all of the monies voted for national carriers was 5 billion voted and budgeted for. But, all that was released is in the neighborhood of 3 billion, not 85 billion and that 3 billion has not been expended all of it as at the time I left office and what has been done with that money is nothing but transaction advisory services, the AOC processes, salaries, Consultancy Services and the office in Abuja, no contract was given by Hadi Sirika or the administration at the time, these are the things that were used for the money and the Freedom of Information Act, people can apply and get all the records”, he said.

Furthermore, reacting to what looked like a violation of court order on the day of the unveiling, Sirika explained that: “What I am aware of also is that I remember that there was a court order, and that was a motion to vacate that court order, immediately, by our counsels but I am not court. I cannot determine here on TV, whether it is contempt to court or not. I think I’ll leave that one to the courts. But certainly there was a motion in place to vacate that order.”