The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has exposed documents showing discrepancies in the Nigeria Air agreements approved by former Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika.
The agreements were signed with the Ethiopian government.
According to Keyamo, the agreements would have allowed Ethiopian Air to become the single major shareholder in Nigeria Air, effectively giving them control over the country’s aviation ecosystem. This, Keyamo argued, would have been detrimental to Nigeria’s interests, as it would have allowed the Ethiopian government to benefit from all of Nigeria’s Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASA) routes.
Keyamo said, “You will be shocked if you look at this agreement. What it simply says is that a foreign government should come and take over our national carrier. Ethiopian Air was the single major shareholder in that deal. It is the same thing they did in Togo, with Asky. We cannot be Togo. We are big and ambitious.
“We cannot give up our aviation ecosystem to another entity. What would have happened is that the Ethiopian government would now be the complete beneficiary of all our Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASA) routes. A national carrier has first priority over all the BASA routes we have negotiated all over the world. If we give them all the routes we have suffered to negotiate, where will all those profits go? It is not Nigeria.”
Keyamo explained that the agreements would have resulted in a national carrier that was not truly Nigerian. “The CEO of Nigeria Air would have been an Ethiopian, financial officer Ethiopian, Director of Operations Ethiopian, and all other key positions would have been reserved for foreigners,” he said. “That is not a national carrier.”
Furthermore, Keyamo revealed that the agreements would have exempted the operators of Nigeria Air from paying taxes to the Nigerian government. They would also not have been required to invest in the country. Instead, Nigeria would have been required to guarantee any losses incurred by the operators.