Shareholders of Nigeria Air unveiled airline — not FG, says Sirika

By Abubakar Yunusa Abuja

Hadi Sirika, former minister of aviation, says Nigeria Air was unveiled by the national carrier’s shareholders and not the federal government.

The former minister spoke when he appeared on Arise TV recently.

Nigeria Air, which has an ownership structure of 49 percent held by Ethiopian Airlines, 46 percent by Nigerian private investors (SAHCO, MRS and other institutional investors), and five percent by the federal government, was unveiled about three days before the end of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

Reacting to the launch, house of representatives committee on aviation had faulted the process leading to the unveiling of Nigeria Air, describing it as a “fraud”.

Appearing before the committee, Dapo Olumide, chief executive officer (CEO) of Nigeria Air, said the aircraft used for the unveiling of the national carrier was a chartered flight from Ethiopian Airlines. Affirming Olumide’s stance, Sirika said that although the plane was chartered, the government was not responsible for paying for the flight.

He said the unveiling of the single aircraft was a marketing strategy by the Nigeria Air partners, adding that the national carrier would resume operations once the air operator certification (AOC) process was completed.

“It is their own marketing strategy as equity partners that they came to do this unveiling on a special allowance which is called a chartered flight,” the former minister said.

“Chartered does not mean they paid for it. If there is anybody that paid for it, it would have been the Ethiopian Airlines. No penny is paid.

“It was the owners of Nigeria Air, the consortium of the federal government (five percent) that decided to do the unveiling as part of their marketing strategy.

“So it is not the government that was doing the unveiling to start the operations. Not at all. It was them who did it and I was invited.”

Sirika denied allegations that the unveiling of the national carrier was shrouded in secrecy, saying the claims were “mind-boggling and disturbing”.

“This airline was advertised during the procurement stage in the Economist and in national dailies. And there was a bidding process and members of the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) participated in the bidding conference,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sirika said the government has spent about N3 billion in seven years to ensure that the airline becomes operational.

“In 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023, all of the monies voted for the national carrier was N5 billion, but all that was released is in the neighbourhood of N3 billion — not N85 billion,” he said.