Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has said that no local airline will be designated as the Nigerian national carrier, stating that doing so would be unfair to other local airlines.
Keyamo said this during an interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today on Wednesday.
He said his ministry was working on establishing a proper national carrier instead of promoting a local airline to be a flag carrier.
The minister said, “I will push for one national carrier and I am working on one. Let me say this publicly now, no local airline will be a national carrier, a flag carrier.
“So, whoever thinks I am working to promote one to be a flag carrier, I am saying it as a matter of policy, it will be unfair to all the local operators.
“No local airline will be designated as a national carrier, I will not do it. We will establish a proper national carrier and people are talking to us, the Arabs are talking to us, the Chinese are talking to us, the Americans are talking to us on this already.”
He wondered why his predecessor in office considered the option.
“There were better deals on the table, why did we settle for this? If you give me one hour, we will go into the intricacies of the proposed agreement,” he noted.
During the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, had introduced Nigeria Air as the country’s national carrier, stirring controversies.
The controversies surrounding Nigeria Air continued unresolved, with Keyamo maintaining that the agreement was not in the best interest of the nation.
“A flag carrier is different from a national carrier, so when we were being told that a national carrier was coming, it was not a national carrier, it was a foreign airline trying to fly Nigerian Flag,” Keyamo added.
He also said there is an ongoing criminal investigations going on by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission regarding the controversial deal.
The House of Representatives had last year invited Sirika for questioning over the controversial National Air Carrier, Air Nigeria.
The motion was sponsored by Tarkighir Dickson
Dickson said, “The House is aware that the last administration spent billions of naira ostensibly to acquire the said new national carrier but the status of the project remains unclear regardless of billions of taxpayers’ funds utilised on the project.
“The House, therefore, resolved to invite Sirika to brief the Committee on Aviation on the status of the project at the point he handed it over and to provide insights on a wide range of controversies and allegations surrounding the project.”