The House of Representatives has summoned Nigeria’s immediate ex-aviation minister, Hadi Sirika, for questioning over the status of the proposed national carrier, Nigeria Air, at the time of his departure from office.
The former minister is expected to shed light on various controversies about the project.
On May 26, 2023, a Boeing 737-800 series aircraft with the ‘Nigeria Air’ inscription was unveiled by Sirika as one of the planes for Nigeria’s proposed national carrier.
But speculations soon spread that the plane was an 11-year-old aircraft of Ethiopian Airlines, ET, and was still in active service at the time it arrived in Nigeria.
It was alleged that the plane was rented from ET, repainted and rebranded with the colours of the proposed Nigeria Air for the May 26 unveiling without changing ownership.
Reacting to the controversies during a televised interview in June, Sirika said the unveiling, which was done on the last working day of Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, was sponsored by the shareholders of Nigeria Air as a ‘marketing strategy.’
Meanwhile, before Sirika’s interview, Capt. Dapo Olumide, the acting managing director for Nigeria Air, explained that the aircraft was a ‘legitimate charter flight’ because Nigeria Air still does not have a license for full flight operations yet.
Olamide said the unveiling was to show Nigerians and shareholders what the Nigeria Air aircraft ‘will look like.’
The controversy and legal battles that trailed the project made Sirika’s successor, Festus Keyamo, halt it in August, a move that was greatly lauded by the Airline Operators of Nigeria, AON, who had raised concerns about the transparency of the project and the involvement of certain firms linked to the then aviation minister.
Nigerian lawmakers are now seeking to unearth the facts, following the adoption of a motion sponsored by Tarkighir Dickson, a lawmaker from Benue.
“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 utilized on the project,” Dickson lamented in his motion presentation.
The House subsequently adopted the motion and mandated its Committee on Aviation to ‘carry out a forensic audit of the process of Nigeria Air and report back within four weeks for further legislative action.’
It also directed the aviation committee to invite Festus Keyamo ‘to brief the Committee on Aviation about the national carrier project’; and Chris Najomo, acting director-general of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, to answer to the certification status of the national carrier.
It further invited eight local airline operators to provide the House with a full overview of the project and tasked the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, and ministries of budget, national planning and finance to provide the committee on aviation with data and financial resources on the national air carrier project.
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