Nigeria’s Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika on Thursday said poor management capacity was responsible for the frequent collapse of airlines in the country.
As a result, the federal government has decided to establish an aviation university for the development of all-round capacity in the sector.
A small team is already working on the outline of the university, which will be run half online and half full time, Sirika said.
Speaking at the ministerial press briefing organized by the Presidential Communication Team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Sirika also vowed to go after airline operators to recover a total debt of N37bn owed federal government agencies by the airlines.
He said the debts were owed to aviation parastatals including the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), among others.
According to him, the government had been circumspect in demanding the payment mindful of how the operators might react.
He listed Arik Air and Bi-Courtney as chief amongst the debtors, saying that Arik Air owes about N13bn or N14b while Bi-Courtney also owes N14bn.
Sirika, who addressed the controversy over the disbursement of the N5 billion COVID-19 palliative to aviation stakeholders, said the point was made that airlines that owe aviation parastatals should not benefit.
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“In fact, the service providers in our system, FAAN, NAMA, said oh these guys are owing us, we should take the money from the money being given as palliatives. We said no but the intent of President Buhari is to ensure that he cushions the effect on businesses. Let us find a way of surviving, and let them take the money. So we would have taken the money and left them with nothing and we stay with nothing,” Sirika explained.
“If you’re owing government, you are owing FAAN, the Bi-Courtney is owing about N14 billion as at the last count. It has not paid a single dime since the time he started to run the terminal building. And we have not ceased giving him electricity, water, fire cover, and so on and so forth. He hasn’t paid a dime for 13 years.
“And if we go to shut his doors, media, of course, and Nigerian people will say we’re killing businesses but he is killing our services too because we have to have that money to provide for that toilet that you’re looking in Lagos airport. Most of these are living by their IGRs and so, we need the money but we will go after the money,” he said.
He also revealed that the ministry has released a total of 67 final aviation accident reports covering the period of 2007 – 2016 in the government’s bid to ensure that the causes of previous airline accidents are known.
Sirika, who affirmed that the Civil aviation sector can sustain the Nigerian economy, said four airports have already been designated as special economic zones.
Speaking on the achievements of the Aviation ministry under the current dispensation, the minister said these included seven standardized training packages developed with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), construction of Boeing 737 Simulator building, supply and installation of Boeing 737NG full-flight simulator, supply and installation of THALES DVOR/DME and Instrument Landing Systems for flight training, automated fire/smoke aircraft training simulator among others.
While noting the completion of work in different airports across the country, he said five airports have already been fitted with Instrument Landing Systems (ILS) to enable aircraft to land in poor conditions, noting that plans are on to extend it to a total of 15 airports in all.
He said Nigeria has also acquired the capacity to download cockpit recorder content for accident investigation, a facility, which he said is the 3rd best in the world.
On the proposed new national carrier, the minister said his ministry will present the re-worked Outline Business Case (OBC) to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in the next one or two weeks for approval.
He said the plan for the airline is on course, explaining that the government recently launched the airline logo in the United Kingdom for the sake of exposure.
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