52 Years After: Mixed Fortunes Trail Nigerian Aviation

As the case with Nigeria, the aviation industry is riddled
with multifarious problems, such as infrastructural decay, hostile government
policies, poor business model and poor managerial skill. For instance, Nigeria
has 22 airports that are being managed by Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria
(FAAN), but none of them has the decency and attraction of airports in other
parts of the world.

An airport creates the traveler’s first and last impression
of a city or country.

In Nigeria, lack of adequate infrastructure at the nation’s
airports has led to the growing concern among air travelers. With the breakdown
of cooling system, decaying carousel, absence of airfield lightings, porosity
of the airports, it is indeed a gloomy tale. Everywhere you go, the decay stirs
you in the face.

Worried by this development, the Minister of Aviation, Mrs
Stella Oduah-Ogiewonyi says, “It is lamentable that the successive
administrations have paid lip-service to the problems of aviation
infrastructure, leaving all the nation’s airports  without any meaningful upgrade over 35 years
of their existence.

“For instance, the four international airports in Lagos,
Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt had hitherto suffered decades of neglect,
resulting in decay and congestion. Many Nigerians have had cause to condemn
their managers and Federal Government, when they compare them with other
airports they have visited around the globe.”

FAAN has done little or nothing to upgrade facilities at the
airports in the past three decades. There is no adequate Dopplex weather radar
and other equipment to accurately and effectively check weather condition which
is very important for safe air operations.

It was just recently
that the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) raised hopes of  providing radar coverage in the country for
effective communication and aircraft movement in the airspace.

Many of the airlines have been swept away either permanently
or temporarily from the nation’s sector due to what observers call government’s
poor attitude to the aviation industry. Some of the affected airlines include
Nigeria Airways, Chanchangi, Bellview, ADC, EAS, Slok, Savana, Triax, Air Mid
West, Sosoliso, Oriental, Dasah, Albarka, Fresh Air, Okada, Space world, Harka,
Afrijet and Harco.

Meanwhile, Nigeria has recorded 17 major air disasters that
claimed hundreds of lives in the last 52 years of nationhood. (See inbox)

The aviation industry in Nigeria has however recorded some
modest  achievements. In spite of the
challenges the aviation industry is facing, it parades 22 airports with over 20
airlines operating in the nation’s airspace as domestic and international
routes.This has been attributed to the amount of work that is being done by the
regulatory bodies in the industry in ensuring the safety and security of the
Nigerian airspace. The international aviation community rates Nigeria as one of
the best in African and Indian region in terms of air safety.

Today, no Nigerian airline features among the 284 airlines
from 24 countries that have been blacklisted by the European Union. The
airlines are banned from flying to any part of Europe.

Again, the aviation industry has provided jobs for millions
of Nigerians and also contributed extensively to the economic development of
the nation.

Also, within this period, the Federal Government established
an independent and  professional Accident
Investigation Bureau (AIB) to investigate air mishaps. In the past, the
Ministry of Aviation was saddled with this crucial role but it failed to meet
the expectation of stakeholders in the industry.

Nigeria was also a signatory to “Cape Town Convention”,
which gave airline operators the opportunity to secure international loans.

In the area of the national carriers, it has been a bag of
mixed fortunes in the last 52 years.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo whose administration
liquidated the Nigeria Airways told his audience at a book launch in Lagos
early this year that the action was taken because of the large-scale corruption
that crippled the operations of the national carrier.

He explained that he left 32 aircraft s in the fleet of the
airline when he ceded power to a democratically elected government in 1979, but
he was shocked to discover that only one serviceable aircraft was left on
assumption of office as civilian president in 1999.

According to him, “|You will be an irresponsible leader if
you have a situation like that and you don’t do anything about it and I did
something about it.”

But a former Managing Director of Nigeria Airways, Gen. Olu
Bajowa (rtd) faulted Obasanjo’s action.

He argued that the airline had enough assets in Nigeria,
across West African sub-region, Central and East Africa, the United States and
Europe to off-set whatever volume of liabilities it purportedly incurred.

However, the Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah,
has repeatedly expressed the commitment of the present administration to float
a new national carrier.

She said they were working on a national carrier that would
be publicly owned with limited financial contribution from government; with
government acting as a regulator and providing an enabling environment for this
objective to be achieved.

The minister may have been encouraged to go on with the
plan, considering that a well respected and privatized national carrier could
help project the image of Nigeria and as well help the country to partake in
the large aviation market and international foreign relations.

Many have however, expressed the fear that the “Nigerian
factor” may render this project unworkable except the government is ready to
provide the regulatory framework to make it work.

President, Sabre Travel Network and former Executive
Director, Bellview Airline, Mr Gabriel Olowo described the development as a
drift in policy implementation if a new national carrier becomes a reality in
2012.

“We must be wary of any future attempt to favour the new
national carrier to the detriment of existing flag carriers similar to the
discriminatory treatment melted out by government to defunct Virgin Nigeria
which threw the airline into early crisis and which made its principal partner,
Richard Branson to eventually divest his interest”, he said.

But travel expert and organiser of Akwaba African Travel
Market, Keechi Uko  stressed the need to
have a national carrier in Nigeria.

“Nigeria cannot be the centre of African diplomacy without
effective airline. It is impossible for Nigeria to lead Africa without a
national carrier. Unfortunately, we have diplomats that understand diplomacy
but do not understand the extensions of diplomacy. We have aviation people that
only understand aviation but they do not understand travel and diplomatic
import of aviation. So, they are experts of their own nuclear environment but
they do not understand the inter-dependency of these things,” he said.

Many people are however, of the opinion that national
carrier can work in Nigeria only if government will go about it in a very
transparent manner, devoid of the usual lull that characterises public
enterprise in Nigeria.

Reward Akwu