RE: HADI SIRIKA AND THE RETURN OF NIGERIA AIRWAYS - Reuben Abati | Sahara Reporters

- NAME, LOGO, COLOUR SCHEME of the new Nigerian Airline revealed?
Very strangely writer Reuben Abati seems to have been completely sold on the rationality behind a new Nigerian government floated airlines just over a decade after two such were wound up. He has made no effort to play the Devil's Advocate, very necessary in these matters. We already know how brilliant Sirika's boss is, don't we?

For goodness sake what were Air Nigeria (a.k.a. Virgin Nigeria) and Arik Airlines if not national carriers? Nobody wants to remember that inconvenient fact of our recent aviation history. Job for the favourite boys in Our Party, Our Tribe and Our Family Members in this era of untramelled nepotism. It's Niger Delta Money, OPM after all. Bring it on. Let's blow it. If there was ever a meticulously planned criminal-enterprise-in-government, it this devilish plan to set up another government funded airline. When this stupid idea was floated earlier with all the emotions surrounding the Rio Olympics, I had named some four countries whose athletic teams arrived Rio de Janeiro via an airline that could not be termed National. The US was one of them. Can you beat that? .

Nigeria is the only country where without a final feasibility study in place, siting decisions etc, and political approval by the Legislature, A BOARD CHAIRMAN AND A PUTATIVE CEO ARE ANNOUNCED! Watch out for this. The government has enough work on its hands managing its unintentional stakes in Arik and Aero. That's enough for its plate.

Note that Reuben Abati could not resist highlighing the following ills of Nigerian aviation:

"The agony of the Nigerian air traveller is not something to be imagined: we all face a daily grind of disappointment from airlines that cancel flights at will and offer no explanation. When you complain, the airlines simply tell you that things are very hard. So, if things are hard, are they supposed to be so shabby? The other month, the door of an aircraft on the domestic route flew off as the plane landed."
I ask, So?

These are the very ills routinely associated with the former Nigerian Airways and others, Triax, IRS, Chanchangi, Oriental, Sosoliso, Kabo, Okada, Etc, etc. The problems he listed fall under the mandate of the very same Regulatory Agencies who allowed the old and will also allow the new "Nigeria Airways" management to get away with murder. New airline? Business as usual!

It would be appropriate to ask at this stage, apart from the financial free-for-all to be engendered by this stunt, whose big ego is being massaged by this hare-brained scheme.

Aircraft manufactures will gladly sell us new modern aircraft so long as we pay hard cash, OPM, and hope that we can fly them safely. On the business side, we are on our own. It is the very same people who cannot efficiently and profitably manage our petroleum refineries who will sit on the Board and run the Management of the newly funded "Nigeria Airways." Same people, same results. In case you've not noticed, these are NOT from Ethiopia.