Sir: The brouhaha surrounding the supposed take-off of Nigeria Air appeared to be a desperate attempt to hoodwink an entire country. In the “Giant of Africa” the more you look is obviously the less you see. In a country where reptiles and rodents have been known to chew up millions of Naira in public funds with mysterious fire outbreaks targeting key government offices and cleaning up the rest, anything is possible and has indeed become possible.
On May 26, 2023, as the iron curtains of time fell on his eight-year-long administration, the Muhammadu Buhari administration finally sanctioned the take-off of Nigeria Air. The supposed take-off was given maximum state coverage with the first “Nigeria Air aircraft” flying into the country. Shortly after take-off, what started as a trickle of rumour that the aircraft used for the take-off belonged to Ethiopia Airlines soon became a tidal wave. As the Nigerian Senate, House of Representatives and media waded into the growing controversy, it soon became clear even to the blind that the whole Nigeria air affair was nothing but another desperate attempt to hoodwink an entire country, one which has however backfired spectacularly dragging Hadi Sirika, the former minister for Aviation into the muck.
It really beggars belief that in more than 60 years as an independent country, Nigeria has not been able to couple together a functional national airline. While Nigeria has dithered in this wise much to the embarrassment of Nigerians, its less affluent, much smaller and supposedly inferior neighbours are light years ahead.
Again, it breaks the heart that shortly before he left office, Buhari’s coterie of corrupt and inept officials decided to turn their jarring insensitivity towards an aspect of Nigerian life that has been a source of boundless national tragedy in the recent past – air travel.
President Bola Tinubu must probe the Nigeria Air fiasco. The new administration must consider it an intolerable insult to the sensibilities of Nigeria that something like that will be floated by those who in their determination to defraud Nigerians are ready to go to any level.
Those behind the charade must be probed, prosecuted and incarcerated. One of the reasons Nigeria remains firmly where it is today, stuck immovably it appears in the mire of underdevelopment, is that all those who have milked the country dry in the past have got away with their deeds or at best with just slaps on their wrists. For a country that aspires to more, this is clearly intolerable.
Kene Obiezu can be reached via keneobiezu@gmail.com
