Sen Hadi Sirika (2nd right), among the leaders of the All Progressive Congress, APC, in Katsina State, announced he’s been pressured to return to the Senate in 2027
Senator Hadi Abubakar Sirika, a former Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN) and the first Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development (since the addition of aerospace to the ministry in January 2023) during the tenure of late President Muhammadu Buhari, has started the engine of his political aircraft and his destination, the Senate chambers at the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja.
Sirika delivered the “salvo” that ricocheted nationwide and beyond, through a simple, innocent announcement at the Katsina State’s All Progressive Congress, APC, secretariat, in Katsina, just before Jumat service on Friday.
The former Minister who held forte at aviation ministry up to 28th of May 2023, said he got high fidelity signals from electorates at Katsina North Senatorial District areas and all the elders with ingenuity to interpret signals from the political radar and to measure the pulse of the people even beyond the senatorial jurisdiction had beckoned on the gangling senator to mount the campaign cockpit and start the political aircraft engine, with an assurance of a very calm and still weather from takeoff to landing, come 2027.
Speaking further at the All Progressives Congress (APC) secretariat in Katsina, Sirika said his supporters exclusively and fervently persuaded him to join the race for the Senate.
He promised to be laser-focused on improving the living conditions of the electorates and the generality of Nigerian citizens in the senatorial district if elected.
Recall that Hadi Sirika, as the Minister of Aviation, assured Nigerians on over 19 different occasions, announced at different times that the national airline would begin operation.
Also in 2018, the Minister and his team at the ministry were at the Farnborough Air Show in London, purposely to promote the national carrier which none of the aviation journalists in Nigeria can write or say anything about its structure and composition.
Sadly, the project also drew the ire of the domestic operators who had to approach the court to quash what they perceived as an amorphous structure of the national airline, and which they found as overtly handing over the domestic operation of air transport to a foreign airline.
Also found very contentious at the conclusion of the minister’s tenure was the manner a helicopter at the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology changed ownership despite the overt interest of the Nigerian Air Force, NAF, in procuring the helicopter.
The training copter, one of the best in the world, was finally traced to its purported new owner in the United States.
Two other subsisting matters; one is about a single contract on Katsina airport that was split for the son-in-law and the daughter, which is yet to be disposed.
Another matter that readily comes to mind was another contract in which payment was made to Hadi Sirika’s junior brother, who was an employee with a federal government agency, and got paid for a job EFCC said his company had no record of ever handling a similar job.
According to EFCC, the action of the minister is tantamount to betrayal of public trust reposed in Minister Hadi Sirika, who used his office to award contracts to blood relations who were in the employment of the federal government.
The junior brother who got paid and did not execute the job was reported to be an employee of the water resources, just as the son-in-law and his daughter were at the time payments were made to their different accounts, were employee of the oil corporation, NNPC and the downstream regulatory authority respectively.
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