NA AGREEMENT WITH ET: Promoters Of Nigeria Air Ceded Nigerian Aviation To Ethiopian Airlines, Liabilities To Nigerian Govt- Festus Keyamo                                                    

Mr Festus Keyamo, Nigeria’s Aviation & Aerospace Development Minister, displaying the pieces of paper on which the agreement between the erstwhile promoters of Nigeria Air entered with Ethiopia Airlines

Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo, has revealed what, ostensibly is another tip of the iceberg, in the content of the agreement reached by the past administration between the promoters of the erstwhile Nigeria Air, Mr Hadi Sirika, and Ethiopian Airlines, ET, for the Ethiopian government.

The extremely guided agreement that members of the Nigerian national assembly were severally and collectively refused access to digest its content agreed that ET should exclusively manage the Nigerian national airline startup, and the lion’s share of the benefits/profits therefrom, would accrue to Ethiopia government who wholly owned Ethiopian Airlines.

The agreement which was then often brandished by the former Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika, but never allowed the document to be subjected to public scrutiny by anyone but his co-travellers whom he never granted the locus standi to publicly talk about it, ceded all the key positions in the national carrier to Ethiopian Airline.

The sitting minister, Festus Keyamo, cited clause six (6) of the agreement that atrociously granted exemption from nearly all taxes to ET and its personnel who would be brought in to occupy key positions in Abuja, Nigeria.

The agreement the minister said, exempted all Ethiopian personnel that would be seconded to the Nigeria Air service from deduction of their salary in the Pay As You Earn, PAYEE tax, statutorily imposed on all workers in Nigeria right from Mr President to the least employee in both private and public sectors of the national economy.

According to the revelation by Festus Keyamo, the agreement granted a five-year tax holiday to ET and, also devolved controlling shares to the East African airlines, thereby making Ethiopian Airlines the sole operator of Nigeria Air.

Another heinous consent made on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria, FGN, in the deal that was so despicable and appalling, was that key positions of management staff were ceded exclusively to ET.

Explaining the implication of such an abysmal and unintelligent agreement, Keyamo said by that document, ET was already empowered to operate all the over 90 Bilateral Air Services Agreement, BASA, to all the international routes whilst proceeds from such broad-spectrum commercial traffic would perch in Addis Ababa and not Abuja.

Also, an unbelievable aspect of the averted disaster called Master Agreement was another clause which granted the operator of Nigeria Air, which would have been Ethiopian Airline, the express permission to raise funds, loans, debentures, venture capital etc from any financial institution anywhere in the world while, the Nigerian government would provide the much-needed guarantee for losses from such commitment.

And by the agreement in the share-holding structure, any profit that accrues devolves the lion’s share to ET while, the primary owner, the Nigerian government, would pick the smallest of the profit but would wholly shoulder liabilities for losses incurred by the operator, ET.

Mr Festus Keyamo also debunked the much-touted investment said would be coming from ET as mere excess equipment in its fleet or leased aircraft that would be brought to operate the juicy routes without making a financial commitment but harvest the lion’s share of whatever profit that may accrue from the operations.

The minister was particularly irked about the implications of a tax holiday to ET while the domestic operators were paying all prescribed taxes and were openly complaining yet, a national airline of another country would enjoy a five-year tax holiday. What an unpleasant irony.

Mr Keyamo debunked the rabble-rouser whom he said had taken his fake crusade to various media platforms across the continent. The crusader argued that by quashing the thoughtless Nigeria Air deal, Nigeria had lost multibillion dollars in foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow to the country.

He retorted that the said loss of foreign direct investment as claimed by the American who was crying more than the bereaved, existed only in the crusader’s imagination as Nigeria had lost nothing from suspending the deal but prevented sheepishly frittering away the nation’s scarce resources to another sovereign state, to turn to operating profit from a scam called Master Agreement.

Festus Keyamo, an attorney at law for about three and half decades, said there was no iota of investment from ET but a systematic plan to rip off Nigerians and the federal government through the operations of Nigeria Air.

Keyamo noted that the sly by which Asky (a wholly subsidiary of ET) took over the Togolese aviation was replicated in the Master Agreement to exploit Nigeria and Nigerians through the contraption dubbed Nigeria Air, hence it failed woefully at the temple of justice when challenged by the Airlines Operators of Nigeria, AON, and in the estimation of the right thinking members of the public.

He however, aptly noted that Nigeria is bigger than Togo, and her over 200 million populations will never be supinely dependent and tag along with an unwholesome crab, bandied as a deal or agreement document for a national commercial concern.

He minced no word in declaring that Nigeria cannot give out her entire aviation ecosystem to another alien operator in an unfettered manner, and allowed it to dominate the domestic operators who had since been making frantic efforts and sacrifices to remain airborne.

Festus Keyamo also straightened the records that the judiciary had dealt with the legality and the reasonableness or otherwise of the entire crab put together as a national airline, by quashing the deal ahead of the government pronouncement suspending the broad daylight fraud.

The minister however assured Nigerians that very soon, there will be a no-holds-barred revelation of the entire agreement entered into on behalf of the federal government and the good people of Nigeria by the past administration, on the excuse of midwifing a national airline.

One of the many consultants Mr Hadi Sirika brought into the project was a one-man riot squad he introduced as an adviser to the national carrier project, Capt: Tilmann Gabriel, a lecturer at the City University of London. Remember that the Minister was awarded a master degree in air transport management from the university while he was serving as minister.

Other organizations enlisted included Tianaero Nigeria Ltd. Recall that the company was registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, on the 29th of March 2021, to conduct business in Nigeria. The firm was introduced as an international aviation consultant. It was appointed Transaction Advisor to the New Nigerian Flag Carrier- Nigeria Air. Others were “Airline Management Group Limited”, AMG, and, “Avia Solutions” among others.

Taking cognizance of the credo carefully etched for the airline startup, Nigeria Air, as published in its investor teaser, the promoter upheld thus, “And this strong nation Nigeria is hungry and ready for a true flag carrier”. It further delineated what an average Nigerian traveller would cherish thus, “People want an airline that represents them and connects with their culture”. The statement in the investor teaser aptly captured what fires the patriotic zeal of an average traveller and inspires them to quickly be imbued with a sense of ownership in these words, “An airline that makes them proud”.

Ironically, hardly would these sentiments identified and itemized in a printed brochure and online would ever be elicited from an average Nigerian traveller due to the contraption launched on 28th May 2023, which was less than 24 hours for the newly elected government to be sworn in.

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