If wishes were horses, beggars would ride – that is a Scottish proverb which implies that if yearning could make things happen, then even the most impoverished people would have everything they craved.
If airlines were candies, Hadi Sirika would have a dozen in his pocket – that’s my despondent self trying to wrap my head around the invisible airline Nigeria’s former minister of aviation threatened to establish but which has now turned out to be another mirror in the sun.
Let’s be clear: a mirror can reflect the sun and direct its rays to a desired target. But the mirror is not the sun; neither does it generate any heat or light. All it takes to render the mirror impotent is for the sun to go to bed. If there is darkness all around, what can the mirror reflect?
It is difficult to imagine any national wind chase in recent memory that could compete with Sirika’s Air Nigeria in promising the moon and delivering a mirage. The minister had promised to deliver a brand new national airline that would re-enact the glory days of the defunct Nigeria Airways.
Perceptive Nigerians were not fooled by the gusto with which Sirika plunged into his self-appointed assignment. It seemed that what mattered to him most was the approval of President Buhari, not the economics of the project. The graveyard of aviation is littered with the carcasses of dead airlines — some in infancy, several at the peak of their glory, and yet others which were so old that they had become institutions.
Had this former uncelebrated pilot done his homework with regard to his sudden fancy? Had he studied the history of Pan Am (Pan American World Airways), a tiny, airmail carrier that hopped from Florida to Cuba and back beginning in 1927, to become the world’s largest airline and an industry innovator until it gave up the ghost in 1991?
Had he studied the circumstances that made Belgium’s national career, Sabena, throw in the towel two decades ago after 78 years in the air? Sabena’s co-owner, Swissair, tried unsuccessfully to find an investor to take them out of their stake, but keen-eyed aviation watchers and financial analysts recognised a dying goose when they saw one. Since European Commission rules forbade government bailouts, Sabena struggled until it could struggle no more.
Until the independence gale of the 60s, air service in Africa was operated largely by airlines based in Europe and the United States, or by colonial governments. The earliest national passenger airlines were established in the 1930s with South African Airways, and in the 1940s with Ethiopian Airlines, Liberian National Airways, and Egypt’s national airline, Misrair. The airlines served as flag-carrying symbols of national identity, economic expansion, modernity, technological advancement, international pride.
Nigeria Airways was founded in 1958 after the dissolution of West African Airways Corporation (WAAC). It ceased operations in 2003. Originally, the Nigerian government owned a majority of the airline (51%) until 1961, when it acquired 100% shares to become sole proprietor, making the airline the country’s flag carrier. In its glory days, its fleet consisted of about 30 aircraft, with some of the best flight crew and profitable routes on the continent, in Europe and America. But a mix of the Nigerian virus of bad corporate governance and corruption grounded the flying elephant and the giant of Africa, rather than soaring high, kicked the dust.
In addition to the well documented sleaze that characterised the destruction of Nigeria Airways, anyone can inspect the remains of various local airlines that have since shared the fate of the much violated Nigeria Airways.
According to Daily Trust, “Investigations showed that no fewer than 62 airlines at different times in Nigeria’s aviation history have become extinct due to many factors… While this is happening at a time the federal government plans to float a new national carrier, experts have cautioned that the new airline might not be insulated from the current challenges, which have weighed down existing airlines and even prevented new ones from starting operations.”
Some of the defunct airlines since independence include; Flash Airline, Kabo Air, Hold Trade Airline, Gas Air, Jambo Express, Chachangi, IRS Airlines, Savannah Airline, Albarka Airline, Intercontinental Airline, Air Mid-West, HAK Air, EAS Airline, Nicon Airways, Virgin Nigeria Airline, Air Nigeria and Falcon Air.
Others are; Sosoliso Airline, Zenith Airline, Barnax Airline, Space World International Airline, Dasab Airline, Fresh Airline, Triax Airline, Bell-View, Freedom Airline, Okada Air, Concord Airline (owned by late Chief MKO Abiola); Associated Airline, Air Taraba (serving Taraba, Borno and Adamawa).
The list also includes; United Air Service, Aras Airline Ltd, Nigeria Global, Nigeria Eagle (which commissioned an aircraft but didn’t fly and had to take it back); Harco Airline, Premier Airline, Al Bashir, Trans-Sahara Airline, ADC, Oriental Airline, Axiom Airline, Forward Air, Slok Air, Das Air and Cargo, Dornier Aviation Nigeria, Al-Dawood, Premium Air Shuttle and Chrome Air Service.
The rest are; Easy Link Aviation, First Nation Airways, Earth Airlines, Afrijet Airlines, Afrimex, Air Vanni, AlHeri Airlines, Arax Airlines, Arab Wings Nigeria, City Link Airlines, Discovery Air, Delta Air Charter, Hamsal Air Services and Emma-Nik Aviation Service.
There is absolutely no indication that things will be different with Sirika’s pipe dream. Indeed, if morning shows the day, Nigeria Air seems destined for a worse fate: still-birth.
Although he kept most things regarding the proposed airline to his chest as if it was his exclusive patrimony, Sirika was not without a small band of supporters who drummed it loud and clear that the minister was an aviation expert on account of having trained as a helicopter pilot at the Petroleum Helicopters Institute, USA. That much was confirmed in his CV. He was also said to have attended Flight Safety International and Delta Aeronautics, both in the US. If that is all the expertise that Sirika was bringing to the table when he was appointed, then the process of recruiting top political appointees has to be reviewed. There is no esoteric expertise that a two-bit helicopter pilot can bring to transform the aviation sector in Nigeria. He simply cannot give what he does not have.
Looking back now to the period when President Buhari forwarded his name to the parliament for confirmation, many members of the public were not hoodwinked and some of them openly said so in their online reactions. One doubter, @Issysmooth, criticised the candidate’s CV: “Pilot, yet no job experience and date of educational qualification not provided. These men are all impersonators”.
Since age 39, Sirika has been in government. He was a member of the House of Representatives between 2003 and 2011. He was elected as the senator representing Katsina North Senatorial District for 2011-2015.
His flip-flops and verbal somersaults in respect of the Nigeria Air project have been difficult to rationalise. Last year, he announced, through James Odaudu, a deputy director in his ministry, Emirates Airlines was ready to help in the process of establishing a national carrier in Nigeria. Sirika was reported as saying, “The offer is an encouragement to the many bidders currently preparing their public-private partnership bids for Nigeria Air in response to the Request for Proposal advertised by Nigeria.” The minister disclosed that the process for the acquisition of the Air Operator’s Certificate and the Air Transport License was well on course for the expected launch date of the national carrier.
Later, Minister Sirika announced an engagement with Ethiopian Air as the designated preferred partner. The share distribution (Ethiopian 49%, Nigeria 5% etc) looked like the amateur plot of an apprentice scammer. The identities of the shareholders announced by the minister kept changing. Local airlines mounted the rooftops in protest and also approached the courts for adjudication. Mercifully, the marriage was never consummated before Sirika’s tenure lapsed. But curiously, the Chairman of Ethiopia Airline, Girma Wake, tendered his resignation letter and quit his role as the chairman of the Airline shortly after Sirika ‘unveiled’ the proposed Nigeria Air, using an Ethiopian Air Boeing 737-800 specially repainted for the occasion which local Nigerian airline operators have described as a scam, insisting that the aircraft displayed was a Boeing 737 MAX owned by Ethiopian Airlines and covered with Nigeria Air sticker.
As I noted at the beginning, the mirror can reflect the sun, but is it the sun? Somebody ought to have credited Nigerians with more intelligence.
Mr Sirika is welcome to establish an airline in his name. But he cannot appropriate our collective identity for his ill conceived misadventure.
The new administration of President Tinubu has to put all actions taken in respect of the proposed airline under the magnifying glass. My wager is that the entire opaque dealings cannot withstand even cursory scrutiny before being consigned to the garbage bin. And any tail found to have been wagging the cow should be cut.