Nigeria has a great potential to rule the African airspace but it is frittering away the opportunity. There have been about 22 Aviation Ministers just within the last three decades. Each of them comes with a more confusing strategy to revive the industry which has no linkage with the previous minister’s.
The Nigerian aviation sector’s collapse has caused it to be given attention by the Federal Government and the year, 2017 should hold lots of promises as the Federal Government is determined to revamp the sector to meet global best standards.
What does 2017 hold for aviation sector one may ask? And how should the Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika carry out the herculean task of revamping the sector?
It was the Aviation Minister, Senator Hadi Sirika who first raised alarm bells when he announced that the aviation sector was collapsing, but he reassured Nigerians that the Federal Government was very determined to revamp the sector to meet international standards starting with the shut-down of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, to pave way for rehabilitation work on its runway.
The Abuja airport runway repair was first mooted as far back as 2010. The current brouhaha over the closure of the airport started when the government decided to carry out the over-due repair work on the runway. Last October, Dubai-based Emirates Airline stopped flying to Abuja, blaming the state of the runway among other factors. It was also reported that a South African Airways plane was damaged last August while landing at Abuja.
Perhaps, the main reason for the repairs is that foreign airlines use the airport. If the airports were for local airlines flying only Nigerians, no one should be surprised to see potholes on the runway. At that time, we would depend on our “prayer warriors” for safe flights!
However, Nigerian’s headache should not be whether Abuja airport should be closed or not during repairs which has become a public debate. Nigerians should be more concerned with other aviation infrastructure that is supposed to be put in place in the airport, and other Nigerian airports, for safe aviation operation.
Although, Senator Hadi Sirika recently foreclosed the possibility of yielding to pressure not to temporarily shut down the Nnamdi Azikiwe international Airport, Abuja when he met with members of the House of Representatives committee on Aviation to defend his ministry’s 2017 budget proposal, He also allayed the fears being nursed by travelers that the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway is unsafe.
Many citizens and commentators are criticizing this plan. Some say that the repairs should not warrant the closure of such an international airport, considering that airports in developed countries have undergone repairs while normal scheduled flights still carried on. Others argue that the Kaduna airport is very far from the Federal Capital Territory, and would constitute untold discomfort and security risk to air travellers, thereby discouraging and eventually denying the country revenue from tourism. They suggested using Minna Airport in nearby Niger State, but the road to Minna from Abuja is in a deplorable condition.
It is pertinent to remind Nigerians that a couple of years ago, the budget for the aviation sector was boosted by the past administration with the excuse that the sector was going to be revitalized. But just two years down the lane, we discover that those monies went down the drain as it appears now. There was even a bailout given to airline operators to the tune of N120bn by the Federal Government, but who knows what happened to the money?
In December 2016, Nigerians were stranded in their thousands at the airports because of harmattan haze. However, facts emerged that navigational aids at airports around the country are in a deplorable state and have made flying in the Nigerian airspace virtually impossible during the harmattan season.
South African Airways, Lufthansa and now British Airways say they are suspending Abuja flights until the airport reopens, declining to fly to Kaduna International Airport during the period of repair of the runway at Abuja’s Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport.
Perhaps, it is time to face the pangs and discomfort of travelling to Abuja through Minna and Kaduna; while the Aviation Minister starts looking.
