*Says Ethiopia Air paid $250m equity for 49 % ownership of airline
*Declares airline was unveiled by shareholders not FG
*Immediate past House Committee chair denies allegation against him
*Describes Sirika as a drowning man
Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja and Chinedu Eze in Lagos
The immediate past Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, has accused the former Chairman of the House Committee on Aviation, Hon Nnolim Nnaji of demanding for five percent shares in the Nigeria Air.
But reacting to the allegation that he requested for five per cent stake in the planned Nigeria Air,Nnaji, described Sirika as a drowning man struggling to grab anything on his way to survive the barrage of attacks he had been receiving since his controversial unveiling ceremony of Nigeria Air.
Sirika made the allegation yesterday while appearing on ‘THISDAYLIVE,’ a programme monitored on Arise News to clarify controversies that trailed the haphazard unveiling of Air Nigeria on May 29 when the Buhari administration was handling over power.
Nnaji had declared the launch of Air Nigeria as a fraud and had urged the Ministry of Aviation to immediately suspend flight operations and every other actions with respect to Nigeria Air.
Members of his committee had also called for Sirika’s arrest and investigation, and had alleged that Nigeria Air was a fraud and a personal project packaged as a national project.
But Sirika in the interview alleged that Nnaji met him in private to make the demand, “for himself and his people” and said that it was the inability of the Chairman House Committee to get same that led to the current House hearing and accusations against him.
“I need to respond to my friend, the former Chairman House Committee on Aviation, Hon Nnaji, who said it was a fraud. What I said to him in private I will say it now. He asked me to indulge him and give him five per cent stake in the airline.
“What I told him in private about that five per cent was that it belongs to the owners. I believe that if they were willing they would offer him if he had the money. It was not me giving it.
“I was not involved in the bidding process and I am very sure they would have reserved five per cent for him and his people according to him. But he should approach them to get the five percent that he needed,” Sirika said.
When prodded further, the former Aviation Minister said: “He asked me and you know I record all my things anyway. I have to be very clear. He asked me to give him five per cent of Nigeria Air and to carry him along with his people. And I said to him that time: ‘Look Hon, you didn’t understand this. This is a bidding process that has taken place. And some people won’. I think he should go to those people and ask them for five percent. “I wanted to reassure him that even the five percent held by the federal government would go to the market and he should get his money ready and buy for himself and his people according to him.”
When Siriki was pressed if Nnaji and the members of the Aviation Committee were asking to be bribed before they could support the establishment of Nigeria Air, he again responded:
“No. In other words, to be fair, he did not say other members. He said he wanted for him and his people –people could be his family, could be the members, could be the leadership. I did not know what he meant.
“But he said for him and his people five per cent. I said he should relax and approach the owners. That exactly was what I told him in camera. Remember I had been in House of Reps 20 years ago. And 10 years ago I was a Senator, so I know how the whole thing is.
‘You call for public hearing and right after the public hearing you just turn the paper and read the riot act. What is the practice in the National Assembly is that after hearing from people and the complaint, you now go and sit down as a committee. The clerk will do their job, you now sit down, discuss the issues, raise them and approach the whole house and take the position of the house and leadership and come back and make your findings known. But not immediately by reading a riot act.
“It means it is predetermined. They asked if we are not part of this. Off course it is an executive act and function. You can’t be part of it but you have been overseeing the ministry for four years. It is now that you know that there is fraud in the airline. “We started it in 2016. It means you did not do your work. If you have been very diligent you would have found out whether there was corruption or fraud,” Sirika said.
The former minister vehemently defended Buhari from stage-managing the controversial unveiling of Nigeria Air in Abuja, on the day of its departure, saying rather the launch was done by the consortium of owners as their marketing strategy.
He said Nigeria Air is a company known to the Nigerian law as Nigeria Air Limited.
According to him under the business structure, the federal government holds five per cent which is held in trust by Ministry of Finance Incorporated while Ethiopia, the strategic partner, holds 49 percent. The equity of the Ethiopian to their capital in the business is $250 million.
Other shareholders are MRS, 31 per cent while SAHCOLS holds 15 percent.
Siriki also said he found the allegation that the business was shrouded in secrecy quite disturbing and mind boggling.
He said Nigeria Air was advertised during the procurement stage in the national dailies and The Economist while there was a business conference which had in attendance members of the airline operators from Nigeria.
“We had a whole website dedicated and regulated by ICRC. The whole world knew about the bidding and some of the bidders asked for extension of time and we gave them four weeks. And it was open and someone won.
“So where is the secrecy? We had six stakeholder conferences to discuss Nigeria Air. We had an outside business trip where we presented it to the public and stakeholders. And the meeting was done transparently. And don’t forget the Ministry of Finance and National Planning, the Attorney General and Aviation Minister were members of the evaluation team ICRC also issued a compliance certificate. I think it is in their imagination,” Sirika said.
He insisted the federal government incurred no payment to bring in an airline for the flag off adding that out of the N5 billion that was budgeted over years for setting up of Nigeria Air only N3bilion was released over the period.
He also denied that 15- year tax holiday was granted to the airline as reported. He said Nigeria Air would operate like all others.
Sirika said local airlines had been supported by the Ministry and also had exemptions from tax, VAT, custom duties among others.
He added that Air Peace as an indigenous airline that had all approvals for international routes it applied for, went ahead and rented 777’s and kept them sitting on tarmac incurring over $10 million in debt over the period, while Arik was indebted to the tune of N300 billion and thus not worthwhile to start a new airline with such debt and litigation.
Sirika stated that 50 per cent of all airlines operating today in Nigeria were done under Buhari and under his supervision as the minister.
“None of them ever had reason to come and see me as minister. Nigeria Air will not be treated differently from them. During our period aviation became the fastest growing sector, our airlines have doubled, our airports have doubled, our passenger numbers have tripled. We were safe and secure. We were efficient”.
The ex-minister debunked the allegation that N85 billion had been spent on the Air Nigeria project, saying the budgetary allocation for the airline was N5 billion and less than N3 billion had been expended so far.
He also said the bulk of the money was spent on consultancies, salaries, administrative costs, among others.
However, in swift reaction, in a statement titled, “Sirika Lied about My 5 Per cent Demand on Air Nigeria,’ Nnoli stated: “Ordinarily l would not have bothered to reply to his allegations of my demand for five percent equity in Nigeria Air as he claimed during his interview on Arise Television, but l believe l owe my constituents and indeed Nigerians a duty to put the records straight.
“It is on record that last year when the Minister announced Ethiopian Airlines as core investor in Nigeria Air, my committee which was also inundated with petitions from various stakeholders regarding that announcement invited the Minister and his team to furnish the committee with the details of the project.
“The committee requested for the evidence of the bid process that gave Ethiopian Airlines the award and, the full business case as prepared by the Nigerian Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, (ICRC) which was supposed to spell out the details of all the investors and their equity contributions.”
He also recalled that at that meeting Sirika said it (Full Business Case) was still being worked out by the ICRC and promised to make it available to the committee as soon as it was ready, which he failed to do before Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) took the Ministry to court and got injunction restraining it from going ahead with the project.
“Of course, we suspended our discussions and enquiries on the project the moment court got involved. Normally when a matter is before the court the parliament does not discuss it.
“However, on May 20th 2023, l received reports of threats of mass resignations by key personnel of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) due to pressures from the Ministry to give waivers to Nigeria Air to enable it secure Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) so that it could take off before the exit of the last administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“I quickly issued a statement, warning the former Minister against subverting the authority of NCAA because of its severe consequences on the Nigeria’s air transport sector. It is also a common knowledge that the Nigerian institutional investors he mentioned as participants have all denied him,”Nnoli said.
He also added, “It is not strange that Sirika came up with this spurious allegation against my person because l remained consistent in demanding that he followed due process. He should not deviate from the subject matter. Let him tell Nigerians the truth about the contraption he sold to us as Nigeria Air. Nnolim Nnaji is not his problem.”
