Nigerian govt moves to compel public officers to fly Nigerian carrier

The Federal Government yesterday announced that it had commenced moves
that would compel any public servant travelling on a ticket bought
with public funds to travel on a Nigerian carrier.

According to the Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, the
government is making moves to have the National Assembly pass a 'Fly
Nigeria Act' in order to make indigenous airlines viable.

The minister also declared that it was false to state that Nigeria Air
lacked a domain name, adding that those who wanted to steal the
airline's domain name would not get a kobo from the Federal
Government.

In a chat with the media in Abuja on Tuesday, the minister said, "As
part of efforts to make airlines viable in Nigeria, the ministry is
making moves to have the National Assembly pass a fly Nigeria Act.

"This Act will require that anybody travelling on a ticket bought with
public funds must travel on a Nigerian carrier unless the route is not
served by a Nigerian carrier. However, with your private funds, you
can do as you like. Many countries, including America, have such
Acts."

On Nigeria Air's domain name, Sirika stated that, "part of the
falsehood being spread is the lack of a domain name" for the carrier.

He explained that as part of the airline's public-private partnership
project development phase, Nigeria Air Limited was currently
incorporated with the Corporate Affairs Commission as a wholly
government-owned company, with the Corporate Affairs Commission using
nominal directors of the Federal Ministry of Aviation as directors of
the national airline.

He said, "On conclusion of the PPP procurement process, when full
equity structure pre-financial close is finalised, the incorporation
will be updated and the certificate of incorporation made public.
Nigeria Air Limited is indeed a legal entity.

"Further to the incorporation of the company with nominal directors,
the domain name has been reserved and will be made active very soon as
part of the project evolution and marketing process. Some people,
whose only desire is to steal Nigeria's commonwealth by hawking domain
names, will not a get a kobo from the people of Nigeria. They can eat
their domain names."

Sirika said a lot of false claims were being peddled on various social
media platforms about Nigeria Air and vowed that the government would
deliver on the carrier as it delivered on the Nnamdi Azikiwe
International Airport runway in Abuja.

The minister stated, "The current campaign of falsehood, unfortunately
reminds me of what happened when we decided for safety reasons to
close the Abuja airport and make repairs that had been abandoned for
years.

"The same group of Nigerians went to the social media spreading
falsehood. We stayed on course and delivered the runway, which has
served now faultlessly. As we delivered on the Abuja runway repairs,
so shall we on the national carrier and we will not bow to falsehood."

Sirika further noted that the national carrier was being procured as a
PPP project.

"Nigeria's PPP process has three phases. One is an internal government
bankability process, the business case phase; and the other two
external. The process cycle is PPP development phase, outline business
phase and PPP procurement – request for qualification and request for
proposal to pre-qualify and select PPP partners; and PPP
implementation."