On The Brouhaha Over Nigeria Air

THE ALTERNATIVE

By Reno Omokri

A lot has been written about the emerging Nigeria Air airline, and much of the chatter is not about Nigeria Air. It is a continuation of the 2023 election, and the determination of certain people to be prejudiced and biased, and give the worst possible interpretation to anything emanating from the former administration or the nascent one.

Ask them to reduce their misgivings about this airline, and they begin twiddling their thumbs. If this initiative came from their preferred presidential candidate, they would have praised it to high heavens. But as it did not, then they must denigrate, whether or not it is good for the nation.

Nigeria is not finished because we do not have a national airline. That type of thinking is upside down and intellectually lazy. What is America’s national airline? None. They only have commercial airlines. Yet, they are the greatest economic and military power on Earth.

Airlines are often better left to the private sector. Chiefly because they are cumbersome to run. It can often be a loss-making business. Please research it. The airline industry lost $200 billion last year alone.

We pray that this Nigeria Air, introduced at the tail end of the Buhari administration, survives. And if there is any corruption or attempt to steal money, we will fight the government and expose them. But we should not just criticise and fight any government for the sake of fighting. Or use an innocent gesture to promote our hidden agenda to break away from Nigeria.

Virgin Atlantic was established in 1984 by Richard Branson with one aircraft. On Friday, 22 June 1984, the airline commenced operations with a flight from Gatwick Airport in the UK to Newark Airport, New Jersey, USA, using a leased Boeing 747-200 with the registration G-VIRG.

Thirty-nine years later, Virgin Atlantic is one of the most successful airlines in the world, with annual revenue of $3 billion and staff strength of over ten thousand.

So, what exactly is wrong with starting Nigeria Air with a leased plane?

Last month, Air Peace, the darling of the people now criticising Nigeria Air, wet-leased two B737s. Please do not take my word for it. Research it for yourself. If wet-leasing was such a bad thing, why did they not criticise Air Peace (an excellent airline, by the way)?

You see, their quarrel is not with wet-leasing or Nigeria Air. For a lot of these individuals, their fight is with Nigeria. And that angst was further inflamed recently as they saw their hopes of stealthily seizing power at the centre evaporate

We should not let people with a hidden agenda gaslight us into fighting our own country and think we are fighting bad politicians.

Emirate Airlines, which many Nigerians love to fly, started off in 1985 with two airlines provided to them by Pakistan International Airlines. Today, they are thriving. If there is something to criticise, please sòrò sóké. But do not just criticise because your party is not in government.

Ruga was a bad idea. Arresting Nnamdi Kanu was a wrong move. The Northernisation of our National Security Council was a horrible thing to do. And we criticised all of those. But Nigeria Air is a good idea. Even starting it with a wet-leased aircraft is an even better idea than starting it with a new one. If the government does badly, let us cane them with koboko. But if they perform well, we should be objective and praise them with the same ferocity.

It is the usual aviation practice for fledgling airlines to commence operations with a leased aircraft. Even corporations like banks, telecommunications companies, breweries, and power firms tend to lease vehicles rather than buy them. It is no biggie.

And sadly, too many opposition politicians know this but are too afraid of bucking the trend and telling the truth because they are afraid that the headless mob will accuse them of wanting to join the ruling All Progressives Congress, and they are not mentally strong enough to resist the cyberbullying.

Be assured that these criticisms against Nigeria Air are not altruistic. They are organised by people who hate Nigeria. One example is Oby Ezekwesili, who has turned herself into a vuvuzela for the Indigenous People of Biafra, her name may as well be IPOby.

On Wednesday, March 28, 2018, she tweeted as follows:

I actually believed that at some point, the FG would have “advised itself” & known that the so-called “National Carrier project” IS A WASTE.

Sadly, not so as they are determined on what is CLEARLY A WRONG PRIORITY. It SHALL FAIL. For the sake of the country, it MUST FAIL.   

So, how would you expect someone with a vested interest in the failure of Nigeria Air to be objective?

This is the same Oby that danced naked in the streets when Deborah Samuel was burnt to death, but has remained silent till today after a pregnant Northerner from Adamawa, Harira Jubril, was killed by unknown gunmen in broad daylight, with her four underaged daughters, Fatima, 9; Khadijah, 7; Hadiza, 5; and Zaituna, 2.

Harira and her children were killed in Anambra on May 22, 2022. Oby Ezekwesili has NEVER condemned or even acknowledged the killings. Deborah Samuel was killed on May 12, 2022. Oby Ezekwesili condemned it the same day.

She has also not condemned the killing of US embassy personnel by Unknown Gunmen in her state and close to her local government on Tuesday, May 16, 2023.

On Thursday, March 9, 2023, Oby Ezekwesili tweeted as follows:

“The ethnic baiting currently going on in Lagos is terribly unfortunate.”

However, on an evidentiary basis, there is more video and documented evidence of people of Igbo origin being physically beaten and otherwise harassed by their own kith and kin for daring to vote for either the Peoples Democratic Party or the All Progressives Congress during the February 25, 2023, Presidential and National Assembly elections. Yet, Oby Ezekwesili has not tweeted or squeaked about that until today.

And these are the types of Nigerian by day, IPOB by night characters you are allowing to influence your views on Nigeria Air?

If Emirati citizens were like Nigerians, such as IPOby, Emirates would have never taken off. They would have criticised it so severely that foreigners would start thinking, ‘If their own people are insulting it so badly, why should I fly it?’

Let me again say there is NOTHING wrong with starting an airline with a wet lease. That is how Virgin Atlantic started. That is how Air Arabia began. And as established as they are, FinnAir is still wet-leasing aircraft from British Airways. Give Nigeria Air a chance. Fight the All Progressives Congress. Fight Bola Tinubu. But don’t fight what can benefit Nigeria.

On this Nigeria Air issue, people like Oby Ezekwesili have a hidden agenda. They cannot come out and declare open support for IPOB. So by their actions. They declare indirect, covert support by undermining any positive thing the Nigerian state does. IPOby has denounced Nigeria Air and tweeted that “IT MUST FAIL”. What about the Second Niger Bridge that the Nigerian Government built to benefit the Southeast. Why has she not praised or even acknowledged it? Or ‘IT MUST FAIL’ too?

This woman had never one day said IPOB or unknown gunmen MUST FAIL. But it is Nigeria Air that must fail. Maybe the Federal Government should change the name to IPOB Air before Oby says IT MUST SUCCEED!

Look at the lengths she went with #BringBackOurGirls because it happened in the North. How many people have been abducted, kidnapped, and made to disappear in the Southeast? Hundreds. Madame IPOby has not gone to roll on the floor in front of Aso Rock for them.

Apparently, to Oby Ezekwesili and her ilk, charity belongs in the North and Southwest, not at home!

Buhari,You Lied!

On May 29, 2015, when President Goodluck Jonathan handed over to General Buhari, Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product was $509.9. Please do not take my word for it. Verify it by yourself. In 2023, as Buhari prepares to hand over to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, our Gross Domestic Product is an estimated $450 billion.

From the above,  Buhari’s statement in his so-called farewell broadcast to the nation, in which he said “I am confident that I am leaving office with Nigeria better in 2023 than in 2015″ is a very provocative and blatant lie.

In 2915, we only had a national security threat of Boko Haram. Today, we have threats from Boko Haram, bandits; and unknown gunmen, amongst others.

In 2015, the Naira was N199 to $1. Today, it is N750 to $1. In 2015, our total foreign debt was $10.7 billion. Today, it is almost $50 billion.

In 2015, Nigeria was 136 in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index. In 2023, we are 150.

So, exactly in what area of our national life has Buhari made ‘Nigeria better in 2023 than in 2015’?

The only thing we can now say to Buhari is that you were a mistake and may you go and may you   NEVER return to power to afflict us again. In Yeshua’s Name, I pray.

And A Word For Osinbajo

Vice-President Osinbajo is complaining that N250,000 monthly pension for him as an ex-VP is insufficient. Then how does he expect the man earning N30,000 minimum wage to survive? For eight years, he chaired the National Economic Council. He never advocated for a pay rise for Nigerian workers. Now that he is about to go after attempting, and failing, to stab Tinubu in the back, he wants a pay rise. Really? Under President Jonathan, N250,000 was equivalent to $1300. Today, it is just $300. And instead of the man who headed Nigeria’s economic management team for the last eight years to be ashamed, he is asking us to feel sorry for him and give him a pay rise. A lecturer that was picked up and dusted by Tinubu and made an “ordinary commissioner” before being made a Vice President by Tinubu. Yet, he was so greedy he wanted to drag the APC Presidential ticket with his benefactor. Now, he is looking for pity because N250,000 is too small for him? What did Chinua Achebe say in Things Fall Apart? “Those whose Palm kernels were cracked for them by a benevolent spirit should not forget to be humble.” Some people, sha!