Nigeria Air Project Remains Suspended, Keyamo Clarifies

•Says Abuja second runway to be completed in 12 months

Sumaina Kasim

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, yesterday, said the long-awaited Nigeria Air project remains suspended despite speculations of its revival.

Keyamo, while speaking to journalists during a facility tour of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA) in Abuja, addressed concerns surrounding the project and firmly stated that he would not overlook potential red flags associated with the project.

He noted concerns of Nigerians about the project, saying, “the Nigeria Air project will not commence until all documents signed before, during and after the alleged launch of the project are thoroughly scrutinised.”

According to him, “Well, the next step will be for the federal government as a body, not just me as minister, to look at all the reports which I’m putting before them to make a final decision?

“So, no final decision has been taken on all of these, but I won’t be here because it will be very irresponsible of me as a minister to come in and agencies of governments are raising red flags here and there, and I will keep quiet.

“I’m not talking about even Nigerians complaining, agencies of government are raising red flags about the project. And I, as a functionary of government as a minister, will then wave all of those red flags away.”

Keyamo, expressed dissatisfaction with the deteriorating condition of certain airport facilities and committed to institute a culture of maintenance within the airport.

“Now on a visit to most of our airports, those are the problems we are facing. Even with this new facility, I understand only four of the ten chillers are working. Now, what is the immediate solution? I have told them that my mentality to some of these things is that for example, most of those lifts that are obsolete instead of fixing them and fixing them and by the time you fix them three times, you are almost buying a new one. I told them to get rid of them. Let us buy high quality lifts to promote a new brand here.

“The ones I saw here are not good enough. I know about lifts; they’re not good enough. So, I will not be here for them to go and buy substandard lifts again, the ones that can take high traffic and we see them all over the world. Lifts are not what you just buy locally. There are good brands all over the world.

“So I’ve told them to get rid of these lifts. I won’t spend the money repairing them every two months. That’s my attitude towards it. Let’s be patient.

“Now, beyond that we should also have a maintenance culture. If we cannot maintain these things internally because these things are more like consumables in quotes. Let us get people who can maintain them and we can hold them responsible.”

On the Abuja second runway, the Minister said compensation to the host communities had begun, adding that the project would be completed in 12 months.

“You know I had to go and meet the FCT Minister to get that project off the ground in terms of clearing the obstacles on the way. So, as of today the report I have is the money we paid to FCT for them to pay to the settlers there, they have started paying them and they started moving.

“This is a project Nigerians have been waiting for forever. It has been a controversial project from President Obasanjo time to now. Well, thankfully, this government is set to commence that project and it’s one of the projects that is a low hanging fruit for us and we think it’s extremely important.

“I pray that all agencies of government, the National Assembly, the presidency, will give us the support to make sure we deliver that project within 12 months”, he said.