Festus Keyamo, Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, has shed light on the controversial Nigeria Air project, revealing unsettling details about the agreements signed by his predecessor, Hadi Sirika.
In a widely circulated video, Keyamo unveiled sections of the agreement documents, dissecting clauses inked between Sirika and the Ethiopian government.
According to Keyamo, these agreements effectively positioned a foreign airline to take control of Nigeria’s proposed national carrier.
Keyamo declared, “You will be shocked if you look at this agreement. What it simply says is that a foreign government should come and take over our national carrier. Ethiopian Air was the single major shareholder in that deal. It is the same thing they did in Togo with Asky. We cannot be Togo. We are big and ambitious.”
He expressed concerns over the implications of such a deal, emphasizing that it would have handed over Nigeria’s aviation ecosystem to another nation.
“We cannot give up our aviation ecosystem to another entity. What would have happened is that the Ethiopian government would now be the complete beneficiary of all our Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASA) routes. A national carrier has first priority over all the BASA routes we have negotiated all over the world. If we give them all the routes we have suffered to negotiate, where will all those profits go? It is not Nigeria,” he added.
Keyamo further clarified that Nigeria’s decision to terminate the agreement did not result in any loss of foreign direct investment.
He accused the Ethiopian government of planning to operate Nigeria Air using wet-leased aircraft, with profits directed entirely to Addis Ababa.
The minister also highlighted startling terms within the agreement: “The CEO of Nigeria Air would have been an Ethiopian, the financial officer Ethiopian, the director of operations Ethiopian, and all other key positions would have been reserved for foreigners. That is not a national carrier.”
Even more alarming, Keyamo revealed that the agreement stipulated no tax obligations for the operators, no infrastructure investments in Nigeria, and that Nigeria would serve as a guarantor for any losses incurred.
This revelation follows Keyamo’s announcement last May of the indefinite suspension of the Nigeria Air project. Although reports suggest N85 billion was spent on the failed initiative, Sirika has maintained that the expenditure amounted to N3 billion.
Keyamo’s exposé has reignited public discourse on the controversial project, raising critical questions about its conception and the interests it sought to serve.