Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr. Festus Keyamo, SAN, has said contrary to insinuations, Nigeria did not lose any foreign direct investment (FDI) by cancelling the Nigeria Air deal with Ethiopian Airlines.
Keyamo speaking again over the weekend on a webinar hosted by the Renewed Hope team in the UK threatened to make public the deal made by the last administration with Ethiopian Airlines on the establishment of Nigeria Air.
Keyamo insisted that many people would be shocked with the content of the agreement, saying very soon he would make it public for people to see.
The federal government under Sirika as a Minister had chosen Ethiopian Airlines as the equity partner for the national carrier, but no sooner than he took over that Keyamo cancelled the agreement, saying it was bad for Nigeria.
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The Federal High Court in Lagos in the case filed by the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) had also nullified Nigeria Air deal with Ethiopia.
Displaying the agreement with ET, Keyamo said, “This is the master agreement I have here. You’ll be shocked if you read that document.
“After some time, I’ll make it public. I’m not hiding from it. I don’t need a lawyer to read it for me. 33 years of active practice of law tells me what to say.
“This is the Ethiopian Air agreement here. And you’ll be shocked if you look at this. What it simply says is that a foreign government should come and take over our national carrier.
“That is the long and short of the story, because Ethiopian Air was a single major shareholder in that deal. Ethiopian Air is owned by another government in Africa. It’s the same thing they have done to Togo. Togo is a small country. They have done it with Asky owned by Ethiopian Air. We cannot be Togo. I apologize, whoever I’m talking to but we cannot be Togo.
“We are big, we are ambitious. We cannot give up our entire ecosystem to another entity. Because what would have happened in that case is that the Ethiopian government would now be a complete beneficiary of all our BASA (Bilateral Air Service Agreement) routes.”
More worrisome according to him was the fact the agreement gave Ethiopian Airline a total tax exemption.
Keyamo further explained that Nigeria did not lose any FDI for suspending the Nigeria Air.
“We did not lose any foreign direct investment. The investment, where they were going to bring their excess fleet or they were going to bring their leased planes on wet lease, bring it here to fly our flag as a national carrier.
“That’s all they were going to do. And all the profit goes to Addis Ababa. And then who controls Nigeria Air? CEO, Ethiopian, Finance Officer, Ethiopian; Director of Operation, Ethiopian. All the key positions reserved for foreigners. Is that Nigeria Air? Is that a national carrier? I ask? It’s not.
It would be recalled that Mesfin Tasew, Ethiopian Airlines’ Group Chief Executive Officer, had said the establishment of a national carrier in Nigeria was politicised.
He said it was the intention of the Ethiopian Airline, the largest airlines in Africa to help the government establish a profitable airline but the process was politicised as the Nigerian Airlines were opposed to it.
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