Allen Onyema, CEO, Air peace, can aptly be described as a stickler for excellence and a pathfinder.
It is a fact that, under his watch, the airline, which started operations a few years ago, had grown in leaps and bounds. His meteoric rise in the aviation business is a thing many Nigerians are happy about as he continues to score many firsts.
Yet, Delta State-born billionaire businessman is not resting on his oars, as he comes across as someone in constant quest to rule the nation’s aviation sector. The entrepreneur comes across as a restless spirit. Indeed, if he were a writer or an artist, one would be right to say that his muse has never left him.
But last Wednesday, he again showed his patriotic side when he personally spoke with the over 300 passengers aboard the Lagos-Abuja flight 7120 on Boeing 777 aircraft.
He reportedly made a call from the aircraft cockpit preaching peace.
He stated, “We must not lose hope in our country. Our diversity is our greatest strength. Nigerians must consistently embrace peace and see the country’s diversity as a source of strength. Nigeria is better off as one indivisible nation. So, balkanizing the country is not the solution.
“Nigeria is for all of us. The bigger Nigeria is the best thing ever that can happen to Nigeria. We don’t need to balkanise this country; we don’t know what we have got having this country called Nigeria. Our diversity should be our strength and not our albatross.
“The diversity we have is the best thing that can ever happen to this nation. Let us make it work; let us stop engaging in blame games. Let us stop engaging in the stigmatisation of ethnicities. Let us work as Nigerians.”
He further told the passengers, “America is the melting point of all ethnicities in the world. You have Igbo-American, Fulani-American; Yoruba American; and Anglo-American from England, from Russia and all over the world. Yet when they get the passport, they profess America.
“However, in my country, with all our capacity, the first thing we profess is our ethnicity: I am an Igbo; I am Yoruba; I am Hausa. Can we stop this? This country can be better than it is. It is not the fault of the government. It is not your fault. It is the collective effort of all of us that can make it work, not just the government alone.
“I want you to have hope in your nation; do not lose hope. Don’t feel that the worst has come to happen. We have passed through this stage before. Let our diversity be our strength, and this country will remain great.”
