By Giwa SHILE
A former President of the Aviation Round Table (ART), Capt. Dele Ore, says the Federal Government does not need to appoint Transaction Advisers for Nigeria to successfully implement its Roadmap for the Aviation Sector.
Ore made this known during a press briefing on Tuesday in Lagos ahead of the launch of his autobiography, ” The Learned Commander”, scheduled for April 4.
TBI Africa said that the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Minister of State for Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, had unveiled Nigeria’s roadmap for the aviation sector in 2017.
It included strengthening of security infrastructure, airports concession, establishment of a national carrier, establishment of a Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) centre and establishment of an Aviation Leasing Company.
The government had thereafter appointed some transaction advisers to midwife the processes of actualising the roadmap which would make Nigeria a foremost aviation hub in Africa.
However, Ore said the position of the ART remains that it is unnecessary to appoint transaction advisers when the country has competent experts that are ready to assist the government in bringing the projects to birth.
He stressed that while it was good for the country to have a national or flag carrier, such moves would continue to have challenges until the issue surrounding the former workers of Nigeria Airways was resolved.
Ore, a former Director of Flight Operations of the defunct national carrier, said although government had paid a part of their entitlements, it should go ahead and clear the balance as soon as possible.
According to Ore, who is a pilot and also a lawyer, the purpose behind the book is to give insight into the Nigerian aviation industry and how the former national carrier went into oblivion.
For instance, he said Nigeria Airways which once had 32 aircraft in its fleet was mismanaged to the extent that it had less than five serviceable aircraft during its challenging period.
Ore said in order to cut cost of operations, the management in one instance sacked 47 pilots which further worsened the airline’s situation.
He, however, blamed undue interference from the successive military governments for the fate which befell Nigeria Airways, noting that the airline had 10 Managing Directors in 15 years.
NAN reports that the former national carrier was liquidated in 2004 by the President Olusegun Obasanjo government without paying the workers their severance packages as stipulated in extant labour laws.
The workers were paid a fraction of their entitlements by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s regime in 2008 before President Muhammadu Buhari approved the payment of N22. 6 billion out of their N45 billion entitlements to them.
