The Senior Special Assistant, Media, and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, Garba Sheu has assured that Nigeria Air would bring succour to Nigerians.
Shehu, who stated this on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Thursday, praised the Minister of Aviation Hadi Sirika for his commitment to ensure that the airline becomes a reality, while noting that many Nigerians will benefit from the project.
Garba said, “It would be to the relief of Nigerians, certainly, it is something that is going to be a game-changer, especially for international travel.”
“The minister has been bashed unfairly all over the place. He has been doing this, all of the commitment to put this airline in place but simply obstacles have been put on his part every inch of the way, until just a week or two ago when the thing was cleared for its resumption,” he said.
“I don’t blame him. He wants to make history, the minister wants to push for a new airline. So, it is honourable that he wants to kickstart it Friday, which is 24 hours from now. It would be to the relief of Nigerians, certainly, it is something that is going to be a game-changer, especially for international travel.”
Garba, while admitting that the project had been impeded by lots of challenges, stressed that there’s no policy memo on anything that has done the zigzag that Nigerian Air has done in the last 8 years of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
The president’s aide also stated that the collaboration with Ethiopian Airways is in the best interest of the country.
He said, “This is entirely different because past attempts have been made to use resources from the treasury to run a business.
“Government is simply a bad manager of businesses. We would continue to fail so long as these things are run by the government.
“This realization is simply the fact that the government of Nigeria would be a minority shareholder in this enterprise, it is going to be essentially business run and that would mean that it would succeed,” he said.
Nigeria Air plane arrives May 26 – Sirika
Ahead of its operations, Senator Hadi Sirika, the Minister of Aviation, has confirmed that the Nigeria Air will arrive on Friday.
Sirika, while disclosing this on a television station, said that a Nigeria Air aircraft will land in the country in two days as part of commencement processes of the operations and unveiling of the delivery process.
The Minister assured that the aircraft would be unveiled in Nigeria’s colours in fulfilment of all the promises made by the administration in the aviation sector, while noting that the only incomplete item is the aerotropolis, which is the airport city and is 60 percent complete.
He added that the groundwork has been completed and are looking to conclude work on the airport city by the next administration.