Buhari prefers the National creation of carriers – Captain Olumide

Buhari prefers the National creation of carriers – Captain Olumid The interim Chief Executive Officer, Nigeria Air, Capt. Dapo Olumide, speaks on why the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd.), insisted on establishing a national carrier for Nigeria, among other issues, in this interview with Okechukwu Nnodim

Tell us about the Nigeria Air project?

I need to stress that this airline, the Nigeria Air project, is a part of the roadmap that was conceived by President Muhammadu Buhari and its been actively driven by the Minister of Aviation.

The national airline is one aspect of the entire aviation roadmap, which as you know, includes a Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul facility; aircraft leasing; a university that is specifically geared towards educating people in the aviation sector, as opposed to a general university.

For example, if there is a specific law degree in aviation, you can specialize in aviation law. So these are all aspects of the roadmap and Nigeria Air is one of the critical aspects of that roadmap.

Therefore it is much more significant than a lot of people give it credit for.
What is the objective of establishing the airline?

-It is one of the critical aspects of that roadmap. Therefore, it is much more significant than a lot of people give it credit for.
What is the objective of establishing the airline?

The objective of this national airline and the reason the President insisted on us having such a thing was that we need to restore pride in Nigeria within and outside the country.

We need to re-instil in the minds of people that Nigeria with its population of over 200 million, has the capacity, and most people around the world say that Nigerians are the most travelled of any nationality.

Therefore it behoves us as a people to provide that infrastructure for our people to have access to the other parts of the world.Buhari prefers the National creation of carriers – Captain Olumide

And that is the reason for the airline’s slogan, which is ‘Bringing Nigeria closer to the world.’
What is the management of Nigeria Air going to do differently to ensure that the airline does not go down like the defunct Nigeria Airways?

There are all sorts of airline structures around the world, low-cost, ultra-low-cost, legacy, full service, the flag carrier, the national carrier, hybrid, etc. The previous airline that refer tomato red was Nigeria Airways. That was a government-owned and government-run airline. This is a very different scenario.

This is a government airline that has been handed to Nigerian institutional investors who would own 51 per cent at the minimum in the airline. And that is very different from what you had in the airline you were referring to.

This airline, as I said earlier, will have a minimum stake of 51 per cent of Nigerian investors, be they institutional or what have you and the government will, of course, have five per cent.