By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
The outbreak of Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic which disrupted every segment of human activities has made it impossible for the launch of the new national carrier this year as earlier scheduled.
Also, the Federal Executive Council presided over by Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo on Wednesday approved the contract for the procurement, equipment and installation of accident investigation towable mobile offices worth the sum of N201,150,437.21 for the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) to enable its performance duties creditably.
Speaking to State House Correspondents on Wednesday after the weekly FEC meeting, Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, revealed that the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) memorandum in favour of AIB to procure important equipment to facilitate the proper discharge of its duties was approved by the Council.
According to Sirika:”Today in Council we presented a memo from Civil Aviation and the memo is in favour of Accident Investigation Bureau and of course, you know, Accident Investigation Bureau, they are like the aviation pathologists who carry out investigations to determine causes of accidents, to keep us all safe for future occurrence.
“The contract is for the procurement, equipment and installation of accident investigation towable mobile offices in favour of Messrs. Crases Integrity Services Limited. The total contract sum is N201,150,437.21. The purpose of this equipment, once purchased, if there is, God forbid, an accident anywhere, these mobile offices will be driven to the location and an office will be established for the purposes of taking data, collecting samples and gathering information regarding the incident and then analysing them on site and tagging them and doing all sorts of things there and you know, this can take any time, sometimes a few hours, sometimes even weeks.
“These locations will normally be remote from any part of town, city or organised infrastructure to be used. So that’s why there’s a need to have these mobile towable offices. They will come in the truck that will pull them to the location and provide for facilities that they could use, like stalls, like where they can put the exhibits and so on and item that they collect for this purpose”, he said.
Asked to bring Nigerians up to speed on setting up of the National Carrier, the Minister said: “It is still in top gear, we are coming back to Council, hopefully within the next two weeks, to present the memo on the national carrier. We went to Council to approve the outline business case for the carrier and then the Council raised some questions and asked us to go and fair the memo again and bring it back. So, once it comes back and the outline business case is approved by Council, then of course, we will now go to the full business case, which is now going to the market and then establishing the national carrier.
“It was our (FG) intention to have a national carrier running in 2021, which is this year, unfortunately due to COVID, which took the greater part of last year, since March last year, activities are almost impossible. This in itself, though negatively affected civil aviation in terms of the establishment of the national carrier, it makes it much better time to establish the carrier than before. Of course, for obvious reasons, we now have access to equipment, that they will come faster to us, deliveries of the aircrafts will be faster, perhaps even the rates might be cheaper and so on, and so forth.
“So, we’ll go to Council on that and then we’ll further brief you, but it’s on top gear and we need it more than yesterday. The COVID-19 has exposed the nation, that the lack of having a very strong, viable airline is bad for the economy of Nigeria, and for any country for that matter. His ministry, Tourism, for example, is badly affected by lack of its presence.
“Finally, it’s to just say that Nigeria is the best candidate to have an airline; 200 million mobile people that travel, sometimes almost for nothing; sitting within the West African subregion, 400 million people; contiguous with Central Africa, 600 million people, twice the population of the US, equal to the population of the entire continental Europe; at the centre of Africa, Nigeria; equal distance from all locations; rising middle class, proficiency to fly is high. Nigeria is the best candidate for a very robust carrier.
Probed further if 2021 is still possible for the launch, Sirika said: “No, the new date will be… In this 2021, we’ll try to do all the needful and probably we intend to start operations somewhere around first quarter 2022”.
