International businessman with billions of dollars
to his name, Richard Branson, has lambasted the
crop of leaders we have in Nigeria for their high
level greed which, according to him, is killing big
brands wishing to do business with the
government of the country, for the growth of
Nigeria’s economy.
Below is the revelations by Mr. Branson on his
experience in Nigeria…
The chairman of Virgin Atlantic said: “…we have
virgin’s ill-fated footsteps by setting up a new
airline in Africa in conjunction with Nigerian
government…the details of the doomed attempts
to crack the Nigerian market in the 2000s is better
imagined…we put …together a very good airline-
the first airline in West Africa that was ever IOSA/
IATA operational safety audit accredited but
unfortunately it got tied down to the politics of the
country…we led the airlines for 11 years…
“We fought daily battle against government
agents who wanted to daily make fortune from
us, politicians who saw the government 49% as
a meal to seek for all kinds of favour…watchdogs
(regulatory body) that didn’t know what to do
and persistently asking for bribes at any point…
Nigeria people are generally nice but the politicians
are very insane…that may be irony because the
people make up the politicians…
“But those politicians are selfish…we did make
N3billion for the federal government of Nigeria
during the joint venture…realising that the
government didn’t bring nothing to the table/
partnership except dubious debts by the previous
carrier, Nigeria Airways…The joint venture should
have been the biggest African carrier by now if
the partnership was allowed to grow, but the
politicians KILLED it…Nigeria is a country we
SHALL NEVER consider to doing business again..”

In summary Nigerian Politicians are thiefs. From the executive to the legislatures, down to the judiciary. Omo we know all this one before.