http://tribune.com.ng/sun/news/7552-dana-air-crash-nigerians-urgently-deserve-a-national-carrier-gov-akpabio
Written by Shola Adekola, Lagos Sunday, 10 June 2012

AGAINST the backdrop of last Sunday’s plane crash involving MD83 aircraft which belonged to DANA Air killing 153 passengers on board and six people on ground, Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio has called for an immediate need for the floating of a national carrier.

Akpabio, who spoke with some aviation journalists on arrival from an oversea trip Friday night, said it was due to the absence of a national carrier that all manner of questionable private airlines sprang up in the country.

According to him, if the country had had a national carrier, Nigerians would have had alternatives rather than being at the mercy of the private carriers.

Akpabio who was sad following the crash declared during the interview; “we must ensure proper monitoring of all the airlines that operate in Nigeria particularly to be sure that they go for the checks when the need arises and they don’t cut corners.

“As it is now, government must also think of how we can have a national carrier. I don’t see how countries such as Senegal, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, Ethiopia and so on would have their national carriers and Nigeria would be the only major country in Africa that does not have one. I think it is something we must sit down and think about again because the situation now is urgent. We must not even delay it. That a country with 160 million people can stay without a national carrier is unthinkable, almost half of the population has no access to aeroplane, that is the truth. It is because of this gap that people are trying to fill as a result of a lack of national carrier, that we are having mushroom airlines coming on board.

“We must have one in order to move forward. Why should we still have British Airways, Air France, Ethiopian Airline, Kenyan Airways and so on? I think we can’t allow 160 million Nigerians to be without a national carrier. I will want to urge the Federal Government to look at that immediately. For me as a state governor, I would be glad to take part in that because something that looks like a national carrier will give confidence to air travellers.”

Akpabio, who expressed his readiness to partner with government and the private sector for the purpose of giving Nigerians a befitting national carrier, said: “The current administration is capable of bringing up a national carrier because of its international reputation. I don’t mind if we still have to partner with the private sector, but don’t forget that the greatest problem of Nigeria in the past has been corruption and of course cutting corners and all that. If you look at the Nigeria Airways in the past, one-third of the passengers had complementary tickets because they were related to the workers of the airline or they came from the office of the permanent secretary. We must not run it like a ministry, but rather like a commercial entity and I think if we do so, we will succeed.”

“As it is today, you don’t see anybody working in the office of the Prime Minister getting British Airways ticket free. We must stop all the free ticket thing and run it as a commercial entity. Government cannot totally neglect the idea of putting money in social services.”

Aviation Minister Stella Oduah and Her Corrupt Tendencies
That Aviation minister, Stella Oduah, has been named in a string of scams, running into billions of Naira at the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria ( FAAN). Is not a surprise because in Nigeria, corruption is the order of the day.

"Pointblanknews.com sources disclosed that some of the corrupt
practices allegedly perpetrated under the nose and with the active
connivance of Oduah includes the illegal conversion of over N390
million revenue of FAAN for “renovation of toilets at the Murtalla
Mohammed International Airport MMIA”

Other scams are N40 Billion airport remodelling programme, her per
project, which has no budgetary provision, N228 million approved for
the service of two power generating sets, N140 Million approved, and
collected for staff training that never held, and an alleged N1
billion lodged under phony circumstances at Chase Bank."

Sometimes last year, December 2011 to be precise. The Aviation Ministry under Her leadership confirmed receiving the report of the alleged N13 billion fraud on the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria Project of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA.

This is coming on the heels of denial by the agency that the alleged N13bn fraud discovered in the TRACON project was a scam.

The minister’s Special Assistant, Media, Mr. Joe Obi, did confirmed that the report had been submitted to the ministry, but denied the summoning of NAMA Managing Director, Mr. Nnamdi Udoh, to Abuja by the ministry.

Obi, however, declined to comment on steps the ministry would take if Udoh was found wanting on the contract award.

He said: “We can’t pre-empt the action of the ministry until after our own investigation.”

Meanwhile, the General Manager, Public Affairs, NAMA, Mr. Supo Atobatele, insisted that the report was a technical one, adding that the managing director was not summoned to Abuja.

He said: “It’s a technical report on TRACON project and it’s a technical issue. I can tell you that there is no fraud in it. The amount mentioned is almost the entire amount dedicated for the project and if there was such fraud, it means the project was never executed. “Nobody summoned our MD to Abuja on the report. He only went to Abuja for an official assignment and he’s due back”.

A newspaper had reported then that vital components of the €66,500,870 (N13.99 bn) TRACON, were not supplied at the time of installation of the equipment and that many other components installed had never worked since the project started in 2003.

The report also purported that N4bn worth of the components for the project were not supplied, and that those installed never worked, thus flouting the terms of the contract and technical support services agreement (TSSA).

The primary objective of TRACON is to improve surveillance of aircraft in Nigeria’s airspace, and by so doing, improve safety and security of air transport.
The project consists of the provision of the state-of-the-art surveillance systems, including Monopulse Secondary Surveillance Radar (MSSR), RSM970, Integrated Flight and Radar Data Process System, Eurocat 2000-C and other associated equipment for four major airports – Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt, as well as stand alone MSSR RSM 970 in five other locations: Talata-Mafara, Maiduguri, Numan, Obubra and Ilorin.

The contract for TRACON was awarded by the Federal Government to Thales S.A of France, in 2003, with a completion period of 36 months, but due to inconsistent government policies, the project was dragged till October 2010.
The project was commissioned October 18, 2010, by President Gooodluck Jonathan in Abuja when it was still under installation.

Stella Oduah, been named in a string of scams, running into billions of Naira at the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria ( FAAN) is not a surprise, thus Abuja corruption is your name.

dasparrow: @Post

I see where Gov. Akpabio is coming from. We Nigerians call ourselves 'giant of Africa' yet we don't have a national airline carrier of our own. The problem though is maintenance and the ever present corruption. If we can properly maintain the aircraft once we have a national carrier, then okay but if we are going to start cutting corners and giving free tickets to family members and friends, then we should just shelf the idea.