The Federal Government has announced the indefinite suspension of the Air Nigeria airline project.
The Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo, who disclosed this during a ministerial briefing commemorating the first year of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, said the though airline was given a national identity by the immediate past administration but was not genuinely Nigerian.
He maintained: “The airline was never a Nigerian airline but an attempt to use a foreign airline to pose as a Nigerian national airline.”
According to him, the carrier was primarily a foreign endeavour masquerading as a national initiative
The minister stressed the need for transparency and authenticity in all initiatives in the aviation sector, adding that the government will adopt a more stringent oversight and regulatory regime in the sector to sustain its growth.
Keyamo assured that future initiatives in the aviation sector would be pursued with greater diligence and adherence to national interests.
It would be recalled that the Air Nigeria project championed by the immediate past minister, Hadi Sirika, who is now facing sundry charges of alleged corruption in the court of law, had been trailed by controversies and skepticism from its inception.
Most industry stakeholders had raised questions about the modalities used in establishing the airline as well as rush adopted by the minister to hastily launch the project, with what later became very clear to the public that the aircraft used for the launching was owned by Ethiopian Airlines painted in the Nigerian national colour.
