Reps Blast FG For Using Foreign Airlines To Evacuate Nigerians Abroad
POLITICS DIGEST – The House of Representatives has slammed the Federal Government for using foreign airlines to evacuate Nigerians abroad following the continuous spread of COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr Nnolim Nnaji, the Chairman, House Committee on Aviation told journalists in Lagos that Nigeria airlines have the capacity to operate such flights and wondered why the government consistently overlooked the nation’s carriers.
Nnaji specifically said that Nigeria has at least three airlines that have the capacity conduct such operations.
He therefore called on the Federal Government to revert to capable indigenous operators to carry out the evacuation exercise.
Nnaji frowned at the engagement of foreign airlines like Ethiopian Airlines, British Airways and Emirates to airlift stranded Nigerians from Dubai, London and America by the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Covid-19.
The lawmaker called for the immediate cancellation of the contracts and the reversal to the capable domestic operators, noting that America and Britain recently evacuated their citizens from Nigerian without the use of other countries’ carriers.
He described such allocation of services to foreign airlines as a disservice to the local airlines, which he said had done their best to provide patriotic service to Nigerians.
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He charged Minister of Aviation Hadi Sirika to revoke the landing rights already granted the three airlines in the evacuation of Nigerians.
According to a schedule released by the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the first batch of evacuees of 265 from Dubai were expected to arrive Nigeria on Wednesday, May 6,2020, while another 300 are to arrive from London on Friday, May 10 on British Airways and on Monday, May 11 aboard Ethiopian Airline, those coming from United States of America will arrive the country.
Nnaji strongly believed that there are capable Nigerian operators with long haul aircraft that could handle the operations that should have been engaged by the taskforce.
“I am aware that Air Peace has three Boeing 777 aircraft, Max Air has four Boeing 747 and Azman recently acquired Airbus A340-600 series, which can be deployed for these charters.
“Air Peace, apart from the operations it did to evacuate Nigerians from South Africa during the xenophobic attacks last year, has handled two special charters this Covid-19 period to China for medical evacuation and to Israel to evacuate Israeli nationals out of Nigeria and Max Air has been operating in hajj without hitches.
“Why can’t we for once begin to believe in ourselves, why must we look outside for everything? I was thinking that the lessons of this prevailing pandemic would make us change our ways of doing things. Nigerians must demand explanations for this action of the PTF,” he said.
