By John Ikani
Nigerians on social media have taken turns to berate President Muhammadu Buhari and the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika over the government’s failure to deliver the much advertised proposed national carrier – Nigeria Air.
Sirika had shortly after coming into office in 2015 launched an aviation development roadmap that included a new national carrier and other interventions in the country’s aviation sector as priorities.
According to the aviation minister, the proposed national carrier is a wholly private sector airline with the federal government having a five percent stake
He had disclosed that the federal government would hold 5%, 46% goes to Nigerian entrepreneurs while the remaining 49% would be reserved for strategic equity partners including foreign investors.
The Minister went on to assure that Nigeria Air would officially commence operations in April 2022, a project which he said would create about 70,000 jobs for Nigerians.
However, 1 month after the expiration of the first quarter of 2022, there are no signs of takeoff despite an offer made by Emirates Airline to assist Nigeria in establishing the national carrier.
What Nigerians are saying:
Taking to micro-blogging platform Twitter, concerned Nigerians took jabs at the Nigerian govt failure to deliver on yet another promising project that has gulped public funds.
See some of their reactions below.
These are Nigerians waiting to fly Air Nigeria pic.twitter.com/E2x11FcGaK
— AT| Abubakar Tofa (@AbubakarTofa) May 31, 2022
https://twitter.com/arewatwiitterNG/status/1531731583123787776
https://twitter.com/uniquechukwuma/status/1531460908383612928
After 7 years, see the only visible outcome of Nigeria Air… pic.twitter.com/ZPoveebjcX
— Anti-Agbado! (@Oserume1) May 30, 2022
https://twitter.com/King_Edrah/status/1531599016747847683
