….’It was so bad that our local operators couldn’t have access to best aircraft’

…’I have no power over multiple taxation of local airlines’

….Says no going back on refurbishing old terminal at MMIA

By Dickson Omobola

Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo, in this exclusive interview, assesses the air transport sector under his leadership. He also speaks on the gale of defections that rocked Delta State’s politics and the emerging coalition aiming to unseat President Bola Tinubu in 2027. Excerpts:

Looking at the aviation industry since you assumed office, would you confidently say that you have tackled the problems you inherited?

The issues in the aviation industry are very multifaceted. What we can say confidently at this point is that we have been able to identify almost all the problems, and we have solved some. We are still working on others. However, we have a clear direction on how to solve some problems. We are confident that by the end of the first tenure of President Bola Tinubu, Nigerians will be very proud of the kind of aviation industry they will have.

What are those challenges you identified, and how have you surmounted them?

Now, the first one we clearly have been able to address is the low global and international confidence in our aviation ecosystem. Before we came into office, lessors and financiers across the world treated Nigeria as a pariah nation. That was when our local operators could not access the best of aircraft. In most cases, they could not access dry leases because lessors felt that our ecosystem was not safe enough. Our jurisdiction was not safe enough for them to bring in their aircraft, especially their very high value and new aircraft. That was why our global score in terms of compliance with leasing agreements was as low as 49 per cent, which was considered a very low score globally. What did we do? We tried to do what is right in order to bring back global confidence in our system. So we addressed the issue of non-compliance by our local operators and also our judiciary. We went back to the Cape Town Convention and dusted it. We engaged the Aviation Working Group, AWG, and global financiers, and they clearly told us where we had erred. They identified these things and said that was the reason for their unwillingness to give out aircraft to our local operators and people within our ecosystem. So we had to do what we had to do. Remember, it was a buzz at that time when we complied with the Cape Town Convention in terms of the practice direction that we enacted. After enacting the practice direction, our score went up from 49 per cent to 70.5 per cent. We also went beyond that. We tweaked the administrative rules called Irrevocable Deregistration and Export Request Authorisation, IDERA. We tweaked the rules, and after tweaking the rules to meet global standards, our score went up again to 75.5 per cent. Not only did the score go up, we actually engaged in practical compliance. There had been two or three cases of decisions we had to quickly take regarding aircraft that fell into such a rule, and we had to apply IDERA. After that, we got global acclaim. As it is today, our local operators now have more power, more access to financiers and lessors across the world, and they are in touch with us. If you ask the local operators, they will tell you how easy it is for them to negotiate. We are not there yet in terms of their complete assets, but they have access now. They have access to some of the best financiers and global lessors across the world. If not for the shortage of global aircraft – so many orders have not been met by the financiers and the lessors to the manufacturing companies – you would have begun to see a lot of aircraft across the world into Nigeria. But very soon, we are going to witness that. I think this is one of the greatest achievements for us. The second one, of course, is to renegotiate our routes back to London. We have been badly treated under our Bilateral Air Service Agreements with many countries in the world. But we are getting there now. The first, of course, is that we had to insist on our rights, our reciprocal rights under the Lagos-London route, which, of course, Air Peace has started flying. Of course, that has made that route a bit competitive for British Airways and other airlines. And the prices have been competitive since then. It is not as low as we wanted, but I think it is very competitive. British Airways and other airlines like Virgin know now that they have a very great competitor. And that is because we insisted on our reciprocal rights on our BASA routes. Those are some of the major concerns we have addressed. We have also addressed the issue of our local caterers who have been in limbo for long because foreign airlines come into Nigeria and go back with their own packaged food. We have insisted that that will not happen again, and they have to patronise our sky caterers here. Many of them have complied. 90 per cent of foreign airlines have complied with that directive, and they have signed agreements with our local caterers, our sky caterers, to begin to patronise them on their outbound flights.

In your roadmaps for the aviation sector, you promised to support local operators. By August, you will be two years in office, yet local operators are still complaining about multiple taxes and inability to access forex which is critical to the survival of their business…

Before this interview, I just spoke with someone within the system over this issue. The person’s name can not be mentioned. There is a committee on this multiple taxation in the aviation sector. And, you know, that is outside my powers. When it comes to revenue of the federal government, I do not have full powers over taxes. But as I speak with you, there is a committee working on it, and that is how much we have pushed it. I want to look after the affairs of local airlines. They (the committee) are looking at the multiple taxation of these local airlines, which, of course, affects prices of tickets. And I can assure you that very soon, you will see that they will be streamlined. So just be patient with that. But a committee is working on it now. You know, that involves other agencies of government responsible for taxation.

Forex

Nobody has a lack of access to forex now. Actually, all of them. Because of the policy of the federal government now regarding forex, everybody has access to forex now.

Few days ago, you said the federal government would not invest a dime in a national carrier, but it is open to proposals from private public entities both in and out of the country. Given how the Nigeria Air deal went with Ethiopia Air, do you think any legacy airline, private or public entities would want to invest in such?

Funny enough, we have so many proposals on my table now. Let me just let you know that Nigeria is a big country. Nigeria has the traffic. Nigeria has the population. Nigeria has the location. It is difficult for people to ignore Nigeria. The way the other one went, I do not want to comment too much on it because the court has declared it illegal. Let me correct this impression today and correct it for the final time: it was the judiciary that put a final nail on that coffin (Nigeria Air). The judiciary declared the agreement as an illegal and unlawful agreement. The one that we entered into with the Ethiopian Airlines. So, it was not Keyamo. What we did was to suspend it, pending when the court would decide for us to look at it again. Finally, the court came up with a decision. It would have been reckless of us when the case was in court for us to go ahead with an agreement that was under contention in court. Imagine the kind of embarrassment it would have cost us if we had started under such questionable circumstances. And then the hammer came. Look at the kind of embarrassment it would have cost Nigerians. So what the  Bola Tinubu government did was to save the state of Nigeria in that circumstance. However, like I said, we have so many proposals on our table. Proposals are coming in regarding people who want to take our franchise. Because what we have to sell is the franchise. The franchise is the national carrier. It is our franchise. It is not being flag carriers. They are different. Flag carriers, any of our airlines can be flag carriers. Once we fly out of Nigeria, they are carrying our flag. But to be a national carrier is our franchise. And that is a massive franchise. Because that franchise also has access to our BASAs. A national carrier has the first right of refusal over the BASAs, over the routes you give to the BASAs you sign. It is a national carrier that has the right to exercise to run those routes. I can tell you for free that it is a huge franchise. And that is the franchise we are selling across. We are offering the world. We have a lot of proposals. Like I said in my X, formerly Twitter explanation, it has to be for the benefit of Nigeria and Nigerians. We are not going to sign an agreement that will enslave Nigeria. And, at the end of the day, it will only be painted Nigerian Air or Nigeria Airways. But in actual fact, it is not beneficial to the economy of Nigeria. We will not take part in that.

How do you react to those who say the Nigeria Air project can be renegotiated because it is not right to throw the baby away with the bathwater?

Once they understand my earlier explanation, then they will know that nothing can be done about it because the court has declared it (Nigeria Air) illegal. No right can arise out of an illegal trade. No circumstance. It is a dead horse. The court killed it.

How do you react to those who are also of the opinion that considering that Nigeria has operated two (national carrier and flag carriers) of the three models for running an airline, which have shown insignificant result, there is a need to try the third (national flag carrier) where government has, say, five per cent equity, a legacy airline coming to invest and individual shareholders?

We are open to such an arrangement. But it depends on the content. Like they say, the devil is always in the details. I think we are open to such an arrangement. However, like I said, the devil is always in the details. That is what the white man says. It will now depend on whether that agreement itself is in line with our national objectives, protecting our interest and contributing to our economy. We are open to it. We have a few of such discussions too. They are not deep yet, but we have a few of such offers too.

Just few days ago, you said plans are in progress to demolish the Old Terminal of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, in Lagos. How do you react to those who say rather than take down the structure, it should be redesigned?

Well, when Mr President desires to give the nation a new terminal in terms of the major gateway into the country, we all have to be very thankful for that. What we want to do is to actually strip down the old terminal in terms of its internal finishings. It does not mean that the whole building will come down. The pillars will still stand. If you know what renovation means, you may not have to necessarily bring down all the decking and the pillars. But you strip it. Remove the roof and strip it entirely. The internal divides and all that. And then do a completely new divide on the old decking, the old pillars and all that. And do a complete new finishing. So you can then run your wires again afresh. Run your air conditioner afresh. Run your piping afresh. Most of the pipes into the toilets of the old terminal are all rotten inside. I am talking about 50 years since those pipes have been buried inside. Most of the wires will go underneath. The last time I visited the underground of the International Airport, I nearly wept in terms of what I saw underground there. So, it is a complete stripping. For those who are in the construction industry, I want you to ask them. They will tell you that it is more expensive to renovate than to rebuild. Instead of struggling to renovate a building, if you tear it down and rebuild it to your taste, it is far better and cheaper than struggling to renovate at times. So I think that is what we are set to do.

How far have you gone with plans to refurbish or reconstruct the old terminal?

We will soon announce to Nigeria. Let me not put the cart out of the bag. We will soon announce to Nigeria when we are starting and all that. We have the bill of quantities, BOQ. The contractors have done assessment. We have gone to the Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP. We are back from BPP. The BPP has assessed the cost and all that. So we will announce it to Nigeria very soon.

Few weeks ago, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, NiMet, staff went on strike over poor welfare. What is your ministry doing to permanently address this issue?

I am on top of the issue. It was by my intervention they went back to work. They brought a number of demands, about nine demands. I started addressing them one by one. And I am presiding myself over this. And they are very grateful for that. I have taken over the issue myself. Do not forget I was a Minister of Stage for Labour. So I did not need to go back to the labour ministry to help us. I have always been a comrade. These are my friends. And so I understand their pains. I identify with their agitations. They deserve better pay. They deserve better service. And we are talking. We are addressing the issues one by one. There is no fear about that. We are holding regular meetings. At every meeting, we tick the ones we have addressed. We keep ticking. We have held two meetings now and we have ticked some of the items. We have certified some of the items, and are just ticking the other parts. We are meeting again in a couple of weeks.

Recently, there was a report about federal government losing N120 billion to illegal private jet charters, which the ministry refuted. Can you give us the appropriate figure uncovered by the seven-member Ministerial Taskforce on Illegal Charter Flight Operations?

The committee we set up actually gave a figure. I cannot quote it from the top of my head. But if you Google it, you will see the figure they gave. That is not our figure, but the task force’s. We have no reason to dispute that figure because the task force is made up of highly cerebral people in the industry. We are about to come out with our white paper on the report submitted to us. After submitting a report to us, the committee submits a report to government. Government will now come out with a white paper. We are about to come out with our final position, and then reel out the measures we are taking to curb what we clearly see as a leakage in the federal system.

Nigerian travellers continue to battle high air fares forcing some to opt for cheaper but risky options like road travel. When can the average Nigerian traveller expect relief?

Once we tackle the issue of taxes, all our efforts regarding the Cape Town Convention fully kicks in, which, of course, will be in no time.

Let us go to Delta State where you are a major stakeholder. What would you say about Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, his predecessor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, collapsing the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, structure into the All Progressives Congress, APC?

It is a huge blessing to the party. It is a huge blessing to Mr President. It brings real value, added value to the APC. It is something about which we are very excited. We are happy we (Deltans) have received our clear leader now; the governor, who is our undisputed leader of Delta State APC. We have received him into the APC with open arms. We look forward to a very exciting time. We look forward to delivering Delta State for Mr President. We look forward to delivering all the other states, the Senate, the House of Representatives to the APC.

Before the governor, his predecessor and other PDP members defected to the APC, the party had established leaders in the state. As we look ahead to 2027, do you not think this could backfire or possibly lead to a split within the party in the state?

There is nothing like that. Everybody must be ready to accommodate others, even if it affects your personal ambitions. One of my major quotes is that our focus now, every member of the APC, should be how President Bola Tinubu will be re-elected in 2027. Whether it affects our individual plans or individual ambition is irrelevant at this time. The major thing relevant today should be to re-elect President Bola Tinubu. Every other thing  is insignificant in terms of individual interest. The talks about crisis upon crisis are nothing but people trying to ensure that their individual interests will now surpass that of Mr President. A small baby knows that bringing a state like Delta into the APC is a huge blessing to Mr President. This is a state we have consistently lost since 2015, when the APC came on board. Even before the APC, the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, the legacy parties never won Delta State. It is a massive stronghold of the PDP, and one of the major financiers of the PDP. It is not just a one way sword, it is a double-edged sword. At the same time it is a blessing to the APC, it is a massive blow to the PDP. You have removed one of the souls of the PDP. In fact, a major leg of the PDP has been removed. So nobody should come and tell me that there is a crisis. I would fight any such person who fights our governor, who stands in the way of our governor. I can clearly say that I am an apostle of Sheriff again in 2027; even if it affects me or not, I do not care. If it affects my personal plans, I do not care. I am an apostle of Sheriff again in 2027. Nobody should stand in the way. I would fight any such person with all my resources.

Many Deltans have continued to express dismay over the governor’s decision and other notable members of the PDP to defect…

The only way to express their grievance is by the ballot box. Let us wait for the ballot box. That is the only way the voters will speak.

There is a massive coalition building to remove the president in 2027. What would you say about this coalition that is beginning to gain momentum?

There is no coalition yet. What you just see is people discussing. If you understand what coalition means, the father of coalition is Mr President himself. He was the major pillar upon which the APC was formed in 2015. He understands what coalition means. What you are seeing is not a coalition, it is people discussing. A coalition will mean, at the end of the day, when people will be able to get into the same boats with clearly defined interests. There is no coalition now. What you are seeing going on is just comedy. Nothing more than that. It is all noise, no movement. If you understand what politics means, then you will know that the real movement is when you reach political agreements. Not only political agreements. Either you have the heavyweights all coming into one particular umbrella. There is no such thing now. So, you have all the noise and no actual movement going on now. At this point, I see all that is going on as comedy.

How do you react to those who describe the APC as an association of strange bedfellows?

So long as the strange bedfellows bring together votes. At one point, they were strange bedfellows too. They should not preach about strange bedfellows to us. We are all Nigerians. The people joining APC are not Cameroonians or South Africans. They are Nigerians. Because the defections are now affecting them, they now know what are called strange bedfellows. When it was their own turn to control 31 states, there were no strange bedfellows. They should please stop all that talk. When we get to 2027, the strange bedfellows will deliver the votes to Mr President.

Nigerians are worried about the lack of political ideology among the current crop of politicians…

What we are looking for is good governance. We all agree on the absence of ideology. I will not be pretentious standing here to say there are clear-cut ideologies all over Africa. What people are looking for is good governance. And that is what President Bola is delivering to Nigerians right now.