I am looking forward to the political gladiators in Nigeria’s forthcoming elections putting forward an aviation policy that looks something like this

Ayo Akinfe

[1] When you have a population of 200m, are located bang in the middle of your continent and your populace love travelling, you should have a one of the most lucrative aviation industries in the world. We will make Nigeria an African aviation hub

[2] Nigeria is a currently a mono-economy. When 95% of government revenue comes from crude oil sales, we have no choice other then to look for alternative sources of income if we do not want to perish as a people. We will make aviation one of Nigeria’s biggest revenue earners, accounting for about 10% of federal government revenue

[3] Nigeria needs to find something like $30bn from alternative sources annually and aviation has got to be one of the cash cows at the top of the list. Why? Because it is a readily available resource, there is a ready-made market available and we actually have the expertise to deliver on it

[4] In 2019, Ethiopian Airlines generated revenue of about $4bn. We propose a well-run Nigerian national carrier with several different facets targeted at the diverse sectors of the market that will easily double that. It simply has to be a goal we set ourselves

[5] For starters, with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, there are still a lot of airlines available on the cheap. Nigeria will be looking to purchase at least two going concerns and merge them with Air Peace into one aviation giant with genuine global reach

[6] One area where we can develop a unique niche in which we are the global market leader is the private jet sector. There are about 12 jets in the presidential fleet and most of our general overseers own at least one Gulfstream or Bombardier private jet. We will get the presidency should donate its planes to this new carrier and the pastorprueners should be patriotic and do likewise. The donation of their aircrafts to the venture should purchase them a stake in the airline. For instance, if David Oyedepo hands over his five private jets, that should grant him a 10% stake in this new company

[7] If we start off with a fleet of say 20 donated private jets and buy an existing couple of airlines with a combined capacity of say 100 planes, we are good to go

[8] Nigeria is Africa’s biggest economy, she is located in the centre of the continent and is the seventh most populated country on earth. We simply have to turn the nation into an aviation hub where everybody flies through when they want to travel to the African continent. We have the potential to generate the passenger volume to make this a gold mine

[9] We are all aware of how our people ruined Nigeria Airways, so as a safeguard, we should insist that any deal involves the professional managers of any purchased airline running the operation for the next 10 years at least. We should also insist that the Nigerian government has no more than a 25% stake in the venture and that private sector operators like Allen Onyeama are Nigeria’s representatives on the board of directors

[10] A well run Nigerian airline could easily replace oil as our national cash cow. Figures do not lie, si if you look at the revenue generated by major airlines prior to the coronavirus pandemic, you will realise that our obsession with oil is nothing but a mental illness of sorts. See - Delta Airlines ($44.9bn), American Airlines ($44.5bn), Lufthansa ($42.3bn), Air France ($31.3bn). Our fixation with crude is just psychological, kind of like the fear of the unknown.

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