Hadi Sirika: Nigeria Air deal followed due process — no evidence of corruption

Hadi Sirika, former minister of aviation, says the Nigeria Air project followed due process, insisting that there is no evidence of corruption in the deal.

In a Channels TV interview on Wednesday, Sirika said all necessary steps were taken in accordance with the guidelines of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC).

He said the project was at its final stage before litigation from local airlines stalled progress.

“We went through every single step of the ICRC process, we got it to end, and we had an airline,” the former minister said.

“Air peace, United, and Azman went to court to say that we cannot, as a government, establish an airline where we take a stake of 5 percent, and that is what stalled it.”

He said if there had been no court case, or if the new government had followed through with it, the airline would have been operational by now.

Sirika also defended the involvement of Ethiopian Airlines in the project, describing the aviation company as a tested African partner with global capacity.

“Ninety-five percent of all airlines operating within Africa are non-African, Emirates, Qatar, British Airways, Air France. The only exception is Ethiopian Airlines,” he said.

“They have been running their airline for 79 years. They have made a statement of how to run an airline. They are African, and they came to partner with us, to be able to open up the world for us.”

The ex-government official said Nigeria currently lacks a formidable airline with the capacity to compete globally, citing high ticket prices and the failure of previous domestic carriers as evidence.

“I don’t think an airline that has five aircraft that are old can compete in the global market with the well-established carriers that have 250 aeroplanes, and expect to operate and make profits,” he said.

The former minister also dismissed corruption allegations linked to the Nigeria Air deal, urging critics to use the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act to obtain official records from the ministry and the ICRC.

“If he (current minister) is saying it is a bad deal, Nigerians should invoke the Freedom of Information Act, go to the ministry of aviation, where the gentleman sits as the minister, and get the documents,” Sirika said.

“Also, go to ICRC, and get the documents, and establish where the fraud is. There is no fraud. It is a lie.

“This airline, whether it is done now or in the future, it will come to become.”

‘ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES WON BIDDING PROCESS FAIRLY’

Sirika said domestic airlines were invited to take part in the project, including through shareholding and joint ventures.

He said the eventual selection of Ethiopian Airlines was done through a fair and transparent bidding process.

“It is not our process, it is the process of ICRC. They should go and ask ICRC whether there is corruption or bad deal in it, and the documents are there,” he said.

“The truth is deposited in the records of government, in ICRC, in ministry of aviation. They should go and ask them, and the federal executive council has its documents. You can invoke Freedom of Information Act to go there and cross-check.”

In 2023, the aviation ministry, under Sirika, unveiled Nigeria Air — three days before the end of the late President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

The development elicited concerns among stakeholders nationwide over the ownership arrangement, which gave Ethiopian Airlines a 49 percent equity stake.

The government had a 5 percent equity, while a consortium of three Nigerian investors had 46 percent.

Reacting to the deal in June 2023, the house of representatives asked the government to suspend the operations of Nigeria Air, describing it as “a fraud”.