The Chairman of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba has described the liquidation of the defunct Nigeria Airways Limited (NAL) as the most regrettable decision taken by the federal government.
Ndoma-Egba said that by the time the airline was liquidated the assets it had all over the world were 60 per cent more than the debt portfolio of the organisation before the airline went under, noting that with NAL’s demise Nigeria lost its prime position in aviation development in Africa with attendant loss of over 20,000 jobs, loss of technical skills and loss of maintenance facility that would have grown into a major Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) organisation.
The NDDC Chairman made this known yesterday in Port Harcourt as guest speaker at the National Association of Nigerian Travel Agencies (NANTA) Annual General Meeting (AGM) and remarked that if the former national carrier was not liquidated Nigeria would have been a successful aviation hub in West and Central Africa.
Ndoma-Egba remarked that presently Nigeria has no national carrier and therefore cannot be a major player; even now that smaller countries in the continent are investing more in aviation development than Nigeria, adding that without successful air transport in the country, there would not advancement in tourism.
“In Nigeria, there is no designated national carrier and the aviation sector is still discounted from the tourism sector in the sense that there is no evident integration of both. The decision to liquidate Nigeria Airways was impulsive and a most regrettable decision, more so given its assets and international spread of these assets.
“We must therefore have forward looking policies designed to integrate both to upgrade our national airports to make them competitive. Countries in the West Africa Region like Togo, Ghana and Senegal are making heavy investments in aviation infrastructure, including airports and will become hubs sooner than later
“If Nigeria does not make the needed investment in aviation infrastructure it will lose being a hub to these other smaller countries and this will be a terrible pity as Nigeria has the market,” the NDDC boss said.
He said to fully integrate the tourism sector with the aviation sector “we must upgrade intermodal transportation infrastructure.”
“A national carrier is therefore inevitable which should be integrated with a well regulated hospitality and creative industry. Nigerian fashion, movies and Nigerian cuisine, are now familiar across the world. These, if properly regulated, integrated and marketed will immensely add to the tourism value chain,” Ndoma-Egba added.
