Keyamo Applauds Shadare For Writing Book On Aviation’s 100 Years In Nigeria

Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation & Aerospace Development, Mr. Festus Keyamo (SAN) has commended an aviation journalist, Wole Shadare for writing a book titled 100 Years Of Civil Aviation In Nigeria, History, Issues & Prospects.

Speaking at the book launch held yesterday at Golfview Hotels & Suits, Ikeja, Lagos, Keyamo said Shadare took the initiative off the sail of the industry’s leadership, as such a venture ought to have emanated from the industry. He stated that Shadare had done the industry a favour by researching and authoring such historical book.

Speaking on the peculiarity of Nigeria’s aviation industry, he said it was the first industry he had noticed as Minister, that stakeholders do after retirement from official service, continue to keep an eagle eye on the sector to ensure that growth and development continues.

He promised to after his tenure, join the Aviation Safety Round Table Initiative (ASRTI), Nigeria’s foremost aviation NGO. ASRTI is an assembly of experienced aviation and allied business people, some of who are retirees from the private and public sectors of Nigeria’s aviation industry.

Keyamo said on assumption of office as minister, he observed that there were so many issues to be addressed and so, developed a five-point agenda to ensure focus. They include ensuring strict compliance with standards by the regulators, infrastructure development, deliberate policy on growth of local airlines, human capital development, ramping up revenues and revenue generation.

He said in spite of the accolades being received under his watch on performance, “we still have a lot to do in terms of infrastructure development.” He added that Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos that was built in 1977 would be pulled down and replaced with a SMART Airport as it has outlived its passenger handling capacity. He explained that Nigeria’s aviation industry has over the years, moved from a government driven sector to a private sector driven industry.

“In the whole of Africa, it is only in Nigeria that we have a fully private sector driven industry,” he said, stating that this informed his policy shift approach to the sector’s leadership.

He announced that several foreign airlines had already complied with the local content policy of patronizing local catering service providers.

On the issue of national carrier, Keyamo said: “Government is not funding, cannot fund and will not fund any national airlines.”

Delivering his welcome speech, the author, Mr. Wole Shadare said: “You will agree with me that visiting the genesis of a phenomenon is critical to addressing the issues that beset it. This reality constitutes part of my driving force towards retracing the industry’s journey back to the very first flight that landed in the ancient city of Kano 100 years ago.

The 368-page book being launched today contains valuable information on the industry that aviation professionals, airline operators, service providers, practitioners’, decision makers, students and researchers would find most useful. Contents of this book put in the correct perspective, the country’s aviation history, using relevant and reliable materials.

Ladies and gentlemen! I believe strongly that Nigeria’s air transport industry can gain its rightful place in the global aviation market. This book is my little contribution to accessing the better future that I see for the sector. Therefore, I urge all stakeholders to kindly read the book, make further researches and expand on the issues therein in the interest of the future.”

Reviewing the book, Prof. Anthony Kila said the book shows a trajectory of the aviation industry and presents facts without trying to be judgmental. He said it gives insight beyond reporting and the chapters are written as stand-alone chapters so that a good reader can read it and digest it. He added that a reaer can start reading the book from any chapter.

The book launch featured an Aviation Metric Colloquium, under the theme, ‘Issues in the growth and development of aviation in Nigeria: A critical perspective.’

Critical issues affecting the sector were discussed at this forum.

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