Keyamo Says ‘Fly Nigeria Act’ Will Be Actualized Under His Tenure

Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development Mr. Festus Keyamo (SAN) today vowed that the Fly Nigeria Act will see the light of the day and come to fruition under his tenure.

The Minister lamented that the document which is expected to make it mandatory for government financed air transportation of government personnel, contractors, grantees and properties to be carried by a Nigerian air flag carrier has yet to materialize more than 15 years when it was first proposed.

Speaking at a one day “Stakeholders’ Engagement on the Legal Framework for the Fly Nigeria Bill and Related Enabling Legislation’, in Abuja, Mr. Keyamo said he will rally all the major stakeholders to push for the bill to be signed into law.

A former Minister of Aviation, Chief Omotoba had said the bill was first put together more than 15 years ago while he was Minister in charge of the ministry and commended Mr. Keyamo for the new drive and passion to finally bring the bill to reality.

Vice President of the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) and Chairman of Air Peace, Dr. Allen Onyema and AON spokesperson and Chairman of United Nigeria Airlines, Prof. Obiora Okonkwo described the move as a new dawn for the country’s aviation and domestic airlines in Nigeria.

Keyamo said “this has been on the cards for some time, for many years, more than 15 years because I think my predecessor, Chief Omotoba served more than 15 years ago. So, you can imagine that this bill was taken to council more than 15 years ago and yet it did not see the light of day. Under my tenure, it will happen.”

“We just want to get things done; and so, when I came into office, I saw a couple of these things hanging on my desk like the Cape Town Convention to the cry of the Aviation Working Group and all the proposals that have been made to former governments to develop, especially indigenous industry, a local industry. What we did was to say, look, let us revive all of these dead things on my table that would help or that will help to develop our local industry.”

“And one of them of course, is the Fly Nigeria Act. Luckily, Olisa Agbakoba was also talking to me about it. He had brought a proposal.

This had been on the cards like the Cabotage Act too. It’s like also the Cabotage Act you see in the blue economy sector too. So, I wonder. I was telling myself if the Cabotage Act had been passed to favor ships that fly Nigerian flag and this had been passed long ago, what is the problem with aviation? It tells you that there’s a certain external cabal in the aviation industry that seeks to destroy your own indigenous markets so that they can come and feed on that market.”

“It’s a global conspiracy but you have to be smart to see it. Look at the entire African continent. Just look at it. All the foreign airlines in the world, they feed on the African markets without the competition of African airlines, without fair competition from African airlines; and they will ensure that this aviation market in Africa remains taunted, especially in a big country like Nigeria. They will ensure that it remains taunted so that they will continue to feed on your markets.”

“Air France is coming here full, going back full. Both sides are Nigerians inside. You expect that when they are leaving their country, okay, many of them would be that you have foreigners coming in and Nigerians going out.

But both sides are Nigerians coming in and going out. Delta, the United from America, Lufthansa, British Airways, name all of them, all of them, all the foreign airlines. We thank them for their partnership and all that, but I’m not condemning them.

I’m saying that we must also develop our own to compete fairly. We just want to compete fairly. Qatar, Emirates, all of them.”

“So, the global conspiracy, it is an aviation. You know politics all over the world, global politics, aero-politics. They do it in such a way very cleverly that they don’t want your local market, your local indigenous airlines to, you know, to grow so that they keep feeding on that market. It is for us to be wise enough to see this and to come up with policies, policies, policies that will then empower our own local operators to match them on the negotiation table.”

“This is one of the latest in this series of actions we lined up. More are coming though to empower them and to make sure they survive. To say, how do we then create the market for them?.

We are saying the summary of the Fly Nigeria Act is that every government-funded trip, every government, whether what ministry or agency at all, if there is a Nigerian flag carrier flying that route, even locally, regionally, internationally, continentally, you must patronize the Nigerian flag carrier first before any foreign carrier. That’s a summary; but you know the details. The devils are in the details. You will see the details, I will say that.”

“Even in connecting flights, if the first leg, if you are going to the U.S. and you want to pass through London and the first leg, a Nigerian flag carrier is traveling the first leg of that trip, but not flying the second leg, you must also fly the first leg with a Nigerian flag carrier and connect an international air carrier. So what you are doing with this bill is even if the routes don’t exist, we are creating the market by the bill.”

“We are creating the market because you see that Nigerians are flying a particular route every day for one thing or the other.”

“Half of the airlines that operate Hajj are foreign airlines. With this bill, all our Hajj pilgrims, everybody pilgrims, they must first satisfy the slots given to the Nigerian carriers first before we divide with another person.”

“It’s a way to grow the market and like I said with the routes, you know, are not flown by the  Nigerian carriers. Once this bill is passed, they will apply to fly that route, knowing that the market has been created for that route; and for people who don’t want to even lease aircrafts to us, they will come and say, Nigerian AOC holders, can you take my aircraft? I know that you have routes to fly now.”

“They will come and be begging with the aircraft. It’s a way to develop the market and develop routes for our people. That’s the summary of this.

“So, we’ll set up a technical session. We have a pre-draft resolution here. The national assembly members are waiting for the bill to get there.

The senators, they are just waiting. It’s for us to set up a technical committee. We agreed in principle that this is good for us, good for aviation, you know, local operators especially.

We can look at it. Then, I take the draft to Federal Executive Council.

Once the president endorses it, we’ll convince them in FEC. It becomes an executive bill. I think it should go in as an executive bill. It becomes easy. I want to go there, get to National Assembly, public hearing. I don’t think public hearing will be too much. All of us will just go down and support it at the public hearing; and then, first, second, third reading. It becomes law, and we’re in business.

We’re in business already, you know; and that will just be my happiness.”

Earlier a representative from the Olisa Agbakoba Legal firm had presented the proposed bill titled ‘A Proposal on Aviation Reform by Enacting The Fly Nigeria Act.’