
…Says Fly Nigeria Act Would be For All Nigerian Registered Airlines
Posted by Sade Williams
Nigeria’s Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, has said that there was no time in promoting the Nigeria Air, that he publicly said the public servants must fly the new airline.
Sirika while responding on his twitter handle @hadisirika to a report on one of Nigeria’s electronic media (television), said he never said such.
The minister vehemently debunked the report saying, “I never said public servants must fly Nigeria Air”.
Sirika, on the other hand said if there would eventually be a policy called “Fly Nigeria Act”, all Nigeria registered airlines would benefit, not only Nigeria Air.
“If there will be such a policy, it will be to fly all Nigerian registered carriers”, he stressed.
In his earlier clarifications on issues raised after the unveiling of the new national carrier, Nigeria Air, stated that, ne noted that “As part of efforts to make airlines viable in Nigeria, the ministry is making moves to have the National Assembly pass a fly Nigeria act. This act will require that anybody travelling on a ticket bought with public funds must travel on a Nigerian carrier unless the route is not served by a Nigerian carrier. However, with your private funds you can do as you like. Many countries including America has such as Act.”
Reiterating his comments at the just concluded Farnborough Air where he unveiled Nigeria said: “The intention of Government is to promote businesses not to kill them. It is not intended to kill any airline in Nigeria but complement them”.