Ethiopian Airlines CEO Mesfin Tasew Bekele has attributed the failure of the Nigeria Air project to politicization and resistance from local Nigerian airlines.
According to him, Ethiopian Airlines had the intention of helping Nigerian government establish a profitable airline but the processed was politicised by Nigerian airlines opposed it.
The partnership to establish Nigeria Air which was started by the last administration of President Buhari and handle by former aviation minister, Hadi Sirika, has generated a lot of controversy, with the current aviation minister Festus Keyamo, saying that the deal was not going to be beneficial to Nigeria.
It is the first time the Ethiopian Airline’s CEO is speaking on the controversial deal after the current government put a stop to it.
Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg, the Ethiopian Airlines CEO stated they have closed the project to help Nigeria set up an airline.
He said, “We had a great hope of establishing a very strong national carrier for Nigeria. We started but unfortunately it didn’t become successful after the change of government in Nigeria; but that project is closed now.
“We don’t have a current plan to go to Nigeria as it stands. We don’t have the intention to partner with any of the Nigerian airlines to date because it has been politicised.
“We tried to help the country by partnering with the government and other institutional investors in Nigeria to use our expertise, our experience and establish a reliable airline that would be profitable in the short term. But as you may have read from the media, it was not welcomed by the Nigerian airlines.
“They considered it in a wrong direction. They believed that if Ethiopian Airlines goes into Nigeria, it will hurt their business, which is not right. Our intention was to help the country but since they objected to the idea, there is no need for Ethiopian Airlines to go there as long as they don’t accept it, we don’t want to be a problem there.”
Briefing state house correspondents after a Federal Executive Council Meeting in November 2023, Keyamo said the agreements of the deal were unfair on Nigerian airlines as the deal would create a monopoly for Ethiopian Airlines.
Keyamo said that reports on the issue had been submitted to President Bola Tinubu who will make a decision on the deal.
The minister said he “cannot preempt my President”, adding that “All the reports, everything, we have forwarded to Mr President, the issues we met on the ground.”
Meanwhile, just a few weeks ago, the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos declared null and void the sale of Nigerian Air Ltd to Ethiopian Airlines.
Justice Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa in his judgment stopping the sale ordered that the proposed establishment of a national carrier-Nigeria Air, by the Federal Government, should not be carried out.
The judge made the order while granting the reliefs sought by the plaintiffs, the Registered Trustees of the Airline Operators of Nigeria, and five others in the aviation industry.
Justice Lewis-Allagoa held that all the reliefs sought are granted except for the relief asking for N2bn as damages for the injury suffered by the plaintiffs as a result of their wrongful exclusion and the wrongful action; unlawful bidding and selection processes for the Nigeria Air project.
