The Senate on Thursday, passed a
resolution calling on the Federal Government to establish a national carrier in
the aviation industry.
It also called for holistic
review of the nation’s aviation sector to enable it to compete favourably with
others in the world.
Besides, the senate constituted a
committee to evaluate the issues militating against the growth of the sector in
the country.
These followed
a motion by the Deputy Leader of the Senate, Ibn Na’Allah, who lamented that in
the past 20 years, many indigenous airlines had sprang up and went under in the
country.
He argued that it could not have
been possible that all the airlines went into extinction because of bad
management.
According to Na’Allah, something
must be militating against airline operations in the country.
"This senate therefore has
to look deeply to find out what is wrong so that it can be corrected,’’ he
said, adding that countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, Turkey generated a lot of
revenue from their national airlines.
He said it was necessary to find
out what the airline operators did with bailout funds given to them by the
Federal Government some years ago.
Contributing, Deputy President of
the Senate, Ike Ekwerenmadu, said that out of the airports in Nairobi, Addis
Ababa and Abuja, ‘the Abuja airport is the worst.'
Senate President, Bukola Saraki
(right) and the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.play
"We have not shown
sufficient commitment to the transport sector; when we had Nigeria Airways,
government’s officials allocated seats to themselves but they never paid. We
need to ensure that the management of the Nigerian aviation sector is grounded
on integrity; it has to become the pride of the nation,’’ he said.
Ekweremadu commended President
Muhammadu Buhari for insisting that Nigeria must have a national carrier.
Sen. Shehu Sani (APC Kaduna
Central) said that Nigerians were being exploited through exorbitant fares
charged by airlines of other nations.
He insisted that a national
carrier was not just the pride of a nation but was also part of the security of
a nation.
"The Nigerian Airways, we
should do everything possible to return it.This sector has seen a lot of
intervention but nothing has changed, so I will strongly suggest that we look
at the possibility of having a national carrier,” he said.
In his remark, President of the
Senate, Bukola Saraki, commended the mover of the motion, saying that Nigeria
ought to have resolved the challenges in the aviation sector.
At the end of plenary, the senate
adjourned till Sept. 29.
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