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Enugu State Government, under Governor Peter Mbah, earlier this week, floated an airline, the Enugu Air.
Thus becoming the second state to own a commercial airline in Nigeria and the first in South East Nigeria. The first is Ibom Airline, which was set up in June 2019 and wholly owned by the Akwa Ibom State Government, in the South-South region of the country.
Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation Development, Festus Keyamo, performed the ceremony at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.
Speaking at the ceremony, Governor Mbah described the launch of the Enugu Air as a triumph of vision, assuring that the airline would change the economic fortunes of the state positively.
“We are starting off with three Embraer aircraft, efficient elegant birds made for our terrain. Our routes begin with a powerful golden triangle: Enugu to Abuja to Lagos,” he said.
He explained that the airline would expand beyond the present routes to other Nigerian cities and beyond. “From there, we will stretch our wings to Port Harcourt, Owerri, Benin, Kano and across various other cities.
“But, we are not stopping there. In the next phase, we will fly beyond Nigeria, into other African countries, China, Europe, UK, US and other global business hubs,” he stated.
He said Enugu Air was established to create jobs and career paths for young people, a faster and more reliable access to markets, clients and capital by business people.
He noted that it would also serve as a ready gateway to collaboration and an opportunity for investors interested in Enugu.
However, Keyamo commended Gov Mbah for his persistence in ensuring that the airline was established.
“Governor Peter Mbah was the first governor that visited me immediately after I was sworn in as a minister. I said this man will not even allow me to settle down first. The governor was relentless, persistent and pushing to the extent that I asked, ‘This private sector experience you are bringing into Enugu, do you want Enugu to explode?’
“It was incredible. He was not even waiting for us to come to him. He was coming to Abuja almost every week to press the button to make sure that a couple of things happen and this is just one of them,” he said.
“Beyond party lines, we should not be afraid to say it. You have a progressive spirit and you have done well for Enugu State. You are one of the best performing governors,” he said of Mbah.
He also commended Enugu’s choice of XEjet as partner and operator of the new airline, describing them as highly competent and 100 percent Nigeria-owned key players in the nation’s and Africa’s aviation industry.
“XEJet is not only supporting Enugu Air, it is running the Sierra Leonean National Airline. That is what the Renewed Hope Agenda is all about,” he added.
However, away from the euphoria that greeted the launch, the governor’s efforts to bring such a dream to reality and Keyamo’s commendations, opinions are divided about the desirability or otherwise of the project at this material time.
One could say that the Enugu Governor was responding to the growing call for state governors to look inwards to create employment for the teeming unemployed Nigerian youths.
Others could say he was only trying to diversify the state’s economy, boost the state’s revenue base such that the state’s dependence on the federal allocation would be minimally reduced.
Yet, there are others who believe that much as it is a laudable project that needs commendation, the governor has just proved that governance in Nigeria, most often, is about the elite and not the masses.
A leading voice here is a Lagos-based lawyer, Mr Kenneth Eze, who thinks that the Governor could have fulfilled one of his campaign promises of providing potable water for the people of Enugu before taking on the airline project.
“Yes, what the governor has done is commendable, but it boils down to what we have been saying that politicians are only interested in what benefits them.
“This governor promised that he would provide potable water for the citizens of Enugu State if elected. Today, instead of fulfilling that promise which would benefit both the poor and the rich, he has abandoned that for an airline project, which only makes meaning to the rich.
“How many people in Enugu can afford air tickets in Nigeria today? It is for the rich to enjoy while the poor are left to suffer. I am not saying that investing in air transport is not good, but first things should be done first.
“Do you know the number of people in the state that are suffering from one ailment or the other as a result of the quality of water they drink? Look, after air, it is water even before food.
“A man can survive for 48 hours without food but nobody can go that length without water, yet, the government is playing politics with water. Water is life and it should be given topmost priority.
“I am not talking about providing water in some areas in the capital city; I am talking about giving water to even the sub-urban areas in the state. That is very important,” he stated.
Again, there are those who have lauded the move, arguing that it would provide employment for youths in Enugu and boost the revenue base of the state.
Leading this group is a public affairs analyst and lawyer, Celestine Ikechukwu Nnamani.
He believes that if well managed, Enugu may well be on its way to joining the league of the economically viable states in Nigeria. He urged the Governor to remove all forms of patronage in the selection of the management team and insist on professional competence if the airline must achieve its desired objectives.
He said: “This project is highly commendable. It will place Enugu among the very few states in Nigeria that can survive without the federal allocation; that is number one.
“Secondly, it means more money for the state, and invariably, more dividends of democracy through infrastructural development in the state. This is because when the state has more money in its purse, it will be able to provide more infrastructures that will better the lots of then people of the state.
“I just hope that it doesn’t go the way of most public enterprises in Nigeria, which are often mismanaged and run aground faster than they were established.
“The slogan has always been that government business is nobody’s business and such a mindset has been the bane of public enterprises in Nigeria.
“I pray that the governors learn from the mistakes of the past and plug such loopholes that bring down public enterprises in Nigeria,” he said.
Also contributing, a journalist and public affairs analyst, Dahiru Majeed, also commended Gov Mbah for taking the project. He noted that through such investment, the state could generate enough revenue to be able prosecute other infrastructural projects like road construction.
He also noted that even if the Governor had borrowed to prosecute such a project, it is worthwhile because the loan was invested into a project that would be generating revenue for the state.
He said such loan taking should be encouraged and not that someone would take a loan to build roads and pay salaries.
He also argued that such investments would make the state to be self-reliant economically instead of being spoon-fed by the Federal Government through the monthly federal allocation, without which many states cannot survive.
He drew a parallel between what Governor Mbah is doing in Enugu, particularly the establishment of this Enugu Air with what the country’s First Republic’s leaders like Chief Michael Okpara, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Alhaji Ahmadu Bello did to develop their regions and put them on the global map.
He attributed the successes of Dr Okpara, Chief Awolowo and Alhaji Bello in the East, West and North during the First Republic to such investments that were revenue yielding rather than investing in white elephant projects.
He said: “Leaders like Okpara, Awolowo and Bello invested in industries that created jobs for their people and grew the revenue base of the regions.
“I am not against taking loans to invest in projects that will generate revenue and create employment but taking loans to pay salaries or build roads is what I strongly frown at.”
However, he cautioned that future governments must not kill this lofty dream, but do everything possible to sustain and keep it running.
“I expect that not just this administration in Enugu but the future ones must maintain the sanctity of this lofty project and shield all state enterprises from political manipulations and maneuverings and allow them to thrive,” he stated.
He cited the Ethiopian Airline as an example of a successful public enterprise in Africa that has broken the jinx of ‘government business is nobody’s business,’ as a result of deliberate decision to succeed.
He urged the Enugu people to borrow a leaf from the Ethiopian Air, take a deliberate decision to sustain the Enugu Air by shielding it from all forms of political manipulations and interventions.
He said: “Ethiopia is a very corrupt country in Africa but the country resolved that the Ethiopia Airline must be shielded from all forms of nepotism, tribalism and corrupt practices.
“What the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, is to Nigeria is what the Ethiopia Airline is to Ethiopia. It is one of the most profitable airlines in the world that is flying the entire globe. And they have been consistent because they resolved that it must work.
“They made a decision that every other thing might not be working but the airline must work.
“That decision was deliberate; it was a governance decision. I hope and pray that as Mbah has taken this step, his successor will take the decision to say that any enterprise that the state has established must be allowed to thrive in the interest of the state economy.”
