Nigeria Air: Keyamo Faults Deal with Ethiopian Airline

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr. Festus Keyamo, has said that the agreements between the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari and Ethiopian Airlines on the proposed national carrier, Nigeria Air, were unfair on Nigerian airlines as the deal would create monopoly for Ethiopian Airlines.

The minister made the remarks while briefing State House reporters on Monday after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.

He expressed concerns that the agreement, sealed when Hadi Sirika was the aviation minister, granted five years

tax waivers to Ethiopian Airlines, describing it as very unfair to local airline operators who are paying huge taxes.

Keyamo disclosed that reports on the issue had been submitted to President Bola Tinubu who will make a decision on the deal,

“All the reports, everything, we have forwarded to Mr President, the issues we met on the ground.

“But just to say that it would have been irresponsible of me as minister to take over office and close my eyes totally to those concerns.

“So because of that, we suspended it to say, let’s just look at all the issues and recommend. Now we have looked at all the issues and it’s before Mr President. But let me just give you one or two snippets because Nigerians who are quick to judge”, he said.

He further noted: “In the agreement, you are giving tax waivers to Ethiopian Airlines coming into Nigeria, they ask for tax waivers for five years and you granted them to come and compete with your local airlines who are paying those heavy taxes, how? You want to create a monopoly?

“In the agreement, they also made a proposal that they would appoint everybody, top management, everybody, Ethiopia, in Nigeria and we agreed?”