President Muhammadu Buhari has been advised to drop any plan to resuscitate the national carrier, ‘Air Nigeria’ and instead seek for sincere collaboration with the private sector to save the aviation industry.
Leader of the Ibadan-based travels and tours outfit, Ufitfly Ltd, Evangelist Ajibola Ogunkeyede, gave the advice while featuring on Space FM Ibadan’s programme, Parrot Xtra Hour On Radio, anchored by Olayinka Agboola on Tuesday.
This was as he said the aviation industry can only thrive if the Federal Government can privatise the project, noting that the sector cannot be left in the care of civil servants.
According to him, the hope of getting Air Nigeria back has continued to dim, two years after it was re-launched in London.
“Two years ago, the Federal Government unveiled Nigeria’s new national carrier in London. The Air Nigeria project has, however, remained a dream with little or no hope of it becoming a reality,” the popular travels’ consultant noted.
He said: “It will be of great benefit to us in the tourism and travel business sector if our national carrier is in full operation. But the multibillion naira investment has, in the last one year, been stalled.
“My belief is that, until the Federal Government is sincere enough to privatise or hand over the project to private investors who will prioritise the profitability aspect of the aviation business before anything meaningful can be achieved. The business cannot be left in the care of civil servants.
“The adverse effects of COVID-19 on businesses have worsened the fates of the travel business practitioners in the country and what could have given us some level of leverage is Nigeria having a national carrier.”
While speaking on how he came up with the ‘UfitFly’ concept, he said: “It was God. We were looking for a concept that would stand the test of time, that would stand us shoulder above others. It was while were brainstorming that one of us came up with the slogan, ufitfly.
“Of course, it is now more than a slogan because we registered it as a full company over three years ago. Today, by God’s grace, we have offices in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Ilorin, Osogbo, London and others.”
Ogunkeyede also took time to explain why he decided to introduce entertainment into his brand of business, saying: “I will still repeat that it was God that gave me the inspiration.
“I was sleeping and something told me to reach out to Mama Bola Are to join our then proposed tour of Israel. Mama Are did not hesitate. Since that time, we have been asking popular entertainment personalities to join our numerous packaged tours of foreign lands to afford those who wished to meet them to see and also travel with them.
“So far, we have taken the likes of Sir Shina Peters, Evangelist Tope Alabi, Woli Agba, Lafup and several others. We have reached an agreement with Alhaji Abass Akande Obesere and others. Our people should just watch out.”
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