In this interview with IME AKPAN, the Managing Director and Chief Executive of Jed Air, Capt. Nogie Meggison, says Nigeria needs to put in place sound policies to drive the aviation sector, grow the contribution of aviation to the GDP, jettison the idea of setting up a national carrier and reverse the incidence of capital flight from the aviation sector.
One, effective government organisations and enabling environment for business entrepreneurship to invest in the economy and to create jobs for our wondering youths that are becoming unemployed. If you take the statistics of the unemployed youth today, it is about 30 to 35 per cent or more in some states. This is high. We don’t need to be rocket scientists to know that when you have an educated man that is hungry and then angry, you know the aftereffect of it.
Nigeria aviation is not just a sleeping giant and we need to wake up and take our position.
I see no reason why Nigerian aviation is where it is today. The popular saying is that one in every four black man is a Nigerian. Why can’t we have one in four African aviators to be a Nigerian? We need to drive that purposefully and make it part of our government policy to create two major things in the next two years: one, to add economic value to our country. How can the aviation industry be contributing just 0.4 per cent to the GDP of Nigeria when people that are using us as a country are contributing up to 34 per cent to their economy with Nigerian passengers? Up to 60 per cent of their passengers are from Nigeria. Nigeria has a more robust economy. I am not saying we should contribute 34 per cent to our economy. But at least let’s add some value.
In the first year let’s change from 0.4 per cent to 4 per cent then to 10 per cent in the second year. It is very possible because if you look at the countries that have jumpstarted aviation or are contributing well to their GDP they have put the policy in place to drive aviation to get to that point to be able to do that. That is why the government needs to put a strong aviation policy in place to drive aviation.
Right policies to drive aviation
If you put a watered down policy in place you’ll get a watered down result of 0.4 per cent GDP contribution where 400 to 500 pilots and engineers are unemployed. So we need to put a strong policy in place where people are not just signing bilateral air services agreement.
I went to a BASA meeting where the people who are representing Nigeria want to sign the 6th Freedom Rights. 6th! And I asked the man ‘’Oga, do you know what you are doing with the 6th Freedom Right?’’ Put a policy in place to drive aviation to a target just like they say if a hunter goes to the farm with his gun loaded but without a target, he can shoot the gun without any effect.
We must have a target because our gun is loaded, we have the population, we have the oil, and most of all, we have the natural gift of geographical location. Nigeria is at the centre of Africa, four and half hours to anywhere. We should be a melting point for all carriers to come in and drop off passengers and Nigeria should put a policy in place that encourages the local carriers to distribute. At the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the Nigerian fan club that left here an online travel portal, Wakanow, wanted to transport them to where they were going but they weren’t allowed.
You come in and drop your passengers and your local airlines will distribute. Today, Brazil is the 3rd largest producer of airplanes in the world after America with Boeing and Europe with Airbus, next is Brazil and they don’t even have a national carrier.
We have always had robust policies but it is the implementation that is the problem. The policies we have on the ground are very wide; so let’s narrow them to 3 or 4. The policies we put in place will dictate who will drive it, just like the political system. So we need to put the necessary persons in place to drive those policies else we would just have people who are there and don’t really know what they are doing. We need technocrats in place like in the agriculture sector. We need to take aviation very seriously because what people are making out of aviation is very large and we need Nigeria to benefit from this. UK and UAE alone are taking more than $2 billion away from this country with their carriers. The number of passengers from Nigeria is very huge and these people are making the money our local carriers should be making.
National carrier as an archaic idea
The government is coming up with archaic 1940 and 1950 idea of a national carrier. We are not talking about the jet age now; we are talking about the e-age. If you look at the countries that had national carriers, why did they set it up? It was to create employment in the 1940s and 50s. Most of them have gone private- British Airways, Lufthansa, Pan America. Government cannot set up an airline to create employment. Communism does not work; capitalism is where we are now. If you are going to go down to the era of setting up NITEL, Nigerian Shipping Company, NEPA or Nigeria Airways that will take us back to the 1960s.
Model of his dream flag carrier and role of government
The idea of setting up a national carrier is archaic. Rather, we should have a flag carrier. Government should just make it competitive so people can bid for it. Just say there is a route from Lagos to London or to Malaysia, who wants to come and do it? Government should just be getting 10 per cent like it is doing in PHCN. Come and bid; just show me your competencies and your technical capabilities or your joint venture partner. Because the foreigners know Nigeria is a fertile ground, they will look for a local partner to form a joint venture with. Just like British Airways did in South Africa. There is a British airline called Comair flying in South Africa.
As a Briton you want to go into South Africa to distribute you get to Johannesburg you are stopped and cannot go anywhere. So they said they will do partnership with a handling company called Bidvest. If you want to join with a handling company, nahco aviance, go ahead or First Nation, Dana, or any other local airline and form something, an alliance. But when you leave your border porous and you hand it over to them, how does that create jobs and employment for your youth? And how does that contribute to your GDP? Today we are talking of $10 billion aviation capital flight in Africa apart from Nigeria being responsible for over 50 per cent of that money; we can reverse the trend.
Attracting investment to aviation industry
They should make policies that will encourage the local entrepreneurs to invest in aviation. By the time you get your policies right, the foreign investors will bring money to invest. It is just like what is happening in the Nigerian Stock Exchange; government does not need to pump money into it before the Naira appreciates. Just create a level playing ground. So if the policy is in place the money will come. The passengers are there; Nigeria has the highest population of travellers in Africa. We are talking of Dubai and Etihad; Dubai does not have internal flights so the only way they can get people to come into the country is by setting up a national carrier. Your policies and agenda must be clear before you fly a national carrier. Even in Dubai they are all flag carriers like Fly Dubai, Emirates and Etihad.