Aviation Minister, Festus Keyamo has spoken on the controversial agreement between the Nigerian government and Ethiopian Airlines regarding the establishment of a new national carrier, Air Nigeria.
Keyamo raised concerns about the terms of the agreement, particularly the tax waivers granted to Ethiopian Airlines and the lack of opportunities for Nigerian nationals in the airline’s management.
“I have deliberately not granted the full press interview, I’ve heard all kinds of things going on, all kinds of breakbacks in the social media, But I cannot preempt, my president, I cannot.
“Just to say that it would have been irresponsible of me as minister to take over the office, and I feel the pulse of Nigerians, I feel even the National Assembly raised concerns over that and so many stakeholders, it would have been irresponsible to close my eyes totally to those concerns.
“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. That’s why when they tell you that, oh, want to crash Price by 7%, it’s a lie.
“It’s robbing Peter to pay Paul because they have removed all taxes from you and you granted them the tax waivers and initially they will crash prices.
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“Once you drive every other person out of the market, you now have a monopoly that you can hike it 500%, nobody there to challenge you.
“The only thing that brings down prices in the commercial world is competition, It’s fair competition.
“In the agreement, they also proposed that they will appoint everybody, top management, everybody Ethiopia in Nigeria, and we agreed.
“I’m just giving you snippets.l, I’ll do a full interview, I will not give more, so when I’m ready to talk, I will talk, But I cannot preempt, Mr. President. We have raised all the concerns before him,” he said.
