Nobody put a gun over our heads when we were signing agreements

By Kenneth Ehigiator
Last week, former Nigeria Airways pilot, Capt. Tito Omaghomi, was in Vanguard to bare his mind on developments in the nation’s aviation sector.  He spoke on issues ranging from Nigeria’s quest for a new national carrier, airfare disparity, airport re-modeling across the country, to aviation security.

Excerpts:

On assessment of current developments in the aviation industry in the country

We are moving in the right direction in the sense that the new Aviation Minister, that is the lady that was appointed Minister of Aviation, when she was appointed, there was this hue and cry about somebody not being an aviator being appointed as a Minister of Aviation and I was in this house, I told them, the unions that were saying that for somebody to be an aviation minister, he/she must be a professional, that there is no law that says that. I gave them an example.

Our colleagues who were aviators, Air Force aviators, civilian aviators; who were appointed ministers of aviation did not do a thing in the industry. From what I have seen so far, this woman has taken the bull by the horn, she is up-turning everything that has been done wrong in the industry. Very soon, I know that they will be calling for her head that she should be removed. I am not speaking for her; I am speaking for the generality of Nigerians and for the safety of the aviation industry.

From appointments in the industry that I have noticed, the appointment she made in the different parastatals, for example, the Director General of NCAA whose tenure expired and it was renewed. I remember the last time that I was here; I told them that we should work hard to maintain our Category One status in the aviation industry.

As far as the NCAA is concerned, we must have a man who helped us to get this Category One and somebody should maintain this, otherwise, there is no guarantee that once you have a Category One certification, it cannot be revoked. So, Dr. Demuren was asked to continue; that was in good faith.

I remember in the early 60s, 1962 to be precise, when my old man was the collector of customs at the long room, government asked him to continue on contract for two years after he had retired. He did it and they asked him to continue for another two years but he said it was ok. This is the situation that we have found ourselves in the aviation industry.

Then, talking about what is going on today, I was the one who coined the word cutting corners in the aviation industry during our interaction with the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, in Abuja when Nigerian planes were falling off the skies. I predicted that planes will continue to fall as long as people were cutting corners in the aviation industry.

Today, you can quote me anywhere, operators are becoming very few, we know that pilots are given instructions, ‘if you have a snag in an aeroplane, do not put it on your technical logbook, write it on a piece of paper, when you land, give it to the engineer.’

What it means is that if the engineer is able to fix your snag, good; if he is unable to fix your snag, the aeroplane will go into service because there will be no evidence in the check log. As you know, the check log is the book anybody will go to and you know what happened.

No engineer that knows his onions will sign an aircraft off that this aircraft has an hydraulic leak, ‘I have repaired it, it is good to go.’ No engineer will put his hand in such a check log, so to cut another way of passing them, write it on a piece of paper, give it to the engineer, this we have discovered. I have raised this alarm, we are becoming very cautious, the operators are becoming very cautious, and this is why we are having fewer accidents now.

*Capt. Tito Omaghomi...they give complimentary tickets to big shots and it is these big shots that will come and say number one

Two, when we talk about the airports, at this time, there is a lot of renovation work going on in our airports, they want to give them a facelift and stakeholders are complaining that the Minister has refused to carry them along; I do not know whether all of them are contractors that the Minister will take everybody along.

All of us here are stakeholders in the aviation industry, if the Minister wants to repair a toilet at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, I do not see why anybody should be annoyed that she does not take all of us along with her.

This is the grouse that people have with the Minister of Aviation when it comes to taking everybody along in the aviation industry. Seminars are held here and there and everybody is free to attend.

Now, let us go to the crux of the matter, BASA, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic. Although these matters are in court and in the National Assembly, I have to remind Nigerians that nobody put a gun over our heads when we were signing all these agreements.

The Minister has  discovered the lopsidedness in these agreements. This is why she is taking the actions  she has taken because nobody had been bold enough to take such actions before now. Between us and British Airways, I know in the aviation industry, you know there is what they call complementary tickets, so when British Airways brings its aircraft here, they have 20 seats on the First Class, and it will give five of those seats to our big shots as complimentary, free of charge.

They have to add all these money on the other seats. So we are shouting that First Class is high; economy is the same anywhere in the world, Ghana, everywhere; it is the First Class that is the problem but they forget that these people give complimentary tickets.

I do not want to mention names but they give complimentary tickets to big shots and it is these big shots that will  say to the President, ‘call your minister to order, leave this people alone’ that is the truth. British Airways gives Ex-chiefs some slots to and fro London.

So, five out of the 20 seats are free tickets. Where will they get their money from? They must take it out from the other passengers. That is the problem that was on ground before the minister came in and  they are shouting First Class is high.

On compromises

I do not know how, but in Ghana where they have a stable operation, I do not think anybody will go and ask or say ‘give me or my family free tickets.’ There is a law for it; everybody pays for his tickets. I have just told you the reason these people must recoup their money and the bigger problem we have is that we have compromised; we have sold our airlines but I want to alert this house that the biggest fraud in the aviation industry is on its way coming.

People that  bought Nigerian Airways, its hangers, and everything, now know that government is desperate to set up an airline. Everything  they bought for peanut, they will now resell to me and you in dollars, because they are failing in operating their airline, they are looking for whom to hand this airline off to and this country says ‘we need an airline, we must get an airline desperately.’

That is what is the move going on now. Very soon, you will hear that government must set up an airline within two years. Where will the government get the needed infrastructure to operate a national carrier from? It is Nigerians’ properties that they  have stolen that will be used to achieve this purpose and that is why we are pained.

I am pained when I hear the former President saying that he left 32 aeroplanes for Nigeria Airways. I came back, there was no aeroplane left. That is a statement people will come out and refute and defend because I know that the 32 aeroplanes that he left, the federal government gave 7 to Air Force.

When the F28 had an accident in Enugu, government directed Umaru Dikko to sell eight F-28. The eight F-28 were sold to Ghaddafi. When Group Captain Banfa failed to bring Umaru Dikko back to this country in a crate and  came back, he got a compensation job as MD in Nigerian Airways, he sold two 727 brand new planes.

So what are we talking about? Nigeria Airways DC-10 went to train in Ilorin, it landed and caught fire and was burnt to ashes; three Nigeria Airways Airbus at that time went for maintenance and were seized.

So what are we talking about? Somebody leaving us with 32 aeroplanes and now he says he cannot reinforce failure, which was the reason of the former President for not reinforcing Nigerian Airways.

I cannot reinforce failure, ladies and gentlemen, which corporation failed more than the railways in this country that they are still reinforcing up till tomorrow. They are still reinforcing NEPA also. They reinforced the rail because all their houses are on the railway track from Lagos to Zungeru, small, small cubicles, they have nothing to sell in the railways. Nigerian Airways was the greatest landlord in GRA, you know that all its properties in London, in the US, Abidjan and Accra, were sold in order to liquidate Nigerian Airways. They bought all these properties, but we all know that the charter that set up Nigerian Airways was an Act of parliament.

Who can undo what parliament has done without recourse to parliament? No, one man sold this country’s airlines. Read the charter that set up Nigerian Airways, Nigerian Airways was set up for national prestige, that was why we will go from Lagos to Kano, full load, Kano to Maiduguri half load, Maiduguri to Yola, one passenger, they said we must go there.

An aircraft is going to London with 250 people on board gets to Kano, they say, ‘off load all your passengers, somebody is going to Saudi Arabia’ all passengers are off loaded, they carry one person and his entourage to Saudi Arabia and the aeroplane stays there for five days, who failed?

You come back to say we failed. Every government officials that has traveled in Nigeria Airways in this country traveled for free; they did not pay, and Nigeria set up that airline for national prestige. You will feel good when you are in Heathrow Airport, and you see an airline landing with Green, White and Green. As a Nigerian, you feel good, whether they are making money or not, you feel good, this is what this airline was set up for.

The airline was not set up to make profit. They even went ahead to sell this airline and now we are paying for it. We don’t have an airline, if we had an airline and British Airways say ‘pay N150 for First Class’ Nigerian Airways will say pay N75, everybody will go there. We have nowhere to go to, so this knocking hand on the chest, ‘I am going to ban this; I am going to ban that’ I don’t want to comment on that, that is the problem.

On why there is high taxes on  air tickets, as Air Nigeria begins flight operations to London on only $299, which is just about N50,000 but taxes are about N80,000

I cannot comment on that. I am not in the marketing division so I don’t know how they work out their figures. So, I cannot comment on that.

On complaints by operators that the Minister of Aviation ordered airports re-modeling without alternative arrangement for stakeholders, including passengers

The operators and stakeholders as far as I know said the Minister did not carry them along in the on-going re-modeling work. Operators do not own airports; they only do their businesses there.

Those airports are owned by government. FAAN is the landlord of the airport. If the Minister says ‘MD what and what do you need here, what and what do we do there, this place is hot, no air conditioning, our toilets are not working,’make estimate for their repairs. Why do we need operators to follow them to do the repair? If they are contractors, they should say so. The Minister has no business taking them along in this matter. That is the truth.

See, if you go into the history of Murtala Mohammed International Airport, you will discover that underground is where the chillers are, all the air conditioners’ cooling systems are underground. Repairing them is like you are now going to look for the people that built our refineries to come and do the turn around maintenance.

That is what they will do. If you do not make an emergency cooling arrangement, government will now have to look for the contractors that built the airport, that installed the facilities to  carry out the repairs. Look at the central air condition, all they do now is mount standing air conditioners in the departure and arrival halls because they do not know the history of that airport, that is the truth.

On what can be done to improve the present situation as the airports undergo re-modeling, especially MMIA

Since we have this emergency situation on ground, it will take us time re-furbishing, and re doing everything again.

On the ugly nature of the road that links the international airport to other parts of Lagos, especially, as the road does not befit the status of the airport as country’s window to the airport.

I am happy that you have observed that. I used to be a member of the board of Nigerian Airports Authority. I do not think that the Minister has been well advised. That stretch of road that you are seeing there belongs to the airports authority. That stretch of road is the responsibility of the Nigerian Airports Authority and because of those squatters- banks, mechanic workshops- they have neglected that road. I wish somebody will draw the attention of the minister to it.

The road leading to the Murtala Muhammed Airport is the property and responsibility of FAAN and they used to  tell squarters along that strech of road, ‘if you build any house , we shall demolish them.’ Nobody is doing anything about it; may be after this interview, if this issue is highlighted, the Minister will take note. But that road belongs to the Airports Authority.

On fears that the airport in Ghana will take the shine off the MMIA, Lagos, as the hub of aviation in West Africa

Let me tell you something, it is not the infrastructure you have in an airport, the big buildings that make a good airport. If you are taking off from London to Lagos, you file a flight plan; they will ask you ‘what is your alternate airport, just in case your destination airport is not good, where will  you go to in such an event.’90 percent of airlines choose Cotonou. Cotonou is a small airport but their facilities to aid an aeroplane land are world class. We believe that whatever weather affects Lagos affects that same Cotonou 15 minutes flight time.

Once you take-off, you just go up a little, before you get up to 5,000 feet, you are seeing the airport, but everybody wants to go there because facilities at the Nigeria airports are failing whatever they are doing now. I have not flown for sometime, but I know we have the Total Radar Coverage (TRACON) which makes the airspace to be safer. I don’t know if the ILS facilities are working well. I will have to check.  However when it comes to comfort of passengers at the airport, this is the same thing that we are talking about.

Everybody wants to go there but we should take into cognisance, what are the new security measures in our airports?

People who want to come in with their illegal loots prefer to go to Accra now because they have leverage in entering there. What is our security doing differently? They are arresting people by their numbers. So people like to divert.

It is a combination of everything. So it is not because these airports here are so bad; it is because the security situation is becoming tougher and tougher for arrivals and that is why some of them are sneaking right and centre now. That is the truth.

Is that good for the country?

It is good for the country when it comes to security. It is good for the country! If I am bringing in one tonne of cocaine from Malaysia to Lagos and I hear that the security here is very tough, I divert my loots to somewhere else. So that is the truth. It is not everybody that does not want to come to Lagos airport think the airport is bad; it is because of the security situations too. So that is the case.

On concerns over airport development by virtually all states of the federation, especially with plans by Lagos State government to build an airport at Lekki corridor

You see my people say, ‘God takes care of fools, children and drinkers,’ you have to define what an airport area is. From a geographical centre of an airport, ten miles radius up to 2500 feet is an airport area. When you take off from Lagos, you take off from MMIA there; you are already in Lekki in seconds.

This is an accident looking for a place to happen but people just want to do prestigious projects but I want to see who will license them. Who will give them certification to operate airport inside control airspace? Airport inside an airport; nobody has thought of that.

When you do a circle from Murtala Airport on take off, and another from Lekki, you do another circle inside, one airport inside another one, it is a tragedy.  Even Owerri to Port Harcourt, you take off from Port Harcourt airport and before you get to runway 04, you are looking at Owerri airport.

So, it is a serious matter because everybody wants to build an airport.   Today, they have built one in Asaba, tomorrow they are going to build one in Onitsha. We are just preparing ourselves for accident to be happening all over the place because one airport will underlie another airport.

But in the US, you find so many airports in a state.

I give you a typical example of Miami airport. In Miami International Airport, we have another airport underneath it called Acolata Airport where we all got trained as student pilots. You will be on ground in Acolata Airport; the radar controller in Miami International Airport will see all your movement on the ground.

They know where students’ aircraft are; they restrict you to one area but here the radar will not pick aircrafts that are not up to 1500 feet.  That is why when people want to commit atrocities, they fly under radar and you cannot detect them. That is our problem. So all these airports, prestige to build airport here, prestige to build airport there is not good for the country.

I am not speaking for anybody but I want to stress here and now that the Minister should be encouraged to do what she is doing without fear or favour.  The bulk lies with the President because tomorrow they will gang up and call for the head of the Minister. I know that because she is dealing with all of them now, tomorrow somebody will say ‘look, remove that woman,’ so I think they should give the woman a free hand to work.

On how to sustain Federal Aviation Administration’s category one certification by Nigeria

What I said the last time I came here is that the same zeal that they used in attaining Category One, they should maintain it and well too. I am happy that they decided to ask Dr. Demuren to continue, he should continue and his lieutenants around him. I have seen all the appointments he is making; director of this, director of that, all those are good appointments. So I believe that we are maintaining it and Demuren is doing a very good job there. That is the truth.

The other one is the MD of NAMA. An engineer has been appointed there. The young man is doing a very good job. Nnamdi Udoh is doing a very fantastic job there too but the one that they have trouble with is the FAAN MD. About Meavis and no Meavis, the man is giving a lot of “wahala”.

On the ongoing face-off between the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, and Maevis Nigeria Limited, concessionaire in charge of revenue collection for the airports authority

The matter is in court but I always tell them, nobody put a gun on your head when signing all those agreements or contract and they say ‘no we don’t want to do it again.’

Still on BASA

Do you know what BASA is all about? It is an agreement that says ‘I will come to your country ten times a week; you come to my country ten times a week.’ Now they come but we do not go there again right.   We will say ‘ok the ten times we are supposed to come to your country and we are not coming, give us the money in lieu of the ten times so that you can be coming twenty times,’ that is how it works.

That is why they said that they can come as many times as they want because they paid for your slot and we are annoyed that they are coming. That is why the Nigerian government has said we shall set up our own national airline, and then it will now be who sold our airline?  Who liquidated it? I know the liquidation was voluntary liquidation. it was not that they just decided, we are going to liquidate and they liquidated.

On the 19th of April, one group in Nigerian Airways called 1999 group of pensioners, took the government to court and asked for 5 prayers and the court granted their prayers.   One; that they are civil servants, it is a constitutional issue, that they are entitled to their pension for life.

The Nigerian government set up a committee to look at the modality for the liquidation of Nigerian Airways. The committee recommended that the staff should be paid 25 years, 20 years and 15 years. Government called the people and gave them paper to sign for 5 years, the people said ‘what, well, what we have we hold, let us hold this 5 years,’ then they started making their trouble again.

They went to court, the court said out of the three recommendations 25 years, 20 years, 15 years, the  court has granted them 20 years, they have taken 5 years, government should pay them the 15 remaining years or put them on pension until death do them part.

Last week, the Attorney General said that they should give them seven and half years; the people said ‘ok let us hold our seven and half years.’ Meanwhile they are going to hold seven and half years and they have a court judgment on their hands. Now, if you calculate the money they paid these people, what they have used to settle claims on the liquidated airline, me and you could have gotten an airline today.