THE Nigerian transportation sector is gradually sliding into different stages of monumental crises. Every aspect of the sector is having serious challenges and it is only a matter of time before it joins the bottomless pit of decadence from which the country is currently battling to extricate itself.
The waterways, roads and rail services have gotten more than their fair share of challenges. The aviation sector is also battling to survive. Recently, domestic airline operators raised an alarm that if something was not done urgently to buoy the aviation sector, it might be grounded completely. Two airlines – Aero and Dana – are not flying because they no longer have the capacity to keep their aircraft in the air, in keeping with industry regulators’ terms and conditions.
Travellers are also bearing the weight of the pressure on the industry as tickets have become expensive – both for local and overseas travel. Only recently, some airlines threatened to pull out of the Nigerian airspace and airports. Emirates temporarily suspended flying into Nigeria while the British Airways had served notice of doing same. Others were just waiting in the wings.
Apart from battling high fuel cost which is about N1,000 per litre, foreign airlines in particular cited inability to repatriate funds back home because of scarcity of the US Dollar. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) hurriedly put together an intervention fund that saved the country from an imminent embarrassment in respect of the shortage of foreign currency. But this resort to fire-brigade approach each time there is a long foreseen crisis does not inspire any confidence in such a delicate sector.
Foreign airlines are also looking for creative ways to ensure their funds are no longer trapped in Nigeria. They now prefer to sell their tickets in US Dollars instead of Naira, a move the federal government has frowned at.
Air travel which used to be reserved for the elite has taken its own knock with the spike in aviation fuel price occasioned by the Russian/Ukraine war. Because of security challenges in the country, most travellers prefer to travel by air, but the high cost of air travel is digging a dip hole in their pockets, arising mainly from the forces of demand and supply.
Fuel and maintenance costs as well as shortage of foreign currency for transactions have remained critical issues in the sector for which the airline operators have weighed different options in the past – including being licensed to import their own aviation fuel.
During the weekend, aviation workers in the country threatened to cripple the airports on Monday (today), as more hurdles are placed on the tracks of the wobbling sector. In a joint statement issued by the workers unions, members were directed to embark on peaceful rallies/public demonstrations at all airports in Nigeria to demand the expunging of what they regard as obnoxious Essential Services clauses from the Bills/Acts of the aviation agencies. That means more problems for the flying public. Those who travelled for the weekend might have difficulties returning to their work stations this morning.
Flying can no longer be regarded as luxury; it has become very essential for the people of Nigeria to conduct their daily businesses and other engagements. It is more so because travelling by other means these days has become very risky. The roads used to be the common avenue for travellers but it is no more in our clime. It became trendy and convenient to travel by rail before the unfortunate attack by terrorists on the Abuja – Kaduna train service sometime in March this year where more than 100 passengers were kidnapped. But you can’t use the train anymore; only few rail links are still operational as safety has become a major issue.
The crisis in the aviation sector falls exactly within the prism of the crisis in the overall national economic spectrum. It did not just happen; the signs have always been there. A nation’s transportation sector must be up and doing in order for economic and social activities to be lived up to the optimum. The absence of one would put pressure on others.
For instance, water transportation in Nigeria is under-developed. This is in spite of the fact that two of the safest main rivers that drain the continent of Africa – Niger and Benue – meet right in the middle of Nigeria and empty into the Atlantic Ocean via the Niger Delta. Apart from dug-out canoes that are used in villages that line the old banks of the two rivers, hardly would one find a modern passenger or goods ferry service on that stretch.
The Onitsha and the Idah River Ports have not been developed. So, inland waterways are down. The coastal areas from Calabar to Port Harcourt, to Warri and to Lagos also suffer a similar fate of underdevelopment.
In the rail sector, which is another area of mass transportation, the rails had remained comatose for some decades until the Goodluck Jonathan administration made efforts to revive the sector. The current administration took it a notch higher – particularly with the shuttle between Abuja and Kaduna – which had been very active and reliable. So, the rail sector has again joined the inland waterways in the doldrums, leaving road and air travel as the only options available to travellers.
Apparently because of infrastructure decay, road transportation has always been on the wrong side of the divide. Nevertheless, our people, long suffering as they are, have continued to ply the roads in spite of the fact that they have become death traps. The state of disrepair has now provided positioning points for bandits and kidnappers who raid our roads, kidnapping and killing people on a routine basis.
In order to avoid a complete shutdown of the aviation sector, all the stakeholders in the sector and the federal government should come together to find a lasting solution to the challenges – especially for local travels. Sometimes, passengers spend more than 10 hours to board their flights due to flight delays or outright cancellations which have become the rule rather than the exception.
If the roads are unsafe and inland waterways have not been fully developed, the aviation industry must not be allowed to die. Indeed, you begin to wonder what happened to Nigeria Air which was supposed to be our national carrier. After the high-profile launch of the airline at an international air show in the UK four years ago, the project was suspended two months after the launch. Since then, nothing has happened.
The aviation minister, Hadi Sirika, owes Nigerians an explanation. He should tell us why Nigeria Air is not in the skies as the national carrier was due to commence commercial flights in December 2018. The minister’s tweet of September 19, 2018 only announced the “tough decision” to suspend the national carrier project. When are we going to bring Nigeria “closer to the world”?
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