By Michael Agbaji
The national airspace needs urgent action to survive if the world of Director General of Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) Capt. Musa Nuhu is something to go by.
Capt.Nuhu stated this on Monday at the national Assembly at meeting summed by the leadership of the house of representatives lead by Hon. Deputy speaker Hon. Idris Ahmed Wase to find the lasting solution to Aviation crisis in Nigeria.
According to him, the pump price of Jet-A1 otherwise known as aviation fuel, continues to skyrocket, the nation need to no that unless something urgent is done to address the current situation in the aviation industry, the agency may be forced to shut down the nation’s airspace for the safety of air travellers.
This came just as the House directed the Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority to do everything possible to dismantle the cartel growing in the industry that had jacked up the prices of aviation fuel to N670 per litre from usual price of N190 and the non availability of the product.
Also speaking, the Executive Director, Distribution Systems, Storage and Retailing Infrastructure of the Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority, Ogbogu Ukoha, inform meeting that there was enough jet A1 in the country to last for 34 days.
Reacting to that, NCAA boss express surprise at the sudden increase in the price of Jet A1, said the safety of passengers was key to his mandate, pointing out that with the way things were going currently, he might be forced to shut down some airline and by extension, the airspace to ensure safety.
He says, “I don’t want to appear before any committee either here in the House or in the Senate to explain what happened to airline ABCD. So, we must do something fast to address this situation so that things do not get out.
He said that as a result of the increase in the cost of operation of the airlines, they might be forced to shut down their operation; an action which he said will have an adverse effect on the economy of the country.
In his part the NMDPRA Executive Director said the role of the agency was to regulate the industry and issue licenses to importers of the product said from his records, there was enough aviation fuel to last the country for 34 days.
Ukoha said further that aviation fuel was one of the petroleum products that had been fully deregulated and is therefore controlled by market forces, adding that the Authority has issued licenses to about 28 companies to import the product into the country.
He says “From our records, we have enough supplies to last us for 34 days plus. So, when we hear about scarcity, all we can say is that we have enough supplies”.
The explanation did not go down well with the Deputy Speaker, members of the House present at the meeting as well as the airline operators,the Deputy Speaker told them why they should have a common ground instead of blame game.
According to him,there is no reason why there should be scarcity of the product if there was enough supply to last for 34 days, he they raised alarm about cartel working so hard to sabotage the efforts of the government.
He says, “this is a political era and elections are coming. We do not want anybody to sabotage the efforts of the government having put into revamping the economy so far because of the economy important of aviation.
The Chairman of Air Peace, Allen Onyeama speak behalf of the Airline Operators says they have held back from shutting down the industry because of the economy impact.
He says,“it is because of this statement that you made now about being in a political era that we have not shut down. We do not want anybody to use us to blackmail the government who has done so much for the industry.
According to him, safety is of concern in this industry, he further spoke about the cost of operation says fuel takes about 30 per cent across the world, but in Nigeria, fuel takes about 70 per cent of our operation.
In the last 2 week the price of aviation fuel that is N190 per litre jump to N670 as of today.
The government has done so much for us in this industry with the President granting us waivers.
According to him,We cannot survive like this for another three days as we may force to withdraw our operations We had to reduce our operations to 30 per cent because the product is not even available.
So, I am surprised that the Executive Director said they have supplies to last 34 days so why are we not getting he says.
It’s as a result of this that the stakeholder went open meeting to enable reach a common grand.
Briefing the press after the meeting,The group General manager Mr mele kayri assured Nigeria that they will soon be available of aviation fuel.
He further says that Airline operator maybe given opportunity to to import the aviation fuel to enable them enjoy regular supply.
