The Chairman, Your Excellency, Former President, General Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR
The Chief Launcher
The Distinguished Author, Your Royal Majesty, Oba Adewunmi Ogunleye
Royal Fathers here present
Gentlemen of the press
Other protocols observed
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen
I consider it an honour to be invited as "Special Guest of Honour"” at a function where His Excellency, Former President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forced of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, General Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR, has accepted to be the Chairman. To me General Obasanjo is more than a former President. He was my boss and mentor in the Nigerian Army. I hold him in high esteem as an astute leader and statesman who is recognized nationally and internationally. For the avoidance of doubt, General Obasanjo drove from Abeokuta of officiate as the Special Guest of Honour at my 70th Birthday celebrations in 2010, which was held at my hometown Igbotako in Okitipupa Local Government Area of Ondo State. That shows the type of person Balogun of Owu Lineage and the Ekerin Balogun of the Egba Clan of Yoruba Land is, when he loves some one!
In the same vein, our distinguished author of today’s book launch visited my Ikeja residence to present a copy of his book to me last Sunday, requesting my presence here today officiate as Special Guest of Honour. I acceded to the distinguished author’s request as a demonstration of the love and regard I have for him, having served under me as Head of Public Relations Department during my tenure as Managing Director, Chief Executive and later Sole Administrator of Nigeria Airways Limited, about 23 years ago (1988-1989). During our period of working together, I found the author to be a consummate professional, an erudite and seasoned journalist and an avid reader. He was one of those who inducted me into the Nigeria Airways, having been appointed from outside the aviation sector. He was very loyal with passion to the Nigeria Airways and its leadership, particularly to me. His loyalty was total, absolute and unalloyed. In fact, it was 100%, and not 99.9%.
I am therefore not surprised that the distinguished author has continued to grow from strength to strength, while remaining relevant to the aviation industry and the nation, even as he now occupies a coveted royal throne in Owu Kingdom of Oduduwa dynasty. His first book on aviation industry titled WT040, published in 2000 remains till date, an authoritative historical compendium on Aviation Industry.
The relationship between the author and me was premised on his understanding and appreciating the fact that I was appointed to head the Nigeria Airways with a mandate to fight a septic corruption in the airline, sanitize the system and reorganize the airline for operational effectiveness. But unfortunately, I encountered very stiff opposition from the Management, Board and powerful cabal within and outside government, who perceived the Nigeria Airways as their own share of the national cake. I was subsequently removed unceremoniously and redeployed to the Ministry of Aviation and the rest is now history.
With the benefit of hindsight however, I still cannot understand the wisdom or decipher the rationale behind the liquidation and eventual sale of Nigeria Airways. As a former Managing Director/Chief Executive and Sole Administrator of Nigeria Airways, I can say authoritatively that the airline had enough assets in Nigeria, across the West African sub-region, central and East Africa, the United States of America and Europe, particularly the United Kingdom, to offset whatever volume of liabilities it purportedly incurred. The huge resources generated in hard currency from Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) could have been used as subvention from the Ministry of Aviation to help bail out the Nigeria Airways from its indebtedness, or at worst it could have entered into business and operational partnership with a mega airline like the British Airways or any other credible world class airline.
As far as I know, selling our national airline and by extension, a part of our national pride and heritage which came to existence in 1958, two years before independence, should have been the very last resort. In fact, the international routes that were developed for many years at high costs by Nigeria Airways were valuable assets. To that extent, I cannot but share the views of the author in the second paragraph of the introduction to this book that the outright liquidation and sale of Nigeria Airways was like “throwing away the baby with the bathwater”. More so, that the gratuities and pensions of the Nigeria Airways staff were not adequately and properly addressed as stipulated in the Public Enterprises (Privatization and Commercialization) Act of 1999 and apparent breach of due process.
There is no doubt that the airline business is capital intensive and foreign imputes driven, yet, several African countries have continued to sustain their national carries because of "national pride"” notwithstanding he cost. While Nigeria, the giant of Africa has killed and buried its national carrier, a good number of African national carriers still operating to Nigeria include: Cameroon Airways, Egypt Airways, Ethiopian Airways, Ghana Airways, Kenya Airways, South Africa Airways and Sudan Airways.
The task to review the book: Nigeria Civil Aviation; Decade of Security and Passenger Comfort Development has been assigned to a competent hand, so my intension is not to review the book but suffice to say that the book is a very timely publication on the positive changes we have witnessed within in the Nigeria, in the past decade.
I wish to acknowledge the efforts initiated By Obasanjo Civilian Administration in addressing the hydra-headed problem of safety within the Nigerian Air Space and redressing the infrastructural and facility decay in the sector, which culminated in two major air disasters in October and December 2005 and the embarrassing disappearance of Wings Aviation Beechcraft in March 2008. It is on record that it was Obasanjo who gave Presidential Assent to the Civil Aviation Act of 2006 which paved the way to the safety in the Nigerian Airspace that we are now celebrating.
As a result of that law, all relevant agencies of Aviation Ministry have braced up to the challenge of evolving a competitive aviation industry for Nigeria. Passengers now fly “healthy” aircraft, instead of geriatric aero-planes hitherto operated in the fleet of airlines in the country. It was as a result of this improvement in the quality of leadership and service delivery in the aviation sector, that Nigeria was granted the USA – Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Category One Status which is America’s highest safety rating. To that extent, I wish to commend the efforts of the Director General of Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) Dr. Harold Olusegun Demuren and also the supervisory Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah (OON) who brought purposeful leadership and dynamism to the aviation industry to sustain the vision and reform agenda of present Administration.
To me, this book launch is a celebration of visible landmark achievements in the Nigeria Aviation Industry and I wonder how complete our celebration would have been today, if Nigerian Airways was still alive to partake of this glorious era of transformation and triumph.
Finally, I congratulate the distinguished author, His Royal Majesty, Oba Olufemi Adewumi Ogunleye, the Towulade of Owu Kingdom for this his second expose on the aviation industry in Nigeria. It is therefore both an honour and privilege for me, to recommend this book to all students of aviation institutes, researchers, corporate interest groups and stakeholders in the aviation industry.
Thank you all for listening and God bless.
Prince Dr. (Gen) Olu Bajowa, OFR
(The Jagunmolu of Ikale Land) 16th February, 2012
