Update: Nnaji asked me for a share of Nigeria Air – Hadi Sirika 

Update: Nnaji asked me for a share of Nigeria Air – Hadi Sirika

○ Nnaji wanted me to concede 5% of Nigeria Air to him and his people;
○ Says everything about the new national carrier was done transparently;
○ Urges journalists to invoke Freedom of Information Act in order to unearth the truth;
○ Can’t explain why Sahco was not invited

By PHC Telegraph

Reps Nnonim Nnaji, the outgoing Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation must be feeling part of the heat.

Ceaselessly, he has launched series of attacks on a former aviator and ex – Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika.

Now, the table appears to have turned slightly, with the former Minister who has been absorbing all kinds of punches taking his time to chop at Nnaji’s underbelly.

While Rep Nnaji had all along insisted, along with a hand full of certain outspoken members of the Aviation Committee and others in the  National Assembly, that the whole idea about  Nigeria Air is nothing but a huge fraud, what looks like the real reason for the hostility against the outgone Minister, especially in the green chamber, may be coming gradually to light.

Nnonim Nnaji In Hadi Sirika’s Eyes:

Nnaji is being accused of surreptitiously asking the outgone Minister of Aviation “to give him and his people” five percent of Nigeria Air.

“Hon Nnaji asked me that I should give him 5 per cent of Nigeria Air to carry him along with his people”, the former Minister explained.

“I said to him at that time”, Sirika went on, “Honourable, a bidding process has taken place, and some people won. So, I think you should go to those people and ask for the 5 per cent.”

Sirika did not believe that Nnaji who read the riot act on Nigeria Air acted in good faith, alleging that decisions taken by his Committee on the Nigeria Air project may have been predetermined.

Incidentally, the ex-minister had served the country in the green chamber and the red chamber. This is how he put it:

“I was a member of the House of Reps 20 years ago, and 10 years ago, I was a Senator,” Sirika disclosed.

“I know the workings of the National Assembly”, the former Senator stated, “He called for a public hearing. And right under the public hearing, he just turned the paper and read the riot act.

“The practice in the National Assembly is that after hearing people and their complaints, you now go and sit down as a committee, discuss the issues, raise them, approach the whole House of Reps and take a position of the House plus leadership and come back and make your findings known, but not immediately you just read the riot Act out. It means it’s predetermined.”

Nnaji Immediately Replies Ex-Minister Sirika:

It is not yet known where Nnonim Nnaji reportedly met the ex-minister to make the request, who was with him when he did, or how he asked for it.

“Ordinarily l would not have bothered to reply to his allegations of my demand for 5 per cent equity in Nigeria Air as he claimed during his interview on Arise Television”, Nnaji said on Sunday, “but l believe I owe my constituents and indeed Nigerians a duty to put the records straight.

“It is on record that last year when the Minister announced Ethiopian Airlines as a core investor in Nigeria Air, my committee which was also inundated with petitions from various stakeholders regarding that announcement invited the Minister and his team to furnish the committee with the details of the project.

“The committee requested the evidence of the bid process that gave Ethiopian Airlines the award and, the full business case as prepared by the Nigerian Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, (ICRC) which was supposed to spell out the details of all the investors and their equity contributions.”

But the former Minister who spoke earlier as a guest on Arise News Sunday bluntly accused the chairman of the House Committee of asking for a slice of the new airline deal powered by the Ethiopians.

Nnaji apparently did not however disclose who “his people” were according to the Minister.

Prodded by Abati’s question; a question which could have put members of the House committee on the spot; the Minister posited Nnaji may have been speaking possibly for members of his family.

Contrary to claims that the Federal Government has spent about $85 billion, Sirika hinted that about $5 billion was provided for the project.

He said that as at the time he left office as the Minister of Aviation, about $3 billion had been expended out of the sum of $5 billion.

“So, the $85 billion is in the head of the one who said it”, the ex-minister remarked.

The entire business plan, it has been learnt by the Port Harcourt Telegraph, has at least $200 billion as the total cost of the project.

Among those who bought shares were the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which controls 5% while Sahco has 15%.

The former Minister revealed that the refusal of any of the shareholders, including the Federal Government to take part in the execution of the deal will not be sufficient to stop the train.

Sirika said in answer to another question that he could not explain why Sahco was not invited to participate at the recent event which was designed to unveil the face of the airline.

According to the former Minister whose arrest and prosecution has been widely canvassed, the media is free under Nigeria’s Freedom of Information Act to ask for details of the transaction.

He denied that the plan to establish the national carrier was shrouded in secrecy as some commentators have suggested, saying that everything including the desire by investors to  bid for the ownership of the airline was done transparently.

He even disclosed that no less than 400,000 persons on social media participated in developing the logo and name of the airline among other things.

Not Yet Over, Eyes On Ball:

Certainly, the last has not been heard about the Sirika-Nnaji face-off.

Nnaji has been called out by the ex-airline captain as the burgeoning controversy over Nigeria Air blossoms. He has responded.

Somehow, the election of new officials of the National Assembly on Tuesday is most likely to dwarf other issues at least for now.

All eyes are turned to the National Assembly, bastion of Nigeria’s parliamentary democracy, where strong proponents of a mature and collaborative legislature are fighting it out with those who are opposed to the emergence of a rubber stamp legislature.

At the Senate, President Bola Tinubu and the APC are rooting for Senator Godswill Akpabio while Rep Abbas is being projected for the office of Speaker in the House of Representatives.

Many who are watching from the sidelines see the ongoing infighting among lawmakers and Senators as the exclusive preserve of the National Assembly.

But the matter goes beyond that. The type of house officers who are largely to emerge in both chambers of the National Assembly through the ballot on Tuesday shall determine if the Bola Tinubu administration would get things done.

Which is why as Tuesday draws near, Tinubu and his friends in other political parties who include former Governor Nyesom Wike, former Governor James Ibori and members of the G5 would be facing their first major challenge.