The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila in Abuja on Monday said that Nigeria will enforce the Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement (BASA)
Gbajabiamila made this known at a roundtable with aviation stakeholders and top government officials to resolve the trapped foreign airline’s funds of $700 million and the visa ban on Nigerians by United Arab Emirates (UAE)
BASA is an agreement that provides for civil aviation certifications to be shared between two countries.
The speaker said that there was need for all stakeholders to shift ground in the interim but the long run solution is to implement the BASA agreement.
Gbajabiamila said that government will make effort to at least pay half of the funds by the end of 2022, and let the airline return to status quo and the alleged UAE visa ban on Nigerians be lifted.
“Even if we clear the backlog, we will still run into these issues for as long as the BASA agreement of reciprocity is not respected because we will continue to accumulate.
“If it is respected, the local airline will reduce the deficit going to the foreign airline so there is no running away from that and we will enforce that,’’ he said.
Gbajabiamila said that national interest should always be on the front burner saying that if that visa ban is connected in any way trapped funds, “that will be the most nauseating thing I have ever heard.’’
The lawmaker said that it is important to resolve the issues as failure to do so is tantamount to “cutting your nose to spite your face.”
“We will in the long run, sit with the government of UAE and let them know that Nigeria is not a country that you can toil with.
`Whether it is through the aviation sector if we do not have that strength, by God, I know that there are ways where Nigeria has upper hand on them; the doctrine of reciprocity is not confined to the issue at hand.
“It can be defined in a broad term and that is what I want the government of UAE and indeed any other country to realise, national pride and sovereignty are two important things, what they wouldn’t take, they should not dish out,’’ he said.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Mr Godwin Emiefele said that since 2016, CBN always accorded priority to the foreign airlines to repatriate their funds.
According to him, we have accorded extreme priority to International Air Transport Association (IATA) in the allocation of foreign exchange.
Emiefele recalled that because of the recession of 2016, he had informed the airlines that they will be delays in repatriation of funds while assuring them that their monies will not be lost.
“That day I made a decision to use our discretion to allocate $265 million to the foreign airlines.
“We did $110 million in spot and the rest 60 days forward. On that day we allocated to IATA $322 million through UBA, Qatar Airways got $22.8 million through Standard Chartered.
“Emirters got $19.6 million through Access Bank, British Airways got $5.5m through GTB, Virgin Atlantin got $4.8 through Zenith bank and so on,” he said.
He, however, said that the problem is the issue of not granting Nigerian airline opportunity to fly in into other countries with which BASA agreement exisits.
He said that not allowing Nigerian airlines opportunity to operate foreign flight is chocking the country.
“When you allow Nigerian airline to fly in your country, what they airlines will do is to charge Naira as we expect foreign airlines to charge.
“But under the BASA agreement, every penny that the foreign airline sells in ticket, it must convert to dollars and take away.
“But if Nigerian airline charges naira, it does not have to convert to dollars and so that naira sits; that is why we are saying countries with which we have agreement must respect BASA.
“You cannot be flying 21 flight into Nigeria and you do not allow Nigerian airline to land in your country and when they land, you intimidate them with sniffer dogs and do not allow them carry out maintenances check,’’ he said.
Emiefele said that such attitude is making life difficult for the country and it is also taking advantage of a country with the largest population, largest economy and market in Africa.
The governor said that part of the money had been paid and that more funds would be released to the foreign airline at the end of October.
The CBN boss said that what is happening in the aviation sector is a global issue saying that the global outlook is darkening due to deepening global slowdown.
He said that in line with the principle of globalisation, it is expected that countries will work together but unfortunately deglobalisation is going on as countries are thinking of themselves.
The governor said that the same issue is playing out in the aviation sector with regards to the demand of the foreign airlines.
He said that more 1/3 of global economy is in recession and that rising unemployment and inflation is hitting the global economy and growth is declining.
According to the governor, global financial market had become very difficult and that is why we are where we are today.
He said that that attitude of deglobalisation, the Russia-Ukraine war, inflationary pressure, the China slowdown which is now in the negative, could spell disaster for most countries in the world in 2023.
The Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hardi Sirika said that Nigeria has a population about 215 million highly mobile people and will not succumb to threats.
Sirika said that he expect that the foreign airlines to understand when Nigeria is in a difficult situation given the amount of money they had made and not threaten to shut down operations.
“If you disagree, we expect that you come to us and we negotiate and we give you what we have in the hope that we finish paying; what I have problem with is threats.
“Every country every airline will threaten Nigeria, we will not fly to Nigeria again, we are not giving Nigeria visa, we won’t do our operations, we will shut down Abuja and Lagos state.
“Please countries have been shut completely and they did well, they are examples in Asia, Middle East and even Europe; we are not afraid of being shut.
“It will help us to do better, out school and hospitals will do better, we will begin to go to our own hospitals and our own schools.
“If you shut down Nigeria, it does not make any sense and we are not threatened, ’’he said.
The Deputy President, Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) Mr Allen Onyema said that Nigeria is the largest market for the international airlines.
According to him, that they had gained a lot from the country over the years and this is not the way to payback in Nigeria’s difficult times.
He said that all the UAE visas local airlines have applied for through agents have been turned down since last week.
According to him, those still flying to the UAE are those who have existing visas, all others have stopped flying and by that October 28, Air Peace too will pull out.
“At any point in time, we expect these foreign airlines to respect our country and not to arm-twist our country for their benefit; Africa has been the whipping boy for everybody and this has to stop no matter the price anybody has to pay.
“It is time to speak up against this evil, it is not good, we expect them to reciprocate what the country had been to them all these years,’’ he said.
Onyema said that the solution to the issues of trapped funds is to reduce the frequency of foreign airlines operations and grant equal opportunity to local airlines to operate international flights.
The Country Rep of IATA, Mr Samson Ifatokun said that the airlines are finding it difficult to repatriate their funds.
He acknowledged that the CBN was doing its best to resolve the matter but the airlines needed some form of assurance and a roadmap on how the balance will be paid.
Ifatokun said that the position of the speaker will be communicated to the foreign airlines for their consideration and final decision.
