Home » Africa: KLM crippled Nigeria Airways when they managed it -Okpere Former Minister of Aviation

Africa: KLM crippled Nigeria Airways when they managed it -Okpere Former Minister of Aviation

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Okpere

Air Vice Marshal Anthony Okpere (rtd), former Managing Director of Nigerian Airways and Minister of Aviation, who was recently 75, in this interview with Assistant Editor Bola Olajuwon, traces how policy summersault and lack of political frustrated the implementation of Nigerian Aviation Policy. Excerpts:

YOU retired at less than 50 years old. Now, at 75 what have you been doing since retirement?
I retired very early. We were not prepared, but the political exigency at that time required that some of us should exit the service. So, we retired at a time we were not prepared for it. When we left in 1990 – which was termed voluntary retirement anyway – most of us were caught unawares because all our lives we had been, or let me speak for myself; all my life, I had been looking at the service as a place where I would stay at a ripe old age and then leave. Fortunately, let me say I voluntarily retired, then spent some time on insurance business, quietly living off whatever asset I was able to acquire and I spend most of my time now on humanitarian services, which gives me a lot of satisfaction. I am not in politics and I am not in big business, but I live a quiet life and I am happy about it.

You’re once Minister of Aviation and also responsible for the activities of Nigeria Airways. If you look back, can you compare the aviation sector of those days with today’s? Has there been development or is it just a case of challenges?
I was first Managing Director of Nigeria Airways before I was appointed as Minister of Aviation. In March 1986, I was told to go to Nigeria Airways as managing director. If you recall, we had so many problems; aircraft were not flying on schedule, people were disillusioned and overhead was so much in terms of people in Nigeria Airways. They did their best at Nigeria Airways at that time, but things were just not moving and I was asked to go there to see what could be done.

I depended on people then. I sat back to see what could be done. We, as a team, tried our best, but then I as the MD, the buck stopped at my table: policy direction, what we should do, etc. Let me say, we did our best. I was on that job when in late November, early December 1987, the Ministry of Aviation was carved out of Ministry of Transport and Aviation. The president then felt we needed to give aviation the pride of place and see what we could do to bring up the aviation sector to be what it should be, to be in tandem with the development that was going on in the global aviation industry. When I got in there, we had to work on the decree that established the Aviation Ministry, what and what were expected and set up a committee.

I used my bosses, the late Air Vice Marshall Idoko, Air Commodore Falope, together with other knowledgeable people within the industry.

We sat down to try and fashion out our own aviation industry to be in line with what was going on elsewhere. It was as a result of this that the policy came out when the Federal Civil Aviation Authority (FCAA) was carved out. I recommended the late Air Commodore Falope to be the MD. From there, FCAA was broken up into Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) or it used to be Nigerian Airports Authority (NAA), then, of course, the NCAA – Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority. One is the administrative arm and the other is the regulatory arm of it.

Today, I think the aviation industry has grown. Today, we can beat our chest to say we are doing things relative to what happens in the developed countries. Unfortunately, the flying aspect of it, in terms of a national carrier is dead. I think we got it wrong a lot. A lot of things happened in the past, we have to understand the present and project for the future. One area that messed us up completely was calling KLM in those days to come and handle the Nigeria Airways. The carrier was handed over to them on a platter of gold. ‘Go there, see what you can do.’ That was all, no thoughts were given and nothing was put on paper as it were, in terms of terms of reference for what they had to do.

Of course, they came in and saw it as a gold mine, in the sense that they decided to equip even their kitchens with air conditioners at our own expense, bought vehicles, hired planes from abroad at whatever terms and without reference to the little expertise we had in Nigeria. They were just given approach to do whatever they pleased. So, when KLM left, planes that were brought in by them on charter, the lease expired and they were never renewed. So, Nigeria Airways was left on its own with a lot of debt overhang, a lot of staff that were brought in, even the MD himself, who was supposed to be there, was living somewhere on Glover Road, Ikoyi.

They made sure the house was well-furnished and so on and so forth. In fact, they did their best to put us in a lot of debt and they left. Mind you, Nigeria Airways as a government arm, of course, it would fly a lot of government passengers free of charge. We never got anything back. If the government said, ‘we want this aircraft to go from Lagos to London’, you had to obey because it owned the aircraft. A lot of things were wrong. During that period, the Nigerians that were there tried their best. Bernard Bamfa came in, and after him, I was there. KLM did what they did and left.

We were left with this problem to solve. How were we to get aircraft to fly for us? How were we to pay our debts? How were we to pay salaries when we were not flying? These were problems that were on ground.

I recall that when I took over, I had over 16,700 members of staff scattered all over the world. With what resources do we pay their salaries? Paying salaries alone was a problem. Mind you, there was nothing we produced to help the aircrafts fly, not even the aviation fuel. We had to import it. Every maintenance had to be done abroad, except for minor checks on the ramp. We didn’t have means to even look after the aircrafts. So, everything came virtually to a standstill. This was even before Bamfa got there. I remember that at a stage, Captain Tahir was there, he was manager or MD. Captain Tahir was suddenly sent out and KLM was brought in to manage the affairs.

One of my colleagues, AVM Bello, was brought in to oversee the affairs in the national carrier. He was the Commander in Ikeja Base then. KLM did their best but left us worse off.
But the national carrier ended being liquidated…
Nigeria Airways was coming to a stage where we could say, ‘Well, we have now reached a stage where we build on what we have been able to put on the ground.’ But the next thing was that, it was sold off. The assets were sold; hanger sold to Arik. Nigeria Airways was liquidated.

Was that the best option then?

But at the time of liquidation, we did not need to take the measures we took, because we still had assets and certain other things we should have capitalised on. We were a member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA). In Africa, we were very highly rated. So, there was a way we could have got out of that problem if the will was there, to put people on ground to look at what we needed to do to salvage the situation, rather than sell off the buildings, everything, at peanuts. All the houses we had, even in Ikoyi, GRA Ikeja, they were all sold off. The hangar, sold off, everything sold off. Those who did that did a very big disservice to this country, in the sense that they were not even interested in seeing how the airline could be salvaged. Then all the people we had then; pilots, administrative staff, etc, were all left in the lurch.

Till today, I’m told they are still trying to pay their pensions and gratuities, which is unfair, because at the time the airline was liquidated, the government didn’t need to do that. This is the problem we are facing.

Returning to your question; while we will say that, in terms of regulatory services, the facilities available even at the airport are not all that, we are coming up. In terms of the national carrier aspect of it, we are way, way behind. This brings me to the issue of somebody going to an air show to announce that Nigeria is going to launch a national carrier. How? If I may extend that again; we have assets at home here. Today, I am told that AMCON has taken over Aero and Arik. W

hy don’t we just find out what they have there, the expertise there, merge them together, use that as your own collateral, find investors and use that as the basis of our national carrier. But somebody went abroad and announced Air Nigeria. How? Based on what? I feel very funny about the whole thing. So, in terms of aviation, we have come a long way and we need that political will to back up what we have been able to establish. We have very dedicated people and we have knowledgeable people in the aviation industry. Let’s make use of what we have in-house before we go and bring people from outside to come and help.

During your tenure in the aviation ministry, you came up with an aviation policy. How would you describe the policy vis-a-vis whether it is still being implemented?
We came up with a policy, which has been fine-tuned over time. Let me give kudos to the operators over the years. What we put on ground was limited because the aviation industry is dynamic; not static. Over the years, they have built on that, refined it and the policy is being implemented in the sense that today, we are being very highly rated. In terms of ICAO, we are on top; so, to speak. But there are certain things that are still missing, that, with time, it will fall into place. Everything seems to be working well. So, the policy was being implemented.

But with the change of every government, each minister comes up with his or her own ideas, which may not be in tandem with the policy we have put on ground, and when you have a policy somersault, it becomes impossible to move forward. Every minister has his or her own ideas, and I’ve just given you a simple example. May I ask what the current Minister of Aviation did with the people at home, to go outside the country to announce that we are going to start a national airline? Was any committee put in place to ask? How do we do this to be in line with what we should have in place?

Is the government even thinking of a far-reaching decision that will endure for a long period of time? Government is a continuum, we should be able to do something, put it on ground and expect that whosoever is coming in will look at what we have done, tinker with it but still continue. The strategy remains, the tactics may change but the strategy of achieving our objectives should not change. But by the time you change the strategy, then you start looking for half-measures to implement and things never work. This is the problem we have.

What would you say are the problems of the sector? Is it a situation of people who are not supposed to be appointed into office in the first place? Or is it a case of corrupt tendencies in the system?
In terms of personnel, there are certain sectors that you cannot just put anyone there. For the administrative sector, you can bring in any person. It’s like appointing a doctor to be in charge of a different ministry all together; that’s administrative experience. So, the fault has been at the head, at the centre, the ministry level, in terms of ministers appointed, who are not consulting properly with the people on the field. Before you put something down, which has to do with my own sector, you should at least, confer with me and ask, if we do it this way, will it be right? If that had been in place, all these things you are seeing will not be there. I mentioned something about aircraft maintenance hangar – a centre that will take care of all our servicing and maintenance here in Nigeria.

The multiplier effect of that outfit is immeasurable in terms of the expertise you acquire and the number of people you’ll employ, even the non-technical people, in terms of offering employment to our people. Then the capital inflow; not outflow this time, because if you have something like that; operators around us here in Africa will bring in their aircraft for maintenance.

That will cut down on our own overhead, because every maintenance we have to do, we have to take it outside. If we had something like that, we would know that it is only the spares we would order, but the workforce is already here in Nigeria and our own people would be the ones doing it. Right now, we are working for outsiders. So, it is the people at the top that are not thinking right, not the people below, because those ones are merely there to implement and somebody has to give them directives.

I remember one permanent secretary that said ‘if the government wants a wise advice, we’ll give them a wise advice, if they want a stupid one, we’ll give them a stupid one’. But the person at the top has to ask or he must have that sense to ask ‘how do we do this thing? You are the ones there.’ You’ll tell them. ‘This is the way we think it should be done, but you are at liberty to take your own decision.’ But in this case, nobody is asking questions and so, nobody is answering.

The Federal Government suspended the launch of Nigeria Air. As an insider, would you say the actions taken before the suspension were right?
Let me answer that question in the reverse. I give kudos to the Federal Government for even suspending the launch. All it showed was that the government was not even aware of what was going on in detail before the public announcement. If government had been privy to the modalities of it, it would not also come out and suspend it. There was no proper homework done, and I say it with all emphasis, no proper homework was done. Let the minister come out to tell Nigerians that this was the job that was done before we even went abroad to announce and then they spent some money launching it abroad. Why? When people are here that did not do any work.

So, we were all waiting to see how the new airline would take off. You don’t build on nothing, you have to lay a proper foundation. That’s the reason the government came out and cancelled the launch, and I was very grateful. I was jumping here when I heard that the government had suspended the action of launching a national carrier, because it was bound to be dead on arrival.

If the Federal Government wants to continue with the project, what would you advice it to do?
Simple. Set up a technical team at home. Use what you have to get what you want. Like I said, AMCON on behalf of the Federal Government took over Arik and Aero. At home here, thank God today Air Peace is going places. We have the basis, the expertise at home here. We have the little we can build on at home to set up a national carrier. The original owners of Arik may want it back, if the government is able to recoup its money. But notwithstanding, there’s enough knowledge to write out a proposal to the government, on how a national carrier can be established.

What is so difficult in it? Use what you have to get what you want. Start with your domestic airline, affiliate with any other big carrier outside, and say this is Nigeria Air or Nigeria Airways, or whatever you choose to call it. To repair the aircraft, you have them at home here, they are your own property and set them up and say this forms the nucleus of our national carrier. Then, you affiliate and maybe lease a wide bodied aircraft and we have the people here. There are a lot of pilots, Nigerian pilots that are not being employed because whoever comes with his own aircraft from abroad brings his own technicians.

If you go to our airports, you’ll see a lot of white people running around, who are technicians or aircraft mechanics. But we have Nigerians who are also very good in that job, that are not being employed. We have the expertise at home to start what we want to start. If the conditions are right, there are investors that are ready to come in and help without government even spending any money, but the political will must be there to back it up.

You are actively involved in the activities of the Lions Club. What informed that decision?
It is something that has been with me from the beginning. I come from a polygamous home. My father, when he died in 1985, his youngest wife was 32 years old. Even before then, I was born into the hands of a maternal uncle, and he also was a polygamous man with a lot of children. So, from the get-go, the art of sharing has been in me and I am happiest when I have something and share it with another human being.

Even eating then was a communal thing. We the children ate from the same plate. A bowl of pounded yam was kept in the centre, everybody had the soup at the centre, you cut the pounded yam and hold in your left palm and from your left hand you’ll dip it in the soup and eat. So, everybody learnt to take care of everyone else. The younger ones, of course, had to be looked after by the older ones to make sure that they ate too. So, the art of sharing and helping was in me, even when I was in service. I have lived in the midst of people and we were caring for one another. So, when I retired, I found humanitarian work something dear to my heart. It is when you are greedy, that’s when you have problems. So, humanitarian work is dear to my heart; that’s why I’m involved in the Lions Club.

by Bola Olajuwon
Source: thenationonlineng.net

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