 It's time for our first hot topic on the breakfast this morning and we're going to take a look at This situation with our airline foreign airlines are Reportrating over four billion dollars in 15 months Foreign Airlines have repatriated that some in 15 months as it becomes more expensive to fly from Nigeria than other West African countries and that's exactly what we want to be taking a look at this morning with Abraham Great a Public affairs analyst is joining us from Ottawa in Canada this morning. Good morning to you, Abraham Good morning to you. I'm so glad to be with you once again this morning. So glad to have you join us Well, this is no good news for Nigerian travelers I mean, it's just not good news at all two weeks ago a friend of mine told me that his friend bought ticket to the US for 2.4 million And Matter of fact, let me break it down for you here. We have Going to London London to Lagos Feds 49 percent higher than going from Accra to London All right, and then 162 percent higher than going from Kotonoo to London So Nigerians are not having a good time Nigerian travelers are not having a good time Nigerians will travel a lot and a lot of them have very good reasons to travel. Tell us what you make of this crazy increase in in the fares of air traveling I Think it's really really pathetic to be in this kind of situation for Nigerians number one because Nigeria is one of the top five Most you know traveling country in the world when you take China Pakistan Sorry India and Pakistan Nigeria is top So for every airline that you find around the world were very profitable were very viable roots particularly the London Lagos New York Lagos Paris Lagos Amsterdam Lagos, you know Berlin Lagos Stop every single day you see that these flights are full and sometimes you can think of it that is almost that The system is taking advantage of Nigerians because we are very rugged people no matter what the price of anything is We will always pay and it's painful. Some of us travel so frequently like myself I travel so frequently that sometimes is just unfair in that 15-month period. I got talking about now for example I would have been about seven or eight times in 15 months already and you know some of us will not even fly economy You fly maybe business or premium economy a business class that you buy for maybe London Lagos before For about three thousand pounds. You're talking about six seven thousand pounds So it becomes nearly impossible to fly even when you want to fly premium economy. Sometimes it's just around the they in a very exorbitant prizes But we are being taken advantage of by a system and first of all you have to understand that Particularly in the last, you know one year or two years the Nigerian financial infrastructure You know is completely completely out of it. What could not cope with I had her could not cope with International standard of practice. So you see a lot of A lot of monies were trapped in Nigerian central bank So these airlines are not able to repatriate their Their dollar or their at-end money. So when you don't see that fluidity What happens is that the insurance to trade in Nigeria become higher So they the it's almost like a risk management system for those airlines. So they have to all their Their aunt not their auntie they have to up their price in order for them to be able to Recover what I will be losing money that is supposed to come back to them within maybe a few hours or a few days It's in the Nigerian system and Nigerian suffered a modern airline also where you're trying to send money abroad Or you're trying to repatriate money abroad that the lack of fluidity in our financial system is causing distress Okay, so let's look at some of the courses what you've mentioned one of them the lack of fluidity the forex reforms is It has shot the price up by 50% The controversy surrounding the national carrier because some believe that if we had some national carriers It would have reduced the monopoly that we see going on in that sector and then of course you you have a situation where funds are being trapped Ayata, which you just alluded to Says that 743.7 million of foreign airline funds are trapped here and it is the highest in the world Why has this persisted? Why have we why why do we continue to hear about this money being trapped in the country? I mean it is very funny that you look at the last administration of the Central Bank we don't seems to understand what is going on We saw the issue that they had with the Naira in Naira You saw all kinds of monetary policy the monetary policy of the central bank I stifled the you know international aid travel in the country not only that astra stifled many businesses Shut down many businesses So I don't seems to understand what is happening with that administration or the administration of the central bank something definitely is wrong and it was important for the government particularly the last administration to have acted promptly either to you know remove the administrators or to Whatever it has to be whatever has to be done was not done on time things were left and then you know Bad situation went From bad to worse. So we need leadership. We need to be able to have intervention and very very quickly that did not happen How can this? What is the way forward? Is it completely hopeless? So so one of the things that we need to do is first of all government has to remove itself from the encumbrance of thinking that government had to Own a national air carrier, you know, I mean in some cases it will work Well, but in a country such as ours where we are we are we're struggling with too many things I would advise government not to put all their head in thinking that all the solution is We have to have a national career if we have a national career to be a national pride You know, I used to enjoy flying Nigerian airways You know in those days I used to remember that I used to go to London for as little as maybe 95,000 naira, you know back there maybe two thousand Maybe two thousand two thousand or one two thousand two and stuff like that You should be able you are able to travel to and fro for about 105 150,000 naira, I mean that is no longer the case. So look at a piece for example that is That is an entrepreneur in the country that the country can actually look at empowering I listened to the president, you know last week or yeah I think last week or two weeks ago when it gave a national address and we're talking about some money that was going to be appropriated or disbursed, you know among businesses you look at a business like a piece or Arrow contractor or some of the airline that are giving their best. They are trying their best and Empower them. We don't have to be a Nigerian before we can solve problems for Nigerians You know from them help them to be able to have more international routes Help them to be able to have better infrastructure. Give them loans. Give them, you know grants Give them as many things. The other thing is that there are many other Airlines who are trying to enter into the market But from what I understand the barriers to entry and the regulations in Nigeria in getting a license or in getting more routes For those existing airlines are very stringent We have to understand that the bottlenecks we have around doing business in Nigeria is killing Nigerian businesses It's killing Nigerian opportunities and it's even killing International bilateral relationship between Nigeria and many other countries Yeah, well you just mentioned Epis on Epis. I remember watching an interview he granted on national television Trying to debunk some of the allegations against him Leveled against him by Heidi Syrica, you know, they had his back and forth issues and he You almost whip listening to him how frustrating it was for it's been for him to run his business And here we have Yeah, we have on one of the national dailies this morning Six aircraft minimum regulation for startup airlines causes stare So some of these bottlenecks that do not encourage the private sector to go into this And and ease things up Because Nigerian air for instance that we've also talked about fine. We don't have it yet and when all this Crisis came up the controversies. They came up with Heidi Syrica and how he went about it So many Nigerians were saying even if these were to come on They wouldn't enter display because they just cannot trust it I mean the issue of trust for Nigeria is all about safety You know because when the airline is new the other time that One airline was introduced if I can remember I think it was Bellevue Bellevue Bellevue used to rival Nigerian airways at some point and then we have energy Nigerian air That was owned by you know Richard Branson and You know now senator Jim O'Brien who might know very very well The issue there is that Nigerian need to trust So when you see that airline has flown a few times you see that people will be able to trust it But here is the problem We have a very insular problem or Nigeria were quite insular as a country So when you look at other nations like, you know, the UK France Germany America They own this airline or their private sectors on this airline But when you look at the component of the staffing you see people from all around the world The problem with us Nigeria is that we want to own things under percent and we want to manage everything under percent There are expertise the area of aviation is nothing that we have not excelled Extremely well in it does not mean we're not competent We may be competent in flying we may be competent in many other things But we might not be competent in management Employ foreigners who are going to run this thing, you know, that is what British Airways will do British Airways will employ a Nigerian a Ghanaian a Japanese a Chinese So you see that the management is is it's made up of culturally diverse people Higher based on competence, but when you see a Nigerian company We want to run our businesses by ourselves and yet we participate we're in yellow We are in in GML. We are in Google. We are in Facebook. We're in every other company around the world But when it comes to Businesses from Nigeria, I'm not saying not at all not that we don't employ foreigners at all But we don't bring in experts enough Let these airlines be run by foreigners and experts You will see that Nigerians begin to trust now. Let me make this last point about that. There's a relationship now in which The Nigerian is going to be owned 49% of it is going to be owned by Ethiopia airline Ethiopia airline airline has been one of the most successful Global airline carrier. I mean around the world So one of the things that I noticed in that deal is that Ethiopia airline are taking over the management That is not a shame to Nigeria. That is okay So when you see them manage and they manage it well, then they can pass on that, you know That management capability that you know, human capital can be passed on to Nigeria Maybe I would give it say between five to ten years period even more than that Something that will last long should take a lot more time to you know To you or to to to train or to develop Well, the thing with this 49% Ethiopian Airlines take in in Nigeria's National air carrier that I believe made Nigerians quite uncomfortable Was it what appeared to be deception with that aircraft that they brought and the whole razzmatazz about it Nigerians became uncomfortable. Not sure what to believe anymore about the whole contract Do you share that sentiment? That was a very funny fiasco if you if you ask me and I think that was just politics The politics of election that was made at that time and the outgoing governments probably want to impress or The members of the cabinet of that Administrator want to impress people so you see logo you see All kind of for me a college in nannigan at that time But it does not mean that everything that was coming out where falls The business deal was on the table, but I just think some who were trying to paint that government good We're doing too many things that were necessary At that time, so I mean that that's what I see in that At that time we have to focus on the meat of the issue the contract Is publicly available? Yeah, but all of that all of that she nannigan as he put it have cast his passions on the whole deal I mean, you know when there is a situation where or we're looking at a situation where someone Is confirmed to be lying or be a liar you begin to say, you know when this person tells you good morning You need to check your time Maybe that's a kind of that's what eventually became of the whole situation Even though as you say yeah, the contracts are there for people to look at But there are people who have questions about the sincerity of some of those who are vested in that contract You our vested interest is based on our passion as Nigerians And you have to understand that performance is is people are under pressure for performance in Nigeria right now That we need to take we need to be very Cautious of the pressures we put on performance. I give it a little bit of digression you look at roads Road construction like maybe Lagos in Bangladesh way and what are you there are global standard for projects for execution of projects So and I'm sure you've been abroad you've been to UK and what have you in the UK? We have we have a road that is called the M1 or the M25 and I recall that there was a time where they were repairing the M1 and Putting just adding one more lane. I took it. It took about seven or eight years That every time because I lived when I was living in the UK or I still have a home in the UK but I don't live in Canada, but If I live in Milton Keynes, and I almost have to be in London nearly every other day or every day of being at Israel Airport you will be in traffic and this lasted for years Now when they make that road it may take that six to seven or eight years But you are sure that that is a road they can use for the next 50 years But in our own case, oh, they have not finished repairing the road. Oh, the plane has not landed We rush we just want everything like yesterday. We need to also allow project at the back of that we have a corruption problem that is a Endemic and that is procurement every time you see government opportunity you see new startups You see something that is about to happen, you know, so many demons. I will call it demons I already lurking at the back of that procurement to make you fortune So that is why you also see the Nigerians are trying to grow what is going on here And I think I think under the new administration Looking at what that administration did in Lagos when procurement is automated payment system are automated and experts are and The management and the administration and the leadership of the country things might be different All right, so we have a new administration in place What would you say to present to Nubu if you were sitting with him on this matter? well, first of all, I would say that the president need to be Decisive on the financial policy now it is not the remit of the president to Determine or give an executive order on the issue of the country's, you know Forex or you know money because they Because of the independence of the of the central bank However, in terms of the appointment of astute financial gurus Who can help to have a turnaround because we don't only need? Ordinary manager would be turn around managers right now We need both change management in the central bank and in the Overhauling of Nigerian financial sector and then we need to turn around experts so the the the trajectory of the Nigerian financial industry is Descent is is nose diving But you would see that the private sector in other words the banks the private banks I'm not at a loss as a matter of fact some of them as having as high as 300% 700% profit in a report on it on another basis So we don't have a brain problem. We have a management problem So it's almost like an an engineer who comes in and Restructure Rewire the financial sector of the central bank if we can get that right and we can put a few Monetary policy in place. I think the country will be on the right side I'm looking forward to seeing someone like what I do. I was expecting to see on the ministerial list So I'm like, yeah me. Yeah, Mika do so Who I didn't see on the list not seeing him on the list. I'm almost beginning to think that maybe is being reserved for the the central governorship role when the Term of the current president who is under suspension expired I don't know but the president needs to surround himself with a lot of financial engineers Who can have a turnaround for the country? Well, thank you so much. Abraham great for your time and insight on this very important topic Thank you very much for having me Abraham great public affairs analysis joined us to take a look at foreign affairs Repartition of over four billion dollars in 15 months to Nigeria Well, thank you so much for being a part of the first hot topic We take a break and come back with a second hot topic You want to find out what labor and the federal government and states are Saying with regards to a review of the minimum wage. Stay with us