 The House of Representatives has put holes in the purported launch of Nigeria Air at the twiglets of the administration and former President Muhammad bin Pari declared a fraud. Chairman of the House of Committee on Aviation, Nolyn Naj declared the launch of Nigeria Air fraud after the major stakeholders of the deal between the federal government and Ethiopian Airlines denied knowledge of the launch. The Ministry of Aviation claims Nigeria Air was only unveiled and not launched, which the committee dismissed as an attempt to divert the lawmaker's attention. Joining us to discuss this is Sunim Malkah. He is a political analyst. Thank you so much, Mr Malkah, for joining us. Good evening. Yeah, thanks and for having me. Thank you. Great. Let's start by looking at the situation of Nigeria Air. Not just from two weeks ago. I'm talking about from the moment it was mentioned and how many Nigerians criticized it. And of course, Nigerians made mention of how Nigeria Airways was also collapsed and made moribund by politicians. Could it be that maybe we didn't have enough faith in the government for Nigeria Air to kick off? Or was it that Nigeria's government has no business doing business? Well, first from 2018, when Nigeria Air so, you know, project towards new things. According to my friend, Ahmad Wang, I said, it's a good idea. It has good results. It has a good process when it started. But the major problem was lack of transparency. The stakeholders were not taking it to cause now in the older processes. If you look at this talk, the process is nice. We talk about 49, 5, 46. That is the European having 49 to 10. Federal government 5 to 10. And of course, the investors, 43 to 10. And you know, in this kind of project, there are consortium. There must have been a process, a public procurement process to determine who is the preferred by, you know, leader. There must be auditors. There must be international, you know, probably you can call them advisors. So it's not just something that you work up and do. So the problem we have that all these processes, they've been on and they've been ongoing. But the problem is the people are not carried alone. And that is why for when it was launched, I think last year, without any aircraft, people came out and we are against it. Because they weren't carried out. They weren't carried on, I mean, because these people were carried by always. They couldn't have been able to, okay, no, oh, this is the state of the being. But nobody is aware of the state of the being. And we spend a lot of money, billions of Naira on that particular loan, where all that we saw was just the photograph or the pictorial of Nigerian aid. It started from that time to give people an idea, look, is this a good process? Is this a good project? A project is able to give the stakeholders a clear picture of every process or the process to be made known to people. But unfortunately, it wasn't like that. That's why people are looking at it from the angle of, you know, looking at it from the angle of growth, you know, and of course, you know, in Nigeria, we keep talking about issues because we talk about unveiling is a different thing from launching. So when you unveil something, what are you unveiling for? Because the first one that we had, when we all saw the pictorial, was what we think and was assumed and what was proclaimed to be the launching. Now, the unveiling of the aircraft, how an aircraft unveil an aircraft without the stakeholders being carried along. And of course, when or that's when the system went, when the euphoria started, you know, she turned to the public. People were like, what are you talking about? How do you just call it like this? Most of the when and it has not even given you the, the, the, all the condition, the certificate of license for you to come in. What's the problem? Why are we in a hurry to unveil an aircraft that according to people was painted just externally, but internally, you know, it was Ethiopian. So you can see that it's like a ripple, you know. Let's quickly, let's quickly go to the House committee representative who was speaking. That's not in magic. He's the chairman of the House committee. He represents PDP. Let's take a listen to what he had to say and how he described the process. And then we'll come back to have this conversation. The Niger Air Project. The issue was shrouded in secrecy to the extent that it was fraudulently displayed as a new national carrier contrary to the extant court order and international rules that strictly guided airline operations. This indeed was an embarrassment to the committee. Why will you, for whatever reason, having an entering MB, be in a hurry to unveil a national career on the last day of your administration? Why? We are not part of the launch and we do not support the launch especially at the time issues are yet to be clear. The committee has resolved to, one, direct the parameters of adoration and its partners in the Niger Air Project to immediately suspend any operations regarding Niger Air and any other actions with respect to Niger Air. The aircraft that came in and left was a legitimate charter flight. You see, ever since 2018, all you'd ever seen about Niger Air aircraft were pictures, drawings, not the real aircraft. And we felt it was time to show what the real aircraft would look like. Was it reasonably necessary, you know, you have to take this to take taxpayers' money and charter an aircraft all the way from Ethiopia to come here and for unveiling, if the purpose is just to show Nigerians how the aircraft is going through. We have had the pictures on social media when it was unveiling family. We haven't got a license yet to operate. If you had asked me the question, I could, not you, I mean, if it's social media, I'd ask me the question. I would have said, we haven't got to that stage yet. We are not at the point of operating the airline yet. Very interesting session, if you asked me there was the House committee, in fact, that they've said, we put a stop to anything that has to do with Nigeria Air now. Just when we, that captain was trying to tell us, in fact, he said that what we saw that day was legitimate, chatted aircraft. Why do we have to, why does the Nigerian government, and I'm talking about Nigerian governments in general, not just about President Bahari or President Tiniwou, why do we have to go into ventures that will suck money or take the monies that we don't even have, as opposed to allowing for these businesses to thrive? I mean, we had Nigerian airways, it's more gone now, and we still have airlines who are still dragging us to pay them, you know, to give them the repatriation funds in dollars. We have so many problems in that sector. Why Nigeria, why do we not face other things? I'm just asking you as somebody who analyzes these kinds of things. And it's a, it's a general problem. It's not only on Airways or Nigerian airways. Thank God, I'm so happy about what the honorable member said, you know, and unfortunately, we don't realize that whatever money that is spent from the government cover, the commonwealth of the entire city. So it's not just about government money, it is my money, it is your money. Every expense made is an expense made on our behalf, you know. So you can imagine how much was extended, and unfortunately, we like to coin language. The MD dial, you know, coin the language, legitimate data. What is legitimate data in that? As far as I'm concerned, that is fraud, because you cannot bring in an aircraft intentionally or deliberately tempted to deceive Nigeria. 24 hours, that plane went back to Ethiopia and now it's flying as Ethiopian airways. So who are we really trying to, you know, bamboozle on that? And that takes me to this, she's about to give in. And I have to always be after this question. Why are Nigerian citizens the victims of every society's government failure? Why are we always the victims? It's time that the problem, the government will come up and give us this place to be as if we are so daft or moron. As far as I'm concerned, this particular, you know, unveiling, I'm not talking about the process, because as of now, nobody's aware of even the process, how we've gotten off today. But what happened on the 25th of May was something that I can't even fantasize how Nigerians will take that. Let me talk about some of the resolutions that were made by the House committee. I just want to quickly go to the number three resolution. They said that the federal government, including Mr. President, should ensure that all individual groups or organizations involved in the shenanigans and putting them directly at named Nigeria air takeoff that they're all brought to work. Now let's move our attention to Hadi Sirika and of course all the people that have worked with him, including the gentleman who was trying to make a case for the committee. Do we see a president coming down hard on Hadi Sirika and of course all of the people involved following the directors of the House committee on this particular matter? Knowing that the president has also been talking about other issues and the fight against corruption. This is a lot of question marks. This particular issue of Nigeria air takeoff has a lot of question marks around. Do we see the president acting on what the House committee has said? Ah, it's just a story. The story for the next generation to fund that as part of that history call for expansion. How many times have you been, you know, heard about people, you know, being broke? Some of them even caught right handed. How many of them have been posted? Even recently, talking about what we are going to right now, the issue about the worst of today. People have pointed out times. People have pointed against NNPC. Expositions have been made, you know, about what happened, you know, about the oil swap and whatever. Now what is happening? If you look at this particular story you're talking about and what the House has advocated, I think nothing is going to happen. I'm telling you the truth, because there's no tragedy. There's no precedent. It's a precedent of people being veiled. I think for certain things, we will by now understand how something is going to happen. Many of our people right now, many of these government of this that have left, a lot of them have been accused of one thing or the other, one problem is yours. But there's nobody. And you know the worst aspect of that. Our NNPC agencies, who are to arrest this work? Who are also to prosecute them? Are the ones guiding them? So how do you arrest the person who is being guided by the same person who arrests the person? So this is the problem we're having. As of today, if you look at what is happening, the oil, okay, look at the oil. As before now, they say we are consuming 65 million gallon or let me put in liters of oil every day. But research has shown, after this, that we're just searching the oil. And we are still paying. And up to now, people have been calling that people should be arrested in this oil camp. Nobody. You think it's one thing to form it for a, you know, a probe in this getting by panel. It's another thing in terms of what the group has come in. And that is the problem we're having in this country. We've all had a lot of probes, a lot of investigation that truly indicts people. But at the end of it, it ends like nothing. So until we understand what institutions are, and of course that once you offend something, you'll be punished for that. Look what he's going to listen to what the Honorable People are talking about. In China, you are killing your family house so that people in your family house will note that, look, you talk. If in Germany, or any other country, you do something that is against the government, against the people, you are persecuted and sanctioned. And it's jailed. But look at it. All this, you know, we are not talking about. Nothing is going to happen. It's ended. As far as I'm concerned, look at how much there was suspended to just fly an aircraft, since it's confused all night neither. That's a note. That's a note. That's a note. Or to end that minister. The highest function ever, because it's tricked all night neither. It's a minister that bought 10 trucks or 5 trucks at 12 billion dollars. And people started, people talk, which kind of truck are you buying? People saw the truck that was driven by him. And people were saying, nothing happened. So this is the issue. Or she will make her laws to be what, you know, everybody's law, not law for them and us, because that's what we are preaching today. And of course, the judiciary should, you know, hang up and be what people should expect of them. Once somebody sends to you for potential for you to jail, if it is term that is fixed, because that's what they do. Most of them will send their sick. They are, they cannot walk. They cannot, and because of their granted, but no, let them go to prison and enjoy that, that sickness there. Because the number of Nigerians that they put in prison, or they've even given this sickness in terms of indirect ways, there are more. People are dying because of quality initiative that are anti-people. So anybody in this country, if you are found guilty, because according to somebody said, the constructions are the ones who are given, who are given the contract to themselves. So if you look at the government scenario today, the procurement are supposed to be the public, the, the, the, the, the best work for every contract. It's not being followed. So most of them, even the government agencies are moving, like, talk about the person that gave himself a glass curtain of 500 million. What happened? So the contract you were talking about, even this contract you were talking about, people benefited. Who are in government? So what happened? It's not going to, nothing is going to happen to them. I'm telling you the truth. It's just going to be part of Nigeria's sphere of normality. It's now treated as normal. Well, I guess that what will happen in this case remains to be seen. A valedictory session is going to hold and this national assembly is going to step aside for 10%. Let's see what have these guys picked up from and let's see how the president and the cost security agencies deal with this going forward. But I want to say thank you. Sonia Madukai is a political analyst. Thank you so much for speaking with us with patience. Thank you, Anne. Before you go, let me just put that one thing now. And that is that I'm happy that the president, who is now a president, is part of the cabal. So now it takes the cabal to bring the cabal and I'm happy. He's doing a lot to ensure that nobody is more Nigerian than other Nigerians. Thank you and God bless Nigeria. All right. Thank you very much. Yes, then that's the show tonight. We want to thank you all for participating in the here. Don't forget, if you want to be part of all of our previous episodes, just go to the post-it app on YouTube, like, subscribe and thank you for all our previous episodes. So I'm very happy to have a pleasant night rest tomorrow.