National carrier will boost Nigeria’s aviation –Capt Kazaure

A veteran pilot and former staff of the defunct Nigeria Airways, Capt. Ibrahim Yunusa Kazaure, has said Nigeria urgently needs a national carrier to trigger massive development in the aviation sector.

He said Africa, especially Nigeria, lacked enough airlines to meet the huge travel market in the continent.

Capt. Kazaure, a pilot for over 36 years, who worked with airlines such as Nigeria Airways, Dasab Airlines, IRS Airlines, MedView Airlines, as well as the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), said having a national carrier was a good idea. He said it would benefit the country socially, politically, economically and for the purpose of national security.

Kazaure was speaking in an interview published on African Aviation Group.

The pilot is the founder and coordinator of the BringBackNigeriaAirways campaign, the group that has been championing the cause of the former workers of the defunct Nigeria Airways.

However, he said he was unhappy about the delay in the payment of the N45bn pension approved for workers of the Nigeria Airways since last year.

On the liquidation of the former national carrier, he said, “It was an illegal voluntary liquidation by the government of a former president, Obasanjo, for obvious reasons.”

Daily Trust reports that government has kick-started the process of re-fleeting the national carrier with the unveiling of transaction advisers last year.

Capt. Kazaure is of the opinion that many African countries have overtaken Nigeria because of the absence of a national carrier, adding that poverty, lack of strong financial capital base and government policies have stymied the growth of aviation in the country.