…….we are looking for better funding
…….other projects will be decided on their merits
…….we have not abandoned the project
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed says the Federal Government decided to suspend the National Carrier project because the investors indicated they could no longer finance the project.
He said the business of the Federal Government was not to become the sole source of finance or the sole source of funding but it business was providing the enabling environment.
“A government will take a holistic view of a any intended project and if the understanding of government at the beginning that the project that the project will either be self financing or that the project would be financed by her investors and it turns out that such a project can no longer be financed by investors either because they are not forthcoming or that such venture can no longer be viable, the government, this administration would take a rethink, now, the business of government in business is to provide enabling environment and it is not to become the sole source of finance, the sole source of funding and in addition its much more than funding in trying to get our National Carrier, we also need to look at the thinker aspect, overall, the Federal Government believes that this thing should be step down now on till one, we get a better funding structure but a situation where this kind of thing would be funded by government, it can’t do it”.
He dismissed the notion that the Minister of State, Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika did not carry the Federal Executive Council along in the entire process, adding that if things did not work out in the entire process, the minister should not be blamed.
“It doesn’t mean that, you see you could start a project with a lot of assurances from many quaters and then at the critical point in time those assurances might not materialize so, it does not mean that he didn’t carry us along, from the beginning, from the start the FEC was privy to everything, so if anything happened in between, I cannot blame the honourable Minister for aviation for that”, he added.
Alhaji Lai Mohammed also noted that as regards other projects on the Aviation Roadmap geared repositioning the aviation sector namely, Airport concession, MRO, Aircraft Leasing company among others, he said they would be looked into and see if they could still be executed, adding that government should not be condemned or criticized.
” I think what we should do is that, we should look at each of this other projects in their own merits and individually and look at whether they can still be executed, but I don’t think that the government should be condemned or criticized if it decides to step down a particular project, I think it is in the overall interest of the country that we don’t embark on a project which it has not been well thought out or a project midway would probably have to abandon and I think that 4 years in the life of any country is a short time, this is a work in progress, it does not mean that we have completely abandoned or ended it”.
