The outgoing Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, has described as false comments credited to the outgoing Minister of Trasportation, Rotimi Amaechi that Ministers and other members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) were divided over the mode of implementation of the a proposed national carrier named Nigeria Air.
Amaechi, while speaking during his valedictory press briefing in Abuja on Thursday, had said that the FEC members were divided on the modality for the establishment of the proposed national carrier.
“On national carrier, (the) cabinet is divided on the issue of modality. There are those who believe that the Federal Government should invest and then we can sell the equity later.
“There are also those who believe that no, and from day one they say let us get investors in and give them the franchise of Nigeria Airways or Air Nigeria or whatever it is called. That is where we are and that is what held it down. But as for whether it is still in our plan, it is and has not been abandoned,” Amaechi had said.
But in a statement issued by the Deputy Director, Press and Public Affairs of the Ministry of Transportation, James Odaudu on Friday, Sirika was quoted as saying that Amaechi may have been misquoted by the media.
He said that FEC had always been one cohesive body that could not be divided over any issue.
According to Sirika, the Nigeria Air project has the full support of Council, which deliberated and approved it.
“Consequently, President Muhammadu Buhari directed that the Viability Gap Funding for the project be provided for in the 2019 Appropriation which the National Assembly had graciously done.
“I assure the general public, and more importantly, the prospective partners and investors, that Nigeria Air project is fully alive and on course,” he said.