Posted by By Victoria Ojeme on
PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday described the aviation sector and its operators as very corrupt.
ABUJA - PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday described the aviation sector and its operators as very corrupt.
President Obasanjo who disclosed this at an interactive forum on national economy, which he chaired was responding to the submission by the minister of aviation, Dr. Babalola Borishade.
According to the President, 'many of you thought that the problem of aviation industry is gloomy. I am gloomy. The minister has not told the whole story. Part of the problem of aviation industry is human problem. They are corrupt from top to bottom. I will never mix words, but we are going to fight it".
'Life is too precious and too sacred to be played with. We are going to fight it with whatever it takes; we are going to fight it. I have told the minister that if we cannot get competent men and women in Nigeria to man the parastatals of the aviation industry, I'm ready to bring in the expatriates from abroad in the meantime to do so, he added.
The Forum was attended by vice president, Atiku Abubakar, House of Representatives members, Governors, Senate President, Ken Nnamani, Speaker, House of Representatives, Alhaji Bello Masari, and industrialists.
Borishade had earlier told the gathering that he and his management staff in the ministry were doing their best to restore peoples' confidence following the crash of the Bellview plane in Lisa, Ifo, Ogun State last October where 117 people died. He said by March next year, the two runways at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos would be of international standard. He said he hoped to make the Lagos Airport the hob of international flights.
But the constant crash and near mishap has almost eroded peoples' confidence in air travels. It would be recalled that about two weeks ago, an Associated Airline's jet with 20 people on board lost its front nose wheel while taxing on the runway of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos.
On November 7, no fewer than 100 people, including the Bauchi State Governor, Alhaji Adamu Mua'zu escaped death in another plane mishap in Abuja. Also on the flight were the former Kaduna State Governor, Alhaji Lawan Kaita, the former Minister of State, Foreign Affairs, Mr. Dubem Onyia.