Senate rejects proposal to revive Nigeria Air project, seeks direct flights to China

Senate in plenary

The Senate on Tuesday rejected a proposal to revive the contracts for the failed Nigeria Air national carrier project, which was awarded by former Minister of Aviation Hadi Sirika during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

The upper chamber described the contracts for the commencement of the failed airline as a waste of time, saying further discussions on the matter would be unproductive.

The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, announced the resolution after senators debated a motion seeking to enforce the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) between Nigeria and China.

The motion, sponsored by Tahir Monguno (APC, Borno North), called on the Bola Tinubu administration to renegotiate the agreement to allow Nigerian airlines to operate direct flights to China.

Although the lawmakers rejected the need to revive the failed Nigeria Air project, they resolved that Nigeria needs a national carrier and urged the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development to explore the possibility of establishing one.

The late former President Buhari unveiled Nigeria Air days before handing over power in May 2023. However, the proposed national carrier was later embroiled in controversy over allegations of fraud and misrepresentation.

Christopher Odofin, an investigator with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), alleged in his testimony, which began on 30 June 2025, that Mr Sirika disguised an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft as Nigeria’s national carrier.

The EFCC is prosecuting Mr Sirika alongside his daughter, Fatima Sirika, her husband, Jalal Hamma, and the couple’s firm, Al Buraq Global Investment, on six counts, including alleged contract fraud involving N1.5 billion and gratification proceeds of N1.3 billion.

The commission alleged that Mr Sirika corruptly awarded a consultancy services contract for the commencement of Nigeria Air in 2023 to a firm belonging to Gabriel Tilmann, a professor whom the prosecution described as the former minister’s friend.

Mr Monguno, the Senate chief whip, argued that the bilateral agreement was intended to establish scheduled direct flights between Nigeria and China.

He said this would transform the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, and the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, from destination airports into major gateways connecting West and Central Africa to East Asia.

The senator argued that enforcing the agreement would reduce travel time, improve supply chain efficiency, retain foreign exchange in Nigeria and increase aeronautical revenue for Nigerian airports.

He also listed the potential benefits to include the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises, expansion of non-oil exports and increased exports of perishable goods.

Mr Monguno said the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) could enforce the agreement through measures such as ensuring reciprocity in flight rights, rationalising competition from airlines operating through intermediate destinations, promoting bilateral code-sharing arrangements and considering temporary airport fee waivers.

He also proposed a direct naira settlement window using the existing bilateral currency swap framework to reduce reliance on the US dollar.

The senator urged the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to initiate diplomatic discussions with China on facilitating business visas for Nigerian traders and securing reciprocal airport slot allocations for Nigerian airlines.

Most senators who contributed to the motion supported it.

Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi Central) said China benefited from Nigeria’s resources without giving the country commensurate benefits in return.

He criticised the absence of direct flights between Nigeria and China, saying passengers had to travel through other countries to reach their destinations.

Ned Nwoko (APC, Delta North) urged the Senate to encourage the federal government to revive Nigerian Airways rather than merely insisting that local airlines should operate direct flights to China.

Khabeeb Mustapha (APC, Jigawa South-west) also called for the revival of Nigerian Airways, the state-owned airline that collapsed due to corruption and mismanagement during the military era.

Mr Akpabio criticised the existing arrangement, under which Chinese airlines operate direct flights to Nigeria while Nigerian airlines cannot fly directly to China.

“We are talking about the BASA agreement between Nigeria and China. If it is only Chinese planes that can fly directly to Nigeria and Nigerian planes cannot fly direct China, Nigerian businessmen going to China have to go through Kenyan Air, Ethiopian Air, all sorts of airlines but Chinese businessmen fly directly to Nigeria and we have over five million Chinese in Nigeria and we have less than one million Nigerians in China, it is something that we need to rejig to make sure that the BASA is revisited to enable Nigerian airlines to fly directly to China,” he said.

The Senate subsequently adopted the motion through a voice vote.

It mandated the Committees on Aviation and Foreign Affairs to ensure compliance with the resolution and report back to the chamber within four weeks.

Mr Akpabio said Nigeria needed a national carrier that would fly the country’s flag.

“We used to have a plane in those days carrying people to Saudi Arabia and all that. At the time, Nigerian Airways had about 32 planes on ground, about 40, going from one place to the other. So, how did we get here?” he said.

The senate president lamented that private airlines could not adequately meet the demand for air travel, adding that even politicians were finding it difficult to hire private jets for campaigns.

“Watch December and the confusion. Even the private airlines cannot handle it. Common campaigns, we cannot see even private jets to hire. We should at least be able to urge the federal government to look into that to alleviate the plight of airlines,” he said.