The former minister of aviation, Hadi Sirika, has described the Nigeria Air project conceived under ex-President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration as a scam.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Morning Brief on Tuesday, Sirika maintained that due process was followed in the attempt to establish the airline.
He clarified that contrary to allegations of spending N100 billion on the project, only about N3 billion of the N5 billion budgeted was actually released.
“It is a public-private partnership which was regulated by the Infrastructure Concessioning Regulatory Commission (ICRC), which gave certificates and participated actively in the process,” he said.
“It is a lie that I spent N100 billion, and it was lost in the process. The total budget for the national carrier was N5bn, the total amount released was N3 billion, and I left the ministry with over N1 billion.”
The former minister explained that most of the funds were used for consultancies and staff salaries, adding that the project stalled after some private Nigerian airlines filed a lawsuit.
“We went through every single step of the ICRC process, and we got it to the end, and we had an airline,” Sirika added.
“Some people went to court, Airspeace, United and Azman went to court to say that we cannot, as a government, establish an airline while we take a stake of five percent, and that is what stalled it.
“If there was no court case and if the government had come in and pursued the court case by today, we would have had the airline.”
Since leaving office in 2023, Sirika has been facing trial over alleged corruption and abuse of office. The EFCC accused him of awarding multi-billion naira contracts to firms owned by his relatives, including his daughter, Fatima Sirika, and his son-in-law, Jalal Hamma.
When asked whether his visit to the Presidential Villa on Tuesday was linked to seeking leniency in his trial, Sirika dismissed the notion, stressing that the matter was still before the court.
“The purpose of the meeting was to officially pay our condolences to the president who did extremely well after the demise of our leader, President Muhammadu Buhari,” he said.
“Also to appreciate him of what he has done and to assure him of the support of our party for which he is our leader.
“Unfortunately, this matter is in the court of law, and it is not a matter that should be subjected to the press.
I am a very clean man. I have worked with people. The government has every instrument at their disposal to find my character.”