साउथ साउथ AIRLINES

SOUTH -SOUTH AIRLINES

At it recent meeting in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, the governors of the South-South zone announced their intention to float an airline. According press a statement from the meeting, states in the zone are to “establish a Trans-Regional Flight operation service that would serve exclusively airports within the region.”

Is air transportation one of the urgent problems confronting the people of the South-South? What is the wisdom in establishing an airline when the South- South zone has no good roads leading to the airports in the zone? Will Bayelsa State that currently has no airport construct one so that the state can be on the flight schedule? Will the South-South states assist Bayelsa to construct its own airport or assist Akwa Ibom to complete its airport that has been on going for years now?

Agreed that reliable transportation is one of the problems confronting the zone but may I ask how many indigenes of the South-South can afford, from their own pockets, to pay for flight tickets. Let us be honest, besides some persons enjoying government patronage or making money from the system, how many can willing bring out their personal fund to pay for flight? What business would attract air passengers to the South-South so that the airline can break even? Will the airline operates chartered flights only, if not, will there be enough patronage to sustain it?

What we need in the South-South is good road network, the states within the zone should collaborate to make inter state roads motorable, this will have greater impact on the people and economy of the states. When the roads were good: from Port Harcourt to Calabar used to be a journey of three hours but today because of the poor state of the roads making the journey in four hours is considered a feat. From Benin to Calabar should take about five hours if the roads are good. The needs for good roads are many: we need good roads for transportation of goods and food stuff produced in the area which using aircraft maybe a bit expensive. Roads would be needed for the transportation of materials and equipment for the envisaged industrialization and infrastructural development of the area.

I appreciate the fears of our Excellencies, traveling on land in these days of militancy, kidnapping and gun men attacking convoys of governors and other public office holders is risky. An airline is not a solution to the security problem in the zone. My people have a saying that the fowl that flies the legs still point to the ground, so one can still be attack on his or her way to or from the airport, except the various government houses would have their own airports, and these boys can also boast of anti aircraft guns. Rather the various state governments in the South-South should be committed to fighting crimes and all anti-social behaviours in the area.

If the roads are safe, motorists and passenger traveling from one state to another can stop along the way to buy bush meats, snails, fish, cucumber, oranges, garri, palm oil among other local products and delicacies and these would boost the local economy of the villages along our highways and contribute to checking the rural urban migration as the people are economically engaged. Road transportation is a form of tourism and helps the people to know their environment and appreciate the uniqueness of the various tribes that make up the south-south.

Before now most motorists traveling to Akwa Ibom and Cross River states preferred to go through Ogoni because it was faster than passing through Aba or Ukwa East but because of the activities of armed robbers and other criminal elements the road in now a no go area. But now passing through that route is considered suicidal. Some passengers are willing to forfeit their fares instead of passing through this route. At parks, they must get assurance that a vehicle they are about to board would not pass through Ogoni. At a point travelers going to Ikot Abasi, Eket and other nearby local government areas to Ogoni have to pass through Uyo spending upward of four hours instead of about an hour that they would have spent to get home. That was how dangerous and risky the road was. There is need for the South-South states to introduce inter border patrol to check the activities of hoodlums and to make roads in the zone safe for motorists.

Government, especially in Nigeria, is known not to be good a businessman or investor. This airline would go the way of the defunct Nigeria Airways and other public corporations in the country. Government businesses are known to be the worst managed in this country and what guarantee do we have that this airline would be different. What about the problem of tribalism and ethnic wrangling among the states in terms of employment and even looting the funds of the airline?

How would the floating of an airline impact on the lives of the majority of the South-South people? Instead of embarking on an elitist venture like an airline, the South-South Governors Forum, should like its chairman, Senator Liyel Imoke of Cross Rivers state said at the Uyo meeting should embark on robust infrastructural development of the region and other key projects that would be of mutual interest to the people and states of the region.

There is nothing wrong in setting up an inter regional airline but doing that now in the South-South would amount to putting the cart before the horse. Rather the states in the zone should set up a sound economic foundation that ventures like airline would thrive. Apart from a state like Rivers, which is the hub of the oil industry in sub Sahara Africa, and this is responsible for the high air traffic, what is the volume of air traffic in other states of the zone like. How many flights are currently operating in the airports within the zone? Outside public officers, what is the air passenger population in the South-South that can sustain the proposed airline?

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