The Federal Government Wednesday said that it was on course in its determination to provide a national carrier to the country.

The government said that the initial plan to establish a national carrier in 2021 was affected by the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, adding that the project will be realised the first quarter of 2022.

The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the virtual Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting presided over by Vice president Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Fielding questions from journalists, he said that there was no going back on getting a national carrier for the country.

According to him, “It is still on top gear; we are coming back to the council; hopefully in the next two weeks to present the memo on the national carrier. We went to the council to approve the outline business case for the carrier; then, the council raised some questions and asked us to go and look at the memo again and bring it back.

“So, once it comes back and the outline business case is approved by council, we will go to the full business case which is now going to the market and establishing the national carrier.

“It is our intention to have the national carrier running in 2021, which is this year; unfortunately, due to COVID-19, which took the greater part of last year, since March last year, activities have almost been impossible.”

He said that though the pandemic negatively affected civil aviation, in terms of the establishment of the national carrier, it made it a much better time to establish the carrier than before.

Sirika said that for obvious reasons, Nigeria would have fast access to equipment; deliveries of the aircraft would be faster and the rates might be cheaper.

The Minister said Nigeria has a massive market and population to sustain an airline, adding that updates would be provided on the progress of the project after the next presentation to FEC.

He said, “The COVID-19 has exposed the nation; lack of having very strong, the viable airline is bad for the economy of Nigeria and for any country for that matter; tourism, for example, is badly affected by lack of airline.

“Finally, to just say that Nigeria is the best candidate to have an airline; 200 million people that travel sometimes almost for nothing, sitting within the West African Region, 400million people; contiguous to Central Africa, 600million.

“Twice the population of the US; equal to the population of entire continental Europe; at the center of Africa, Nigeria, equal distance from all locations; rising middle class, the propensity to fly is high; Nigeria is the best candidate for a very robust carrier.

“In this 2021, we will try to do all the needful and probably intend to start operations somewhere in the first quarter of 2022.”

The Minister further disclosed that Council approved a contract for the procurement of a towable mobile office for the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) of the Civil Aviation Authority.

“The contract is for the procurement, equipment, and installation of accident investigation towable mobile offices in favour of Messrs. Crases Integrity Services Limited. The total contract sum is N201,150,437.21.

“The purpose of this equipment, once purchased, if there is, God forbid, an accident anywhere, these mobile offices will be driven to the location and an office will be established for the purposes of taking data, collecting samples, and gathering information regarding the incident and then analysing them on-site and tagging them and doing all sorts of things there and you know, this can take any time, sometimes a few hours, sometimes even weeks”, he said.

On his part, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said two memoranda were approved by Council in President Muhammadu Buhari’s name.

Mohammed said “I have two memos presented in the name of Mr. President. The first was a memo seeking approval of the Council for the enhancement of security at the newly completed premises of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission headquarters located at Jabi. You will recall that from 2011 upwards, there’ve been various attacks on federal government institutions and even multilateral institutions like the United Nations building.

“Consequent upon those attacks in 2011, 2014, 2018, the federal government set up what is called the Vulnerability Assessment Committee to see how we can better protect ministries, departments and agencies and it’s in line with this that the EFCC, today presented to Council a memo seeking approval for the procurement of four sets of automatic and static anti-crush boulder system, with automatic vehicle scanners and other accessors, linear meters perimeter fencing, intrusion detection system and human screening equipment, four walk-through metal detectors, two handheld metal scanners, one luggage scanner and three handheld explosive trace detectors, all at the value of N805,738,541.95, inclusive of the 7.5 percent VAT, with the completion period of 12 weeks. The memo was approved by Council.

“The second memo, which Mr. President presented today is a memo seeking Council’s approval for the procurement of 16 vehicles for the use of Federal Civil Service Commission. You know “we have 16 members of the FCC; the Chairman and 15 commissioners representing the states and they normally embark on extensive advocacy visits and team oversight functions to ministries, departments, and agencies across the country.

“So, they asked for replacement of the old unserviceable vehicles and the Council duly approved the purchase of one Toyota Landcruiser V8 and 15 Toyota Rush, all at a total of N336,216,198”, he said.

Also briefing, the Minister of Water Resources, Engr Suleiman Adamu said the council approved the sum of N10.168 billion for the execution of various projects under the ministries of Water Resources, Aviation, as well as two agencies under the Presidency.

The Minister said Council approved augmentation for two contracts, which had been affected by time and inflation.

He said, “The contracts, Bagwai Irrigation Project in Kano State and the Biu Water Supply Project in Borno State, according to Adamu, got an aggregate of N8.825 billion.

“The first one was for expansion and completion of Bagwai Irrigation Project on Watari Dan in Bagwai local government area of Kano State. We have sought an augmentation of N3.76 billion, which was approved.

“Therefore, Council was gracious to approve this augmentation with the sum of N3.762 billion, bringing the new contract sum from N5.4 billion to N9.2 billion, inclusive of 7.5% VAT, with an additional completion period of 24 months plus another 12 months liability period.

“The second memo was for requesting for augmentation for Biu Water Supply Project. Again, this is a project that was started in 2001 but is still yet to be completed. It ran into a lot of problems, mainly associated with the funding and the Boko Haram insurgency. So, we sought an augmentation.

“So, the total augmentation, like I said, is N5.063 billion, bringing the contracts sum now to N9.36 billion from N4.29 billion, inclusive 7.5% VAT, with a new completion period of 24 months. We hope that these projects will be implemented in earnest and hopefully, we’ll be able to get them completed by 2023 for the overall benefit of the people.”