A former President of the Nigerian Bar
Association, Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, has urged the President-elect,
Muhammadu Buhari, to immediately commence reforms in the aviation sector
by converting the presidential fleet for public use.
Agbakoba,
who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said this in a statement on
Sunday. He listed eight areas Buhari must concentrate on in order to
succeed.
He said, “The aviation sector requires
major reform. Nigeria has no presence in the aviation business. Nigeria
Airways has been long comatose. Foreign aircraft dominate the Nigerian
airspace and earn well over a trillion naira to our exclusion.
“A trillion naira is about a quarter of
our entire national budget. The way forward is to redeploy all aircraft
in the presidential fleet to form the hub of a new national carrier.
Business for this new national carrier is easy to generate. I have
proposed a bill, the Fly Nigeria Bill, to ensure that every government
naira used to purchase a ticket must originate and terminate on a
Nigerian carrier.
“The Fly Nigeria Bill, when passed into law, will create an instant market for our national carrier.”
Agbakoba said Nigerians were looking up
to Buhari just as Americans looked up to Franklin Roosevelt for succour
during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
He maintained that Buhari must
concentrate on the fight against corruption, housing, constitutional
reform, welfare, financial services, economic reform, national
re-orientation and legal reform.
He said, “I see strong parallels between
the great economic depressions that occurred in American in the 1930s
and the present challenges in Nigeria. I will suggest that close
attention be given to how President Roosevelt dealt with the challenges
of the great depression that came to be known as “The New Deal”. Nigeria
needs its own New Deal in very many directions.”
Agbakoba said in the area of housing, for instance, securing a mortgage had become almost impossible for low-income earners.
He said, “There is a shortage of housing
for low-income earners and constantly growing housing demands (due to
increase in population) that are unmet. Unfortunately, banks are
reluctant to provide mortgage facilities to low-income earners.
“In order to solve the housing/mortgage
challenges described above, the Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company was
established to promote home ownership and increase the availability and
affordability of mortgage loans to Nigerians.
“In spite of the incorporation of NMRC on June 24 2013, not much has changed.”
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