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Jonathan administration has tried for aviation industry – Onyema

By on August 4, 2014

Chairman Air Peace, Allen Onyema, is also the founder/Chairman of Foundation for Ethnic Harmony in Nigeria (FEHN), a non-governmental organisation, which has been playing active roles in peaceful resolution in some parts of the country, particularly the Niger Delta. An accomplished businessman, Onyema recently ventured into the aviation industry by floating an airline named Air Peace, which has already acquired seven airplanes for scheduled and chartered local flights. In this interview with some editors in Lagos, he spoke on his new pet project, Air Peace and President Goodluck Jonathan’s contributions to the aviation industry. Festus Akanbi was there
You recently invested in aviation; can you shed light on this new business outfit?
First and foremost, I am fulfilling the promise I made to God Almighty in 2003 that I would not only give him one per cent of my gross earnings for the purposes of evangelism but that I would also create massive jobs for others if only he would come to my aid in my businesses. I challenged God and he answered me. That money (one percent) is never my money, it is God’s. I have an account in one of the banks referred to as God’s Account. It is used for evangelism only. I have built and helped churches all over the country from this fund. It is never used for my sake. I have helped other religious bodies from there too. So floating Air Peace is a promise I made to God towards creating massive employment for the nation.
I have been a peaceful person from birth. For several years before now, I have been expending so much of what God Almighty put at my disposal pursuing peace ideals from different angles. Floating Air Peace airline is part of the greater desire in me to help foster unity and peace in my country. All my companies have everything to do with peace because I am into peace building. Everything about me is peace that is why I named it Air Peace because I want to use this airline to open up my country. Again, the peace of the flying public is our goal. Their peace of mind over there in the sky is our goal. Our mission statement is to be one of the best and to provide unparalleled commercial scheduled flights and even chartered flights for Nigerians and the flying world.

When is the airline taking off and what arrangement has been made for effective take-off?
You know that aviation is highly regulated. You have to follow the rules; you have to prove to the authorities, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) that you are ready. They have to audit you and they have to make sure that you are fit to fly. We are getting there, we are getting very close. We are at the last stage. We have five phases but we are on the fourth phase now. The fifth phase is the certification itself and we are on the fourth phase now, which is flight demonstration. We have already started flight demonstration. You have to demonstrate to the NCAA for 50 hours, you are not carrying passengers but only their personnel, showing them what you are capable of doing when you start operations. We have come a long way; it is over a year now.
Do you have aircrafts on ground already?
Yes, we do. We have Boeing and we have Dornier jets. We have Boeing 737-500 jets and Dornier 328 jets.

What is the take-off of the airline going to look like?
You know normally we have to start with the local market; you have to start with the local flights. And another thing the management of Air Peace wants to do in Nigeria is to open up this country. Everybody is going to Abuja and Portharcourt, every airline is scrambling for Abuja and Port harcourt but we want to use this airline to open up this country. Kebbi must be able to go to Kano. Kano must be able to go to Enugu direct. Yola must link up with Sokoto and Kano directly. Abuja must link up with Markurdi and so does Lagos. Asaba should be able to reach PH directly and PH, Asaba. Benin should also go to PH and Abuja directly. Smaller airports shall be accessed with our Dornier Jets. Warri to PH and PH to Warri must be done. PH should be able to fly to Calabar and vice versa.
This design will not only open up the country for more economic activities but would create massive employment opportunities for the teeming unemployed population in the country both directly and indirectly. This is my desire, this is my conviction.
We want to bring peace and unity to this country because all I know in my life is about peace building.
One, my recruitment policy does not understand ethnicity, neither does it understand religion. I am an Ibo man but a Yoruba man is my director of flight operations, a Yoruba man is my director of safety, a Yoruba man is my IT manager, an Ibo man is quality manager, an Ibo man is my director for maintenance and engineering, a Niger delta man is the chief pilot and a northerner is my chief accountant.
Is that the way you want to be different from other operators?
Not only that. Another area where we want to be different from other operators is safety. We have zero tolerance for unsafe practices in Air Peace and that is why we make sure that our aircrafts are well maintained. We bought our Donier Jets from Europe, we bought our Boeing Jets from America and we make sure in conducting the tests and maintenance of our aircrafts, everything was employed to make sure we had the best. You can imagine, our aircrafts flew for 18 hours from United States to Nigeria, no snag, no defect and that is unusual. Besides that, Nigeria should start to ask questions from the airlines, who maintains your fleet? It is all about maintenance. In America, they use 60-year old planes, no issues, it is all about maintenance. For us, we brought in BCT Aviation Maintenance Company from United Kingdom.  They are a major maintenance organisation in the UK and they provide these services to several major airlines of the world.
Just as one of our competitors to be is using Germans, we are using the British and they are here 24/7, maintaining these planes. If they do not sign any aircraft for operation every morning, that aircraft does not go into the sky. So, they must certify every aircraft before it goes into the sky every morning. Those are the things we want to do and again, we want motivated staff.
One thing we have noticed in Nigeria is that most of the airlines’ staff are always grumbling, it is either they are being owed eight months’ salary or 10 months’ salary; some are even being owed one year. We want to motivate our staff. I will run this airline the way I run my other businesses. My staff in all my businesses takes my business as their own. Air Peace shall be sharing profit with staff!  I am going to run the South West Airline of America model.

Air Peace will be declaring periodic bonuses as long as we are making it to trickle down. Every staff will see the airline as his own and protect it. This ensures safety more than anything. No matter the maintenance process you put in place, no matter the amount of money you put down to run your business, if the staff are not motivated, you have a problem and that might breach safety. So, we are tackling the issue of unsafe practices from all corners and one of the things we want to concentrate on is the welfare and wellbeing of our human resources.

How do you assess the transformation agenda of Jonathan’s administration in the aviation industry?
This administration has performed excellently in the aviation industry. The government of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has done what no other government has done in this country in promoting the wellbeing of the aviation industry. I think the problem this government is having today is that it does not have the press. If this government had the press, they would have been showcasing a lot of things they have done right than a few things they have done wrong.

Before the coming of Jonathan, our airports looked like poultry farms, the airports were nothing to write home about. This government has renovated about 24 airports. Those airports may not be like the airport in Atlanta but it is something better for now because in renovating something, it is not easy as in building afresh. Sometimes it is easier to start afresh than to renovate. This government has done excellently well in renovating the airports and that has helped aviation business.
Secondly, no other government has come to the rescue of the aviation industry or the airlines in this country the way this government has done. This is the first time we are having zero duty on the importation of aircrafts and aircraft’ parts. No other government has done it. This is the first time and Nigerians should know that the government took this step to encourage the airlines to plough back whatever they must have saved on import duties to the maintenance of their aircrafts in order to ensure safety. So, the government has done a lot in transforming the aviation industry. The aviation Intervention Fund too is there for the airlines to access but the most important is the relief being enjoyed on import duties on aircraft and aircraft spare parts.

Why did you venture into aviation?
To answer your question, going into aviation is one of those things I consider as my contribution to the development of the Nigerian society. I asked myself, how will I contribute to the arrest of the incidence of unemployment in this country. Somebody said I should go into agriculture but he did not give me a good business plan and I remember that in 1998, some people approached me that we should go into aviation, into cargo, Cargo Airliners. I contributed my own money, about seven of us brought money together then, and that was in 1998. I sold some of my properties in the (Lagos) Island and contributed my own money but they said they could not make up their own. It took me another one year to get my money back and that was when I swore that I will never go into partnership with anybody in Nigeria again. So, the ambition died then.

At about 2007, I started nursing the same ambition, to float an airline because somebody told me “Allen you said you want to create jobs, if you go into aviation, you won’t make so much money but you can create jobs. He said one commercial airplane can give job to about 100 people directly and can give job to about 200 people indirectly.”  I said in that case, I will go into it. I started planning and I even enrolled in a flight school in London, to know how to fly myself. I started flying but not alone. So, I now decided to go into aviation to create jobs. If I had put my money into fixed deposit, I would get a double-digit interest, which I would have used to look after my family comfortably but that was not what I promised God in 2003 when I told Him to help me in my chosen profession, to help me in my chosen endeavours and that I will plough back to the society.  I asked God to help me and that I would give Him one per cent of my gross earnings for evangelism and I have been doing that because I have been building churches and supporting evangelical work all over the place. The next was that I promised God that I would touch lives for Him by way of tackling unemployment and that is what I am fulfilling. That is one major reason because I went into aviation for three reasons. The second one is because of the incessant air crashes in this country and I felt if I have the resources to go into aviation and as a very serious person, I will bring the same integrity, with which I run my other businesses into aviation business by arresting the incident of air crashes in Nigeria by doing the right thing at the right time and truthfully too. So, I decided to go into aviation to provide jobs and to change the face of aviation in this country by doing that which is right, doing that which is required of me to do and by making sure that corners are not cut in order to reduce these incidents of air crashes in Nigeria.

What are the challenges you are facing in a new business environment?
I will tell you again, one of the banes of aviation business in Nigeria is financing. It is a capital intensive industry. You need these banks. For instance, two banks are supporting me but at a high stake although they allow me some moratorium thinking that six months ago, we would have started operations. However, the certification process is taking longer than we expected. What that means is that whenever we start, we start paying back immediately. As I said, I have two banks supporting me but at the same time the interest rate is too high compared to what is obtainable out there in America and other developed world, where they have a single digit interest rate to pay and that helps them over there. But in Nigeria, it is not the same thing. So, not getting the right financing for the business is a major bane. The second one is the issue of maintenance hangar; we don’t have maintenance facilities in Nigeria. You want to do your C check or D check or major check, you take these aircrafts out of this country and this also leads to cash flight out of this country. A huge sum is expended in taking these planes out of the country for maintenance and the money used is in foreign currency. At all times, you need dollars; everything is computed in dollars in the aviation industry. Maintenance issues are eating so much into the earnings of the operators.
But even those of us, who would like to have our hangar to develop manpower in this country, the government should be able to give us the opportunity to build hangars. If an airline applies for a space for hanger, that airline should be given land space for hangar. I am bringing in seven aircrafts. I applied since last year for a land to build a hanger but I have not got one up till now. If I had been given, the banks would have come in to help me to set up the hanger and I would start maintaining my planes here and start thinking of bringing the expatriates into this country, settling them down properly, teaching our own people, building capacity of our people and replicate the Ethiopian model here, where we can maintain our planes.

And when they give this land to you, it also leads to other opportunities, particularly the creation of jobs for our people by so doing. But the civil service, for goodness sake, in this country is killing the economy of this country. Civil servants must change their attitude because they are highly vindictive. Civil servants must sit up because the government of the day may want something to move swiftly but the civil servants, who operate these things, are something else. We applied for a land space since last year, but we are yet to get it. Instead, you see some people without a single aircraft having lands at the airport. But those that are ready to do something with the land, they don’t get. The government should come to the aid of the operators, give them land to build. Jobs would be created. People are suffering, yet those who want to help in providing jobs are not being encouraged by these people. The President cannot come down to do everything. Those assigned these jobs, be they ministers or civil servants must stop this vicious cycle of frustrating investments.
Are you saying that you have not been allocated offices at the airports?
No, I am not saying that. We have got offices at Enugu, Owerri, Porthacourt, Abuja and Lagos. We have approached Warri but they said when we have our (AOC), you know Warri is not operated by the government, when we get our papers that we should come. Asaba too, when we get our AOC, we should come over. We have applied to the Air Force for the use of the Air Force base in Kaduna, Port harcourt and Makurdi.

How did you finance this airline?
I have been in business since 1990 after youth service in 1989. I started my legal practice in a big way venturing into real estate almost immediately. By 1992, I was already making waves in real estate. Grace of God has followed me all my life. I was given over 300 plots of land as a young lawyer to market for N10, 000 each around Ayobo, Ipaja in Lagos State. My fee was whatever I put on top this price! I sold the first six plots at N15, 000 each, making N30, 000 in the process. This was huge to me in 1991/92. I decided to advertise the property in National Concord Newspapers then owned by late Moshood Abiola. I made more money and used the money to create a proper layout and I opened up streets with bulldozers. It became attractive to buyers, leading me to increase my price to over N20, 000. I sold a lot but ended up buying 67 myself! I then floated a property company with which I specialised in buying and sourcing cheap fallow lands all over Lagos State, the Lekki Peninsula inclusive, Abuja, etc.
Besides a former CGS to Babangida, I was the next highest owner of properties in 1995/1996 around the Chevron area of Lekki. The said former CGS was marveled at the amount of money I expended singlehandedly opening up the entire community from the Lekki/express way down to the Atlantic Ocean!
I also later opened up a trading company with which we were importing fridges and other electronics into the country. We were not doing retails but wholesale trading. My containers were discharged at the Ibru Jetty Warehouse in Apapa. I had an understanding with Geneva industries in the UK then. We could sell 10 containers in a matter of hours. Yet again, the millions were rolling in but I am not a noise maker. I am as humble as the word.
I was using my millions freely to do peace building all over the country from then using my Foundation for Ethnic Harmony in Nigeria (FEHN). It was my selfless contribution to the ideals of peace that threw me up to limelight – both the local and international communities took notice of me and supported.
Shell was the first organisation to partner us in the transformation of violent people using the non-violence education I brought into the country. I employed Americans of the highest status to partner and work for me. Yes, the millions were coming in from then. Chevron joined and so other oil companies. We were, and are still, training people from and in different places, South Africa, Congo, US, etc.
I singlehandedly funded and financed the event termed the “First Nigeria Forever Project”, a project that took me and thousands of my members to the 36 states between 2004/2005. The round up was held in Abuja. It cost me millions without government participation.
I singlehandedly funded the Global Conference on Non-violence and Peace in December 2007 when government could not provide funds for such an event. I was made the country’s Conference Director while the former Governor of Akwa Ibom; Obong Victor Attah was the chairman, the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the three-day world event.
I received the Martin Luther King Global Award in 2007 for my efforts in institutionalising non-violence agenda in Nigeria. All these happened before the Amnesty program .
So I made my living and my investments through my businesses in real estate, trading and non-violence conflict management consultancy. By 2007/08, we have several fixed deposits and these have all been broken today for this aviation business. The financing therefore came from my businesses, two major banks are also involved in providing financing but the major contributor is the American millionaire who sold his five planes to me.

When I met him, he asked me why Aviation?
No airline has succeeded in your country. Why do you want to go into it? When I told him that my reason was that I was told of the potentials of job creation in my nation through aviation, he stood up, took a hard look at me, smiled and said, Allen I am going to do something for you. You touched my heart. This is the first time I would be seeing a Nigerian with your kind of heart, others meet me to ask for how they could use us to do some not so good things. I will help you. I will recall some planes from United Airlines and give you. You need to start low and grow. I am giving you these planes at very low unbelievable prices but I shall wait for you to break even before we get you the big ones at the right prices. No one would believe how much I acquired these planes for. It is the grace of God. The Central Bank of Nigeria from where the funds were transferred is a living witness. I acquired my five planes for far less the price of one.
Two prominent banks also gave us loans of which we were supposed to have started paying back since over seven months ago because we thought operations may have started by then. They extended our moratorium.
So, it is annoying when some people use the blogs and the internet to suggest that I am a front for anyone. I am too big and honest to be involved in such.  How could I be a front when all the planes are named after my late mother, my dad, my wife and my four children? How could I front for someone and the incorporated owners would be me and my wife only? My first two children, who have now reached the legal age of 18 and above, have also been incorporated as shareholders and directors in the company? As soon as the remaining two children turn 18, they too, would be added as shareholders and directors at the Corporate Affairs Commission.  Is this how they front for people? Who would allow you do that? How about my recruitment policy? Who would allow you nominate all post holders in such a company without nominating a single soul?

 

 

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