One thing I will say is the present government owes it a duty to support Air Peace, not only on the London route but also other routes. It also owes it a duty to support other Nigerian airlines because we have done something for this government that has cleaned its image.
Any Nigerian who could see to the evacuation of 503 Nigerians from South Africa during xenophobic attacks in 2019 free of charge, bring back stranded Nigerians from China, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Thailand, Dubai and South Africa at the height of the dreaded Covid 19 pandemic in 2020, using his airline, Air Peace, and paid to bring home 584 Nigerians from the UK deserves to be celebrated.
But that is not all. This Nigerian is an enigma!
Allen Ifechukwu Onyema, 59, a lawyer, peacemaker and entrepreneur is a reporter’s delight. He is the proprietor of Air Peace Airlines. He just shocked the airline world again. Possessed with courage, patriotism and an uncanny love for country, Allen Onyema just crashed the prohibitive Lagos/London fare with his proposed commencement of flights from Lagos to London next week. From a callously exploitative cost of N15m/N17m business class ticket and N4m economy class, to about N4m business class and N1.2m economy, and a further 15% discount for students, this Anambra-born entrepreneur deserves an applause. Once he announced his Air Peace fares on that route, other international airlines started reducing their air fares.
Last Tuesday, Onyema hosted the quartet of Onochie Anibeze, Editor, Saturday Vanguard; Jide Ajani, General Ediror; Charles Kumolu, Deputy Editor, Sunday Vanguard; and Clifford Ndujihe, Politics Editor. It was the presentation of the letter of award as Vanguard’s Personality of The Year. Formalities over, an interview session followed. And Onyema spoke. He was blunt – in fact, too blunt, some times, for his own good. But we had to take it all in. After all, every statement he made represented an over-swirling lava of patriotism. Here was a man who almost singlehandedly created the process that led to the surrender of Niger Delta militants through his nonviolence advocacy and the ultimate Amnesty Programme.
From contemporary issues of the economy, governance, President Tinubu and what Nigerians and Nigeria need to do to regain her esteem in the comity of nations, Onyema waxed avuncular, suggesting apolitical and nonpartisan pathways to progress and development.
Excerpts:
I thank the Publisher, staff and everyone in Vanguard, who deemed it fit to consider me Personality of the Year, 2023. I cherish this award because it is not for all-comers. I really appreciate it. Receiving this is a huge honour for me and a challenge to do more. An award of this kind helps in nation-building. It is part of the reasons I recognize those who toiled for the nation in the past.
On Air Peace London route and impact on the Aviation industry and Nigeria’s economy
If not for anything, I am one of the happiest persons on earth today. Even if Air Peace is told not to go to London again, this airline has achieved something for this nation at a time when the country is in doldrums. At a time this country is going through social and economic stress, Air Peace has come in to give this country succour. If nobody wants to praise us, we are praising ourselves. If nobody wants to recognise what we have done for this country in the last two weeks, we will praise ourselves.
In the face of daunting hostile problems even from government agencies, we did something great. Therefore, I will praise myself. Three weeks before now, Nigerians were paying N15 to 17 million to do a six-hour direct flight (business class) to London. Nigerians were paying N5 to 6 million (economy) to go to London. In order to avoid paying N17 million (business class), N6 million (economy), Nigerians had to travel round the world to get to London. There were situations in which Nigerians would fly to Qatar, an eight-hour flight, stay over for two hours before flying to London, which is another eight hours.
A whole 24 hours would be spent flying for a six-hour flight because a kind of fare regime was deliberately brought on my nation by foreign airlines. Over time, I have complained and I have been targeted both within and outside the country for my efforts towards building a nation. I am happy because I have been vindicated for those things I said.
Nigerians were going to Rwanda, Morocco, Egypt even South Africa to go to London. To save money, they would fly down to South Africa (six hours) to get to London. No one can blame them. Like I always say, it is only indigenous investments that can protect this country. Foreign investments are good, but you also have to encourage indigenous investments to stabilize and succeed. Indigenous investments provide the real jobs and when the chips are down, they are the ones to save the country. When I talked, nobody wanted to listen to me, but I beat my chest and I am happy today. I am absolutely happy for what I have done for this nation in the last few days.
Do you know the millions of dollars or billions of Naira Air Peace has single- handedly saved for this country by what we did? From N17 million, we brought a Business class flight to London down to N4 million. From N6 million we brought economy class flight down to N1.2 million and even afforded our students a further 15 per cent of the N1.2 million.
What happened? Pandemonium in the aviation world. All the foreign airlines started scrambling for safety. They started scrambling for cover. Within 24 hours of Air Peace releasing its fares, those airlines brought their fares from N15 million to N5 million. As I speak to you, the fares are coming down. They are advertising and begging people on social media to fly with them.
I have said this overtime but because some people suffer from colonial mentality, slave mentality, they think everything foreign is okay. Do you know how much Nigeria is saving now because too much strain was put on the Naira? Within 24 hours, Air Peace brought foreign airlines to their knees. Air Peace and other Nigerian airlines deserve to be supported.
The problem we have in this country is that the public and government officials look at private investments as investments belonging to individual owners. What they don’t understand is that when Air Peace is going to London, it is representing Nigeria. As such, both the government and the people of Nigeria must support Air Peace wholly because things won’t be easy there (London). They are going to find faults to destabilize the airline.
It has happened before. When we went there to bring Nigerians back during COVID-19, they unleashed dogs on our aircraft. They didn’t even allow us to do a walk-around. They committed a certain breach and Nigeria protested to the International Civil Aviation Organisation, ICAO. The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, protested to ICAO because that plane could have fallen out of the skies.
Once an aircraft takes off, even if it is for five minutes, that plane can never take off again until the engineer or the pilot does a walk around because anything could have breached the fuselage as of the time of flight. Such a situation can only happen to a Nigerian airline. If that is tried with America, they will come after that country. It is only in this country that people think that if Air Peace is supported, Allen Onyema has been supported.
Let me state clearly, it is no longer Allen Onyema’s airline, it belongs to the over 220 million Nigerians. At times I wonder what is driving the hate because to the best of my knowledge, I have paid my dues. I have sacrificed my family to be out there in the creeks when people could not look into the faces of militants. My activities, among others, brought down militancy. After all these interventions, you would expect to be supported, but nobody is supporting.
The kind of support we need is a sincere one from everyone. If these foreign airlines knew they could charge N5 million, why didn’t they do so before now? What has changed? President Bola Tinubu and his government should not be swayed because these foreign airlines undermine his government. When they overcharge, Nigerians take it up with the government, saying it is because of the dollar. They put everything on the doorstep of the president.
Frankly, we are being unfair to President Tinubu by blaming every woe in the country on him. As a citizen, you have to play your part.
Allen Onyema has played his part. I have shown that with patriotic acts, we can move this country forward. If you are patriotic, you can’t engage in corruption. If you are patriotic, you will engender the ease of doing business in your country and encourage businesses to grow. If you are patriotic, you won’t stifle businesses out of wickedness. If you are patriotic, you will drive a positive narrative for your country. One doesn’t need to be president or governor to bring about social change. When I brought about social change in the Niger Delta, I wasn’t a councillor. If every citizen is contributing his or her quota, the country will move forward.
One thing I will say is the present government owes it a duty to support Air Peace, not only on the London route but also other routes. It also owes it a duty to support other Nigerian airlines because we have done something for this government that has cleaned its image.
Most Nigerians travelling abroad blame all their woes on Tinubu, saying it is because of him that fares escalated. The foreign airlines cashed in on the (exchange) situation to escalate their bills to N15 million.
Internal, international conspiracies against Nigeria’s economy
Now, a Nigerian airline has come out to prove that the problem was not President Tinubu but both internal and external conspiracies. Some Nigerians were making sure that the London route didn’t happen, they didn’t want the London thing to happen and they collaborated with outsiders. God has made it possible for us to surmount all that and you can see it. If at the time we wanted to roll out our fares last week, I decided to make business class N10 million, Nigerians would be happy. If we made the economy ticket N3 million, Nigerians would also be happy. In Air Peace, however, we decided that we could make a difference and help the nation. At N4 million for business class, we are not losing. The world should know that this country has been terribly fleeced. At that price, we will recover our cost even if profit is low.
It has started happening. Look at the fares they are publishing now on social media, they went below cost. We all know the fixed cost of both foreign and local airlines. When they brought down their fares to N5 million (business and N1.9 million (economy) that was okay. Now, the plan is to take out Air Peace from the market. If they succeed in taking us out now, they will return to the status quo. Nigerians will be fools to embrace their new love. Currently, foreign airlines are doing all sorts of market gimmicks. For instance, one airline published $98. That is why the government should support Air Peace wholeheartedly with whatever it takes. It is not about money. I am not asking them to give me money. Government should show that this airline belongs to Nigeria and must be protected.
When Delta Airlines came to Nigeria in 2007, the entire US State Department followed them. Go and touch Virgin Atlantic, the highest echelon of government in Britain will come calling. Touch Air Peace, they will tell you the owner is an Igboman, religion will also come in. Who did this to black man? I don’t know.
It is a pity that even government officials also say Nigerian airlines do not have capacity. It is a pity. It is unfortunate the way we treat our investors or indigenous investments. We did Hajj over a year ago but we have not been paid. Apart from that initial payment that was meagre, we have not been paid. About $9 million or $10 million they owe Air Peace and Azman, non been paid.
The requests for Forex by Nigerian airlines have also not been met. Our funds are trapped with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN. Air Peace borrowed money from the bank at 26 per cent, now the bank has changed it to 30 per cent. I also have my money stranded at CBN for almost a year.
Foreign airlines have been paid, why can’t the local airlines be paid? I remember the former acting governor of CBN, Mr Shonubi, he had compassion on me because I spoke about it at a conference held by the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA. I said I had 15 aircraft stranded abroad that needed to be brought back. However, the money ($14 million) was tied up at the CBN. Shonubi flew to Lagos and came to this office, which I respect because that is what a government official should do. Before the day he came here, I never knew him from anywhere. He didn’t treat me like I am an Igbo man and he is a Yoruba man. He realised that this is a major stakeholder in the economy of this country. He realised the importance of aviation and came here to explain what the issues were. Even though he couldn’t help me, I felt respected. He carried me along and made me understand the pains of President Tinubu’s government, that there was no dollar in the coffers. He asked if there was anything that could be done, he suggested if I could take some of it in Naira and see how I could get dollars. To date, I respect that man.