The Deputy Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Abdulrahman Suleiman Kawu has accused the Minister of Aviation, Mrs. Stella Oduah of alienating the North in the scheme of things in the aviation sector.
Kawu, who made this allegations in a statement made available to Pointblanknews.com in Abuja also called on President Goodluck Jonathan to call the minister to order.
He accused the minister of denying permission to three foreign airlines to commence commercial flight operations to the nation’s capital Abuja.
The affected airlines according to. Kawu are Etihad, Turkish and Emirates.
“I call on President Goodluck Jonathan to as a matter of urgency call her to order as she is portraying him and his government as that which is regional and is all out to underdevelop the north in all facet of human endeavors.
“I am also calling on our people in the entire northern Nigeria irrespective of tribe or religion to “open their eyes” widely to see the ongoing attempt to alienate us from the country”, Kawu advised.
Continuing, the lawmaker said “There is no justification for her action except that she is a tribalist and no amount of grammar can explain her refusal to grant them the much need permit because they have enough passengers coming to Abuja.
“Why must she insist that they land in Enugu? Why does she want them to connect with local airlines to fly their passengers from Abuja to Enugu? This is a clear indication of sectional agenda the minister is implementing”.
He noted that the minister “is hell bent on marginalising the north in the aviation industry.
While Lagos represent southern Nigeria, Abuja represents Northern Nigeria and why must she deny them permit to land in Abuja?
“Shortly when she resumed as a minister she also appointed people from her ethnic group as heads of all the eight major agencies under her ministry. I have had cause to institute a parliamentary investigation into the matter on 27th October 2011.
“How can a passenger from Benue refused landing in Abuja but forced to go to Enugu?
Is this fair or just?
“The South East zone has the Managing Directors of Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Nigeria College of Aviation Technology Zaria (NCAT), Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), while the South-South got the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the South West got three slots of Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) whereas the entire northern region comprising of three geopolitical zones was left with nothing.
“These lopsided appointments, project location and other actions such these on the three affected airlines violate the Federal Character Act and the constitution which states that there should be no dominance of one tribe or region in any government agency.
“I think they are implementing an agenda to alienate the north from the Federal Republic as postulated by the former US ambassador to Nigeria John Campbell, we as a parliament will not allow this to happen”.
He assured that “On our part in the House of Representatives we will not allow this kind of thing to continue and we will deploy whatever powers we have to stop her”.
According to him “Most of the tension in the country now cannot be unconnected with the actions or inactions of those occupying government positions in Nigeria as certain sections of the country are consistently marginalised and left out in projects, appointments and other developmental issues.
“It now behooves on Mr. President to do the right thing by disassociating himself from those of his appointees such as Stella Oduah who are all out to disunite Nigerians”.