How wrong priorities are crippling Nigerian airlines
Nigeria’s aviation sector isn’t recovering — and it’s not because of the fuel prices or forex alone. It’s because our leaders have been looking in the wrong direction while the runway crumbles beneath them. The recent wave of mass flight cancellations, grounded aircraft, and near-collapse of several domestic carriers has made one thing brutally clear: […]
Nigeria’s aviation sector isn’t recovering — and it’s not because of the fuel prices or forex alone. It’s because our leaders have been looking in the wrong direction while the runway crumbles beneath them.
The recent wave of mass flight cancellations, grounded aircraft, and near-collapse of several domestic carriers has made one thing brutally clear: Nigeria’s aviation sector is not on the road to stability, and our leaders are worrying about the wrong things.
For years, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the Federal Ministry of Aviation, and other industry players have assured the public that things were improving. Every setback had an excuse — it’s the fuel price spike, it’s the dollar shortage, it’s global oil volatility. Each was dismissed as a temporary hiccup that would soon fade. Meanwhile, the focus drifted away from urgent structural reform and toward politically safe distractions — ceremonial groundbreakings, ribbon-cuttings, and endless conferences.
But the reality is that the industry was never truly mending.
Yes, officially, the post-COVID downturn ended, and air travel numbers climbed back from the brink. But growth, safety oversight, and operational stability have been nowhere near adequate given how deep the initial collapse was. Passenger confidence remains fragile, operational costs have exploded, and most airlines are barely keeping their fleets in the air.
Before the pandemic, Nigerian domestic airlines had over 60 serviceable aircraft. Today, a significant portion sits idle — grounded over debts or awaiting maintenance. The result is fewer flights, overbooked cabins, and fares that have doubled or tripled, pushing air travel out of reach for many Nigerians.
Airline workers and aviation professionals are facing underemployment or outright layoffs. For the first time in decades, we risk a long-term operational decline that could strip Nigeria of its status as West Africa’s natural aviation hub. That also means falling government revenues from taxes and fees — proving that even fiscally, our current approach is short-sighted.
Airlines see no incentive to expand when aviation fuel prices, forex scarcity, and regulatory bottlenecks remain unresolved. And rather than aggressively supporting the industry in its time of need, the government has pulled back — choosing politically expedient prestige projects over the hard, often unglamorous work of building infrastructure and reforming policy.
If this sector is going to be rescued, many in government and the industry will have to admit — at least to themselves — that they’ve been wrong, and start setting the right priorities.
But this crisis hasn’t been caused solely by political grandstanding. It has also been fuelled by an aviation policy elite — including some within the Ministry and NCAA — who have failed to make safety, affordability, and operational resilience the top priorities. Some have been distracted by secondary issues; others have been intimidated or swayed by powerful private interests. The result is a sector that is reactive rather than proactive, always firefighting but never building lasting solutions.
That has to stop.
The Ministry of Aviation and NCAA must stop making excuses and present a real, credible strategy for sustainable airline operations. This means targeted financial relief tied to performance, a transparent forex allocation system for aviation, aggressive investment in navigational aids and safety oversight, and policies that encourage competition without undermining standards.
If vested interests try to block such reforms, leadership must be willing to call them out and show the public exactly who is standing in the way of progress. Transparency, not secrecy, will win back passenger trust.
This may not be an easy or quick fix — and it may not even fully succeed without broader economic stability. But one thing is already certain: what we have been doing for the past few years is not working.
Right now, thousands of aviation workers, and millions of passengers who rely on this industry for business, family, and connection, are paying the price for wrong priorities. The longer we keep worrying about the wrong things, the harder the crash will be when it comes.
It’s time to stop flying blind.
Mohammed Salihu can be reached via [email protected]