Nigeria-China aviation partnership

My reaction was quite automatic, so I needed some time to come to a realization of what I just read. I tried to brush the idea off on the grounds that Nigeria is always full of drama and schemes, but it was hard to do. Within minutes, my mind delivered to me the reasons for […]

My reaction was quite automatic, so I needed some time to come to a realization of what I just read. I tried to brush the idea off on the grounds that Nigeria is always full of drama and schemes, but it was hard to do. Within minutes, my mind delivered to me the reasons for my discomfort. Below are a few of the automatic thoughts that made me to feel extremely jittery.
No government-owned airline carrier, please!
With the rather impressive progress that the FG has made in encouraging private ownership of functions previously run by the government, we’ll be turning the hand of the clock backwards if the government finds itself in the business of owning and/or running airlines. A government venture of this magnitude will be a dinosaur – sinking money, operating inefficiently, and providing large doors for money leakage, as this has always been the story for most large government-run enterprises. The Nigerian aviation ministry should work harder and more efficiently to improve regulations (and their enforcement) and conditions for the current private carriers in Nigeria (Aero Contractors, Arik, Dana, Overland, etc.) so that these carriers can operate more safely and efficiently. This way, the airlines become more profitable and consumers pay less. That would seem to be what Nigerians want.
Nigeria is capitalist
While this article is not a forum to assess communism, vis-à-vis, socialism or capitalism, the Nigeria government does need to be consistent in whatever form of government it wants to adopt. Based on the developments that we have seen in Nigeria in the past decade or so, Nigeria has, for all practical purposes, adopted the capitalist system. Decision makers must be conscious of this fact when ideas for development are floated. The corollary to my point here is that the FG should seek assistance and collaboration from organizations/enterprises that have perfected the aviation sector in the Nigerian type of government – in this case, entities that have successfully managed privatized airline industry. Ironically, Nigeria has already privatized its airline industry, with some success, but it now wants to bring in, for help, a country whose major airlines are owned by the government. This is baffling. In fact, it would seem that Nigeria has a stronger portfolio than China in managing commercial aviation. Nigeria should build on this, using lessons learned from other relevant countries, and not dabble into government-run airlines – again.
Lack of knowledge of Chinese aviation
To help the FG predict what Nigerians will get from the contemplated collaboration with China, the Nigerian aviation folks need to have an in-depth knowledge of the Chinese aviation industry, with a focus on its current challenges. The newspaper articles I read do not suggest that the Nigerian aviation folks have this kind of knowledge! As a primer, I refer interested folks to the two-article series on Chinese aviation that appeared in this column of Daily Trust (16 and 23 December, 2013). In these articles, I present a summary of a world-view of the state of Chinese aviation. Some of the facts in the articles were taken from Bradley Perrett in the 23 September 2013 issue of Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine. As far as commercial aviation goes in China, there are basically three airlines: China Southern Airlines, which is the largest, and the almost equally-large Air China and China Eastern Airlines. Together, the three airlines control approximately 97% of the domestic market, with the fourth largest, Hainan Airlines, which is private, accounting for only 3%. Thus, unlike in the U.S. where all the commercial airlines are privately-owned, the “Big Three” in China are basically government-owned. They are capitalized by the Chinese state and its banks, and the government orders aircraft for them!
Chinese airlines are substandard
Not only does China not have anything close to the sixty years of experience that the developed countries have behind them in commercial aviation, according to aviation experts, Chinese airlines are not up to the international standards, and are therefore not competitive in the international market. The Big Three each has between 25 and 30% of the International traffic at their home bases of Guangzhou, Beijing, and Shanghai, respectively, with foreign carriers picking up the rest (70-75%) of the international traffic. The lack of experience and skill of the aviation workforce in China (relative to the situation in more developed countries) is blamed for the weak standing of Chinese airlines. Also, the productivity of the workforces is much lower for the Chinese airlines when compared with that for developed countries, and Perrett points out that the Chinese commercial aviation sector does not operate efficiently. In short, in the proposed Nigeria-China collaboration, the blind might actually be leading the blind!
Failed Chinese projects in Nigeria
There have been several high-cost, high-profile projects that the government of Nigeria has awarded to China which have reportedly failed. Two of these are the missing satellites and the CCTV projects. Because these projects reportedly cost hundreds of billions, and the CCTV project is still so fresh in the minds of Nigerians, many citizens might feel the government isn’t working for them!
Nigeria has work for China
If the Nigerian government, for any perceived figures of merit, wants to collaborate with China, there are other options. That is, Nigeria should employ China in what China is best at. One notable area is in train manufacturing and railroad construction.