A group of aviation professionals under the aegis of Aviation Round Table (ART) led by Dele Ore, a pilot, on Thursday asked the Federal Government to make public money collected under Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) with foreign carriers since 1990.
Ore, at a conference in Lagos, noted that a lot of anomalies exist in the BASA, adding that “Nigeria is being short-changed by foreign carriers, the exact amount of money collected from 1990 till date is unknown, the mode of collection is not transparent, expenditure of collection is indeed questionable.
“There are other questionable issues surrounding cash proceeds from BASA, investigation must be instituted and anyone found culpable must be arrested and prosecuted, otherwise Nigeria will continue to be a laughing stock and seen as a corrupt nation”, he said.
He, however, said that until the BASA is renegotiated and reviewed, Nigeria will not benefit from the deals, which he described as “the best thing that can happen to a country because it involves the transfer of knowledge”.
SADE WILLIAMS
