Onyema has swiftly responded that all he did were above board and he actually went through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for all his transactions. “The allegations are unfounded and strange to him. Allen Onyema has a track record built on honesty and integrity and will take all necessary steps to clear his good name and hard-earned reputation. He looks forward to an opportunity to rebute these allegations in court”, his lawyers wrote on his behalf. His accusers are however undaunted by what is considered mere bravado. They are unrelenting and are looking at the possibility of extradition. They also did not dispute that he went through the CBN for his transactions, only saying that documents tendered were false. Since the incident happened, I had thought long and hard on the issue and I kept asking myself what would happen at the end of the day.
Would the airline boss go to jail, I gathered that if found guilty, he could spend over 100 years in jail, God forbid? What would become of the airline that has assumed the role of the National Carrier which we have always planned to have but which have been all motion and no movement. There is no gainsaying the fact that since the airline came into the aviation landscape, it changed the scenario completely.
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It became one of the most reliable if not the most reliable. It came with newer aircrafts, it was timely and with more routes. It displaced its predecessor airlines such as Arik, Dana, Aero in operations. It has and is still moving many Nigerians from one point to the other both within and outside the country. Imagine what would happen to the aviation industry if Air Peace ceases to exist. As it is presently, airlines in the country have consistently found it difficult to cope with the influx of air travellers within the country, hence the delayed or cancelled flight that have become a hallmark in the industry and which incidentally, Air Peace with its advent into the country has helped in ameliorating. What would happen if we have problem with that airline. There have been speculations that we may not get to that sorry pass as it has been said that Onyema would relinquish his chairmanship of the airline while he clears himself.
That is okay, but would that solve the problem, I doubt because he is the soul of that airline, he is the power behind the giant strides of the airline, I can bet that once he is out of that seat, all we would see is a gradual slide into distress by the airline. A troubled Air Peace will signal unquantifiable number of job losses, both directly and indirectly. Do we need that at this time when we have a growing population of the unemployed? It is thus imperative that the government takes a hand in this matter. It is important to save Air Peace and by extension Onyema. Some people are going to disagree especially on the last part. The opinion would be if Onyema was found complicit, he should be made to face the music, forgetting that almost every Nigerian have cause to forge one thing or the other. We forge our age, we forge documents and obtain under false information. Our people have been weaned on falsification of information for official purposes. What we probably do not see as a big deal here is different over there. But we need to forgive Onyema if he had erred, we should also look at the bigger goods and the contribution of his airline to the economy of Nigeria.
THE SUN, NIGERIA
