Election postponement: Who pays for the losses of airlines?
By Nigeria is a wonderful country full of different packages thrown at it by its subsequent governments with the connivance of the political class.
The spiraling effects of the packages including the questionable ones which have been the bane of the country has led to long years of bad leadership and subsequent poor governance.
This situation has continued unabated as all concerned authorities of government assigned to duty calls often fall short of expectations at the slightest opportunity thereby inflicting deeper psychological trauma on the psyche of Nigerians.
It is the aftermath of this frustration that usually gives birth to the level of disappointment and anger often expressed by Nigerians as a protest in the face of such mis-governance.
This sad situation which has eaten deep to the various cadres of the society has again reared its head this time courtesy of last week postponement of the presidential election initially slated for February 16, 2019 which was at the last minute rescheduled to February 23, due to what the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) termed logistics challenges.
Prior to last week, the political class through the political parties and the entire nooks and crannies of the country were for months engulfed in tension that came with campaigns in preparations towards the presidential election with many anxiously praying for it to come and go quickly.
After all said and done by all the gladiators, as expected, INEC announced the restriction of movement order which automatically grounded all business activities pending the period the elections were expected to start and last.
Out of sheer patriotism and the anxiety in the minds of everyone to use the opportunity to go to the polls to elect their new president, all class of Nigerians willingly shut down their businesses while the civil servants stayed away from duty to exercise their civic responsibility.
The hope was however dashed at the last minute when the INEC suddenly announced the postponement of the election.
It is no longer news that due to the restriction of movement on February 16th, flight operations were virtually halted forcing the airlines to cancel all their flights across the country with other private investors shutting down their businesses at the various airports.
For canceling the flights on February 16, the domestic airlines lost billions of naira just as other key players including the 150 concessionaires, service providers, the aviation agencies, car rentals and others all put together could have lost a whopping $250 million according to the Managing Director of Aglow Aviation, Mr Tayo Ojuri.
The domestic airlines though agreed that the loss they incurred was the sacrifice they gave for national interest, sadly, the purpose for which they lost that huge amount failed as the election failed to hold with its controversial postponement.
Announcing a new date for the same election means another loss for the airlines and the entire sector as flights will again be cancelled or rescheduled, all businesses shut down, with workers staying away from their duty posts.
In all these, who pays for the second loss to be incurred by the airlines and other stakeholders who will be greatly affected in the sector. If the February polls had not been shifted, the loss of that day could still be defended by Nigeria, but how does Nigeria defend the second loss which will surely be counted again during this Saturday’s election.
With the poor show displayed by INEC, how would the Nigerian airlines that were already down prior to now due to many reasons including government’s unpopular policies and the general economic hardship recover from this avoidable failure in the country’s system?
Like the airlines, what about other private investors and even the government owned organizations that were also caught up in the unprepared electoral scam?
The only way to cushion the effect of the avoidable losses for the airlines especially is for government after the elections to consider writing off some of the government numerous levies the airlines pay as a way of compensation. Besides this, the incoming government should do everything possible to make the business environment more conducive for the airlines as this will go a long way in soothing the economic pains the electoral bad policy has brought upon them.
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