Onyema is doing yeoman's job with his Air Peace

Onyema is doing yeoman's job with his Air Peace. See how he and his airline recently crashed air fares. Other international airlines have been hiding behind dollarization and high price of dollar to allow their fares go skyrocketing. They posited that lower fares were not possible in Nigeria in the prevailing economic circumstances, but Allen Onyema does not share that extreme profiteering strategy. Those airlines have now been forced to do what they had claimed was not possible by bringing down their fares substantially. Salute to the leadership support of Mr. President @officialABAT, Hon. Minister of Aviation, Hon. Minister of Industry, Trade & Investment, Hon. Minister of Foreign Affairs, and other relevant government functionaries.

Allen Onyema's feat in #aviation industry reminds us of the patriotic and strategic move by Mike Adenuga around August 2003 when his Globacom entered the #telecom market with 'per- second billing', crashed SIM card to rock-bottom price, and began to rule their world with submarine cables from United Kingdom to Nigeria. Existing telecom giants including MTN that have been going to town with federal legislators' backing with songs that "per-second billing is not realistic in Nigeria" and "low SIM card prices are not yet possible" were forced to fall in line. Yet, they never ran at loss. I recall that MTN officially reported breaking even in Nigeria within the first few years of operation as against their target of 10 years. The era preceding the per-second billing system was such a goldmine non-existent in South Africa or elsewhere that millions of Nigerians would make calls, say, for 1 minute 1 second (61 sec.) and they would be charged for 2 minutes (120 sec.).

Before we go back to the airline issue, it is pertinent to digress a little more and make the point here that Nigerians are seriously yearning for serious entrepreneurs who, with necessary executive and legislative supports, will introduce and force Multichoice (DSTV and GoTV), Startimes, and others to adopt pay-per-view billing system as it obtains in other economies.

Let's come back to our airline matter. Now that the airlines that were previously charging exorbitantly high fares have decided to reduce their fares and their home government authorities are deploying stifling anti-competition strategies, Air Peace and other interested airlines must not be allowed to die. We want to believe that the rule and the end game of fair global business is shared prosperity for a fairer and more peaceful world. All necessary government-to-government (G2G) and government-to-business (G2B) interventions must continue to be deployed towards achieving mutually-beneficial and win-win environments of international business in aviation and all other sectors. God bless #Nigeria. God bless international community: #WTO #GATT #MIGA #UNCTAD #UNIDO
Bolaji Oladejo