Former member of the House of Representatives and former Chairman House Committee on Aviation, Awwal Tukur has said the country needs a strong national carrier.
Speaking in Lagos at the just concluded 21 annual League of Airports and Aviation Correspondent Seminar at the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA Annex, Tukur said it is the job of the government to promote and regulate the national carrier economically.
“We need a strong carrier and it is the job of the government to promote and regulate it economically”, he said.
According to him, the economic benefits of the national carrier to us are enormous, it brings money, training of our people, employment of our people.
In his words, “strong carriers which are Nigeria’s, I think is what I will go for, including how the federal government wants to bring up the new national carrier, and we will give our support as Nigerians.”
Tukur also stressed the need to make the country’s airports functional so that they can compete internationally.
According to him,” a lot of the airports have not even grown with the size of population base we have, even a toilet is designed for certain number of people and by the time that number exceed, you cannot cope, there will always be problem, the runway system, the checking counter is the same thing, so our facilities have not grown with our population base.”
He advised the government to be more proactive, less bureaucratic by privatising the airports and getting it off central control.

Tukur stated that if government regulate the airports, and get a lot of private sector involvement and also do things on time, things will change for good.
He admonished the government not to take decision today and wait for 10 years before implementing it.