RELOCATION TUSSLE: Between The Rule Of Law And National Security

By Simon Ateba

Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is a business man. He is the owner of Virgin brand of over 360 companies and  the 236th richest person on earth, according to Forbes’2008 list of billioaires. And so when he was approached by Nigerian government officials during the tenure of  former President Olusegun Obasanjo  in 2003 to flag off a national carrier for Nigeria, called Virgin Nigeria, he gave the government certain conditions.

Branson told Obasanjo’s men that he could only invest huge sums of money in Nigeria under some very intrigent conditions. One of them, he recalled, was the ability to operate domestic and international flights out of the same terminal which was, according to him, the only way a flag carrier of any country can operate.

“ The Nigerian government asked Virgin some years ago to set up a national carrier for Nigeria that Nigerians could put their trust in and be proud of. Virgin agreed to help enable this to happen but made it clear that they would only invest considerable sums in Nigeria under certain strict criteria. One of those was the ability to operate domestic and international flights out of the same terminal which is the only way a flag carrier of any country can operate“, Branson said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Federal Government then agreed and signed legal documents with Britain’s business magnate, allowing him to own 49 percent stake in Virgin Nigeria and the government and other Nigerians got 51 percent of the National carrier which replaced the liquidated Nigerian Airways.

The deal was done and in 2005, Virgin Nigeria resumed international, regional and domestic flights in and outside the country’s airports. Its domestic and international operations in Lagos State, took place as agreed with the government, at the Murtala Muhammed International airport, Ikeja, Lagos.

At the time, the government then did not see any issue regarding national security. But last year when a new administration came on board, the issue of national security came up. The administration of President Umaru Musa Yar-Adua ordered the airline to relocate its domestic operations to the newly completed domestic terminal, known as MMA2 and being operated by Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited.

Virgin Nigeria then went to court and obtained an injunction restraining the Federal Government of Nigeria from relocating its domestic operations from the international wing of the Lagos airport to MMA2. The matter has been in court ever since and will be coming up again in October this year.

But on Monday last week, the Ministry of Transportation directed the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, to relocate the airline within a week. The deadline expired at 12.00am on Monday this week. On Tuesday, the Federal Government moved in and closed down all domestic operations of the airline. Consequently, many flights were cancelled nationwide on Tuesday and yesterday.

The move angered Richard Branson who issued a statement, saying that if the rule of law cannot be respected in Nigeria, foreign investors may not be comfortable doing business with Nigerian governments.

He said, “ to my utter dismay, certain authorities in Nigeria have chosen to ignore our contract, sending in heavies a few months ago to smash up our domestic lounge with sledgehammers, in an attempt to intimidate the airline. The behaviour of the authorities was not what I would have expected from the authorities in Nigeria. Yesterday (Monday) the authorities behaved in a similar fashion, despite a court case being imminent, by sending in the heavies yet again to dismantle our domestic check-in.  If Virgin Nigeria can be treated in this way, can any company in the world seriously consider investing in Nigeria in the future?”

Branson then called on President Umaru Yar-Adua and officials at the Ministry of Transportation to immediately allow the airline to resume its domestic operations. “ I urge the President of Nigeria and the authorities concerned to honour their contract and enable Virgin Nigeria to resume flying domestically with immediate effect, giving the service to their passengers that they’ve come to rely on and expect,” Branson said.

President Yar-Adua has said that one of the tenets of his administration is the rule of law; that is respect of court orders. Virgin Nigeria has claimed that it was illegal for the government to shut down their domestic operations at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport while the matter is still pending in court.

But the Federal Government of Nigeria argued that national security supercedes any previous agreement signed with any individual or company. Between the rule of law and national security, it seems that there is no other law than protecting the interest of the citizens and properties.