By Francis Ogwo
President Muhammadu Buhari has been urged to suspend the ban on domestic flights.
This came from Cross Rivers State Governor, Professor Ben Ayade in a chat with newsmen at the weekend during the inspection of the Odukpani-Calabar highway currently under dualization.
According to the governor, there is a huge negative impact of the closure of aviation, hospitality and tourism sectors on Nigeria’s economy, lamenting that it would get worse with the extra four weeks of extension.
“The suspension of domestic flights has affected most hotels leading to their closure. It is so bad that most hotels including the 5-star hotels are shutting down because they cannot even sustain the cost of diesel for their generating sets and as that happens, they start laying off workers. So you have a lot of workers, young people who used to work in the hotels and tourism industry, out of jobs. And the big question is, how long can this continue?”
He lamented that the closure has had it’s a toll on small businesses and that is another blow on that aspect of revenue.
“The caterers who supply food to the hotels are all out of business. All the suppliers are out of business. So as we continue to lock the domestic airports for another four weeks, what we are going to have in terms of economic loss? What we are going to have in terms of social delinquency? The associated moral and social tension that will come with it will be just too huge for the country to bear”, Ayade added.
Professor Ayade however, argued that instead of a ban on domestic flights, the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC ) should enforce some rules and measures that must be complied with, in the fight against the spread of the virus through the airports.
“We can still be safe while allowing the internals of Nigeria to run. We can do so by allowing the domestic airlines to start flying, As they fly, NCDC should spell out certain conditions like making sure aircraft are properly disinfected, ensuring temperature tests are carried out before passengers get on board and of course, ensuring that all passengers wear proper masks. The airlines can have their own masks that they can give to passengers.” He stated.
“So, for that short flight of one hour, everyone is protected and the hotels can pick up again, the suppliers can have their businesses back so that workers can go to work. For States like ours that depend so much on tourism, we are almost paralyzed. Once visitors, travellers and tourists are not coming into Calabar, the hotels will have no patronage because people do not just leave their homes to go to a hotel to sleep for the fun of it, only once in a while maybe. But again, hotels need consistent patronage and that can only come when domestic flights are coming in and going out.” he added.
While concluding he pleaded with President Buhari “not to lock down the healthy but rather lock down the sick and allow the healthy to work.”
It would be recalled that the airports have been closed to domestic flights except for airlines that have been assigned for emergency evacuations and liftings.
