By Chinelo Obogo [email protected] 07064781119
The aviation industry around the world was the most affected when the covid pandemic broke out. For over five months, local and international airports in Nigeria were shut down and airlines were forced to ground their planes as many lost billions in revenue and had to resort to laying off workers and cutting down wages to remain afloat. But as restrictions were lifted and flights resumed, Air Peace, Nigeria’s largest airline increased salaries of its staff with some getting as much as a 100 percent bump.
The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, said that the focus of the airline is delivering excellent service but most importantly, giving priority to the welfare of its over 3000 staff. The philanthropist and conflict resolution expert who is one of those that would be honoured at The Sun awards in October told the publication’s team that he didn’t set up the airline for the purpose of making profit, but that his intention was to create employment and help Nigerians.
Why we focus on staff welfare
I set up Air Peace to create jobs in this country and it is part of my philanthropy. That is why during recession, while others were cutting down wages, Air Peace was increasing workers’ salaries. Because of the hardship people were going through, I decided few months ago to increase my workers’ salaries and when they heard it, they were running wild in celebration. Some got 100 percent increase in salaries and the least paid worker earns about N65, 000 and those are cleaners. I did it to restore hope because every worker in this country has about 15 people he is taking care of. So if about 4000 people get good pay and you multiply it by 15, about 45,000 persons. I am a nationalist and I have no apologies for that.
Why I named my airline Air Peace
I have always been involved in anything that would bring peace to the extent that at the age of nine, I settled a dispute between my father and his elder brother by running to my uncle who was my father’s adversary to live with him. So peace advocacy is what I love so much and that was my I named my airline Air Peace just like how my other businesses have peace attached to their names even though that has given me another source for worry because I have now been linked to Mrs. Patience Jonathan who many know as mama peace. People now claim that we are in alliance because putting people down has become a business in this country.
A lot of people set up their media organizations just to put people down and it is very unfair. The media should celebrate our people when they do good to encourage others to do the same and this is where The Sun is exceptional and that is why I am elated that I am being recognized by the newspaper. I receive all manner of awards every day and I out rightly reject many of them because I suspect their credibility but that is not the same case with The Sun awards, so I feel very elated that one has been recognised for what one has been doing.
Peace advocacy
I put my life on the line for this country to ensure that peace is restored in the Niger Delta with my own funds. I was asking myself how we should approach the Niger Delta issue and I remembered that nonviolent agitation was used to bring down the British rule in India by Mahatma Ghandi without having to encourage his people to take up arms. So, I had to study the Niger Delta to find out what the issue was and found out that the people were rightfully agitating for fair treatment when it gets to resources coming out of their area and no one paid heed to them and the next thing they did was to take up arms, thinking that it was the best way to solve the problems.
Realising this, I applied to the University Of Rhodes Island Center for Non Violence and Peace Studies in the US and asked them to bring the entire faculty to Nigeria to come and teach us but they told me that it is very expensive. I told them not to worry about the cost. When I was doing all that, no one asked me how I got my money. That was how I funded the entire faculty to come to Nigeria and train me and my staff. When we finished from there, I went into the creeks because I was now equipped with knowledge and could confront violent people. It was a dangerous assignment and I didn’t see my wife and kids for one year. I got the first 10 people and trained them and at a time, I started getting them in hundreds. Not long afterwards, Shell started bankrolling the programme and Chevron too.
Even the Akwa Ibom State government under Obong Victor Attah sent for me to ask how I was doing it because everyone in the Niger Delta was talking about it. I told him that I am an expert in non-violent conflict management and he said he wants me to train 100 militants.
So, people bought into what I was doing until Yar’ adua took over and called Timi Alaibe and told him that he got security reports about what I was doing. He then told Alaibe to get me to help in training others. Timi told the president that some of the militants I trained and transformed have been employed in NDDC, so, my programme was very effective. At the time I came in to save this country, crude oil production had nosedived but as the militancy was abating, the production increased.
Today, I set up Air Peace and all of sudden, it now belongs to every politician that has been in government except me. I’ve never met Jonathan and the wife before till date, yet, I was accused of fronting the airline for them. Before we started operations, I had never met Senator Stella Oduah, the former Minister of Aviation but on the day we started our operations, people started saying that the airline belongs to her just because we are from the same state.
At a time, they started saying that because Allen Onyema banks with Fidelity, it must be the former governor of Anambra State that owns it. Later on, they said the airline belongs to the owner of Peace Mass Transit. When all the speculations failed, they then started spreading stories saying that the airline belongs to Kingsley Kuku because he was the chairman of the Federal Government’s amnesty programme and we had the contract to train and rehabilitate militants.
Ironically, the contract was not given to me by Kuku but was done during Timi Alaibe’s tenure in 2010. No other person was qualified to run that programme except me. The government begged me to the do the programme as I was not interested because what they were offering me was below what I used to charge.
In 2005, I was charging N250,000 for a five-day programme per person and Nigerians from all over the world came to train under me. Five years later, was I not supposed to be paid at least two million if you take inflation and devaluation into consideration? But it didn’t happen like that.
Five years later, the Bureau of Public Procurement paid me N112, 000 per person for two weeks which is less than 50 percent of what I used to charge five years earlier. So, where is the corruption? If I didn’t set up Air Peace, nobody will fight me today.
