Onyema, Air Peace... the smear this time
By ChukaNnabuife
TRUTH be told. Recent developments around the
financial and aviation industry smack of a smear on Allen Onyema and his Air
Peace airline.
The avalanche of
unclear news bits on the corporation's recent acquisition of five aeroplanes
strikes many like a bolt from the blues. While those who bandy the information,
seem to allege graft because they hear it said elsewhere, those who offer some
things that they pass as explanation still come across to pundits as still
begging the question, those who crave coherent narratives receive reports that
confuse them more. Many are not really amused at the obtuse and confounding
nature of the communication.
The reports appear to
be planted to make the lay man circumguess rather than understand the issues at
stake. Worse of the situation is that some now invent their own meanings on the
matter.
Therefore, many are at
loss over what really happened; what it means; where it all emanated from and
where the whole spin is heading to. They wonder how the talebearers plan to
convince them and make the narrative fit the image and conduct of the person
allegedly involved
Beyond society's
worries over the befuddling of the matter, there are some major issues of
concern that heighten people's anxiety, prompting such questions as: why this?
Why him? Why now? Sure, there are a lot of 'whys' which only a critical probe
will unearth.
Given Chief Onyema's
somewhat distant-from-public-glare profile hitherto, prying into his background
to get clues to unraveling the 'whys' may be difficult. Similarly, being of
reserved personality, seldom at parties and rave-report celebrity events, not
much can be scooped from his social contacts. But there is enough knowledge of
his very humble background and very grassroots oriented personality.
Onyema, 56, a Nigerian
legal practitioner and entrepreneur, owns Peace Airline, a frontline operator
in Nigeria's aviation industry which has, within the last six years shouldered
so many responsibilities illustriously that it could arguably be said to have
blazed a trail in the sector. Notwithstanding Air Peace’s impressive
performance in her local and international routes since 2013, the airline
recently expanded into some routes as well as local ones and made them good
business axis. In the third quarter of this year, the airline bought five new
Boeing 737 aeroplanes to boost it's fleet.
As a corporation, the
airline took the passionate corporate service nature of its chief executive
officer, Onyema who is a philanthropist, peace promoter and front man of
several charities. Last month, at the height of xenophobic killings in South
Africa in which Nigerians in the country were among prime targets, the firm
showed its deep root in corporate social responsibility activities. While the
massive killings of other Africans and plundering of foreigners' businesses
raged in South Africa and some Nigerians were stranded in the bloodletting
frenzy of wild and heady Johannesburg without hope of rescue, Air Peace
broughtsuccour to them, free of charge. The regime of free flights from South
Africa to Nigeria and return cost the Lagos-based Peace Airline several
billions of naira that at one instance of the evacuees, upon touch-down in
Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, the Nigerian returnees burst
into emotions and sang Nigeria's anthem for Onyema who was on ground to receive
them. The rescue Nigerians-stranded-in-South Africa gesture is so unique
that National Assembly invited Onyema
for recognition and moved that federal government should bestow a national
honour on him.
The evacuation of
Nigerians was only a recent CSR act of the firm whose record shows remarkable
antecedence in sports philanthropy, education scholarship and community-support
charity.
Added to these are the
several not-for-profits initiatives which Onyema have been promoting or funding
since 2010. Notable among them are the Foundation for Ethnic Harmony,
International Center for Non-Violence and Peace Development, All-Time Peace
Media Communications Limited, and Every Child Limited. Those bodies initiated
at the period of heightened indigence, brigandage and activism against the
Nigerian state in the Niger Delta area where the nation's crude oil exploration
was ebbed and the Boko Haram onslaught which badly challenged the country's
territorial integrity in the North East area set apart Onyema as a brave, very
society-conscious entrepreneur. Though it does appear that not many of his
fellow entrepreneurs in Nigeria and across Africa as well as some in the
corridors of power are very comfortable with his unconventional approach to
operating big business (which I will be surprised if he has not sensed that) he
kept on using his enterprise to solve
people's problems passionately and directly.
In the last one decade
he has established his commitment to the missions of the organisation which is
quest for peace and unity of all peoples of Nigeria irrespective of tribe or
creed.
Hence when the report
emerged some days ago that Onyema is fingered in a $20m (twenty million USD)
money laundering scheme in United States, one sought seriously to know what the
crust of the matter was.
According to
reports,United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia,
Onyema and Air Peace’s Head of Administration and Finance, Ejiroghene Eghagha,
were linked to bank record manipulation and aidentity theft.
Attorney Byung J.
'BJay' Pak was cited in a statement as claiming that Onyema used his status as
a prominent business man and airline executive to tender false documents
"to commit fraud” in the recent purchase of five Boeing aircrafts in the
U.S.A.
Onyema, refutes the
allegation. His point: "all transactions we carried out were through the
Central Bank of Nigeria.The Air Peace CEO said all transactions were done
through the Central Bank of Nigeria."
Onyemaemphasised that
he has never laundered money in his life.
Though observing that
the claims are only allegations which the claimants are yet to prove or indict
him, Eghagha or his firm for, the CEO emphasised that he never committed any
$20 million fraud in the U.S. as now being bandied.
Describing himself as
a business man whose sole aim is to build Nigeria and improve the ordinary
people's wellbeing. In a recent press statement to clear his name, Onyema
stated thus: "I am innocent of all charges and the US government will find
no dirt on me because I have never conducted business with any illegalities.”
He adds: “Be rest
assured that I also have my lawyers on this and these mere allegations will be
refuted. I never laundered money in my life, neither have I committed bank
fraud anywhere in the world. Every Kobo I transferred to the US for aircraft
purchase went through the Central Bank of Nigeria LC regime and all were used
for the same purpose.
“The American
companies that received the funds are still in business. I never took a penny
from any US bank or Nigerian bank. I am willing to defend my innocence in the
US court."
The issue appears to
be the acquisition of the five Boeing 737 but when you pause and check again
you begin to sense it is about the charities linked to Onyema. At another check
you notice the name of a U.S-based company Springfield Aviation Company which
is reportedly, not in operation, farther into the claims Onyema's travels since
2013 were cited, they go ahead to cite the tracks of a certain $3m payment for
some clients' services in U.S. and an approximate $16m that allegedly passed
through unclear routes. The narrative becomes very convoluted from one
paragraph of the attorney's statement to another that one begins to wonder what
is amiss. One thing evident in text is that the purchase of aircrafts may not
even be the misdemeanor after all. Yet that is where they hang the flag of the
said graft.
But the most
ridiculous part of the allegations is the hue and cry about the sum, $20m. This
is why: current price tag of the least Boieng 737 -700 according to the
aircraft providers' Statistica.com is
about $90m. And that is not even the brand Air Peace procured. There is a
Boeing 737- 9 which currently costs $442m.
So, this $20m in
question, is it the cost of the tyres of the aeroplanes or what?
Are we made to believe
that Onyema and his Air Peace were so in lack that they had to cut corners for
$20m but they were able to buy five brand new Boeings? That, to me, is cheap
argument unless there is more to it than explained.
And why is it that
just within days of this cheap smear (what I call it) some local Nigerian
airlines have emerged forcefully in some routes that Air Peace holds sway?
One suspects some
local and international collaboration in this 'taint-him-anyhow' plot.
Onyema's lesson here
is in the wise counsel of forest guides: in whatever you do, never stand
between the mother bear and her child.
But Nigerians are
watching the movie now, waiting to see how it will end. My word on the
development is drawn from Willan Faulkner's very powerful but so short sentence
in the lead page of Chapter Two of Zig Ziglar's book, 'Better Than Good.” The wise man and social philosopher, Faulkner,
urged, "listen to the voices."
*Sir Nnabuife , a
journalist, wrote from_ Ubuluisiuzo, Ihiala L.G.A. Anambra State
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