The Federal Government on Sunday defended the eviction of Virgin Nigeria from the international wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, and warned that it would not tolerate blackmail from the airline.
It accused the airline of engaging in propaganda, saying it will not allow any foreign company or investor to short-change the country.
The Special Adviser on Communications to the President, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, told journalists in Abuja that the airline had no valid claim to operate from any international airport terminal in the country.
The chairman of Virgin Group, Sir Richard Branson, had claimed that a document endorsed by a former Minister of Aviation, Mallam Isa Yuguda, granted the airline the rights to use the international wings of the MMA and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
He added that Virgin agreed to set up a national carrier under some strict conditions, including the ability to operate domestic and international flights out of the same terminal, which is the only way a flag carrier of any country could operate.
The business mogul had 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.�
But Adeniyi dismissed the document, which he said was written on Virgin Nigeria�s letter-head and signed by Branson before Yuguda endorsed it on behalf of the Federal Government.
He said the document, which contained 10 demands from Branson, was not binding on Nigeria.
Adeniyi described as �unfortunate� Yuguda�s endorsement of the document, which according to him, was not part of the memorandum of mutual understanding between the Federal Government and Virgin Atlantic Limited/Virgin Airways Limited.
He said, �In that letter, addressed to the then Minister of Aviation, Mallam Isa Yuguda, the current Governor of Bauchi State, Branson made 10 demands one of which was: �to ensure that the airport authority cooperates with the airline to allow the safest and best services for their customers.�
�To this end, the airline will be allowed to use the relevant international terminals in Nigerian airports (including Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos and Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja) for all the airlines� operations, including both international and domestic services subject to compliance with International Civil Aviation Organisation�s standard and recommended practices on aviation security.
�Unfortunately, Yuguda endorsed the letter but the pertinent question is: Should a letter written by Branson on Virgin Atlantic letter head be binding on our country even if the minister endorsed it?
�Why was the issue not part of the memorandum of undertaking signed by all the parties? Is that the way business transactions are conducted with nations; that a company�s chief executive would, after publicly signing a memorandum of undertaking with the government, now write a personal letter on his company�s letter head and expect any self-respecting nation to take that as a binding contract just because he got somebody to append his signature to it?
�It is indeed sad that a well- respected global citizen like Branson would now be orchestrating negative media propaganda against Nigeria, which has not breached any agreement with his company.
�The truth is that Virgin has no valid legal claim to operate from the international airport terminals and no amount of propaganda and campaign will work. The management of the airline just has to obey the Federal Government�s order by moving their operations to where others are operating from. It is as simple as that.�
Adeniyi said the agreement between the Federal Government and the airline at its inception in 2004 did not stipulate that the airline must operate from the international airport terminals.
He also displayed a copy of the agreement, titled �Memorandum of mutual undertaking on the establishment of a flag carrier between the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Virgin Atlantic Limited/Virgin Airways Limited.�
He added that there were security issues in the agreement, which conferred on the government the powers to direct the airline to leave the MMA terminal when it became imperative.
�There is also security issue involved in the whole debate which means that even if Virgin had a valid claim, which as it were, it doesn�t have, it would have still been told to leave the international wing on grounds of security.�
According to the President�s spokesman, the dispute with Virgin arose because some public officials had been neglecting the interest of Nigerians when signing agreements on behalf of the Federal Government.
He noted that the practice was responsible for the dismal condition of the country�s oil industry, where multinational companies mostly wrote the contracts while public officials merely appended their signatures.
He stressed that Yar�Adua was determined to end all practices that are not in the interest of Nigeria.
Adeniyi said, �One major challenge for this administration is the fact that over the years, public officials hardly bothered about the interest of our people when entering into contracts and agreements on behalf of the Federal Government.
�That is why our oil industry remains what it is today since most of the contracts were written by the multinational oil companies to the detriment of the nation and our officials merely signed.
�But with President Yar�Adua, many things are going to change and he will use the law as his weapon. Because he is resolved that under his watch, while we want foreign investment and would respect the sanctity of legally-binding contracts, he will not allow a situation in which our country continues to be shortchanged in business dealings.�
However, a source close to Yuguda said the former minister was simply being blackmailed.
He said in signing the agrement, Yuguda acted on behalf of the Federal Government to get Virgin to be Nigeria�s national carrier.
He said in every step the former minister took, he sought and got the approval of the then President Olusegun Obasanjo.
�The governor (Yuguda), will definitely be sad that he is being maligned for all the sacrifices he made to get Virgn to operate as Nigeria�s national carrier,� the source added.
Justice Ibrahim Auta of the Federal High Court had struck out a suit by Virgin against the Federal Government over an order directing it to relocate to the MMA2.
The airline consequently went to the Court of Appeal, Lagos, to challenge the court�s action.
The appeal court fixed the hearing of the case for October 7, 2008.
Calls on Sunday to Virgin Nigeria�s Chief spokesperson, Mr. Larry Agose, were not picked.
A text message to another spokesperson of the company, Mr. Samuel Agbogoro, around 9.35pm was not responded to.