Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, has assured the aviation industry of “better days ahead” in the face of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
According to the Minister, the Government of Nigeria is aware of the dire situation in the aviation sector and will do whatever is practically possible to mitigate the consequences of the total lockdown in the industry and create an enabling environment for the sector to bounce back.
The workers in the aviation industry are among the hardest hit economically by the coronavirus pandemic ravaging the world, especially with the grounding of passenger flights and shutting down of services globally.
According to the Minister, it is highly regrettable that airlines and other service providers are being forced to cope with the option of either sending their staff on compulsory leaves or reduction of their wages as occasioned by the redundancy caused by COVID-19 scourge.
He expressed the belief that there’s a bright future for the Nigerian aviation industry after the dark times that it presently faces, hoping that the pandemic will be short-lived.
He however appealed to both private and public workers in the sector to keep hope alive as there’re reasons to believe that the industry will come out of the current situation stronger, and in a better situation to improve the welfare of its employees.