You have to be joking...
Where but in Nigeria should you find a major international airline without its funding sources being clearly documented and hardly ever someone accused of major fraud in sight? Come on! That is part of the approval process for the issuance of an Air Operator's Certificate, is it not?
Here Balewa is telling us that Arik is owned or perhaps part-owned by some mysterious entity he cannot name. Is that not rather weird? Let us take a wild guess at the name: Rockson Engineering Company Ltd. Where did I come up with that one from? Did I get that right? Can I claim my five pounds?
You want to know who owns British Airways, Lufthansa, practically any major airline, well, you just look that information up! The travelling public have a right to know that an operation is financially solid, something the regulators look after rather strictly when they are doing their job!
Why do you suppose Alitalia was about to be shut down recently? "Lack of proper finance," is why!
Time will tell on this one but my bet is on this whole Arik deal being more-or-less fraudulent. It stinks! I am not losing any sleep over this; it is just an idea I have that comes from a few of the deals I have seen go down in Nigeria. Perhaps things have changed out of all recognition since late 2005; I really have no idea and I certainly do not wish ill to anyone working for Arik; given the chance my trotters would be right there in that particular trough.
LJT, you rock, dude! Love the emoticons! You hurt my feelings, though, by accusing me of "bashing." Well that and the horrid seeing-to you give our common heritage, the English language. Tsk-tsk! What would Chinua Achebe say?
Bitching, needling, whining and moaning and occasionally employing my secret weapon, being so boringly pedantic that those reading my prose fall into such a slumber before the display that they go into estivation (when I do this I have to be careful to type the stuff without looking at the screen lest I self-destruct): these are all things I do but "bashing?" Never!
Last edited by chuks; 29th Jan 2009 at 20:31.