Having left Nigeria long since, I have been reading the crumbling fortunes of Aero with sadness, though not much surprise and I'll be sad to see the end of a very old and once great name in the Nigerian rotary world. It seems the people, both Nigerian and foreign now involved with the management of the company are not even a dim shadow of those who got the company to where it was in its heyday.
The start of the downfall of Arik also comes as no surprise, with crews not being paid and aircraft always leaving late. It was always known that it was a castle built (very quickly) on sand and that it would crumble one day. The only surprise is that it has taken this long, maybe a reflection of just how much plundered loot was originally invested and how politically connected the directors still are?
I wonder if Caverton will last as long with their origins also very questionable and a similar history of late payment. I read in one of the posts here that they took on Edmund Daukoru as a director just before being rewarded (deliberate spelling) with the Shell contract. Yesterday the Nigerian A-G said that they are close to prosecuting all those involved in the notorious Halliburton $182 million bribe scandal. One of those indicted in this is Edmund Daukoru and I confidently predict that he will be the latest in a long list of fabulously welthy and powerful Nigerians who will get away scot free
It's good to be out of the maelstrom. Good luck to those of you still there and keep a low profile in next year's election chaos which will doubtless be as big a shambles and have results as much disputed as the last
