He might not be a critical theorist, but I think the CEO of Air Peace Allen Onyeama understands the practical dimensions of the decolonial, particularly in countries like Nigeria that didn’t experience settler colonialism and, therefore, have had more reasons over the past six decades to draw from within for national development. His understanding was also evident some weeks ago when he threatened to finance any lawsuit brought against the leadership of the Nigerian soccer federation.
Except for occasional flights to Marrakesh and some South African destinations, there’s no significant Canadian airline that has a direct, non-stop flight to most of Africa. Despite the recent influx of Ghanaians and Nigerians to Canada, airlines such as Air Canada have no misgivings about the unimportance of committing their planes to Lagos and Accra, even if these cities have huge market potentials.
On the other hand, Air Canada and others owe these West African passengers little. Like any other business outfit, they simply follow the money and fly to destinations assumed to be the most profitable. But the Africa policy of a major Canadian airline may not even be significant anymore, as long as the recent business move by Nigeria’s Air Peace can be made sustainable and replicable. The direct flight from Lagos to London by Air Peace some days ago, which was far cheaper than ticket prices from abroad, has alerted major airlines in Europe and North America that a new sheriff is in town.
With Nigerian cuisines and the cabin crew’s traditional Isi Agu attire symbolically paraded on that inaugural flight, there seemed to be a major announcement that a Nigerian airline, powered by the country’s famous and relentless Igbo entrepreneurial energy, is finally taking off. In response, several foreign airlines, Virgin Atlantic, British Airways, and even Delta, and United, are beginning to adjust their prices. Because of the Lagos-London route and several others planned for US cities before the end of the year, these airlines have significantly slashed their prices, as if acknowledging the new competition ahead. Flights that cost N4.5 million and N5.5 million (economy class) and N15 million to N16 million for a business class have dropped by a whopping 66 per cent after Air Peace introduced its London route. One implication of this is that buying an Air Peace return economy class ticket to London, for a significantly lower amount (about N1.2 million), now means a competitive advantage in more foreign currency exchange.
While market forces ultimately determine airfares, and those who are better qualified can speak to this, there’s something to glean from the success of Air Peace. With crumbling infrastructure abidingly symptomatic of postcolonial power in Nigeria and its economic misfortunes, private business enterprises have remained a refreshing antithesis. Without a major national airline, Air Peace is emerging as another example of how private actors are both leading economic growth and remain ascendant as catalysts of successful public initiatives. Like the local film producers who made Nollywood the industry it is. Or the Afrobeats musicians writing Nigeria into music history.
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Unlike African scholars who merely propose decolonial theories while, ironically, occupying academic chairs funded by Anglo-American centres, people like Onyema offer one reason we really do need to put our money where our decolonial mouth is. Taking ourselves seriously is good business.
More importantly, Air Peace reminds us that we cannot always fold our hands and wait for governments. Or, in the larger context of my argument, the airline reminds us that we cannot always depend on foreign airlines to serve local markets effectively. Without creating local alternatives and strategically investing in our businesses, it makes little sense to spurn the business interests of outsiders who want to profit from us. There are, of course, other structural factors at play and several of these possibly have multiple connections to former colonial capitals protecting their aviation interests, but Air Peace urges us to look within and find African solutions for the many strains on out systems. Rather than look forever abroad for help, we must push back corruption and create our own spaces.
We can’t only always complain that Africa is left behind in the scheme of things when we are not funding our own institutions and the things that matter to us the most. Africa has the human capital and resources to compete in global markets but a corrupt political class and an endemic everyday culture of corruption undermine our best efforts. Faced with failures, many desperately look to blame others, conjuring the ghosts of colonialism, while determined to decolonise everything around them. In all of that, we quickly forget that attaining economic freedom is imbricated with epistemic agency. I can hardly perform epistemological disobedience when my economic fortunes are textured by those whose ways of knowing I contest the most.
He might not be a critical theorist, but I think the CEO of Air Peace Allen Onyeama understands the practical dimensions of the decolonial, particularly in countries like Nigeria that didn’t experience settler colonialism and, therefore, have had more reasons over the past six decades to draw from within for national development. His understanding was also evident some weeks ago when he threatened to finance any lawsuit brought against the leadership of the Nigerian soccer federation. The federation is currently considering a European coach to lead the Nigerian team and Onyema, like many others, is pushing for a local expert. His insistence on a Nigerian manager similarly asserts the stakes of his investments in a Nigerian airline positioning itself to compete with exploitative airliners.
Unlike African scholars who merely propose decolonial theories while, ironically, occupying academic chairs funded by Anglo-American centres, people like Onyema offer one reason we really do need to put our money where our decolonial mouth is. Taking ourselves seriously is good business.
James Yeku is with the African and African American Studies programme and the Institute for Digital Research in the Humanities at the University of Kansas.
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