Friday, May 7, 2010


REAL REASON CAPT. DAPO OLUMIDE RESIGNED FROM NIGERIA EAGLE AIRLINES
That the Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Eagle Airlines (formerly Virgin Nigeria Airways), Captain Dapo Olumide, resigned his appointment from the airline is no news, but circumstances that led to his resignation was an allegation that he could not stand a situation where Jimoh Ibrahim will be his boss.
Those in the know divulged that his leaving as the head of one of the nation’s major airlines operators is not unconnected with the sale of the airline. He was alleged to have tried his possible best to hinder the sales of the airline to the entrepreneur, Jimoh Ibrahim, which made him to allegedly set up a company with his foreign friends to bid for the acquisition of the airlines for him to have a controlling stake in the company.
Olumide, an aviation professional and a trained pilot with over 28 years experience, was alleged to have used his foreign friends to bid higher than all applicants in the acquisition, but lost out on the fact that most of the members of the board of directors in the company he used were foreigners, which eventually gave way to Jimoh Ibrahim.
Capt. Olumide who joined Nigerian Eagle Airlines in November 2008 as the Chief Commercial Officer after a brief stint as a banker with the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), specifically in the area of transport infrastructure project development before he was appointed CEO, had helped the airline which was at the brink of liquidation when he took over its management, and sustained it without external funding till its acquisition recently.
Impeccable sources added that the future of the airline is bleak, looking at the fact that there are heavy debt profiles inherited by the management that the former CEO was trying to offset with his connection outside the country.
Despite that, the new owner of the company, Ibrahim, had at the weekend said Olumide would retain his position in the company because of the vote of confidence passed on him by the board of the airline. Capt Olumide was alleged to have said he could not work with the Ethiopians that Jimoh Ibrahim is set to use in top management post.
Jimoh Ibrahim was also quoted to have directed that all maintenance contracts be left completely in the hand of Lufthansa Technik, a subsidiary of Lufthansa Airlines.
He has also directed the payment of all outstanding liabilities to the German company.
The new owner of Nigerian Eagle was described by observers as someone with a record of failed businesses. Instances were given of Global Fleet, a petroleum company that has now gone underground, and National Mirror Newspaper, which also went underground, but Jimoh is reported to have made efforts to revive the media house. Despite this, Jimoh’s critics see him as an adventurer with little experience on how to sustain businesses.

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