NIGERIA MASTERWEB DAILY NEWS

*10 Years After Yammoussoukro Accord - Still A Paper Tiger Policy

By Lateef Lawal

Ten years ago, precisely 14th November, 1999, air transportation Ministers in the West and Central Africa sub-region endorsed the Yammossoukro accord on behalf of their various governments. The agreement was meant to liberalize air transport within the region without bureaucratic bottlenecks. For clarity of purpose, I quote some vital aspects of the agreement:

" Article 2 Scope of Application: This Decision establishes the arrangement among State Parties for the gradual liberalization of scheduled and non-scheduled intra-Africa air transport services. This Decision has precedence over any multilateral or bilateral agreements on air services between State Parties which are incompatible with this Decision. The provisions which are included in these agreements and which are not incompatible with this Decision remain valid and are supplementary to the Decision.

Article 3 Granting of Rights: (3.1) - State Parties grant to each other the free exercise of the rights of the first, second, third, fourth and fifth freedoms of the air on scheduled and non-scheduled passenger, cargo and/or mail flights performed by an Eligible Airline to/from their respective territories. (3.2) - Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 3.1 of this Article, a State Party may in accordance with the provision of paragraph 10.1 of Article 10 below, limit its commitment in respect to fifth freedom rights for a period no longer than two (2) years to the following:-

(a) Grant and receive unrestricted fifth freedom on sectors where, for economic reasons, there are no third and fourth freedom operators; and

(b)Grant and receive a minimum of 20 percent of the capacity offered on the route concerned during any given period of time in respect to any sector where third and fourth freedom operators exist."

Going with the above, one would think that by now every government in the region would have given teeth to the decision jointly endorsed by them. Contrary is the case today, after ten years of the accord. What has been brought to play year-in-year-out had been deliberate dilly-dallying and lack of political will by the leadership of governments in the sub-region. While they do nothing, foreign airlines have free ride in and out of the region's airspace and even enjoying in most of the West African States, multiple to triple entry and exit points.

This development is totally against the tenets of the Yammoussoukro Decision, which states categorically in article 2 that: "This Decision has precedence over any multilateral or bilateral agreements on air services between State Parties which are incompatible with this Decision."

If a decision such as this is being violated with impunity, leaving individual countries wthin the sub-region to violate the agreement, what them becomes of airlines of member nations in another five to ten years when American and European carriers keep increasing their hold on African airspace to the detriment of airlines in the continent?

At a recent conference organized by Aviation and Allied Business Leadership in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the outgoing Secretary-General of African Airlines Association(AFRAA), Mr Christian Folly-Kossy expressing his concern over the foot-dragging of African leaders in the execution of the Yammoussoukro Decision, warned that the current wave of global liberalization was too important for Africa to ignore. He said this is the right time for African countries and their leaders to forge internal unity if they are to ward-off threats by foreign carriers' dominance of air traffic across the continent. There is therefore the need for African leaders to rise up and defend Africa's common position on air traffic without barriers and other related issues.

The Director General of Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority(NCAA), Dr Harold Demuren expressed the same concern by saying that he was surprised that 10 years after the endorsement of the Yammoussoukro A ccord, aimed at opening up the skies of Africa to African airlines, many leaders of the continent do not have the political will to execute it. If immigration barriers could be broken across West African land borders, courtesy of the Economic Community of West Afican States, there was no reason why African airlines could not fly in and out of any African country without hinderance, Demuren noted.

Before now and barely a year after the endorsement of the decision, one would think that with the adoption of the agreement by ECOWAS Council things would have moved at a very fast rate to actualize the liberalisation policy with the subsequent Council approval in February 2003 for the creation of:

(1). An Air Transport Economic Regulation Harmonization Committee to steer the process of developing common air transport economic regulations for the two regions of West and Central Africa and periodically monitor implementation by States; and

(2). Three sub regional state groupings for the implementation of aviation safety projects (COSCAP) based on the Lome action plan. In addition the World Bank, in support of the Yamoussoukro MOU, provided two grants of US$300,000.00 and US$500,000.00 for the implementation of the Decision through the project Secretariat Units at ECOWAS.

Despite all of these and the year on year jaw-jaw about the Yamoussoukro Accord, the air transport policy for West and Central African region remain largely a paper tiger despite its laudable objectives.

Posted by Lateef Lawal (NigerianAviationNews)

*Tags: Nigeria, Nigerian, Africa, African, Airline News