Allen Onyeama: A salute to commitment, resilience, enterprise and excellence

BY GEORGE KERLEY

“A man’s gift they say will bring him before Kings.”

Last month, Allen Onyema, Chairman of Air Peace Airlines and the Founder and President of Foundation for Ethnic Harmony in Nigeria (FEHN) was conferred with the prestigious Zik Prize for Entrepreneurial Leadership by the Public Policy, Research and Analysis Centre, Nigeria.

Announcing the award, the Executive Secretary of the Centre, Emeka Obasi and a member of the Centre’s advisory board, Professor Pat Utomi, stated that the 2018 winners, which included the former President of Ghana, His Excellency John Mahama and the Executive Governor of Akwa Ibom State, His Excellenncy Udom Emmanuel, were carefully selected after an exhaustive appraisal of nominees in the various award categories.

For more than 15 years, Allen Onyema has made the pursuit of peace and reconciliation a key focus of his life and his mission on Earth.

From 2004 when he rolled out the First Nigeria Forever Project and began to canvass the length and breadth of Nigeria engaging Nigerians on the need to pursue peace with all men, he has not rested on his oars.

Allen Onyema’s crusade for peace and reconciliation began in Northern Nigeria, where he criss-crossed the North East, North West and North Central before eventually gaining steam and momentum in the Niger Delta at a time when the unrest in the Niger Delta had reached a peak and Nigeria’s oil production had fallen from 2.5 million barrels per day down to a paltry 700,000 barrels per day.

Desperate for a lasting solution to the growing insecurity in the Niger Delta and its attendant consequence on the Nigerian economy, key Niger Delta stakeholders (oil multinationals, state governments, ministries, departments and agencies) under the Yar’Adua presidency reached out to Allen Onyema’s organisation Foundation for Ethnic Harmony in Nigeria (FEHN) which at the time, had a working partnership with the Martin Luther King Center for Non-Violent Change of Atlanta, Georgia.

Discouraged by many but driven by a deep resolve to chart uncommon grounds, Allen Onyema and his team at FEHN and the King Centre took up the challenge.

Months later, Allen Onyema and FEHN had begun to engage and train militants on the principles of Non-Violence and Non violent change.

Training programmes were arranged in both Nigeria and South Africa in partnership with the Martin Luther King Center of Atlanta, Georgia. Beneficiaries of these series of trainings returned to their bases in Nigeria and began to show a strong willingness to drop their arms and pursue the path of peace.

Not too long after, President Yar’Adua made the proclamation of Amnesty and Unconditional pardon of all repentant militants in the Niger Delta in June 2009, and in August, the Presidential Amnesty Programme was birthed.

Through FEHN, Allen Onyema contributed a great deal to the gradual return of peace to the troubled Niger Delta and today Nigeria is better for it.

Through Air Peace Airlines, Allen Onyema has revolutionized air travel in Nigeria and reinvigorated the Nigerian aviation industry.

With more than 3000 direct jobs and over 10,000 indirect jobs created in barely 6 years, Air Peace Airlines has in no small way, contributed to the economy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria especially at a time when the Nigerian economy experienced its first recession in decades.

The vision of Air Peace began in 2007 but it was not until 2010 that it became a mission.

With an initial fleet of 7 aircrafts, Air Peace has grown to a fleet of 23 aircrafts with an established plan for the delivery of 30 more Embraer 195-E2 aircrafts with an initial supply of 10.

This investment is a huge but worthy one which is expected to gulp about $2.1bn but just as more aircrafts will convert to much more job opportunities for Nigerians, it will also boost the aviation industry in Nigeria and ensure greater connectivity between cities whether inside or outside the country.

Nigeria is truly a great country and the likes of Dr. Allen Onyema should be encouraged, supported, motivated and incentivized to make Nigeria greater.

We commend the managers of the Zik Leadership Prize for recognizing such a person and we believe that this is only the beginning of greater things to come.

Once again, Salute!

George Kerley is President of the Niger Delta Enterprise Initiative & Convener, Enterprise Delta