Victor EzejaIt was the popular British comedian and radio presenter, Chris Morris, who said that “Grit is having the courage to push through, no matter what the obstacles are, because it’s worth it.” For Allen Onyema, it was a combination of grit, resilience and tenacity that saw him through the period of setting up Air Peace in 2013 which became his turning point to fame.
Despite being a lawyer and having made some fortunes in the real estate business, he was not deterred to venture into the aviation business which is not an all-comers affair as every activity in the sector is highly regulated to maintain international safety standards.
Since the founding of the airline company, Onyema, who never jokes with integrity in all his actions in the business, has continued to break ground, growing his fleet at a geometric rate, and expanding flight operations from local routes to many international destinations.
His uncommon innovation in the airline business has enabled the company to continuously record great successes amid tight competition. When most airlines, especially the domestic ones, are grappling with various challenges in the sector – to the point of reducing flight routes and outright suspension of operations – Onyema’s Air Peace has continued to make waves, courtesy of his innovations in the business.
The successes have continued to earn him more deals as he expands his routes.
How Allen Onyeama Set Up Air Peace
The process of establishing Air Peace was initiated in 2007, but so many factors truncated the move. In 2013, the airline was finally birthed. It began operations with Dornier 328s and Boeing 737s.
In an interview he granted some time in 2018, Onyema said the purpose of establishing the airline business was to create jobs for Nigerians in line with the covenant he had with God in 2007 to get involved in touching the lives of people through massive job creation.
“I made the decision together with my wife just to create jobs for the people. If it was about profit, I would have kept the money in the banks and gotten double-digit interest on my investments.
“I made a pact with God Almighty in 2003 that I would get involved in touching lives through massive job creation and that I have done by setting up Air Peace. God has been very faithful to me and my family. Air Peace is for the welfare of mankind and not really for us… I am happy when I see the faces of these young ones in Air Peace who, today, could boast of a means of livelihood for themselves and their families,” Onyema said in March 2018.
Today, Air Peace has become one of the biggest airlines in Nigeria and West Africa, providing passenger and charter services to the major cities in Nigeria and several international destinations in Africa and the Middle East. The airline has no doubt, contributed in no small measure to the reduction of youth unemployment in the country.
The Man – Allen Onyema
Aside from holding the fort in the airline business and other entrepreneurial ventures, not many knew that Mr Onyema is a multifaceted personality. Being a lawyer, he is also a seasoned advocate of peace, a Conflict resolution expert, a philanthropist, and a nationalist.
Born to the family of Michael and Helen Onyema in Benin City on March 28, 1963, Mr Onyema attended Government College Ughelli, Delta State, where he obtained his High School Certificate. He gained admission the same year into the prestigious University of Ibadan (UI), then known as Nigeria’s Premier College.
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While in the University, Onyema embarked on a peace mission with a few other students to Zaria to put out the raging religious and ethnic crises then. His passion to engage in such selfless service grew more with the publicity they received upon return from the mission.
This subsequently led to the formation of the “Eminent Friends’ Group” with the major objective of uniting Nigeria by fostering peaceful and harmonious co-existence. Upon graduation from UI in 1987, he established branches of the Eminent Friends’ Group in all the states of the federation.
At law school, Mr Onyema combined studies with activism. Ever since then, he has been on the frontline in engendering peace in Nigeria. After his call to the bar, he worked as a law advocate in Nwizugbo & Company and later established his own law firm, Onyema & Co; and other businesses including Allen Onyema & Company, a real-estate business; Continental Business Links Ltd, an import trade outfit; and then the airline company, Air Peace Limited.
Grit, Resilience And Tenacity of Allen Onyema
Given his undying desire to have a peaceful and stable country, Mr Onyema in 2004, singlehandedly founded and funded a Non-Governmental Organisation known as the Foundation for Ethnic Harmony in Nigeria (FEHN).
The foundation focused on promoting peace and unity among Nigerians amid ethnic and religious diversity. The foundation creditably devised the approach that was instrumental to ending militancy in the Niger Delta region.
This model involved nonviolence training and transformational programmes. To achieve this, he brought the entire faculty of the Centre for Non-violence and Peace Studies, Rhodes Island, USA to Nigeria.
This was headed by a senior aide to Dr Martin Luther King Jr during the Civic Right Movement in the sixties. Apart from being a prominent figure, he is a humanitarian who never turns away from the needs of humanity and society at large.
As a philanthropist, Mr Onyema selflessly deployed one of his aircraft to evacuate 503 Nigerians from South Africa during the xenophobic attack in 2019.
In 2020, he offered free flights with Air Peace to Nigerians stranded in some Asian countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Onyema has scrolls of awards and recognitions for his noble contributions to humanity. With all his achievements in the last three decades, he does not seem to rest on his oars in creating more impact in society.
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