One thing I have observed is that most forward-looking nations have made it a point of duty to modernise their airports, particular the international wing, with the hope of making it some a hub or transit point for global travellers. However, the reverse is the case in Nigeria.
Our airports particularly the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, remain a sad tale that might depress a good number of passengers returning or visiting the country.
This piece therefore is a combination of pent-up frustration and anger at a system that continues to embarrass its people, all in the name of trying to apprehend criminals.
Nigerian airports, not just the international wing, are backward, both in terms of operations and personnel behaviour.
This piece is not designed to compare apples with oranges. My intention is not to try to draw comparison per se, but any frequent flyer can attest to the fact that the lines between airport operations and technology are disappearing.
Today, some airports have reduced the number of personnel attending to customers such that the ones available are just there to guide customers, who have no choice but to use the machines available; to check themselves into flights; print boarding passes and luggage tags.
This is 2019 and the world has moved on. But the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria has elected to continue to live in the Stone Age, where life was brutish and short.
The majority of Nigerians are hardworking people but what beats my imagination is the docility I see when being treated like slaves in their own country and all they do is to beg, even, when they have done nothing wrong.
I’m writing this to ask critical questions about our airport operations and to announce that I was booked by the NDLEA officials, who added my details, to their database because I dared to ask why they had to search the luggage of passengers publicly?
In Nigeria, citizens are often treated like prisoners by state security agents. If you are not a ‘big man or woman’, you have no right to ask questions or you will be dealt with and like some of them will say, ‘nothing go happen’.
My senior colleague and immediate past President of Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), Rev Sunday Folayan, is one guy, who leverages social media to analyze our national budget annually.
You do not need a special agency to alert you that corruption in Nigeria stinks; just follow his posts and analyses, using ‘common sense’ and you would weep, for this country.
In one of his analyses in the aviation sector for the 2020 budget, he said based on several factors, the budgeted amount of N4,694,131,965 for the establishment of a national carrier ongoing (ERGP30142403) and N304,000,000 consultancy for the establishment of national carrier ongoing (ERGP31144149) would likely go to waste because of incompetence and corruption. I share his sentiment.
The Nigerian government should just focus on policies and not try to use the taxpayer’s money to get into the space that the private sector — Finish Reading on the Punch
