A few years ago,
the Federal Government of Nigeria shut down the Port Harcourt International
Airport to carry out what they called repairs or was it renovation? It was
supposed to be an exercise for a few weeks, but it took more than an entire
year. Flights were diverted to an airport in the city at great cost to
travellers, but the so-called renovation took forever.
The Port Harcourt
airport became a grazing field for cows, at other times, a vehicle-driving
field, and for more than one year, travel to Port Harcourt, one of Nigeria’s
most strategic cities was a nightmare. Each time the Nigerian government talks
about fixing the airports, using the words, renovation, rehabilitation or
reform, it is better to be cynical. The Sam Mbakwe Airport in Owerri, for
example, was once touted as a major hub in the South East, and government spent
so much money turning it into an international cargo airport for the East, but
that same airport soon became flooded during the rainy season and planes could
no longer land.
Both the Port
Harcourt and Owerri airports are currently in a permanent state of renovation.
The lives of those who wanted to renovate them at any level whatsoever are ironically
and scandalously, imaginably better renovated.
The airports
failed, the managers smiled to the banks. In those two airports, travellers
were put through enormous strain because the entire airports or sections had to
be shut down. But the people, expectant as they were had no choice in the
matter. The Nigerian government is so powerful; the people are helpless. The same
government the people elect with their votes punishes them unjustly.
The people themselves
behave as if they are in bondage. This was what happened in particular when the
Port Harcourt Airport was being renovated. Travellers were abused. Airlines
subjected them to enormous indignity. Businesses suffered. Government failed to
keep its promise. The airlines and their staff even became arrogant, failing to
realize they were victims too. They treated customers shabbily and there was no
way anyone could blame them when government itself was uncaring.
Looked at differently, the biggest problem
is not necessarily the politicians and their appointees who sashay in and out
of power, but the civil servants who run the engine room of government and who
over the years have perfected a culture of graft and incompetence. They look
the other way when politicians dismantle the rules, often times out of sheer
cruelty and for the better part, the political leaders are guided to do so by
the civil servants. Which department of government is responsible for the maintenance
of airports?: The Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).
I believe everybody
in that agency should be lined up and caned publicly and investigated according
to the law. Should they have any stories to tell about the poor state of
Nigerian airports, despite the enormous amounts that are budgeted yearly, they
should tell us as each stroke of the cane descends on their buttocks.
I don’t consider
corporal punishment a tool of governance, so I speak metaphorically, but the
rot in the aviation section is so terrible, a feeling of outrage commands
something extra-ordinary. Weigh that against the plane crashes, loss of lives, and
the agony of air travel just because some incompetents have had to superintend
over Nigeria’s aviation sector.
I am this outraged because a sad story is
about to repeat itself. The Federal
Government of Nigeria is proposing to shut down the Nnamdi Azikiwe
International Airport in Abuja, beginning March 8, for six weeks: to build a
second runway and to carry out renovations. During the period, flights will be
diverted to Kaduna Airport and passengers will be required to travel by rail or
road to Abuja.
The excuse is that
the runway in Abuja is almost collapsing. The life span of a runway is 20 years
and this particular runway in Abuja has been there for 34 years. Politicians
come and go but one significant fellow has suddenly woken
up in either the FAAN or the Ministry of Aviation and a proposal has been
submitted for renovation.
And that proposal
is now causing so much commotion. All the characters responsible for this
costly neglect and delay should be lined up and sanctioned, and that should
include a thorough investigation into the possibility of this “new” project
having being proposed, budgeted for and cash-backed before now. At what point did it occur to FAAN that the
airport needs a second runway, and who is the brain behind the hair-brained
proposal that is now before the public?
We have been told that for six weeks,
flights will be diverted to the Kaduna airport. The Minister of State for Aviation
(by the way, who is the Minister of Aviation?) has been quoted saying he wants
“knowledge” as to how this can be managed. The Ministry has also summoned a
meeting of stakeholders after taking the decision. This has been a classic case
of acting before thinking, making it all appear ridiculous.
The international
airlines are insisting that they find this kind of thinking inconvenient. Truly
so: Local airline operators are not excited either. The National Association of Nigeria Travel
Agencies (NANTA) and the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) are protesting. Common
sense, a scarce commodity at this time, should have dictated that a meeting of
stakeholders should have been held before the decision was taken. But the
arrogant position-holders took the decision first and then decided to invite
the stakeholders as an after-thought.
Ask these questions:
is there an ulterior motive? Ignore
common sense and present the public with a fait accompli? Is that their plan?
Is politics, in the shape of further Northernization involved? And why? Make
Kaduna a new hub? Shift aviation travel further North? The failure to maintain
runways and observe best practices is a reflection of the Nigerian problem: our
national nonsense. Besides, Nigeria is forever a victim of last minute
decisions. We remember to think when it appears too late to do so. Conspiracy theories are thus enabled when
those who should act rightly behave as if they are busy thinking with their
orifices.
Get it: The
decision to shut down the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja and
move traffic to the Kaduna airport for six weeks has not been properly thought
through. Poor thinking is the enemy of good governance. There is no guarantee
to start with, that the renovation and rehabilitation can be completed in six
weeks. Remember Port Harcourt and Owerri.
We have been told nevertheless,
that this is a good decision. But the timing is unwise. We are moving
passengers to Kaduna at a time that same state and city is in turmoil. Thousands
are being slaughtered daily in Southern Kaduna. The crisis has both religious
and ethnic undertones. And now we are moving more Nigerians to the North, so
they can get killed at the airport on or their way to Abuja? Who in his or her
right senses would like to travel through Kaduna at this time?
A standard travel
advisory should be: travel through Kaduna at your own risk and commit possible
suicide. And to this: let no paid vuvuzela tell me the roads are safe and that
the rail line to Abuja does not pass through Southern Kaduna. Also consider this: Government says it will
provide buses. Who will bear the cost? Traveling from wherever to Kaduna to
reach Abuja is likely to be more costly in every sense. Will the airlines bear
the cost? Or the already aggrieved travellers will be subjected to extra cost
and pain? Foreign airliners have already
rejected the Kaduna airport. It is by every international standard a poor
airport. It can’t even accommodate a crowd.
Why would government subject travellers to obvious chaos and behave as
if it does not matter. Copy this:
“The Minister
of State, Aviation, Hadi Sirika, however, said total closure of the Abuja
airport runway was inevitable, judging from the worrisome level of dilapidation….(I see)
The minister
assured of adequate security of travellers on transit by road from Abuja to
Kaduna and vice versa, adding that the Ministry of Defence, the Nigeria Police,
National Security and Civil Defence Corps, the Directorate of State Security
and other agencies will provide cover for airlines and passengers. (Really?)
“We’ll
increase the number of security personnel around Kaduna Metropolis; we’ll have
traffic officials in every village and intersection. There’ll be members of
National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), fire fighters and ambulances at
certain strategic positions. Police and the Air Force are to provide aerial
patrols, complemented by ground police.(Bribery
and extortion loading…)
There will be
intelligence gathering. There will be bus coaches, train services, specialised
car hire services and helicopter shuttles from private operators. But
government will provide shuttles for passengers,” he assured.(Talk is cheap, truly)
This is precisely
why the Ministry of Aviation should reconsider its stand. Stakeholders
including foreign airlines should be carried along before any further step is
taken and that has to be in line with international best practices. Everybody
involved should admit that we are dealing with a Nigerian crisis. Nigerians who
travel by air don’t deserve to be punished.
They have suffered
enough already. The airlines can’t even get enough aviation fuel in Abuja, not
to talk of Kaduna.
Let no one forget this: Abuja is a
strategic city. Those who travel there do so with a purpose. It is the city of
adventurers not settlers. It is the city of the Federal Government. People go
there to sort out government matters including contracts and other matters.
Shutting down the
Abuja airport is like shutting down the city, and perhaps the entire country. The
Ministry of Aviation makes it sound as if this is inevitable, but we must tell
them, and tell them again, that the Kaduna airport is not ready and to repeat
the Port Harcourt experience in Abuja would be sad and counter-productive.
It is not for
nothing that the international airlines are already protesting that they don’t
want to go to Kaduna. The argument about fixing the runway to make it saferis
okay, and we all know why nothing is ever properly maintained in this country, and
why projects of six weeks end up taking one year, and more, so don’t tell me
the obvious, but government decisions no matter how well-meaning, should be
governed by good thinking.
A mismanaged
renovation of the Abuja airport could result in months of avoidable agony and
disaster for the Nigerian economy.
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