The Shame Called Murtala Muhammed International Airport

How much does a country need to
keep its busiest international airport
from running like an oven? The
Murtala Muhammed International
Airport in Lagos has to be the
hottest airport in the world. It is
easily the hottest I have travelled
through and I have been through
quite a lot of airports. Even the
Nairobi airport in Kenya that was
engulfed by fire is not as hot as the
MMIA. You should not even get
started with comparing it with the
airport in Cape Town or
Johannesburg, South Africa. Ghana’s
Kotoka International Airport, Accra
may be small but it does not meet
you with the repulsiveness the MMIA
greets you with. Even the Eyadema
airport in Togo has a better
atmosphere. The Léopold Sédar
Senghor International Airport in
Dakar, Senegal trumps ours by light
years. This is speaking of African
countries. We dare not try to
compare with airports outside Africa.
As soon as you descend from the
plane to go through the immigration
point, the feeling is as though you
were being punished for daring to
travel to Nigeria – if a foreigner – or
you were being punished for daring
to leave the country – if a Nigerian.
The saddest part of this reality is that
money is not the reason why we
have an airport that makes us look
like we are a people without shame.
Or, are we?
There is a chance you are busy
during the week. If you find time
this Sunday, please pay a visit to the
MMIA. Find your way to the
Departure Hall. If it does not remind
you of the old Oshodi in Lagos, I’d
write an apology for everyone who
says it doesn’t. Of course, there is a
chance they quickly react to this
piece to make a few cosmetic
changes. If it looks better this
Sunday because of this piece, just
wait another four weeks; I can bet it
will be back to its seamy self. Last
Sunday, there were more touts than
there were passengers inside the
airport. The system is such that even
getting your boarding pass to travel
is made difficult so an incentive is
created for you to engage one of the
touts. I was approached to pay
N5,000 to get my boarding pass. I
wouldn’t pay because I just needed
to see if I’d miss my flight despite
arriving over three hours earlier. If
that had happened, I’d have made
sure the airline in question never
gets to try it with anyone again.
Where else could an anomaly like
this happen? If you arrive the airport
two hours before your flight, there is
a chance you miss your flight not
because that is not enough time
before your flight but because
somehow, someway, bottlenecks
have been created to make you need
touts to do what you’d do within
minutes elsewhere. Nigeria is a
nightmare!
If per chance you are wondering
why one would dedicate a column to
an airport of all the myriad of issues
facing Nigeria, please have a rethink.
The airport is an essential part of a
country’s prestige and perception.
Any country with a badly managed
airport as ours is likely to be as
badly managed as our country. If a
country cannot manage its main
airport, how can it manage anything
else? Travelling through Section D
34 on Sunday and it was as though
someone was increasing the heat as
we were getting boiled. How much
does it cost to make the air-
conditioning systems work? What
does it cost to make the airport
clean enough? Why should we have
people in queues for hours just to
go through immigration and security
checks? Why have more metal
detectors if passengers are made to
use just one or two on most
occasions? Body scanners have been
in use since 2007, how much does it
cost to have them in our major
airports? Why is Nigeria the only
country where, to travel, you must
have your box opened and
ransacked by security men? What is
the essence of running these same
bags through electronic security?
Why in the world can’t we get even
the simplest of things right?
The first impression you get about a
country upon visiting is its airport.
There are people who intentionally
run their flight connections through
some airports just to make use of
their facilities or make purchases. I
know people who travel to other
parts of the world but make sure to
travel through Dubai simply because
of the travel experience. I dare not
start comparing our airports with
Dubai’s because then I’d be
comparing two things of different
kinds. You will not find a Nigerian
who has been outside of this
country who is not ashamed of our
airports. Of course, this does not
include Nigerians who call things
that do not exist as though they do;
Nigerians who look at the poverty
and gross unemployment and
proclaim our lives are being
transformed. You will not find a
Nigerian who has the ability to face
the truth who’d not admit shame at
looking at our major airports. I was
at the Addis Ababa airport last
August when a Nigerian started
lamenting behind me. She was
shocked even Ethiopia could do
better than the “giANT” of Africa.
Giant ko, dwarf ni. We stay living in a
delusion of grandeur that does not
exist.
Having said all this, I will never be
able to describe the pain and
sadness that come with travelling
from the MMIA. The only way you
won’t feel this sadness is if you’ve
gone past caring about this country
or you are one of the reasons this
country is so messed us as it is. The
MMIA was modelled after
Amsterdam’s Schipol. Over 40 years
later, the MMIA is worse than it
looked when the military
government of Gen. Olusegun
Obasanjo remodelled it. Just look at
Schipol airport today. If you dare
compare both, tears will fill your
eyes before you even get started.
Where then do we start? We can
start by doing away with the touts
inside the lobby. We can start by
ensuring the air-conditioning
systems work. We can look to make
sure passengers are well-treated on
arrival and departure. We always
look at problems and immediately
assume throwing money at them will
solve them. I have since realised half
the problems with Nigeria have
nothing to do with money. Even with
all the money in the world, our
airports and our country will not
work as long as we do not have
people who care about excellence.
Caring about excellence means
knowing that Nigerians deserve the
best all the time. When we reserve
the rights citizens of other countries
take for granted, upgrade such to
privileges for our citizens, we will
always miss the point of making
things work. Nigerians deserve more
but as long as we have people –
including the President – dancing on
national TV because a road contract
has been awarded, we’d always
have a situation where mediocrity
will remain the norm. Would anyone
say the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway is
the mess it is because of money?
Nay. It is what it is because we are
who we are. We have become a
people accustomed to seeing
nothing work.
It’d be great to see someone in
authority do something about the
mess that is the MMIA for starters.
It’s a shame to Nigeria. But does
Nigeria even understand what
shame is? Does anyone really give a
damn about the shame?
-Mr. Omojuwa @gmail.com; twitter:
@omojuwa
Source: www.punchng.com/opinion/the-
shame-called-murtala-muhammed-
international-airport/

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