Our
airports are a huge disservice to our efforts to join the league of developed
countries. Their sorry state tarnishes our image both at home and abroad. The
reason is simple. Airports, especially international airports like the Murtala
Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, are the gateways to nations. The first
impression a visitor gets on arriving a country is largely dependent on what he
sees and experiences at the airport. And, airports hardly deceive visitors:
what they experience at the facilities largely reflects what they will
experience in different sectors in the country.
The
reputable aviation website, sleepinairport.net, which carried out the rating,
measured the airports on parameters which include comfort, services,
facilities, food options, immigration and security, customer service,
cleanliness, navigation and ease of transit and accommodation.
With
these objective criteria, how can anyone honestly fault this poor rating of our
airports? To start with, Nigeria’s airports are often poorly maintained and
inefficiently run. Many of them are notorious for their discomfort. It is not
news when you get to the arrival and departure halls and find that the air conditioners
are not working. The toilets are sometimes either locked up, without running
water or unserviceable. The conveyor belts often work intermittently, sometimes
leaving passengers waiting for long before they can collect their luggage. To
top it all, airport, immigration and customs officials often unabashedly ask for bribes. This is the sad
everyday experience of the average person using our airports.
Our
governments, and especially the aviation authorities, have to wake up and
address this challenge. Our airports give the nation a bad image, and the
earlier we wake up to the sad reality, the better for the country. Maybe, this
is the time to organise a special aviation summit to properly articulate the
problems and proffer lasting solutions. All the attempts to address the malaise
in the aviation sector in the past did not go far enough because of a seeming
lack of appreciation of the magnitude of the problem. The lack of political
will on the part of our successive leaders to address the problems decisively
has also not helped matters.
It is
shameful that our leaders travel abroad at all times, and they know the
comfort, standard facilities and efficient services that they enjoy at other
airports they use. They return home to our airports and are either unwilling or
unable to provide similar services here.
The
roads leading into and out of a nation’s airports, apart from the state of the
airports, go a long way in determining the first impressions visitors have of
that country. That is why we commend the Lagos State government for its ongoing
massive rehabilitation of the roads leading to the local and international
airport in Lagos. Even if they are designated as federal infrastructure, the
Lagos State Government has taken it upon itself to rehabilitate them because of
its acute awareness of the damage the do to its image and that of the nation.
This
is the kind of attitude that we must encourage amongst the federal and state
authorities. The aviation industry has huge economic potential all over the
world. We fail to harness ours to our own detriment. (Sun)
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