FG’s questionable response to begging, extortion at airports

MR. Festus Keyamo (SAN), Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, recently lamented the spate of sharp practices, notably begging, touting and extortion at Nigerian airports. He was sad that his telephone was daily being inundated with phone calls and messages from well-meaning Nigerians who complained about these criminal and morally reprehensible acts being perpetrated by some unscrupulous persons. He also said that many of the officials allegedly involved in the malpractices did not all belong to his ministry and so he had little or no control over them, but that he was cooperating with the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), who had shown interest in the matter, and the relevant agencies that donated the officials to the airports in order to find lasting solutions to the menace.

That is the way it should be. Government agencies should always collaborate to find solutions to common challenges, especially those with the potential to bring the government as a whole into disrepute. However, the minister is expected to take the lead, in liaison with the other agencies whose personnel are involved in the corrupt practices, to craft strategies to resolve the problems because in the final analysis, it is the ministry he superintends over that will be scored low if the menace persists. Perhaps that was why the minister, through the Nigerian Airports Authority (NAA), resorted to setting up a questionable security outfit tagged Armed Aviation Security Unit at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos. The unit is expected to see to the arrest and prosecution of louts and other suspected criminals operating within the airport premises. However, we hasten to say that this is a wrong-headed approach that is most unlikely to achieve the desired objective. To be sure, we appreciate the government’s concern about the ugly situation at the airport, but creating a new security outfit is by no means a solution to the menace. The seeming solution is fundamentally flawed. For instance, has the aviation and Aerospace Development Ministry interrogated how creating an armed unit within the ministry will stop the menace of touting, begging and extortion at airports when the alleged perpetrators are mainly officials who ostensibly are working at the behest of the ministry even if some of them are from other agencies?

Again, it is doubtful that the ministry has put in place any sure-fire mechanism to ensure that the armed unit does not constitute yet another layer of louts, beggars and extortionists at airports. Or who says the quest for filthy lucre that motivated the existing officials to engage in malfeasance will not appeal to the new staff?  Experience has shown that solutions like the instant one are usually suboptimal. They do not just create a bloated bureaucracy with the attendant increase in the cost of governance, they also cause the overlapping of functions that leads to needless and unhealthy rivalry among agencies. It is time officials in all arms of government began to find solutions to national challenges within the confines of the extant structures and available resources. The National Assembly, in particular, that has a penchant for creating institutions to solve challenges that existing institutions of government are seemingly solving sub-optimally, should take caution. And the executive arm, too,  is urged to be cautious about joining the fray. Such an option simply increases official overhead and personnel costs without achieving the desired objectives.

And in any case, we do not believe that it is beyond the competence of the supervisors of the officials involved in begging and extortion at the airports to devise appropriate strategies to apprehend them. All they need do is to up their ante with sincerity of purpose. For instance, why not deploy technology to tackle the menace of corruption at the airports? Why not use the existing security structures to spy on and apprehend those who engage in these malpractices and ensure they are punished, without brooking any sacred cows? If there is a verifiable and discrete way of reporting and apprehending the culprits, it will be obvious to all that the authorities are serious about combating the menace. And if those involved know they could be reported, with punishment in tow, they will think twice before engaging in or persisting in their horrible acts. Such a policy option will be more effective in addressing all shades of corruption at the airports than the deployment of armed aviation operatives that everyone can see and whose mandate is known to all.

It is imperative to note that those profiting from these malpractices at the airports may be syndicates who are quite influential, and it may not take them a long time to compromise the proposed operatives and it will just be business as usual. However, a mechanism involving discreet collection of dossiers on the perpetrators of sharp practices at the airports, and the passing on of such information to the appropriate authorities for punishment, is more likely to provide an antidote to the menace. In addition, the approach embodies cost effectiveness, as existing security personnel will be deployed for the job of snitching on and apprehending offenders. This method is much more ingenious than the usual pastime of setting up yet another bloated structure.

Rules and regulations exist, and human resources are on ground at the airports to rein in the activities of louts, beggars and extortionists but complaints keep coming to the authorities about aberrant officials who are willfully breaching the rules for material gain. Therefore, if the rules and guidelines are deemed weak, the authorities should strengthen and strictly enforce them. And if the personnel are truly compromising their functions for pecuniary gain, they should be properly monitored and whipped into line. The airports are arguably the most important gateways to the country where visitors get a peek into the level of decency or lawlessness in the land. It is thus imperative that the authorities institute effective and workable mechanisms to ensure that operations at the airports are in tandem with the international best practices at all times.

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