In the recent past, so many Nigerians particularly those in the diaspora who formed the major bulk of air travellers coming from different parts of the world through the Murtala Muhamed International airport, Lagos have continued to express disappointment at the infrastructural decay adorning the number one gateway airport in the country.
On a daily basis, as international flights arrive the airport, it has become a recurrent decimal to see many passengers having landed safely at the airport use all manner of unprintable words to express how disgusting they are with the dilapidated infrastructures scattered all over the airport.
For travellers flying into the Lagos airport from places like Europe, America or Middle East, the first horror awaiting them is the stench that oozes out of the old and unkempt toilets therein which do not befit the status of any international airport even at smaller airports in neighbouring countries.
Besides the defaced toilets lacking essential needs like tissue papers, air fresheners and soaps, many of the WC toilet systems installed there have changed colour due to old age and overuse.
Apart from the stress you will be made to pass through in the hands of the immigration officials who may keep you standing on the queue for the same hours it takes you to fly for example from places like London to Lagos to have your passport stamped, more troubles await you in the hands of the other different uniform personnel whose major aim is to exploit you.
If you manage to pass through these hurdles, God help you if you are not faced with bigger problems as you walk to the baggage claim area where you can be subjected to a fresh hassles of having to wait endlessly for the carousel to bring your luggage out.
At times, owing to the over flogging of the carousel otherwise known as conveyor belt, count yourself lucky if you are able to collect your luggage without it breaking down midway due to over usage.
In other climes, an international airport like the MMIA should have alternative carousels that can conveniently handle passengers luggage particularly during the peak periods when there may likely be multiple flights landing at the same time.
Even the cooling systems that cost Nigeria several millions of naira to install are not faring better especially towards evening when most foreign carriers come in to pick their passengers out of the country as passengers sweat profusely while they await their flights.
Sometimes, it’s either the entire environment suddenly goes into darkness or the essential areas at the peak of passengers’ profiling due to obsolete cables some of which were installed as far back as 1979 when the Lagos airport was built after the Schiphol airport which has been rebuilt many times by the Dutch government.
The problems of the deplorable state of the number one gateway airport have remained a rocket science for the subsequent ministers of aviation to resolve despite the huge funds often allocated to the sector to address infrastructural deficits.
For any traveller landing at the Lagos airport for the first time, the number one thing to observe is an archaic structure housing both the arrival and departure terminals adorned with old facilities that have been overflogged due to many years of existence.
Many Nigerians including air travelers had described the status of the Lagos airport as a national disgrace in view of the unpleasant attendant pains it brings to seamless air transport.
Little wonder how, in the recent past, passengers have been bombarding the different social media spaces with tales of their experiences on landing or departing the country through the airport.
Many of the aggrieved passengers who have complained that they are not getting the value for the huge funds they pay, lamented that the kind of outdated facilities adorning the airport were not commensurate to what they pay for their tickets and other services.
A passenger with the social media handle @o_aisien once exclaimed at what she witnessed at the airport saying: “I was ashamed to say the least. Experts flying into Nigeria and this is what greets them? It’s appalling, the aviation minister should be held accountable@faanofficial@jidesanwoolu”.
Another passenger with the twitter handle @lolashoneyin gave an embarrassing details of what she saw at the Lagos international airport when she saw off her relative travelling out through the airport when she narrated how she saw bowls of different sizes spread on the floor to collect rains water dropping from the leaking roofs.
Describing the Lagos airport as a place of shame for all Nigerians as a people even as she declared that the shenanigans going on there defy any logical explanations, the airport user remarked: “Is there or are there some people actually paid to manage this airport? Are they guided by any KPI ? I understand that they may be incapacitated by financing and all sorts of vested interests, but there are some minimum things like keeping order and keeping the place safe and clean, that they can at least do.
I saw a relative off to the airport and right from the door, passing through the screening machine, the agency staff on duty were too busy trying to see who or how they could fleece passengers coming in, that you could carry any dangerous weapons through them and they won’t notice.
The entire place is run down, the check-in counters are all broken down, worn, the counter tops, tables are falling apart, the conveyor belts that are supposed take the luggage away to the aircraft are broken down and so they cart the luggage away in some kind of trolley.
The toilets are an eyesore! The water cisterns are broken, the toilet roll holders and toilet rolls don’t exist. You will see the cleaner holding the toilet roll though, and they greet effusively so you understand you have to drop something for the use of the t/roll.
Passing through on another occasion, the arrival hall was worse, a passenger’s nightmare. The luggage carousels are worn, some of the flabs are half torn off, even the part constructed during Stella Oduah’s time as minister was so badly done that everything is already falling apart. It was definitely not done by anyone with requisite skills or exposure to work on a project of that class or scope.
Now, let’s talk about the jetway, what a shame, It is either dripping water all over the place when it’s raining or it’s so dark because the bulbs or fluorescent have all burnt out and passengers just have to manage and grope in the dark with whatever little light is available and then try to dodge the puddles of water on the jetway floor.
The pre boarding areas of some gates also don’t have working florescent or bulb and so the whole place is dark and dingy looking.
Are there people paid every month to run the airport. Do they have an engineering department that sees to daily maintenance, faulty bulbs, bad luggage carousels, leaky roofs, bad toilet faucet etc?!Or are passengers just at the mercy of the Nigerian system.
The entire departure hall was so filthy and there was not a single cleaner in sight, cleaning, as you would find in other airports across the world. It was so filthy that I cannot compare it to anything I’ve seen anywhere else.”
The lamentation of this airport user which captures the daily bad experiences suffered by travellers at the airport however puts question marks on some of the past ministers of aviation that had been put in charge of managing the airports.
A Canada bound passenger who spoke to Tribune while awaiting his flight on Wednesday, expressed disgust for the state of the airport.
In conclusion, he said if nothing is done to fix the deficits that passengers may, one of these days, initiate what he called a class suit action against the Nigerian government for failing to justify the huge funds they pay through the taxes taken from them on the tickets they purchase.
Reactions aviation key players:
For the immediate past President of Aviation Safety Round Table (ASRT), Dr Gabriel Olowo, the Lagos international airport is a national disgrace and therefore, called for the immediate stripping or pulling down of the facility and rebuilding another one.
According to him; “Murtala Muhammed International Airport, which is Nigeria’s number one airport built in 1978, should be shut down, stripped 100 percent and rebuilt. It remains a national disgrace and an eyesore when speaking about the world’s contemporary modern airports. Fingers A, B and C as in the original masterplan should be added like yesterday. Aerotropolis can then come to compliment the aerotropolis.”
For one of the leading labour leaders in the sector’ Comrade OlayinkaAbioye, the Lagos international airport requires a complete rehabilitation “as if we are building a new airport. No matter the repair that is carried out, it will be wasted resources.
There is hardly any part of that building that is not sick and require surgical emergency.
“So, my take is rather than pull down the entire structure, we need to do it phase by phase. Start from one wing of the terminal, dismantle all that are dismantleable and fix them. Afterwards, start from another wing and within one year, we shall be good to go. For security reasons I will refrain from saying some things but we need a holistic approach in dealing with MMIA.”
Deplorable Lagos airport blamed on corruption:
To show their anger, many stakeholders have blamed the deplorable structures at the airport on the alleged corruption perpetrated by of many of the previous ministers. According to a former military commandant of the airport, Group Captain John Ojikutu (retired), “That airpot alone generates minimum of 50% of the total FAAN annual earnings, unfortunately, institutional corruptions have been on the way against the periodic maintenance of the infrastructure and the facilities.”
It is on record that among the ministers that had been appointed to manage the sector, the one that graciously have more than enough access to funds, part of which could have been used to fix the infrastructural deficit but ignored it was the immediate past minister, Senator HadiSirika.
Sirika rather than use part of the huge funds allocated to his ministry to fix the critical aspects of the airport failing structures, concentrated on unnecessary projects such as the national carrier and airports concession.
The previous ministers that came before Sirika also failed in this aspect as they came and left the infrastructures at the Lagos airport and other major international airports unattended to. The only one that tried a bit was Stella Oduah through her airport remodeling policy.
To many key players, there is no way the number one gateway airport should be in this mess in view of the fact that the airport alone generate minimum of 50 percent of the total FAAN annual earnings.
At the rate the facilities at the airport breaks down, many airport users are of the opinion that if the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu government through the National Assembly fails to declare state of emergency at the Lagos airport and most others across the country, Nigerians may wake one day to see that the entire structure built in 1979 has caved in leaving the country with the alternative new terminal commissioned over a year ago but sadly with structural error which has made it unattractive to foreign airlines.
According to some airport workers who spoke to Aviation Tribune, if the government fails to fix the dilapidated structures, this may force passengers particularly the international ones from shunning the Lagos airport which may drastically affect the revenue generation of FAAN and subsequently rubbish all efforts to make the Lagos airport a hub for the region.
and then