That Lagos airport outage and the negative use of social media

For three minutes last Saturday, February 2, 2024, the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Lagos was plunged into darkness which slowed down flight activities.

The cause of the hiccup was traced to challenges which occurred during an automatic switchover process that followed a disruption in electricity supply from the national grid.

The development generated mixed reactions from airport users and many Nigerians who as expected knocked the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the government’s body responsible for running the airports.

In the course of the hogwash, the aggrieved Nigerians did not spare the government at the center and the minister of aviation and aerospace development, Mr Festus Keyamo for not tackling the infrastructural decadence dragging the airports particularly the international ones back.

In a normal scene, three minutes can be overlooked in view of its shortness, but this may not be an acceptable standard when it comes to some more volatile areas that touched on sensitivity where one second means so much to the survival of what plays out.

Therefore, in all sincerity, like a patient fighting for life in the hospital just as  three minutes means a volume for the patient’s survival, this is applicable to some circumstances, in particular some sectors of the country’s economy with  aviation in focus.

In other words, because three minutes means a bunch for aviation vis a vis flight operations which consist of different components with the bottom line being safety, security and comforts of air travelers who pay heavily to get these values, each time these critical needs are absent, the result is what has played out since the last power outage reared its head.

In all honesty, those who witnessed the temporary power outage at the airport last week have the right to voice out their grievances which may have been as a result of years of accumulated frustrations and disappointments with the system.

While the issue of power outage has remained a regular phenomenon at the number one gateway airport, the cheering news is that since the coming of the present government, the issue of infrastructural problem has started receiving priority which made the last week outage a surprise.

Good, that amidst the outrage, FAAN through its managing director, Mrs Olubunmi Kuku declared “We experienced a two to three minute outage at Murtala Muhammed International Airport yesterday, February 2nd 2024 while switching over to our backup power supply after losing power from the Grid. We regret the power outage that occured at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, on February 2, 2024.”

While the power outage has since been restored amidst the controversy it generated, of utmost concern is the use of the social media by some questionable people to paint the development in a very scary manner, capable of inciting a global uprising against Nigeria’s aviation sector.

Without doubt, the use of social media to reawaken those in position of authorities is in order, but when such privileges are misused as done by many in the power outage dispensation raises concerns.

Again,while those who witnessed the power disruption videoed the scenario and posted it online have the right, the low point was when others with ulterior motives decided to use the opportunity to spread fake news.

It is on record that beside the video recorded and posted by those at the airport on the day of the day of the last week outage, another video was also circulated by other actors which happened to be a similar but more pronounced power outage that occurred as back as 2016.

Many who viewed the 2016 video were further provoked that they joined in circulating it even beyond the shores of Nigeria, thus further painting the image of the relevant aviation authorities in bad light before the whole world.

Definitely those behind the 2016 video did not mean well for the air transport sector in the country. If they did, they would have realised the negative impact their mischievous  actions would have brought on the entire sector.

Like an adage, what such people did was to throw out a baby with the bathtub by deliberately using the last week malfunctioning to generally condemn the sector, an attitude capable of scaring air travellers including foreign investors away from the country.

The point is that the issue of power outage which though is not peculiar to the Nigerian airports, can be traced to many years of executive negligence and recklessness on the parts of the previous governments and the ministers.

The good news is that the present government is attending to such long abandoned infrastructural decadence as witnessed in the upgrade of the hitherto dilapidated E-Wing terminal at the international axis of the Lagos airport.

While it is hoped that FAAN and other concerned agencies will be more alive to their duties in other to safe the country from avoidable embarrassments, the time has come for those using the social media to use every slightest opportunity to collapse the entire roof at any given space.