Struggling,
pushing, shoving were the actions one could see from the pictures and video
that rent the social media today about passengers trying to board their Arik
flight to Lagos.
Déjà vu was
the effect it had on me. Same scenario, in fact, same airline subjected us to
this undignifying and embarrassing situation on April 25, 2015 at the Katoka
International Airport, Accra Ghana.
My colleagues
and I booked our return ticket long before we even left Lagos for Accra a week
before. It was supposed to be a 0700hrs flight from Accra to Lagos. We got to
the airport and checked in before 0600hrs. And then the wait began. 0700hrs –
and there was none. 0800hrs – we were still hoping. 0900hrs – hope alive.
1000hrs – were we feeling hunger? To make it more interesting, no announcement
from anyone. The Arik staff on duty was about to go off duty and did the best
she could, which was to bring a trolley full of snacks and drinks for us. We
were too angry to eat. We did not want food but Lagos. Time indeed heals all
wound. One after the other, we walked to the trolley and helped ourselves,
getting slight succor. We, however, still forced ourselves to remain angry.
And the lady
for afternoon duty arrived. And before our very own eyes, passengers for the
afternoon flight to Lagos started arriving for check in. 1200hrs – boarding
passes were being issued to afternoon flight passengers. Morning flight
passengers would have none of that. And all hell broke loose. Screaming,
shouting, several punches to the table top of the ‘innocent staff.’ It only
abated when we were assured that two
flights were on their way from Lagos – placebo.
1500hrs –
grade one hunger, I had to leave the airport to spend my last five cedis on
proper kenkey and fish. Did I tell
you all of Africa is the same? I bought ‘pure water’ just like in Lagos – that
story is for another day.
After several
hours of craning our necks to see the name on every newly arriving plane, an Arik
flight landed at about 2200hrs. Wasn’t my flight supposed to be for 0700hrs? After yelling serious warnings to
those loading our bags into the plane to attend to morning passengers first, we
proceeded to the boarding gate. Over two hundred people struggled in no particular
pattern to pass through a door that could accommodate only one at a time.
I shall never
forget the look on the face of one of the cabin crew of a Lufthansa flight as
they passed by us to board their plane. The look of disdain followed by a shake
of her head said, ‘Africans will always be barbarians.’ Because most of the Lagos
bound passengers were Nigerians, Ghanaian airport staff easily got tired of
enforcing decorum. They left us to our devices.
Struggling,
pushing, shoving…tug of war, or better still, survival of the fittest. I joined
the band wagon and I got a place on the plane. And when it was filled, yells
of, ‘I will stand. I will sit on the floor’ were firmly rejected by the cabin
crew. We arrived Lagos at about 2345hrs. My 0700hrs flight.
So Arik air
can mess up Nigerians with impunity. They can conveniently choose to merge two
flights into one knowing fully well that many would definitely lose out – of
course, no refunds. What a cool way to make money! In today’s case, they
deliberately overbooked a flight to unethically maximize profits, leaving
faithful passengers to tear themselves apart.
Where is the Nigerian
Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA)? Where is the Ministry of Transport? Why are
Nigerians always a soft target for unethical business practices? Where is the
defender of the defenseless? Why hasn’t the wind of change blown to this
sector? Arik air is a Nigerian airliner. Let us treat ourselves right before
expecting good treatment from others. Others are actually watching. I rest my
rant…no, case.
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