It is common knowledge that passengers, under
the guise of tighter security, are exposed to harassment. The matter has attained
new heights, as security officials now subject passengers not only to
extortion, but also to an offensive violation of their dignity. We listen daily
to various testimonies shared by travelers regarding how security agents,
especially at the Murtala Muhammed 2 and the Lagos international Airport
(MMIA), practically assault passengers while begging them for money at the same
time. On the one hand, they breach the code of the natural and social intimacy
passengers nevertheless expect to go through in the name of security and safety.
But on the other hand, safety and security of our airports are put under intense
risk.
It is bad enough that we allow ourselves to be
touched on various parts of our bodies that are exclusively reserved for us and
in most cases one intimate partner. The security agents, in their greed and
selfishness, are not mindful of this fact. I do not expect a man to start
rubbing his hands over the whole of me, or a female agent running her hands
over a lady’s breasts and cleavage. It really is a violation. This, however, is
one of those occasions where we must understand, but after that, for the
officer in question to start asking me how my day was or what I have for him
for the weekend just makes a rubbish out of the whole exercise, apart from
upsetting me and really and truly making me feel exposed.
All a terrorist has to do is endure the physical
assault and dole out some cash in reasonable succession. This will speedily
earn him “VIP status” such that the routine search is dispensed with. The fact
that Al-Shabaab militants rented a space at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi for a
year should be instructive enough.
We were promised an end to these extortionist
tendencies at our airports but nothing has changed because those saddled with
the responsibility of ending them are the worst culprits. It is only in Nigeria
that the activities of security agents are not captured on CCTV as if they are
above the law. If not, why are there CCTV cameras all around our airports yet
none has ever caught them in the act? We need not be told that CCTVs, like
every other instrument of check in Nigeria, are compromised. We have built corrupt structures and
institutions around ourselves, so much that common goals are sacrificed for
selfish fulfillment.
Building a virile nation out of weak, corrupt
structures is at best a pipe dream. We need a rethink. Our security officers
cannot be so confident, so open and so bold at creating a negative impression
about Nigeria. It is impossible to move forward as a nation with the kind of
moral decay that epitomizes our character and sums up others’ perception of us.
We are lacking terribly in the social conscience department, and this
transcends status, class, ethnicity, religion and age, whether it is politicians,
who continuously secure the lion’s share of our resources because they occupy
certain public positions, or underpaid and underequipped security agents who
extort what they can from us.
After
running the gauntlet at Lagos airport I arrive at Abuja, free from the chaos of
the jungle that is Lagos. It is raining. There is no bus to pick us up at the
foot of the plane despite signs warning us not to walk on the tarmac and use
the buses provided, as if the responsibility of that was ours. Worse still,
soaked, I arrive at the exit. There are no covered walkways like every other
airport in the world to take me to the car park and the airport is chaos. There
is no set down zone for intending passengers arriving at the airport and this
is the nation’s capital where our some minister of aviation is supposed to have
done so much.
Can we
please start with the basics and think about the passenger for whom this
service was set up in the first place? Cement, granite and imported chairs (which
are banned by the way) cannot build an airport. Its function, ease of use and
security only can do that.
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