Nigeria has so much to offer the world, from its culture to tourist destinations, but foreigners who may want to visit the country face hostility at Nigeria’s airports due to actions of security operatives.
Over the years travellers leaving and coming to Nigeria narrate harrowing experience about the hostility, harassment and extortion that go on at the nation’s international airports, where officials from the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Nigeria Customs Service(NCS), the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), the Nigeria Quarantine Service rake in money everyday from passengers and their cargo.
There have been efforts to stem this obnoxiously ugly tradition by government but despite their efforts, eliminating corruption and touting at the airports has not worked. In fact, many times the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) management had tried to check the excesses of these operatives but it gave rise to clashes between them and FAAN.
When challenged, some of the security operatives would insist on staying at the airport because they were deployed from their headquarters and, therefore, nobody can upstage them. But recently, the Minister of Aviation and Aeronautical Development, FetsusKeyamo, routed a Nigeria Immigration Service official who harassed a foreigner at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.
Growing Love for Nigeria
In recent times one can notice that due to the accomplishments of Nigerians in the Diaspora, the success of the entertainment industry in Nigeria and the obsession of some blacks in Europe and Americans to identify their root and visit Africa, many foreigners want to come to Nigeria, despite the reports of insecurity, but those people face two key challenges, the cumbersome process of obtaining Nigerian visa and the inefficient system of visa on arrival. The second and major factor is the way travellers are treated at Nigeria’s airports.
Nigeria is a virgin, unravished land. It is the provenance of black Africa. With intentional efforts and good policies from government, it is projected that more foreigners would have been visiting Nigeria, but Nigeria is not in the first FIVE and not even in the first 10 countries visited in Africa. This is despite its huge population, the export of inimitable tradition, its huge, ubiquitous workforce all over the world and the predilection of Nigerians to marry from anywhere in the world; yet, international tourism is still poor in Nigeria. In the data of five most visited countries in Africa (2018), Morocco is number one with 12.3 million visitors; Egypt – 11.3 million visitors; South Africa – 10.5 million visitors; Tunisia – 8.3 million visitors and Mozambique – 2.7 million visitors.
Hostility
Earlier in 2024, a popular social media content creator, a Swiss married to Nigerian, Janine Udogu (popularly known as Nwanyiocha), narrated her experience when she travelled from AkanuIbiam International Airport, Enugu to Addis Ababa on Ethiopian Airlines. She chronicled what she went through in the hands of the Nigerian Customs Service, the Nigerian Immigration Service and the Aviation Security (AVSEC) of FAAN.
The security checks in the small airport was unnerving and she described the whole process as deliberate effort to discourage people from visiting the country. She spoke about extortion in a subterranean manner, the open hostility to make the passenger free himself by dropping something and the obstinacy and shamelessness of those operatives who do not care a hoot about Nigeria’s image.
“Probably this may not be popular, but I need to talk about traveling. Leaving Enugu airport and leaving Addis Ababa airport, I can talk of the two, I have experienced them both, and it is like day and night. So I took a flight to leave Enugu, and without exaggerating, I had to show my papers at least 10 times, I think it is as 14 times before I was allowed to sit down somewhere.
“In Addis, I showed my passport only twice, and that was it. Nobody asked me to do Sunday for them or Monday, or Tuesday or buy them water or do anything for them. They take your documents, check it and say thank you and show you where to go next. But in Nigeria, before you get the chance to sit down somewhere, you are already exhausted, you feel intimidated, I mean it is very uncomfortable basically.
“Because you know whatever they are going to ask you, you have to remain polite, you have to be quiet, you have to answer because it might bear some consequences, if you don’t want to talk about that. I just felt it was so stressful. And then I finally reached the area where I could sit, I decided to buy myself a drink because I was tasty and I wanted to like comply, because you don’t bring drinks into the airport, you buy it after the whole checking, like the duty-free area,” Mrs. Udeogu narrated.
She regretted that the Coke was taken away from her by security officials despite the fact that she bought it from the airside, which ideally there ought to be duty free shops in bigger airports. Such purchases are not subjected to security. That’s why they are taken directly to the aircraft without checks.
“So, I bought myself a coke and took like three, four sips and close the bottle and wanted to board. Little did I know I was not allowed to bring that bottle onto the airplane. And it is not like anybody told me it is not like the restaurant that was literally 20 meters away from the airplane where I entered, told me anything that I would not be allowed to bring the bottle onto the airplane. And it is not also like they check people’s luggage or backpacks or bags.
“Also, had it been I bought my coke and put it in my backpack nobody would have talked. But because I was holding it in my hand, the lady was like I have to leave it outside. And I told the lady, I bought this inside the airport after all the checks. The reason why they don’t allow liquids inside the airplane is because they are afraid that it might be explosive. But I bought the coke at airport. But the lady insisted, she said I should take the whole liquid. Have you ever drink one bottle of Coke like in a minute? It is not possible. Now I understand, people might have bigger problems like this in Nigeria, but really, really, really if you want to bring tourism into this country, if you want to bring in investors to this place, entering and existing be a big deal, like make it as comfortable as possible.
“And people will go and tell their friends that traveling to Nigeria is like a piece of cake. But if you ask any stranger, any foreigner about his experience at the border, I would really put my hand into fire they would not like to share similar stories. It is just not a good thing. The Immigration at the airport is the first thing you see when you come and the last thing you see when you are leaving. It is not an African thing, like in Ethiopia, people are polite, they help you, they don’t beg you for money and they don’t waste your time. It is as simple as that. And if your argument for this poor service delivery is that they are not being paid well, then we need to change it,” she said.
Perception
Travel expert and the organizer of Akwaaba African Travel Market, Ambassador IkechiUko, said that the major challenge Nigeria is facing in terms of tourism is perception. Many foreigners who visited Nigeria often tell how they were warned not to travel to Nigeria, but most often, when they defy that warning and visit, they are happy that they did. Social media is inundated with experiences of foreigners who visited Nigeria and were glad they did and they narrate their experiences with glee.
Ambassador Uko told THISDAY, “The major challenge is perception by both Nigerians and foreigners. A lot of people imagine a lot of things about Nigeria, but any traveller who uses tour operators to come to Nigeria will not get into trouble. There is massive number of people traveling everyday in Nigeria. That is the hotels are booked full; that is the reason road transportation is growing; that is the reason why there is high demand of flights because domestic tourism in Nigeria is growing very well, but perception is the challenge faced by foreigners and Nigerians who would want to visit Nigeria.”
The Struggle
Udogu, therefore called on government to do something to improve passenger experience at the Nigerian airports, saying, “The government should own up, this is important. You cannot have officers, workers, airport staff, maltreating people, being public beggers, basically asking for things, when they are just there to work and provide a service. And if it is for security, perfectly fine, to check your passport, perfectly fine, but not 13 times!”
As stated earlier, government had made efforts in the past to discourage these excesses by security operatives at the airports but the efforts failed because the defiant operatives who engage in the nefarious acts would insist that they were posted to the airport from their head office outside the airport and in order to protect their source of illicit income, sometimes, engage in fisticuffs with FAAN officials who wanted to stop them.
But FAAN officials lack the will to enforce discipline because they are not clean as well. But recently, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, said the federal government had concluded plans to streamline the screening of passengers at the international airports and deploy security equipment to reduce human interface in order to end the allegation of the harassment of travellers by security operatives.
It is also hoped that this will reduce multiple screenings of passengers, which will save time and end the highhandedness of some security personnel who allegedly extort money from passengers and unduly delay passengers that refuse to give them money until they miss their flights.
Keyamo believes that this is the most effective way to curb interaction between passengers and security personnel at the airport, including the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Aviation Security of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, the Nigeria Immigration Service, the Nigerian Customs Service, the Quarantine, the Nigeria Air Force and the Nigerian Police.
Keyamo said his ministry ha complained to the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, over the harassment some Nigerians face at the hands of some security agents stationed at various airports in Nigeria, saying that he gets loads of reports about the misbehaviours of some of the security operatives at the airports.
He said even though the actions were not carried out by officials of the Aviation Ministry, he has approached the NSA to address them because he is concerned about the harassment of passengers.
“We have complained to the National Security Adviser on this because we are concerned about the harassment of Nigerians. Take note, it is not aviation, it is not Keyamo, I see people tagging me all the time, ‘somebody just asked for a bribe from me’, but it is somebody from another agency. They tag me all the time, but it is not me, and not aviation. We have to complain to the office of the NSA who is doing a lot on this,” Keyamo said.
He disclosed that the NSA has acquired about 1,000 body cameras for security agencies for better monitoring of activities at the airports.
If extortion, harassment of passengers is allowed to persist, Nigeria may never take advantage of the tourism potential it has, which is put at multibillion dollars. Like in other countries, if fully maximized, tourism in Nigeria will create extra million jobs, as projected by experts.
Culled from THISDAY
