Read the article by Reuben Abati below...
I have just returned from Abuja travelling through the Kaduna airport. As we disembarked from the aircraft and moved towards the arrival section, I could hear an announcement being made.
The diction of the announcer was clear. She didn’t sound like those On-Air-Personalities (OAP, they are called) who speak as if they have hot water on their tongues. Airport continuity announcers in Nigeria tend to imitate these OAPs.
This has been for me a great source of irritation. The last time I travelled from Lagos to Abuja, for example, I missed my flight because I just could not figure out what was being said.
I was stranded because someone chose to
speak fake English. The electronic boards at Nigerian airports where
they are available, are unreliable and so, you invariably have to rely
on those announcements.
The way I go round
this sabotage is to keep asking people, or going to the departure gate
to find out if the flight had been called or not.
So, when I got to
Kaduna and found a difference, I was glad that the bad habit at the
Lagos and Abuja airports had not yet been exported to Kaduna.
It was
also the first time I would travel in that direction since the Abuja
airport was shut down and traffic was diverted on March 8,
to Kaduna, to allow the Federal Government repair the damaged runway in
Abuja. Six weeks, they said it would take. I found myself in Kaduna five weeks later.
I
met an upgraded Kaduna International Airport. The upgrade is not yet
completed but I hope when the diverted traffic from Abuja disappears,
the uncompleted parts of the airport will be sorted out and the airport
can be put to better use, and not abandoned, and the investment would
not be allowed to waste.
At the arrival section, a group of persons
reiterated the announcement that had been made as we arrived. “Free
buses to Abuja are available, please join the buses outside to take you
to Abuja, show your ticket and boarding pass please”. Another lady
said: “if you want to travel by train, please join the buses outside to
take you to the train station, it is free.” This got me curious.
It
turned out that the Federal Government had indeed made arrangements to
make life easier for persons who had to travel from the Kaduna airport
to Abuja. I took a look at the buses. Chisco buses. Coaster buses.
I
also spoke with a few persons who had travelled through the Kaduna
airport en route Abuja. The feedback was positive. I was told the bus
ride takes about three hours, the train ride about one hour, twenty
minutes. But one guy differed.
“I think,” he
said, “it is better to charter a cab. If you take a cab, you can get to
Abuja in about two hours. If you take the bus, you may have to wait for
the bus to fill up, and then for security reasons, the drivers will not
drive fast, if you are not careful, you could be on the road for four
hours.”
“I guess security is more important than speed”, I said.
“But
they will go and drop you at the Abuja airport, and you will spend
another one hour getting to the town, and in that case, you will still
have to take a cab and pay.”
“Why Abuja airport?”
“That is what they do”
“But come to think of it, is it possible they will go and drop people in front of their homes?”
“Well, I am a man in a hurry. Time is everything. I don’t take the bus or the train. I just take a cab and move.”
“What of the helicopter shuttle?”
“I am sorry I don’t know anything about that. It is better and cheaper to take a cab.”
“And how much is that?,” I asked.
“Between
N25k and N30k. But you can also join with other people. If two other
persons join you to take a cab, you’d end up paying at most N10k.”
“But is it not better to go with what government has provided, for security reasons?”
“There
is no serious danger on the road, particularly if you travel during the
day, and not wait till it gets dark. There are policemen and FRSC men
keeping watch all the way to Abuja.
You don’t have to worry about
anything. I have been on this route every week since they shut down the
Abuja airport.”
I had an appointment to keep in
Abuja and time was not on my side. I could not afford a four-hour
journey, so I embraced the guy’s advice, and took the cab option, and
just as I had been told, the road to Abuja was safe and stress-free.
I
made it in good time and did not miss my appointment. On my way back, two days later,
the trip was even smoother and faster. But I ended up not travelling
after spending so much time at the airport.
My return ticket was wrongly
booked: instead of Kaduna to Lagos, I had a Lagos to Kaduna ticket!
This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, though.
It
gave me opportunity to take a better look at the airport. At the VIP
section, and elsewhere, the staff appeared polite and helpful, obviously
delighted with their assignment.
Free drinks, coffee and water, were
offered at the VIP section. The missed flight also gave me the
opportunity to spend more time with my friend and colleague, Umar Sani
who lives in Kaduna. Umar Sani the Cat as I call him, is the Media
Adviser to former Vice President Namadi Sambo.
I
spent the night in his house, and as always we shared reminiscences. We
exchanged views about the present and worries about the future.
This
was accompanied by day-long enjoyment of dollops of pounded yam, freshly
prepared pepper soup with fish from Kogin Kaduna, delicious ram suya,
and Hausa music from the old masters.
One particular Hausa musician
caught my attention, he actually sounded, beat by beat, like the late
Yusuf Olatunji were it not for the difference in language.
But
the night became darker when we received the news of the sudden and
untimely death of Gordon Obua, our former colleague who served as Chief
Security Officer to President Goodluck Jonathan.
Obua, like many of the
Jonathan boys, went through a lot in the last nearly two years. Umar
Sani and I tried to reach many of our other colleagues.
One said he was
scared about tomorrow
and what else would happen. Another said he was so sad, he just chose
to go to bed. The grief was deep and widespread; the shared emotion was
touching. Everyone worked with the CSO.
Nobody could access the
President or any part of the Villa, without an encounter with the CSO
and his team. The Presidential Villa is not an ordinary workplace, it
is, every part of it, a security zone.
Our
return journey to the airport the following morning was less excitable,
marked as it was by unspoken thoughts and pregnant reflections. I made
it to Lagos.
Looking back, the Federal
Government and Kaduna State Government, Federal Airports Authority of
Nigeria (FAAN), Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and other
stakeholders who were involved in managing the process of diversion of
traffic from the Abuja airport to Kaduna deserve our commendation.
They
have not done badly at all. The airport handled many flights daily,
including international flights by Ethiopian airlines – the only foreign
airline operating in Nigeria that embarked on a voyage of faith and
support to Kaduna.
I am aware that some travellers have had cause to
complain about the lack of a seating area at the ticketing section in
Kaduna, the insistence of the airlines on cash payment, the absence of
restaurants and Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), and the relatively
relaxed security around the airport at certain periods of the day.
Nonetheless, I offer a pass mark.
Hadi Sirika,
Minister of State for Aviation and Nasir el-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna
State both promised that there would be no problem. They have so far
kept their word.
We may just have found in the management of the
rehabilitation of the Nnamdi Azikiwe airport, and the diversion of
traffic to Kaduna, a template for inter-governmental co-operation and
government-civil society strategic interface on key national issues.
When
the idea of the diversion was first mooted, we were all skeptical.
Foreign airlines operating in Nigeria kicked, other stakeholders in the
aviation sector protested, the general public was worried.
I wrote a
piece titled “Before the Abuja airport is shut down” (January 10)
in which I gave voice to these concerns. I accused the Federal Airports
Authority of Nigeria of incompetence and inefficiency, citing the
mismanagement of the renovation of the Port Harcourt and Owerri
International Airports.
In other countries, airport runways are not
abandoned for 21 years, and if they have to be repaired, the entire
airport is not shut down and travellers put through discomfort.
In
Glasgow, Scotland, an entire runway was fixed within weeks of
off-traffic operation, at night. I later wrote another piece – “A visit
to the Gusau Institute” (February 7)
in which I complained, parenthetically, about the horrific nature of
the Kaduna-Abuja road and the likely threat to travellers.
Criticism
obviously helps but that is if the concerned party is willing to
listen. Optics also matters. Stakeholders complained previously about
the shambolic state of the Kaduna airport.
I met a better airport, in
varying stages of improvement. I wrote about the bad state of the road
linking Kaduna and Abuja. The potholes seem to have been fixed.
It also
seems as if the state Governor has appealed to the bus drivers on that
road to drive more carefully, the motorcyclists to stay off the highway
and the trailer-drivers to be more circumspect.
I also complained about
how difficult it was to get information on the purchase of train tickets
between Abuja and Kaduna.
The Nigeria Railway Corporation may still
have a lot to do to improve the quality of its services, but it managed
in the last six weeks, to attract significant interest and patronage.
Governance is not as difficult as it is made to appear- just do what is
right and put the people first.
What remains
all things considered, is the need to place greater emphasis on the
value of maintenance culture as an element of the infrastructure
management process.
We tend to wait until everything breaks down in this
country before we attend to them. We prefer the fire-brigade approach
and although we love infrastructure, we do not have in place a system
for maintaining assets.
We have problems because we run government with
the mentality of children. Children love new things, and are impressed
by toys. But in due course, they spoil the toys or they get distracted
and abandon them.
In the same manner, government sets up structures,
impresses itself and the public and then moves on until everything
collapses. This institutionalized culture of waste and leakage is
deplorable. It falls short of best practices elsewhere.
Minister of Aviation says Abuja airport is now ready and that it will be back to business on the promised date of April 19.
He has taken journalists to the airport to assess progress.
Vice
President and Minister of Information also visited. The promptitude with
which the Abuja airport renovation has been handled is un-Nigerian.
I
actually don’t mind if the Ministry of Aviation takes additional two
weeks to get everything properly in place.
When eventually traffic
returns to the airport, the Federal Government and Kaduna State
Government should work together to ensure that the hopes that have been
raised about the Kaduna airport are not dashed.
The investments made
there in the last six weeks should be well-managed and the still
on-going upgrading of the airport should be completed.
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