Watching the video of the stampede at Lagos State University, Ojo last Monday where some undergraduates reportedly fainted and others injured as they scrambled to enter the venue of an examination brought back the memory of an ugly situation at Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, just a day after the Lagos incident.
It was a day many passengers and, perhaps, some staff will not forget in a hurry. Moving by plane has always been considered to be cost-effective, relatively stress-free and a convenient alternative to moving by car. Some even consider it prestigious and classy.
But all that perception changed for many people on Tuesday when passengers at the famous airport were treated no better than molue passengers. The very long queue to the terminal was not unexpected being very early in the morning of a working day and many had first flights to catch. It was also not surprising to see the snake-like queue to the check-in desk although the action of some people, mainly uniformed men who intermittently jumped the queue to have their bosses or whoever they escorted to the airport expressly attended to was very disappointing.
Then at the various check-in desks were embarrassing chaotic situations. The places were crowded by all manner of people: those who feel they are too big and influential to stand in the line; some touts who collect stipends from passengers to help them with the checking-in process; the aforementioned security personnel who are supposed to be law enforcers but blatantly break them in service to their masters and the passengers who had patiently and obediently been in line and should be rightly attended to. A particular woman who apparently is not a Nigerian, bewildered at what was going on, was heard lamenting in American accent, “This ain’t how things are done at the airport. Things should be done orderly. This is insane”. But was anybody ready to listen?
If the situation at the check-in desks could be called insane, one wonders the adjective that could be used to describe the scene at the sorting station. The standard practice at airports across the globe is that after passengers are checked, they leave their baggage to be processed. Once the scanner clears the bag, it moves down the conveyor belt and into the airline’s baggage sorting station. There, it is temporarily stored before being sorted and transported to the aircraft using carts or special containers. Of course, at this stage the baggage will be tagged.
But our fellow Nigerians at Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, on this fateful Tuesday morning handed over tagged baggage to their owners and asked them to take such to the sorting station for “proper identification”. That was supposed to be another queueing process but this time many people had ran out of patience to stand on an unmoving line and stand the chance of missing their flights. So, they all headed to the entrance of the sorting room with their luggage, jostling to enter through the tiny door at the same time.
As the boarding announcement for various flights kept coming, the struggle to send in their baggage intensified. The resultant commotion is indescribable. Boxes were flying into the room, people, especially women were pushed down, there was screaming and crying everywhere. A woman struggling to enter the “golden gate” with her four boxes was pushed down and trampled upon. Immigration and other airport officials at the other end did not make the situation better as they insisted that every luggage must be opened for rechecking. Some of them were manned at the door to push people away as they were overwhelmed by the population inside the small room. Those that made it to the room couldn’t come out because of the mammoth crowd blocking the door which served as both entrance and exit. A particular military officer forcing himself out, pushed down people on both sides and practically walked on them to get out of the ugly scene. It was, indeed, an eye saw and a big embarrassment to the airport and the country at large.
The big question is whose decision was it that passengers should escort their already processed and tagged baggage to the sorting room and why? Where were the airport and security personnel saddled with the responsibility of maintaining orderliness at the airport all the while the commotion lasted? One may also want to know at what point the non-passengers are not allowed at the airport because the attitude of the growing number of touts at our various airports, the assistants and security officials attached to politicians and other highly placed people in the society is very unbecoming and create a huge problem for other passengers and also paints the nation black. One has been opportuned to travel to one or two countries and never saw this kind of situation. Even if their influential citizens came to the airport with their legion of aides you would not know because they will not break airport laws and orders, jump queues or insult airline staff and other workers at the airport as is the case in Nigeria.
It is high time management of airports, minister of aviation and all concerned agencies looked into the absurdities going on in our various airports. Corrupt practice of some airport staff who print two tickets for the hiring of trollies, N400.00 and N150.00 should be addressed. The begging attitude of the cleaners and some other junior airport staff and those doing business at our airports should no longer be over looked. As has always been said, airport is the first port of call of many visitors to the country, the treatment they receive there, the condition of the environment goes a long way in forming their image of the nation. Let international standard practice prevail in Nigerian airports. Our airport managers should learn from other countries with far more daily passengers than ours yet their baggage is properly handled without any passenger having to break his waist carrying his belongings almost into the aircraft.

Calista Ezeaku