Right from when I was in primary school, even though I had never flown in an aircraft, I knew from learning that air travel was the safest means of transportation. The reason was not very clear to me as a child but the textbooks and my teachers said it was and I had no reason to doubt them so I believed completely.
In Nigeria, air and road are the two major means of transportation and one only needs to take a look at weekly crash reports of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) to see the rate of road accidents compared to air mishaps which are far apart.
In the United States, statistics from the National Transportation Safety Board show that you only have a 1 in 9,821 chance of dying from an air and space transport incident, making flying one of the safest forms of transportation. Driving on the highway is, statistically, the most dangerous way to travel. Drivers have a 1 in 114 chance of dying in a motor vehicle crash, and a 1 in 654 chance of dying as a car occupant.
As I grew older and began to travel by air, I realised that travelling by air was not only the safest means of transportation but the most secure.
Using the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja as an example, several kilometers away from the airport terminal buildings, you begin to feel a sense of security as you drive through the security point before the main gate.
To access the terminal buildings, there are luggage and full body scanners that check to be sure that no unauthorised items or weapons are allowed into the terminals. It doesn’t end there. Before you access the departure lounge where the boarding gates are located, the same level of screening takes place and just at the foot of the aircraft before you board, you are frisked.
It was therefore shocking when I travelled through the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu State and the state of security at that airport set my mind running wild.
I began to wonder and so many what ifs raced through my mind.
To begin with, the first level scanner wasn’t working. An official of the Nigeria Custom Service (NCS) who stood by only asked passengers to confirm that they did not have any prohibited items in their luggage to which everyone within earshot, as at the time I passed through, responded in the affirmative and he let them go without any confirmation. For perspective, this is the entrance that leads to the ticketing area where boarding passes are also obtained.
To cap it, there was no frisking of passengers at the foot of the aircraft as it obtains in many other airports. Passengers simply passed through the boarding gate and to the aircraft.
Considering the prevailing insecurity across the country, the porosity of the airport security was an issue of great concern to me.
It was therefore a sort of relief when I read in the news the other day that the Federal Government had directed the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to beef up security across the airports over impending attacks by suspected criminals.
The federal government also requested the immediate enumeration of necessary countermeasures for the protection of airports/facilities, specifically for airports in Kaduna, Maiduguri, Sokoto, Kano, Abuja, and Lagos.
Apart from the listed airports, all airports have been requested to operate at a heightened threat level and this is where it gets interesting, “submit a list of existing and additional countermeasures to address the threats, along with their cost implications where applicable…”
As much as I agree, at least from my Enugu experience, that there is need for increased measures to protect the airport infrastructure and air travellers from every kind of security breach, I’m a tad confused about why there has to be a special call for something as serious as security to be treated with the seriousness it deserves at all times.
These are not the best times for the country, security wise and no part of the country is exempt from what is going on. Only recently, security at a correctional centre and a police station in the south eastern part of the country were compromised.
The way I see it, the threat level for every institution and infrastructure is heightened and we all need to be on our guards 24/7.
Nigeria runs a yearly budget and there are provisions for this in the budget. Why was the scanner at the Enugu airport not fixed when it developed a fault? Does it have to take a federal government alert on looming security breach for such routine maintenance to be undertaken?
Nigeria generally has a culture of poor maintenance.
The other day at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, I noticed that the door panel to the female convenience had fallen off the frame as a result of broken hinges and it was removed and kept at a corner, leaving those in the convenience in the full glare of passengers in the lounge. But I digress.
My major concern now is whether this request for countermeasures with cost implication will not become food for the “boys”.
Whatever happens, Enugu airport needs to be added to the list. It is a security breach waiting to happen.
