And before you ask how many international airports I have passed through, I have been to a significant number across six continents. At least I have passed through over 150 in 78 countries.

I think that should be enough to have the experiential knowledge on how some of these things work.

The key issue is that Nigeria does not want to change.
Nigerians love the chaos that envelopes them daily. It appears that “anyhowness” has been embedded into our social DNA such that whatever efforts to get us to drop our ways of doing things would meet stiff oppositions.

I have to admit that the MMIA Terminal 2 is more decent than the old terminal, but from my experience in the last few months, you could still see that it is fast becoming infected.
Please let the signs at the arrival halls do their jobs.

There is no need stationing an officer to tell passengers where to queue. The signs ate bold enough, and if anyone makes mistake and stay on wrong queue, they would correct themselves. It is not a crime.

It appears Nigeria Immigration Service has far more officers than is needed because I do not see why you should have up to five to six officers carving out job specifications of “Yellow Fever” traffic control of passengers.

“Welcome sir, how was your flight, go here, go there, stay here, and stay there”……six well trained officers? What a waste of human resources.

I have cried out before, questioning why we should have NDLEA, DSS check passengers passports before sending them to the Immigration officers. That too is a huge waste of manpower. All over the world, the best practice is a single officer stamp you in, or stamps you out. The country should have a central security database accessible to all agencies.

This unnecessary inter-agency trust deficit is itself a security risk. That was one of the weaknesses of the American system before 9/11, and after a thorough overhaul of internal security the agencies got merged that is why the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) handles both customs and Immigration with the support of the US Dept. of Homeland Security officers who carry out oversight functions in realtime.

That is what obtains in virtually all the advanced economies of the world that I have traveled to in the last few years.
The US has even stopped stamping passports. They simply scan you in, and scan you out. Some cases you do it yourself, they just direct you where to place your passport. Even you check in yourself at airline counter, print your boarding passes and baggage tags, affix them on your bags, and take to the counter to drop. SIMPLE LIFE.

Yes, we pay for trolley in many other countries, in most US airports, it is $6.

But what does it take to actualize some of these workable things in Nigeria?

Infrastructurally, it is next to nothing, but mentally, it is Sysiphian. We love suffering.

Across the world, interactions between the immigration officer and the passenger is recorded live with a supervisor listening in, some other countries have video cameras that capture everything so that issues of forcing first time passengers ( as is mostly the case here) to slip in dollar notes inside their passports are not there.
I experienced this in India over 7 years ago.

In Indonesia, I saw a great innovation where passengers has a HDTV screen that captures from the time their luggage leaves the belly of the aircraft onto the carrousel then down to the hall for retrieval. You watch everything on screen.

I would not want to go into my experiences at either Changi International Singapore, Narita, and Haneda both in Tokyo, or even Incheon International Seoul, those are what airports should aspire to be. If you miss your flight at Changi, you wont even know you missed anything. It is home in itself.

Like in Shanghai, AI has already ran a full security scan on you before you get to the counter thus oftentimes, you are waved to go carry your luggage.

Sometime in February, I was pleasantly shocked when I landed at brand news terminal of Freetown International Airport Lungi, Sierra Leone, the seamlessness of the organization was mind blowing.

There were only five non passengers at the baggage collection point. Two from the airline, two from Customs, one airport Police officer, and nobody was marketing his exceptional skill of helping you carry your luggage. You would experience same thing in Niamey, Senegal, Mauritania, Ethiopia, among many other African countries, but not Nigeria, especially Lagos.

Nigeria is the only place where you have a long table of over 15 officers from different agencies all competing against one another by shouting at the passenger to come to their own stand at the same time. Is it not shameful that officers would be shouting as if they are market women at Oyigbo selling pepper and crayfish hustling for customers?

Sometimes they even fight amongst themselves over quest to "obtain" from a passenger. National shame.

Then immediately you step out of the hall, all hell would be let loose on you, from taxi drivers to money changers, to touts hustling for everything under the Sun would besiege you as if you are a lamb on its way to a slaughter house.

At the taxi pickup stand, you’re your harassment continues, they would not even allow the person who came to pick you up to see space to park. At the same time touts masquerading as airport officials would want to clamp the wheels of your car. WTF is this country?

You would encounter able bodied men and women would be struggling with you to put your luggage into your own car, after which they besiege you with demands.
How can a country grow and develop on the back of anyhowness as a national lifestyle?

Dear Festus Keyamo, you promised to tackle some of these shameful acts during your oath taking, it is going to a year...


Kelechi Deca

This is an excellent analysis. It takes a sincere and concerned individual to put up this analysis. Thank you so much.

It further shows how unproductive most of the government agencies are. Over-staffed but continuous decline in customer services.

This should go to the front page.

@ Starzzy No lies told.!. The officers at the MMA (int'l) airport are a disgrace to the country and the agency they represent. hope FAAN and the Minister of Aviation does something about this. IF i can help it, i avoid MMA like a plague for Abuja.

We have a lamentable public service! It would be a wishful thinking to expect to get a President that is better than the people!

No lies told

Our civil service is over bloated and inefficient. But if you suggest they are merged or laid off . Many will come for your head. Why do we have police, NSCDC , EFCC when they can function as one agency. Sigh

Starzzy:
And before you ask how many international airports I have passed through, I have been to a significant number across six continents. At least I have passed through over 150 in 78 countries.

I think that should be enough to have the experiential knowledge on how some of these things work.

The key issue is that Nigeria does not want to change.
Nigerians love the chaos that envelopes them daily. It appears that “anyhowness” has been embedded into our social DNA such that whatever efforts to get us to drop our ways of doing things would meet stiff oppositions.

I have to admit that the MMIA Terminal 2 is more decent than the old terminal, but from my experience in the last few months, you could still see that it is fast becoming infected.
Please let the signs at the arrival halls do their jobs.

There is no need stationing an officer to tell passengers where to queue. The signs ate bold enough, and if anyone makes mistake and stay on wrong queue, they would correct themselves. It is not a crime.

It appears Nigeria Immigration Service has far more officers than is needed because I do not see why you should have up to five to six officers carving out job specifications of “Yellow Fever” traffic control of passengers.

“Welcome sir, how was your flight, go here, go there, stay here, and stay there”……six well trained officers? What a waste of human resources.

I have cried out before, questioning why we should have NDLEA, DSS check passengers passports before sending them to the Immigration officers. That too is a huge waste of manpower. All over the world, the best practice is a single officer stamp you in, or stamps you out. The country should have a central security database accessible to all agencies.

This unnecessary inter-agency trust deficit is itself a security risk. That was one of the weaknesses of the American system before 9/11, and after a thorough overhaul of internal security the agencies got merged that is why the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) handles both customs and Immigration with the support of the US Dept. of Homeland Security officers who carry out oversight functions in realtime.

That is what obtains in virtually all the advanced economies of the world that I have traveled to in the last few years.
The US has even stopped stamping passports. They simply scan you in, and scan you out. Some cases you do it yourself, they just direct you where to place your passport. Even you check in yourself at airline counter, print your boarding passes and baggage tags, affix them on your bags, and take to the counter to drop. SIMPLE LIFE.

Yes, we pay for trolley in many other countries, in most US airports, it is $6.

But what does it take to actualize some of these workable things in Nigeria?

Infrastructurally, it is next to nothing, but mentally, it is Sysiphian. We love suffering.

Across the world, interactions between the immigration officer and the passenger is recorded live with a supervisor listening in, some other countries have video cameras that capture everything so that issues of forcing first time passengers ( as is mostly the case here) to slip in dollar notes inside their passports are not there.
I experienced this in India over 7 years ago.

In Indonesia, I saw a great innovation where passengers has a HDTV screen that captures from the time their luggage leaves the belly of the aircraft onto the carrousel then down to the hall for retrieval. You watch everything on screen.

I would not want to go into my experiences at either Changi International Singapore, Narita, and Haneda both in Tokyo, or even Incheon International Seoul, those are what airports should aspire to be. If you miss your flight at Changi, you wont even know you missed anything. It is home in itself.

Like in Shanghai, AI has already ran a full security scan on you before you get to the counter thus oftentimes, you are waved to go carry your luggage.

Sometime in February, I was pleasantly shocked when I landed at brand news terminal of Freetown International Airport Lungi, Sierra Leone, the seamlessness of the organization was mind blowing.

There were only five non passengers at the baggage collection point. Two from the airline, two from Customs, one airport Police officer, and nobody was marketing his exceptional skill of helping you carry your luggage. You would experience same thing in Niamey, Senegal, Mauritania, Ethiopia, among many other African countries, but not Nigeria, especially Lagos.

Nigeria is the only place where you have a long table of over 15 officers from different agencies all competing against one another by shouting at the passenger to come to their own stand at the same time. Is it not shameful that officers would be shouting as if they are market women at Oyigbo selling pepper and crayfish hustling for customers?

Sometimes they even fight amongst themselves over quest to "obtain" from a passenger. National shame.

Then immediately you step out of the hall, all hell would be let loose on you, from taxi drivers to money changers, to touts hustling for everything under the Sun would besiege you as if you are a lamb on its way to a slaughter house.

At the taxi pickup stand, you’re your harassment continues, they would not even allow the person who came to pick you up to see space to park. At the same time touts masquerading as airport officials would want to clamp the wheels of your car. WTF is this country?

You would encounter able bodied men and women would be struggling with you to put your luggage into your own car, after which they besiege you with demands.
How can a country grow and develop on the back of anyhowness as a national lifestyle?

Dear Festus Keyamo, you promised to tackle some of these shameful acts during your oath taking, it is going to a year...


Kelechi Deca

This should be in the FP, please.
What travellers encounter in that airport is untold!