The international terminal of Nigeria’s major airport, the Murtala Muhammed International Airport is fast becoming an eyesore as cats, rats and decay are weighing down on the facility.

On the surface, the terminal which was modelled after the Amsterdam Airport, Schiphol, may impress travellers who are hurriedly passing through, but the infrastructure and inner workings of the place show a completely different picture of decay and poor maintenance.

Rats are running amok at the facility which is now also a home to a multitude of cats. Also, most sections of the airport are at various stages of uttermost disrepair.

“I think the cats were introduced to chase away the rats but strangely, they have become friends as they move together freely,” a woman who sells food at a canteen in the airport told our reporters. “I think the cats have enough food to eat, so why bother with rats,” the woman asked.

She tells of a certain day when two cats that were fighting in the ceiling close to her shop fell to the floor of the arrival lobby in broad day light. “You need to see how the Nigerians who were there took to their heels as if a ghost had suddenly appeared. Only the white people who are used to having cats around had the courage to keep looking as the battle between the animals unfolded,” she says.

Trouble in paradise

In most developed and developing countries, the international airports are seen as a marketing tool; this is not the case with the Muritala Muhammed International airport.

The sections of the airport where most airlines have their offices is horrible. Some of the walls are broken, the paint is rundown, and airlines have to resort to self-help to bring their offices and surrounding environment some face lift.

It is not uncommon to see roughly done patches made with cement on the floors and walls which have either cracked or are on the verge of cracking.

Also, ceilings fall off occasionally and the major elevator has become a frightening monument because of poor maintenance and old age.

The air conditioners at the departure section of the airport work and the place is rather well lit however, the arrival section presents a different picture. Most of the air conditioners have stopped working, a good number of the fluorescent light are perpetually blinking and do not come on, also the ceiling are under the burden of age, most which were installed as neat white sheets show patches of decay, mould, and a greyish or creamy colour as a result of long periods or exposure amidst lack of maintenance.

Get into the toilets and a far worse scene greets you. Unlike many airports in the world where there is provision for toiletries, that does not exist in Murtala Muhammed airport. There are broken toilets, falling ceilings, clogged toilets and urinary and in one of the male toilets in the arrival section, a huge fan has been deployed in the toilet because the air conditioner has completely broken down, and the fan is the only way to blow out the stench of human waste.

Deep dark dungeon

But the major shocker lies underneath the last two floors of the airport. When TODAY’SECHO investigators got to that section, it was a frightening picture of how the bottom of an airport should not be.

Uncontrolled water dripping from the air-conditioners above actually lead to large pools of water in the basement of the airport.

Personal efforts at patching the airport are effort
“When vice president Yemi Osinbanjo was here, he was shielded from seeing this place,” my guide tells me. This dingy section of the airport is supposed to be a veritable section where the supplies of those who handle commerce at the facility were supposed to be housed.

But this is the actual home of the rats, cats, and other rodents at the airport. In this section, there is no viable security, its dark and moulds are everywhere.

The awful smell of decomposing food and the decay of a building that has not enjoyed the pampering of renovation in years is evident everywhere.

Commerce and a web of deception

More than forty businesses operate from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport. There are at least 34 shops or small businesses in operation, eight banks have outlets there while four major telecoms operators have operations in the place.

One of the small shop operators who runs a canteen said that they pay as much as N7million annually for the space. There is also a penalty for those who do not pay their rents on time. The banks, bureau de change operators and telecoms companies obviously pay more. And it cannot be said that the airport is not making money from this facility.


Apart from these incomes, major banks have invested millions on sponsorships and advertisement at the airports. Key among them are Zenith Bank and UBA. Other key advertisers are the telecoms companies, which also use the opportunity to sell their sim cards to Nigerians and foreigners who have just arrived from other countries. We estimate that the authorities rake in nothing less than N700million from rent and these promotional activities annually, not to talk about the taxes which passengers pay for using this air.

(Not to mention the amount of money that airport officials make from begging and extortion at the airport, as they embarrass and irritate commuters who are making trios in and out of Nigeria.) As expected, things at the airport are extremely expensive. The small businesses sell food, drinks, magazines, newspapers and national memorabilia. And some of the merchants say that they would have operated better businesses if the infrastructure is better. “I don’t see why I should pay so much for this rundown place,” a trader said. “But because of the unemployment situation, what will I do if I don’t run this business she asks.”

Black elephant projects

It is not that there has not been massive investment on the Murtala Muhammed International Airport. Successive administrations and governments have invested sizable funds, in attempts at bringing the airport up to speed.

In 1999, there was a massive remodelling at the airports. In successive years, funds were committed to the airport. In 2017, the federal government allotted N31.1 billion for construction and repairs of federal airports across the country while Murtala Muhammed International airport was concessioned.

A travel website, The Guide to Sleeping in Airports, last year rated the Port Harcourt aerodrome as the “world’s worst airport”. Lagos and Abuja international airfields were also named among the 10 worst airports in Africa.

http://www.todaysecho.com/cats-rats-decay-take-murtala-mohammed-international-airport-buhari-looks/

This is a national embarrassment and it cuts across all facets of Government institutions

Lack of maintenance has become the bane of our society.

Nigeria is doomed!