₦airaland Forum

EsotericMonk:
Nigerians by default are guilty until proven otherwise. That's why we need to respect ourselves wherever we find ourselves

Cyberknight:
I must say that the writer's article is not true and is very much out of date.

I travel somewhat frequently (more frequently before than nowadays) and can say that the Lagos airport at least is not this way now (never flown international from Abuja).

No-one searches your luggage by hand anymore, they just scan it in at the point of entry into the airport, then after that you don't meet any other official government agency till you get to passport control after dealing with the airlines and checking in baggage. In my recent years of travelling international, they do sometimes ask me "Oga, anything for us?" while stamping my passport, to which I sometimes reply "Next time" or drop if I feel like, but again, I repeat, I have never felt pressured to do so. And whenever I say "Next time", they smile and wave me through. I've never been extorted at passport control ever.

Even in the bad old days of hand searching luggage when they used to bring out all the foodstuff and other stuff we carry, dropping a well-placed 200 naira note was more of an irritating toll than blatant in-your-face extortion, and anytime I travelled light I never faced any disturbance. I am aware that others might not have had things this smooth in the old days when the airport was a mess, but they've cleaned it up now.

All in all this article does NOT reflect the true state of affairs at Lagos Airport NOW.

tabithababy:
Haaaaaaaaaa

gisthabit:
https://gisthabit.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/murital-muhammed-airport-640x395.jpg

Travelling out of Nigeria for most people, especially the first time travellers is a worrisome experience. To be fair, I think the process of checking-in at any of the international airports to the point of boarding the aircraft is more tedious, stressful, energy consuming and frustrating than the process of getting the travel visa itself.



For most cases, the passengers cannot move one point to another without parting with cash as in the form of bribe.

The presence of enormous security personal and unnecessary screening points is quite embarrassing and time-consuming. These extra screening points aside the normal screening machine are illegal according to the Executive Order signed sometime in 2018 by the Vice President Yemi Osinbanjo (GCON).

In this article, I want to express some of the troubles and headache Nigerians, in particular, go through whenever they want to leave the country through any of the international airports.

The bunch of problems travellers face at Nigeria’s International airports

#1. Unbearable Traffic congestion

This is a peculiar problem with the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja-Lagos. Nowadays the traffic congestion being experienced at the airport road is unbearable and has led to so many missed flights.

It is so bad that you can spend over 3-hours on the airport road for a trip that normally take 5 to 10 minutes. For most passengers that travel light, they are normally left with the option of taking a bike to the terminal building to avoid missing their flights while for those who cannot avoid travelling with lots of luggage, they mostly resign to their fate and hope that they meet up

#2. Impatient car towing officials

If you are a regular at the airports particularly Lagos airport you will agree with me that the towing van company that operates there are inhuman.

Your vehicle wheels can be clamped for just stopping at a bus stop within the airport to ask someone for directions. They will waste no time to impound your vehicle and tow it to their office while you are forced to part with the sum of N50,000 as a fine for the supposed wrong parking.

Nowadays, they disguise themselves inside private cars normally parked somewhere around the supposed no-parking areas (even though there will not be any sign to indicate that), thereby attracting other motorists looking for a parking space.

They will watch you park and turn off your car engine before one of them will jump out of the car in which they have taken as their hideout and the next thing that will follow will be that your car will be impounded.

#3. Frustrating law enforcement officers

Where do I start? Is it the police that stationed at some points in the airport stopping motorists and travellers at will or is it the Nigerian Customs officials that are in the terminal building waiting for the slightest opportunity to extort money from travellers going for their business.

Do I talk about the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) officials who even after ransacking your bags but couldn’t find any incriminating substance will still keep and delay you just to break you to the point that you will feel delayed and possibly part with cash to appease them?

What about the Nigerian Immigration Service officials that will fling your passport back to you the moment they realize that you didn’t tuck in some cash in your passport before submitting it.

How can I forget the State Security Service (SSS) officials that are waiting to know how much dollars you are travelling with as if they were the ones that paid for your flight ticket. The very moment that you are travelling with a large sum of cash they will start expecting their cut most times in hard currencies.

All the mentioned law enforcement officials intimidate passengers and make them part with their hard earned monies at any slightest opportunities. They carry out these acts with great pride and strength as it was legal.

#4. Unconducive terminal building

I understand that Nigeria is still a developing country but the state of our terminal building (Lagos in particular) is appalling.

It is far from an airport terminal building. The Power outage has become a norm, the whole terminal building stinks and the cooling systems are not enough any longer to sustain the increasing number of travellers.

I want to believe that this will be addressed soon when the new terminal building under construction finally comes alive.

#5. Overzealous airline and airport officials

Sometimes I wonder if the so-called airline and airport officials realize that they are in the aviation sector to offer customer service.

What we see is far fetch from what is obtainable from other international airports all over the world. All the quest of trying to make a traveller part with cash, the airline officials go as far as delving into issues that are beyond the scope of their job.

These days you see airline officials trying to ask questions about past travelling records even though it clearly has nothing to do with the current situation. They go as far as declaring you not-qualified to fly even when you have a valid visa and air ticket.

All these gimmicks are targeted towards outing the traveller into panic mood so that you can be willing to do anything just to fly.

It is quite disheartening that travellers don’t only face these challenges when departing Nigeria. Some of these issues and many more have now become a norm both when departing and arriving in Nigeria.

So far, the Federal Government together with the Airport Authority has tried in their efforts to see that the airports become more user-friendly. But they both need to up their game and see that all the highlighted issues are addressed in due time to save the airport users from all these stress and torment.



Source: https://gisthabit.com/the-problems-travellers-face-at-nigerias-international-airports/

traihit:
But Nigerians are not all-devils without anything good about them. We have a lot of faults as Nigerians but truthfully speaking, citizens of other countries are not very better than Nigerians.

hardbody:
One idiot asked what I was going to do on Kenya and i retorted, what is exciting in Kenya to attract me? He asked how much I had in me, I brought out my course invitation letter that states that my trip was all expenses paid. The conversation ended.

The next time I got a similar silly question was in Heathrow. A co.ck.y english girl asked what I came to do, and I told her I was there to review documents and agree terms with my colleagues in her country. That rubbed off badly. She then asked red faced, how long do you intend to stay, I said if I can get this agreement signed today, I will leave with the next flight out of London. She went on, why the urgency, I said I had a job to go back to. She did not look up, just stamped and handed over my passport.

ifyalways:
Heat,A/C never working. Only one conveyor belt working.

emmie14:
All these evil is associated primarily in murtala Mohammed airport, Lagos. Did you add dirtiness and flintility associated with that part of Nigeria.
I travelled out of Nigeria 4days ago through Nnamdi Azikiwe airport Abuja without encountering any problem. The security officers from airport gate to boarding gate wears friendly looks , smiles when necessary and ready to assist on request.
The maddness in lagos airport demand urgent attention and action to sanitize behaviour and environment. Abuja is different.
I noticed and witnessed five first timers who enjoyed traveling out of Nigerian airport Abuja.

uuzba:
Western world is fraustrating. Was so happy to return.
The place is full of hypocrits. Today something is a crime, and abomination. Tomorrow, they will turn it into a law and force everybody to obey it.
Tell them you are a Christian. Na die you wan die.
Tell them you are a Catholic - Christian. YOU ARE FINISHED.

Cyberknight:
I must say that the writer's article is not true and is very much out of date.

I travel somewhat frequently (more frequently before than nowadays) and can say that the Lagos airport at least is not this way now (never flown international from Abuja).

No-one searches your luggage by hand anymore, they just scan it in at the point of entry into the airport, then after that you don't meet any other official government agency till you get to passport control after dealing with the airlines and checking in baggage. In my recent years of travelling international, they do sometimes ask me "Oga, anything for us?" while stamping my passport, to which I sometimes reply "Next time" or drop if I feel like, but again, I repeat, I have never felt pressured to do so. And whenever I say "Next time", they smile and wave me through. I've never been extorted at passport control ever.

Even in the bad old days of hand searching luggage when they used to bring out all the foodstuff and other stuff we carry, dropping a well-placed 200 naira note was more of an irritating toll than blatant in-your-face extortion, and anytime I travelled light I never faced any disturbance. I am aware that others might not have had things this smooth in the old days when the airport was a mess, but they've cleaned it up now.

All in all this article does NOT reflect the true state of affairs at Lagos Airport NOW.

Ugosample:
Nigeria is a filthy country, be it north, South East or SW

So it's not a "it's their part of Nigeria" thing
it's a national problem.

that said, Abuja might be less animalistic (they are still tho, depending on which side of the track you fall)
but that's because more VIPs use that airport (ministers, appointees and all)

they have to behave themselves to an extent

But Nigerian immigration no dey try

that's the truth