Save Nigeria Project: A Nasty experience I had at the Murtala Muhammed Airport on Sunday

Nigerians seem to be religious but many of them lack the facet of their faith-truth, compassion, selflessness etc.

They go to church or mosque or what have you. They fast and make supplications or petitions to their 'Master' Who, l stand to be corrected, does not wield his hammer or sledge on us immediately we do something wrong.

 

Yet, we can not be like this God Who loves us and always gives us opportunities to have a change of heart.

 

I am not bringing religion into my discourse, It's just that l am disturbed by what l see around me.

 

Recently, some youths that were frustrated vent their anger on the two men sitting at a table in an office collecting the  every day 'bitter' Nigerian kola. 

 

Still they could not achieve anything. Yes, l say anything because the status quo remained same. Two of them had to reign curses on the officials.

 

I tried to pacify the aggrieved youth and plead with the officers, nothing yielded.

What happened? 

 

It happened at MMA in the evening of Sunday, though it is a regular thing.

They came separately bringing their loved ones for a purpose-travelling out of the country.

At every corner, you see the notice NO PARKING, yet you see none at the departure entrance. You are expected to drop your passengers and zoom off without waiting. 

It means therefore that there should be no vehicle without people moving out of such vehicles with their baggages.

 

Not so at lkeja lnternational Airport where sanity has been thrown into into the winds.

You will see one lane of vehicles moving while the other has parked or stationary vehicles. 

 

 Should that be? In a No Parking Area? If any vehicle should be seen stationed there at all, somebody or some Travellers should be seen moving out of such cars.

Investigations revealed that some of the 'captors' deliberately park their vehicles at the entrance of the departure hall to confuse unsuspecting car owners into doing the same and thereby courting their wrath. 

 

At other climes, the drivers of such cars would be told politely to move on, that is, to be reminded of the laws guiding the area. Not in our country!

It is assumed you should know everything. 

They should know that some are first timers. They see the 'no parking' signs yet, vehicles fill all the place. Who left such vehicles there?

Who are those that delight themselves in seeing people cry?

I am a regular face there. I have seen adults cry when they are forced to pay between N5500 and N20000 as penalty. 

I am not saying wrong doers should go unpunished. Are they first warned?

 

This brings us to the ploy behind this...wickedness....

It is a known fact that no man can work vigorously and efficiently for someone or even for the government in Nigeria if he has no personal undue gain in it.

If all the money goes to the right place-the coffers of the MMA outfit responsible for the collection, there would be human angle to it.

The supposed captors will add some dignity to their work.

 

But with what is happening with the officials towing away parked vehicles with no suffient warning, it shows that some or all of them are eating fat on both the people caught and the government.

With great energy they pounce on you. God saves you if you allow them drive you into their office named Personnel-a dreadful place known to all dwellers at the airport. You will be charged N5500 for small cars and N10000 for jeep.

 

Where they tow the vehicle you pay additional N10000 before you can collect your seized vehicles. 

Who says the bill or receipts are genuine? 

I begged one or two of those caught to release the receipts for me and made copies because l was also pained seeing them squeezed to their last currency. 

This is a case for another day.

 

One of them was a foreign based Nigerian Naval officer. He was obviously agitated. He was to go by 11pm flight. His young wife drove him to the airport around 7pm; he got out and entered into the departure hall. The wife, on seeing other vehicles parked with nobody near them, saw a little space and decided to park her car in order to go meet her husband for some more time with him. A costly mistake! Hardly had she come out locking the car than she was accosted forcefully. 

 

When she could no longer withstand the pressure, she pulled a call through to her husband crying she was in great problem. She had N1000 with her, so she begged them. No, the captors were adamant. They were interested in the fine and in nothing else.

 

The husband came and joined her at the said Personnel office or the dungeon where the car was towed to. He made passionate appeal telling them of their dilemma-they came from Akure, the wife was expected to go to her relation's place somewhere at Maryland to sleep before going back home. And he showed them his international ID card for a measure of compassion.  Nothing moved. 

 

Another young man drove his mother and his grandma to the airport. The grandmother was traveling out. He also saw a place to park the car like the others before him so that he, as a man would go and help the mamas see to the check-in routines. As he came out, the would-be law enforcers got him. He also had to cry. 

Many like that experienced the jungle treatment in the day.

A way out!

 

Let a bank be placed there permanently 24/7 and government tellers be issued for such offenders to go pay into.

In this way, if the officials 'income' are systematically removed, except they are 'settled' along the way,they will learn to bring dignity, respect and honesty to the work they do.

So bad l would say, seeing a 60+years old man among them running after vehicles with unbridled energy.

What is he after-his due salary or another?

Let us save Nigeria.

 

From Bamidele Bosede, a member of Save Nigeria Project