Here I was on another adventure to the Lagos international airport this evening to drop my mother off. We got to the airport early enough to avoid the now mandatory snail paced traffic due to the barricade of blue painted drums manned by airforce men some bearing bionet rifles.
I had to drop her off with her luggage at the departure platform before rushing a few hundred meters to the makeshift car park to ditch my car. I decided to walk the distance back to departure since I missed the shuttle which was already on its way towards the airport. I had to evade the airforce men at a point when one of them shouted at me from far to get off the main road and across a wide drainage which was thankfully dry. I made my way unto a walk way under construction close to the site of the main car park undergoing reconstruction and eventually made it up the flight of stairs to help my mother into the lounge for check in procedures.
A few minutes and luggage weighing later, we made our way to the blessed table of the customs and drug law enforcers. They checked the bags and one of the men tried to ruffle my mother by making a pass by a very small bag of smoked fish but she did not buy it. The second bag got to a presumably more senior female officer who then looked to my mother and asked for a weekend tip. I am normally never in any mood for chitchat with Nigerian airport officials so I didn't even bother to look at any of them as I pulled the zippers of the travel bag shut. I did not realise my mother had pointed to me in response to the woman's question; she then proceeded to throw the same request at me.
"The government has not paid me since December" I responded; perhaps I should have said November which was more accurate. I expected that these federal workers would have understood my drift but the woman pressed on with her questions as if to profile me if I was indeed a federal worker. "Where do you work", "so you are a doctor"...."which department?"..."Do you know one Dr Ojo?".... All these questions to squeeze out money from me which I did not have. My responses must have convinced her to quit and move on to her next victim; I just packed the bags and headed off to get the boarding passes.
We were finally done and decided to walk away from the check in area. The male airline officer who manned the barrier in and out of the area was about to let me pass when he smiled and asked me for a tip. I was really angry at this point but I just remained silent and let his request pass. Do we have to grant a tip before anything can be done in Nigeria? How can people doing their regular jobs assume that anybody they see coming their way is Bill Gates and free from every kind of economic troubles? I know folks would say that those at the bottom need to change their ways before any serious change can happen to Nigeria but I insist we need a landmark change at the top first to model the kind of change that we want which the people can thereafter mirror and reciprocate.
I left the very uncomfortable departure lounge and made my way for the shuttle station. I met a shuttle loading human beings but which was already packed like a tin of sardines. Another walk back was my decision and I decided to observe the signs of airport transformation claimed by the incumbent president. The car park seems to be undergoing steady progress after the holiday break embarked upon by the workers there. The huge billboard of the president's reelection campaign stood elegantly on the road and elaborate enough for visitors and newly arrived passengers to see after enduring some of the worst conditions ever experienced in an international airport. The traffic had become very extensive at that time as I made my way past the 6 apparently unused shuttle buses of the Federal airport authority and about 4 or 5 broken down or fairly used but still broken down buses.
That is how my latest airport experience went; incident free and 300naira spent for two hours parking.
Joa
010215
No comments:
Post a Comment