I have never been out of Nigeria, but I don’t like flying an aircraft in Nigeria, I don’t even like travelling that much except it is very important. But travelling on Nigerian roads and flying the airspace is very less attractive to me. Nevertheless, whenever it becomes a necessity for me to leave where I am, to move around a bit, and see other people in other places, I don’t have a choice than to do so. I have been living in Lagos since 1994, and apart from occasional visits to Osun State to see my grandparents, I rarely leave Lagos except when it has to do with my job. I don’t go on holiday and I don’t attend parties or events outside Lagos. It’s a personal decision. But then, I started doing freelance work in the media, and the travelling around Nigeria commenced. One of those freelance jobs took me to Calabar where I have been for 1 year and half now. And within that period, I have been in the sky more than 10 to 15 times, for official reasons and personal reasons most times.
Before now, I have been treated shabbily by airlines, got my flight delayed, spoken to rudely by some of their staff at the check – in point, but my experience with Aero Contractors on the 3rd of September 2014 on my Calabar to Lagos flight was the height of it. And then I encountered a typical Nigerian mentality of “Let’s just thank God and move on” mentality.
My flight was booked well ahead of time for some reasons, and the departure time on my ticket was 2:25PM. But before leaving for the airport, I checked online to see if the departure time had been changed. And behold, the flight had been rescheduled for 4PM, and I didn’t receive any sms to that effect. I still decided to get to the airport on time; at least I could check in and maybe write some stuff while waiting for the plane to come.
Cab dropped me off around 2PM at Margaret Ekpo International Airport in Calabar (Whoever named the airport ‘International’ ought to be bitch slapped). It was raining as it always does in Calabar at this time of the year. And the whole check-in area was littered with plastics and buckets because some parts of the roof were leaking (You know, in line with the transformation agenda or Mr. President). I ignored all that and proceeded to the counter which had been opened for check-in, thankfully. I got my boarding pass with no hassles and the departure time indicated 3:20PM (rescheduled again, typical). I shrugged and moved on to the departure lounge.
Margaret Ekpo “International” Airport
I decided to eat at the only shop that sells snacks at the lounge. While there, I met a young lady who I later got to know is a writer and a blogger like me. She is also married, been married for 6 years, so no P-setting was intended (Lol). Eventually the announcer informed us over the PA system that the plane to take us to Lagos will land at 4:30PM or thereabout. (Not very sure now, but it was another rescheduling). The plane landed and we boarded, it was a big aircraft, and we were more than 120 passengers on board. We were in the aircraft for about 30 minutes as it steamed or so I thought. Soon after, the aircraft shut down and later came up again after about 7 minutes. By this time I was sweating, because everywhere was stuffy and the young dude sitting beside me whose body odour can annihilate my whole village was not helping matters (God, don’t let him read this, he would remember my face. Amen) I had the window seat and I was praying earnestly for the aircraft to take off so that I could stick my nose towards the glass as much as possible for the next 1hour 15 minutes journey. Just then, my prayer was answered but not the way I wanted. The captain’s voice croaked through the PA system announcing that there was a mechanical/technical hitch with the ground equipment needed to power the aircraft and we would have to deplane while they try to fix it. I heaved a sigh of relief as I carried my hand luggage and headed for the departure lounge alongside other passengers.
After endless wait, it was getting dark and the rain was still pouring. The Station manager, one Mr Ajibade came to inform us that the plane would not be able to fly anymore that night, and that we all should go back home and come back the next day by 7AM to check in again for our flight that had been rescheduled to take off at 9AM. (Whaaaaaaat!!!) He even added that we should thank God that the fault was discovered while on the ground and not in the air or something like that. That God could have been trying to avert something disastrous, (Seriously?) That was when I exploded. “How dare you hang this on God’s neck? What has God got to do with your inadequacies…?” I kept ranting but to my surprise, other passengers (Nigerians) were telling me to stop being ungrateful. To just thank God and come back tomorrow, they asked me if I would have preferred the aircraft to crash after take-off; if I would rather die than to be late for whatever I was going for. I told them I’d rather be alive and be treated like human being. I also reminded them that death is not limited to a plane crash, a drunk driver could hit me, an ebola patient could decide to pee on me, and also like Ayo Sogunro said sometime ago, everything in Nigeria will kill you. And you just might not have a luxury of choosing which one, and it’s a matter of time before one eventually does.
Some Italian guy was very angry, he sounded funny as he tried to express his anger in English. “Me got flight Italy 9pm in Lagos. Who pay my money? Who take me there?” he fumed in a rather sexy Italian accent. The Station manager simply kept begging until someone asked him what would happen to our accommodation for the night. Then he said the airline would not be responsible as the incident fell under “Force majeure”…! My head sparked once again. “WTF is force majeure in all this matter? Force majeure forced you to reschedule your flight till evening knowing fully well that Calabar airport cannot operate night flight due to no electricity on the tarmac…?” I made up my mind not to leave the airport until I receive some form of compensation no matter how small from the airline whether officially or not.
In less than an hour almost all the passengers had left, then the lady I met earlier came to ask me what my plan was. I told her to follow me if she was interested. We both went to the Station Manager office and oh boy! I gave them trouble. (If you fly Aero to Calabar, ask Mr. Ajibade to tell you) To cut the long story short, I got some form of compensation; the lady got hers too. Though not enough to cover our hotel bills, but we were the only two passengers who stood till the end and got something.
NEXT DAY
I arrived at the airport at 7am as instructed and we were promptly checked in. The scanner conveyor belt was not working (In line with the transformation agenda of Mr. President) so we had to open our luggage and bring out the content for the custom officers to check. After checking in, the wait started again! They brought the equipment to fix the plane, and it turned out to be the wrong one. So they had to wait for another plane to bring the right one from Lagos or PH, I wasn’t sure from where.
Engineers battling with the plane! Oops! Wrong equipment!
I simply made up my mind to stay and wait it out. I didn’t have any urgent appointment in Lagos but I pitied those who had missed their flight the day before and some who were about to miss another one. A particular PDP leader in Lagos that I met the previous day told me he was rushing back in time for his daughter’s wedding slated for 12pm on Thursday. (4th. Sept) but as it was, he wasn’t going to be there. A lot of people had international flight to catch. A couple, with a beautiful set of twins was going for embassy interview in Lagos and so many urgent and important cases like that. But the Aero guys didn’t care, they didn’t bother to send another aircraft from anywhere to come and airlift us, they simply wanted to fix the same one and we had to just wait for them. We didn’t have a say in the matter.
When it was apparent that we were not going to leave on time, and Arik was scheduled to leave at 1:20pm, some passengers started asking for refund and they got it. But once Arik noticed people were getting refunds and buying their own tickets, they jerked up the price. The last person I spoke to bought her ticket for 32, 000 Naira. One way to Lagos, economy! I could understand the people who bought that ticket for that price, because if I had an urgent appointment in Lagos, I would buy too without any complaint. But since I didn’t have any, I chose to wait and I told those Aero guys that the only way I would not be on their next flight to Lagos would be if they shut down their operations. “I don’t care it if it had been fully booked online or not” I told them. Around 11 AM, they brought their normal inflight snacks for us, without the bottled water though, just the snacks and that fruit juice.
Arik aircraft came, picked its passengers and left. Soon after, our plane was fixed at about 2PM and we boarded. As I approached my assigned seat, the dude with amazing body odour was in his seat already. I looked around and thankfully there were empty seats on the plane, so I just smiled at him and told him he could take the window seat while I look for somewhere else to sit. He simply smiled back. I settled in my seat, waiting for the aircraft to take off. As soon as it did, I slept off. When I woke up, we were descending into Lagos; I asked the lady beside me if I had missed the inflight snacks because I was sleeping, she told me there was none. The airline insisted we had taken our inflight snacks while waiting at the departure lounge! I couldn’t believe my ears, but then again, this is Nigeria, the land of ANYHOWNESS and plenty RELIGIOUS people. Let’s just thank God we are not dead. C’est fini
Chris BAMIDELE 