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| FEATURE ARTICLE |
| Priye S. Torulagha | Friday, January 6, 2006 |
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torulagha@yahoo.com
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THE EFFECTS OF CORRUPTION ON COMMERCIAL AVIATION AND LAND TRANSPORTATION IN NIGERIA
lane accidents are increasingly becoming a common phenomenon in Nigeria, just like road accidents. As a result, whenever a plane crashes, Nigerians are extolled to pray and the national flag is lowered in honor of the dead. Apart from these symbolic actions, nothing tangible is done by Nigerian leaders to ameliorate the conditions that lead to plane crashes. Of course, it is evident that prayer alone will not stop planes from crashing until the country takes the bull by the horn and try to fix the problems. Nigeria suffers greatly from lack of infrastrucutural investment in both air and land transportation as a result of massive corruption.
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In order to understand the problems that lead to plane crashes and the poor state of transportation in general, the following arguments are made: (1) there is a relationship between corruption and the poor state of commercial aviation and road transportation in Nigeria, (2) commercial aviation in Nigeria is administered and treated haphazardly like road transportation in general, (3) the haphazard nature of commercial aviation and poor road networks create insecurity that drives away international business, and (4) aviation problems cannot be fixed without first tackling the corruption that is associated with transportation in general in Nigeria These four arguments would serve as the basis for explaining the problems.
a. The relationship can be established by the fact that in the 1960s and 1970s, Nigeria used to have a well-managed aviation industry in the country. Hence, Nigeria had the Nigerian Airways. At the time, corruption was not pervasive and money allocated for airplane maintenance was used for the purpose. The Nigerians working in the aviation industry were dedicated and conducted themselves in a professional manner. Consequently, the Nigerian Airways had both domestic and international flights. Nigerians traveled within the country and internationally by extensively using the Nigerian Airways in the glorious days of the industry.
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Of course, during those days, privately owned indigenous commercial airline business was very negligible or nonexistent since the Nigerian Airways, a government owned airline, was probably the only domestic passenger carrier service. Most of the privately operated airplane and helicopter services were foreign-owned. These private air services provided services to companies that needed air transportation.
b. The ability of the Nigerian Airways to operate professionally and effectively became questionable starting from the middle 1980s as corruption became the major national occupational pastime of Nigerian leaders and public officials. This period coincided with Gen. Ibrahim Babangida's era. One could recall that under the regime of Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria had a running Nigerian Airways service, as demonstrated by the seizure of a Nigerian Airways plane in London over the Dikko affairs.
c. As corruption became a major national hobby, money allocated for maintaining the Nigerian Airways was diverted into private pockets of leading government officials. By the early and middle 1990s, the Nigerian Airways could not even pay for its airport rental spaces in various major cities of the world and had to cancel services. One could recall in 1994, some Nigerians living in the USA, having gotten tired of flying in other national airlines, decided to fly the Nigerian Airways while trying to visit home. From various locations, the Nigerians assembled in New York City's JFK Airport, waiting for the Nigerian Airways to carry them to Lagos. The plane never arrived from Lagos and the Nigerian Airways officials kept giving different explanations as to why the scheduled flight to Lagos could not take place. Frustrated, those passengers who had enough money took other airlines to Nigeria. Those without enough money got temporarily stranded in JFK before finding their way to Nigeria. It was a very sad experience for Nigerians at JFK as they watched citizens of other countries flew in their national airlines and Nigerians could not do so. Many Nigerians at the airport wondered why a country like Nigeria could not effectively manage an airline operation when even very small island nations could do so very successfully. Some Nigerians swore never to patronize a Nigerian airline anymore.
d. As the Nigerian Airways was being sacrificed at the alter of corruption, privately owned indigenous commercial airlines began to emerge in Nigeria. Thus, it could be inferred that the private airline business in Nigeria is a direct and indirect beneficiary of the collapse of the publicly owned Nigerian Airways. This means that corruption probably had a major role in providing the ability of some Nigerians to own private airlines in the country. This kind of relationship also contributed to the emergence of the private educational institutions. For instance, the boom in privately own educational schools ( private pre-school, primary, secondary, and universities) began with the collapse of the publicly owned educational institutions. Again, perhaps, money was partially siphoned off from the public educational sector to enhance the development of private schools. Hence, in Nigeria today, private schools are doing much better while public schools continue to decay for lack of infrastructural resuscitation, just like the Nigerian Airways continues to suffer while private airlines are germinating at a frenetic speed.
As can be seen, Nigeria is gradually mimicking the United States educationally, in the sense that children whose parents have the financial means would end up attending well-furnished private schools and children whose parents cannot afford the expensive private school fees would end up going to wretched public schools, thereby, producing a two tier educated class. In the US, it is a fact that public schools (elementary and secondary) are inferior to the private schools. Generally, children of the middle and lower classes attend public schools while children of the upper-middle and upper classes attend well-equipped schools in the suburbs. The result being that most children from the lower class neighborhoods are poorly educated while children from the suburbs are well educated. Many poorly educated youths engage in criminal activities. Nigeria too will end up this way, thereby, compounding the already explosive socioeconomic system in the country.
d. Corruption has a very suffocating grip on commercial aviation in Nigeria. The need to cut corners in order to enable some well-connected persons to get rich is legendary. Just look at the airport construction business in the country. It is a fact that Nigerians are great travelers. It is a fact that Nigerians have traveled to every part of the world. It is a fact that most high-level public officials in Nigeria have traveled abroad. Yet, these public officials approve the construction of airports that do not meet contemporary international airport design standards. A very careful examination of the Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu, etc. airports show that these airports are substandard. In particular, the Abuja and Port Harcourt airports are new, yet, they look more like exaggerated airstrips in contemporary international airport designs.
Nigeria experiences heavy rainfall during the rainy season, yet, these airports are designed in an old fashion manner, hence, when a plane lands, the passengers must disembark and walk quite a distance in order to get to the nearest building. What happens when there is a heavy rainfall and a plane lands on the ground? Does it mean that the passengers would have to wait in the plane until the rain stops? What happens to the luggage when it rains? Must the plane wait until it stops raining before the luggage is removed from the plane? Why did the Federal Government of Nigeria accept the Abuja and Port Harcourt airports? These airports were built in the modern era, yet, passengers are dropped off the plane and must walk to the nearest building at a time in which all over the world, airplanes can drop off passengers directly at the passenger lounge. Abuja is the capital of Nigeria and needs an airport like the Murtala Mohammed International Airport. The so-called new Port Harcourt airport is not markedly different from the old Port Harcourt airport. Although, it is larger, it is not large enough. The Enugu airport does not befit the City of Enugu at all. It looks more like a private airfield owned by an oil company. Here again, passengers must disembark from the plane and walk to the waiting lounge. Luggage too must be carried in trucks just like in Port Harcourt, Abuja, the domestic airport in Ikeja, and Northern airports to get to the baggage collection area.
Apart from the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Nigerian airports have toilets that befit an airstrip in the middle of the forest. At the Port Harcourt airport, it is necessary sometimes for passengers to carry along toilet papers, otherwise, they could easily end up in a toilet without a toilet paper. The toilets stink to high heavens. Why do Nigerian leaders and high public officials tolerate these makeshift airports, having traveled around the world and knowing the level of airport technology and management? Even the Murtala Mohammed International Airport is not as modern as it should be. The only explanation for the official acceptance of these airports is that public officials received kickbacks from the contractors to cut corners.
Nigerian airports have very lax security systems. Quite often, the airports have no secure barbed wire fences. This means that people and animals can walk directly unto the path of an incoming plane. It is not surprising that sometimes cows almost collide with planes, thereby, threatening the safety of passengers.
The domestic airport, which is the former international Ikeja airport is a national disgrace. It is like a motor-park in a war zone. It is often very disheartening for an international traveler to land at Murtala Mohammed International Airport and then is ferried to the domestic airport for onward journey to other parts of the country. Passengers must line up like refugees heading to a refugee camp or soldiers waiting to be transported to the war front, without any cover to protect them from the heat or rain. The toilet in the domestic airport is comparable to an abandoned biochemical laboratory with very foul odor and is indeed filthy. Merely stepping into that toilet can instigate stomachache due to the extremity of the odor.
It is obvious that corruption is responsible for the construction of substandard airports. Quite often, large sums are spent to put up these airports that are merely elongated airstrips. Government officials who approved these airports have been to London, Washington DC, New York, Paris, Singapore, Taiwan, Tokyo, Maylasia etc. and know what airports really look like. The Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos, Abuja Airport, and the new Port Harcourt Airport are actually less modern than the Midway International Airport in Chicago that was built in the 1940s or the LaGuardia Airport in New York or Gatwick Airport in London. Thus, Gatwick, Midway, and LaGuardia are older than the airports in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano, Abuja, Calabar, Enugu etc. yet, they appear to be more modern than the Nigerian airports. Something is definitely not right in Nigeria. How can an airport that is 65 years old seem more modern than an airport that is only about 10 or 15 years old?
In Nigeria, the culture and philosophy underlying business investment is geared toward generating immediate profit. Nigerians tend to invest in businesses that will earn immediate profit. As a result, they rarely plan for long-term consequences. Private airline owners operate their planes as if they are running road transportation services and do not mind cutting corners in order to generate immediate profit.
a. In Nigeria, it is an open secret that roads are not built and maintained to keep pace with the rate of population expansion, urbanization, industrialization, and economic development. Even after they have been built, it does not occur to government officials that the roads must be maintained so that they do not deteriorate. Consequently, the roads deteriorate very quickly. For example, during the 1960s, traveling to Lagos from the Eastern region through Benin was like taking a journey to hell for drivers and passengers because the road was very tiny and the bridges were in utter disrepair. It is not much better now, despite billions of nairas allocated for road construction. The East/West Road which was built during the regime of Gen. Yakubu Gowon has never be rehabilitated. Even though it is a major artery for oil operations, it has never been dualized. The Federal Government forgot about it entirely. In short, all over the country, in every major city, the roads become minilakes and creeks during the rainy season or whenever it rains. Similarly, Nigerian roads are filled with potholes, thereby, making road transportation a very bumpy experience for passengers. Nigerian roads are killer roads in the sense that thousands of Nigerians are killed and maimed every year. They are also killer roads to automobiles that ply them daily.
Quite often, high-level government officials (commissioners, ministers, directors, permanent secretaries etc) simply convert the monies allocated for road construction into their personal accounts. Other times, contracts for road construction are awarded to highly connected individuals and companies that have no experience in road construction.
Sometimes, contractors cut corners and construct inferior roads that fall apart within a few years, thereby, turning the roads into cesspool of mud and water ponds.
Just as the roads are not built and maintained properly, the airports too are not built and maintained properly to keep pace with the rate of population expansion, urbanization, industrialization, and economic development. The country has very sizable major cities with populations ranging from about one to three million people each, yet, the airports do not reflect the population expansion, urbanization, and economic growth. The City of Lagos has more than eight million people. Such a city by now should have more than one major international airport. Similarly, the cities of Kano, Ibadan, Port Harcourt etc. should have two major airports or one very large airport complex to accommodate an increasing population of airline travelers.
b. Just like in commercial road transportation, where old vehicles are recycled to cut down on cost, airline owners too seem to cut down investment in capital by buying recycled planes that have been discarded by previous owners. Generally, it appears that Nigerian airline owners go to economically depressed parts of the world to buy junk planes. The planes are repaired and repainted to make them look new. They are taken to Nigeria to serve as commercial planes. One vividly recall the scandal involving the purchasing of old buses (the Scania bus incident) by government officials in Lagos and other states in the 1970s.
c. In commercial road transportation business, buses and cars are repaired very quickly and sent back to ply the roads and earn money for the owners. Similarly, private commercial planes in Nigeria too are not properly maintained before they are deployed again. Since the owners want to make quick profits, they do not want their planes to remain inactive or idle for too long. Consequently, the tired old planes are not allowed to receive the kind of repairs that can enable them to remain airworthy for a long time. It is, therefore, understandable why the overused planes, like very sick and tired birds, fall off the sky and doom the lives of their passengers.
d. The private airline business operates like the haphazard commercial road transportation system in the sense that sometimes, passengers are not told the destination of the plane until the plane takes to the sky. Airline operators do not mind lying to passengers that a particular plane is designated for Kano or Abuja or Port Harcourt. Quite often, the operators would announce that a particular plane is heading to Port Harcourt. Based on the information, Port Harcourt bound passengers would board the plane. As soon as the plane takes off, the operators will reannounce that the plane will first touch down in Abuja and Enugu before heading to Port Harcourt. By so doing, passengers who are going on business trips are forced to incur unnecessary business cost for either missing their appointments or business deals. Other passengers are forced to land without their family members and friends waiting to pick them up at the airports due to the delay incurred by the redirection of the planes.
e. Just as commercial road transportation business is not effectively regulated, so also is commercial aviation. Federal and state officials have a tendency to look the other way and allow non-airworthy planes to fly, just as they allow vehicles that are not roadworthy to ply the roads. The owners of private airlines are very powerful individuals in Nigeria and have the political and financial clout to shut down regulatory effort. Moreover, corruption has made it virtually impossible to regulate the private airline industry effectively.
Nigerians should not be surprised that commercial airplanes are crashing more often in the country. The chicken has come to roost after decades of neglect engendered by massive corruption. Just as thousands die and are maimed on the un-kept roads, Nigeria's commercial aviation is increasingly becoming a deathtrap for those traveling by air due to lack of airport development, airplane maintenance, ineffective regulations, and haphazard management of the business.
Hoping that democratization would lead to an increase in international business investment in Nigeria, President Olusegun Obasanjo, his top advisers, and the state governors have been trying to woo international businesses. The efforts have not been very successful because international business owners seem to doubt the safety of doing business in Nigeria. Apart from the occasional violent outbursts emanating from ethnic, religious, and political disputes, the paucity and haphazard nature of transportation (both air and land) appear to affect the attractiveness of Nigeria to international investments. The paucity of transportation creates perpetual sense of insecurity, not only for international investors, but also for Nigerians.
a. The airports, apart from the Murtala Mohammed international and probably Abuja, create the impression that one is stepping into an unsafe territory. The airports do no create the kind of psychological impression that Heathrow or Atlanta or Charles de Gaulle or Amsterdam or Johannesburg etc. creates in the mind of a would-be-investor. Nigerian airports do not portray the feeling of security, vigor, confidence, and calmness needed for someone to want to fly into them and invest in Nigeria.
b. Just like motor-parks, Nigerian airports have too many idle people loafing around.
Like motor-park boys, these touts create the impression that they are going to do something harmful to someone, even though they are respectable and hardworking individuals looking for honest work. Especially at the domestic airport in Lagos, these young men can be very aggressive in trying to persuade people to buy flight tickets or board a particular taxi. For Nigerians, everything might seem normal about the hundreds of aggressive looking individuals hanging around the airports but for international investors, those scenes can create a sense of insecurity.
c. The planes used for domestic flights are too old and not well-maintained, thereby, always creating the feeling that flying in them is like someone trying to commit suicide.
c. The domestic airlines change their flight plans so often that they are not reliable if an international investor wants to do business in the country. Imagine airline officials telling passengers that a plane is heading to Port Harcourt or Kaduna while the plane is on the ground and then changing the destination as soon as the plane takes off the tarmac.
d. If the airports and the airlines create a sense of insecurity, road transportation creates a sense of panic, total helplessness, and doom. Even Nigerians are wary of traveling unnecessarily on Nigerian roads. In the urban centers, due to lack of metro-rail system, everyone depends on the roads. Consequently, the roads are always clogged in traffic jams. Some of the inner-city roads are nearly impassable as the mini-lakes, creeks, mud, and potholes compete for space with vehicles. Driving in Nigeria is like driving in the wild west and is always bumpy.
e. There are still no major super-highways that link the entire country. Similarly, the railway system is very limited in its operational scope. The roads in the North are generally better than those in the South. Thus, massive transportation of goods is not easily accomplished, especially for an international investor.
f. In Nigeria, armed robbers can easily block a highway and carry out armed robbery operations with impunity. Thus, road transportation is filled with so many risks, hence, can be suicidal for the traveler.
As can be seen, only certain types of international businesses can operate successfully in Nigeria. Others cannot at this time do business in the country due to the logistical problems associated with transportation. Generally, only the kinds of international businesses in which the owners are willing to create their own means of transportation succeed in Nigeria. Any international business that is designed to rely on the Nigerian transportation system is most likely to fail.
Nigerians may pray and scream every second of the day to save them from disasters emanating from airline crashes and road accident to no avail. It is a common saying that God helps those who help themselves. For God or Allah to listen to Nigerians, they must first help themselves by making serious effort to solve the problems that are leading to airline crashes. There is no doubt that the problems are caused primarily by corruption. The following could be very useful:
a. Focus the anticorruption war intensively on the airline industry in an effort to clean the mess. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent and Corrupt Practices Commission must lead the way. They should probe why the Nigerian Airways was unable to operate effectively for almost two decades. Find out who embezzled the monies that were allocated to the public corporation and the Ministry of Aviation. Find out the relationship between officials in the Ministry of Aviation and the Federal Airport Authority. This is necessary following allegations concerning the current Minister of Aviation, Dr. Babalola Borisade. It is alleged that he falsified his employment status and awarded frivolous contracts totaling about N146. 6 million to three companies based on recommendations made by consultants appointed on the day in which the contracts were awarded. Such is the nature of corruption in Nigeria.
b. The two investigative agencies should probe how the owners of private airlines acquired their wealth. This will help to explain why they run the business as if it is a land based commercial transportation system.
c. The two agencies, in association with the Nigerian Airforce, should investigate the age of the planes used to carry domestic passengers in Nigeria. Working together, they should probe the maintenance records of the planes in an effort to determine the level and quality of repairs and services given to the planes. No plane older than fifteen years should be allowed to fly as a commercial vehicle in the country.
d. The two agencies, working in consultation with the Nigerian Airforce and federal aviation experts, should study government regulations regarding commercial aviation, determine the effectiveness of the regulations, find out who is responsible for enforcing the regulations, and suggest ways of improving the regulations..
e. Anyone (including regulators, contractors, airline owners, administrators etc) caught for violating any of the stipulated operational conditions should be prosecuted. In fact, there is a need to probe the financial records of the former commissioners of transportation and works, as well as current ministers. It is necessary to know why inferior airports are built and roads are not built to keep pace with population growth and
urbanization. It should be noted that allegation was made that over N300 billion allocated for road construction in the Ministry of Transportation was never used during the tenure of the immediate past Minister of Transportation. In other words, there is no evidence to show that any new road was built for the money allocated during the first term of President Obasanjo..
f. It is necessary to improve the public transportation system. Currently, to enter a pubic bus in Nigeria, in most cities, one must become an acrobat. The public transportation system is not user-friendly at all.
Of course, there is no need to even talk about water transportation. Such a means of transportation appears to be very alien to Nigerian public officials. Nigerians rely almost exclusively on their own means to travel by water.
g. Make sure that contracts for airport construction are given to the most qualified contractors who have the necessary resources to put up a modern airport. In the past, contracts were mostly awarded to the most connected who probably did not have any experience in airport design and construction. It appears that the same continues as indicated by the allegations against Dr. Aborisade. Meanwhile, it is necessary to expand the airfields to allow larger planes to maneuver more effectively before take-off and during landing.
h. The Murtala Mohammed International Airport should be expanded. To do so, destroy the domestic (Ikeja) airport and use the land to extent the international airport. A section of the international airport should be reserved for domestic flights.
i. The Kano, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Abuja, etc. airports need serious restructuring and modernization.
j. The roads leading to the airports need to be expanded and maintained. There is no need to modernize the airports while the roads are un-kept. Every major airport should have at least four lane roads leading to it and leading out of it to facilitate accessibility and cut down on traffic jams.
k. The Federal Government and the states must seriously plan for the upgrading of the railway system in the country. The Federal Government needs to link every region of the country through a rail system. States with large cities need to think about introducing a metro-rail system. Cities like Lagos, Ibadan, Kano, Port Harcourt, Calabar, Enugu-Onitsha-Asaba, Kaduna, Benin City, Warri-Sapele, Jos-Abuja etc. need metro rail system in order to reduce excessive reliance on the roads and traffic jams.
l. The Federal Government needs to come up with a strategic transportation plan that will turn Nigeria into a major international transportation hub, for both air and land, and possibly water. The country has a dynamic population with a great potential for economic advancement. It is located at a geographic spot in which planes can take off to South Africa, Central Africa, and North Africa. It has potential for five major seaports (Calabar, Oron/Eket, Port Harcourt, Warri, and Lagos). A strategic transportation plan involving the development of major airports and highways will help to increase international business in the country as travelers and goods criss-cross Africa through the Nigerian hub.
In this regard, Nigeria needs at about eight major international flight outlets. Therefore, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja, Kano, Calabar, Maiduguri, Kaduna or Sokoto, and Enugu should have airports capable of handling international flights.
If aforementioned actions are carried out, airplane crashes and road accidents would be drastically minimized, even though total safety can never be guaranteed. In addition, international business will pick up as investors put more faith in the transportation system in the country. It is time Nigeria should try to get into the modern age in land and air transportation and stop behaving like a colony that needs only airstrips and reengineered old planes to carry its citizens. Meanwhile, the president should spend less time trying to woo international investors and spend more time fixing the problems associated with air and land transportation in the country. If air and land transportation problems are fixed, international investors would certainly develop more interest in doing business in Nigeria.
