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Leadership (Abuja)

Nigeria: British Airways And Their Colonial Tendencies (1)

Emmanuel Onwubiko

9 May 2008

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Abuja — Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, a British university trained lawyer, held sway as Nigeria's aviation minister during the last phase of the immediate past administration of General Olusegun Obasanjo (rtd) and his reign was momentous.

If for nothing else but for the fact that he brought the issue of the massive cases of maltreatment or mistreatment of Nigerian passengers traveling on foreign Airlines, especially the British Airways, Lufthansa, among others, to the front burners and indeed made bold moves to curb this incipient and very dangerous racial mistreatment of Nigerian citizens.

One quality which accounts for the success recorded by Chief Femi Fani-Kayode in handling these debilitating, scandalous and terrible mistreatments meted out to Nigerian travelers by foreign Airlines and, especially by the British Airways (BA) was his courage and forthrightness with which he confronted this emerging menace which nevertheless has continued now that he has left office with even reinforced vigour.

Before Chief Femi Fani-Kayode became the nation's Aviation minister, there were series of complaints by Nigerians on their horrifying experiences in the hands of the crew members of these foreign airlines some of whom are British, South Africans and shockingly Nigerians. The British Airways was once involved in an ugly incident involving a respected industrialist in Nigeria and one of the elder members of the renowned Ibru family who was sick and needed to be flown overseas for medical attention to be accorded him. This respected statesman was said to have boarded the first class compartment, but before the take-off of the British Airways flight, a crew member, ironically a Nigerian came to the aide of this member of the Ibru family to warn him that if the elder statesman kept disturbing the peace of 'her passengers' he would be transferred to another less dignifying compartment. Before that member of the Ibru family could say jack, the elder statesman had been taken off the plane and transferred to another compartment. When the complaint reached Chief Femi Fani-Kayode's office, the then minister of Aviation, in his characteristic no-nonsense nature, summoned the management of the British Airways to protest in the strongest possible term over the discriminatory and unwarranted mistreatment meted out to one of Nigeria's best known industrialists by the crew members of the British Airways flight. When the minister discovered, to his chagrin, that the head of the British Airways office responsible for this dastardly act was a South African national (a white South African) he did not spare him even as he tongue-lashed him reprimanding him not to think that he still lives in the defunct Apartheid South African regime.

The minister extracted strong apologies from the British Airways to the Ibru family and by extension to Nigerians who have protested relentlessly over the maltreatments extended to them intentionally by the staff and management of the British Airways.

Another major incident involving some foreign Airlines operating in Nigeria was the case of Lufthansa which operated double routes of Lagos and Abuja without legal clearance from the relevant Nigerian Aviation Authority. This was the case before Chief Femi Fani-Kayode emerged as the minister of aviation. He did not waste time in ensuring that this bad and illegal practice which led to the Aviation authorities losing millions of naira from what Lufthansa ought to have paid if it was legally permitted to operate double routes in Nigeria, a privilege which is not accorded to any of our Nigerian Airlines flying to Holland. The then Aviation minister summoned the authorities of Lufthansa Airline to a meeting in his office.

Thinking that the presence of the German Ambassador to Nigeria would sway the decision of the Nigerian Aviation authority to Lufthansa's side, the management of that foreign Airline came with the Ambassador of Netherlands to Nigeria who, during the course of the meeting, talked down on the Aviation minister. Chief Femi Fani-Kayode reportedly tongue lashed him and asked him to tell his people that it is the duty of Lufthansa Airline to comply with subsisting national Aviation rules and regulations in Nigeria and stop flouting the rules by embarking on double routes without permission or face revocation of their landing permit. Report has it that the German Ambassador thinking that it was still business as usual sought to convince the minister to drop his threat to sanction the Lufthansa Airline, but the then Aviation minister excused himself and left the meeting venue.

The German Ambassador told the close aides of the Aviation minister then to plead with Chief Femi Fani-Kayode that he never meant to talk down on Nigeria and that may be his poor understanding of the spoken English language may have been responsible for the breakdown in communication between him and the minister. Throughout his short stay in office, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode ensured that Lufthansa complied with this directive. During that period also, the then minister of Aviation convinced the then president Olusegun Obasanjo to convoke a presidential committee to investigate the allegations that foreign Airlines were charging discriminatory fares in favour of foreign travelers from our nation's shores and that Nigerians were paying higher travel fares than say American or British travelers from Nigeria to London.

Sadly, it was discovered that this allegation was factual. This informed the decision by the Aviation ministry then to order the foreign Airlines operating from Nigeria to abolish forthwith these discriminatory charges against Nigerians which he equated to apartheid. The foreign Airlines grudgingly complied, but as soon as he left office, the foreign Airlines went back to the old discriminatory ways of charging higher travel fares to Nigerian travelers in what is seen in foreign circles as a sure way to discourage Nigerians from allegedly seeking economic asylums in the so-called western nations of Britain or United States of America whose streets in any case are not decorated with gold. It is to the courageous decision of Chief Femi Fani-Kayode to summon the operators of foreign Airlines in Nigeria that some of them minimised the dangerous practice of spraying the Nigerian passengers traveling from Nigeria to their countries with insecticides and pesticides which they claimed are to check the spread of infectious diseases.

This writer severally faced this ordeal while traveling abroad on the British airways. Shockingly, the Airline operators, after a short while, resumed this terrible practice of spraying mostly Nigerians traveling to foreign countries from Nigeria. Chief Femi Fani-Kayode also made bold moves to ensure that Nigerians who lost their luggage aboard foreign Airlines especially, the notorious British Airways are treated with courtesy and adequately compensated.

The then Aviation minister took that decision to hold series of trouble shooting consultations with the top management of the British Airways to drum it to their consciousness that the Nigerian Government will no longer tolerate the mistreatment meted out to a lot of Nigerian travelers from foreign Airlines whose luggage ends up missing and not been adequately compensated by the British Airways. As a man who schooled in the British university system, the then minister was well aware that the British Airways treat their nationals with courtesy especially when there are established cases of missing baggage. Of course the British justice system usually comes down heavy on these foreign Airways for violating the human Rights of their British passengers.

The British Airways recently dolled out several millions of Pounds sterling to their distraught British passengers who lost their bags in the Heathrow five landing facilities which failed to work since it was commissioned for business. Since Femi Fani-Kayode left as the Aviation minister, this maltreatment has continued unabated especially when the new minister of Aviation is facing series of problems relating to the missing Beech craft Aircraft which allegedly killed four crew members without trace. The new minister of Aviation Felix Hassan -Hyat who this writer knows so well as a meticulous and hard working Nigerian who achieved fame and success as a public servant in Kaduna State is expected by Nigerians to also beam his search light on the malpractices of these foreign Airways and Airlines who would not respect the Human Rights of Nigerians as if the Human Rights of the average British Citizen is much more valuable than that of the Nigerian Citizen. Felix Hassan -Hyat who has a near impeccable record as a public servant before he was appointed as the minister of Aviation in Nigeria has just being saddled by president Umaru Musa Yar'adua with the duty of unraveling why and how the British Airways with flight number BA75 on March 27th 2008 ordered a total of 138 Nigerian passengers in the Economy class off the plane after some of them protested against the inhumane treatment being meted out to a Nigerian deportee.

The said British Airways pilot was said to have presumed that all the economy class passengers of Nigerian extraction can no longer travel down to Nigeria from London in the BA because they were all guilty of constituting security threat. What illogicality? One wonders why that pilot was not arrested in Nigeria on arrival without those Nigerian passengers. A Femi Fani-Kayode as the minister of Aviation would have ordered the arrest and detention of that TERRORIST called Pilot of the British Airways for his show of shame which made 138 Nigerian Passengers stranded in Britain without justification whatsoever. Though the current minister of Aviation Felix Hassan-Hyat is said to be towing the line of rule of law by not arresting the recalcitrant British Airways pilot, but analysts say there was nothing wrong in ordering the arrest of that pilot for violating the Human Rights of 138 Nigerian passengers including Mr. Ayodeji Omotade who has been banned for life from traveling on British Airways for allegedly spearheading the advocacy for the British security authorities to treat that Nigerian deportee with humanness and compassion as a Human Being entitled to all the Rights provided for in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights approved and adopted by the member nations of the United Nations on 10th December 1948.

Britain is the home of some of the World's best known Human Rights advocacy groups like Amnesty International. One wonders then why this colonial tendencies and this master-slave treatment of Nigerian passengers has not assumed international advocacy dimension. Is it because Nigerians are involved? Are Nigerians less mortal than their British counterparts? The answer is certainly NO because all members of the Human Race are entitled to the protection and promotion of their Human Rights anywhere they are in the Global Village. That pilot of that British Airways plane involved in this monumental show of shame and massive breach of the Human Rights of these Nigerian passengers must face the competent court of law for violating the Human Rights of these 138 Nigerian passengers. The presidential probe panel headed by the current minister of Aviation should make haste in recommending what I may call the 'Femi Fani-Kayode no-nonsense solution' by ensuring that all the indicted officials of the British Airways are made to face the music in the law courts in Britain or alternatively if the British Government feels that the established case of the massive violations of the Human Rights of Nigerians are not sufficient grounds for prosecution of the indicted persons, then the British Airways should be made to pay heavy penalties like compensations to the affected Nigerians. This case must not be treated in the usual Ojo Maduekwe's style of sweeping the allegations under the carpet of rhetoric of CITIZENSHIP DIPLOMACY that has not positively impacted on the Nigerians victimized daily in foreign countries.

The foreign Affairs minister Ojo Maduekwe; a consummate politician will usually mouth the policy of citizenship diplomacy but not make any deliberate effort to externalize this ideal when the welfare and Human Rights of the Nigerian citizens are breached in foreign countries. The Foreign Affairs minister will rather engage in the rhetoric of preaching to Nigerians in foreign countries to be law abiding as if all Nigerians abroad are lawless. Immediately he came into office last year, a Nigerian in Greece was killed in incident involving the Greek Police, but when this writer protested in my capacity as a Federal Human Rights Commissioner in Nigeria's National Human Rights commission [NHRC], appointed by the President and Commander in Chief in 2005 for a -four year tenure, Ojo Maduekwe did not take kindly to it. He called the attention of the Federal Attorney General who subsequently summoned the civil servant that now heads the National Human Rights Commission as Executive Secretary after Buhari Bello was illegally removed, and she called my attention to the issue raised by my press comment where upon I asked the Federal Government to defend the rights of Nigerians living abroad. She told the federal Attorney General that what this writer said did not represent the official position of the National Human Rights Commission whose credibility has been consistently whittled down and undermined deliberately by the Federal Government through the actions and pronouncements of key Government officials on the status of the Governing Council which legally has a little more than eight months to expire.

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