allAfrica.com: Nigeria: British Airways And Their Colonial Tendencies (1) (Page 1 of 2)

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.

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