Victor Ahiuma-Young
8 December 2008
WORDS are not enough to describe the shame and embarrassment caused the nation few days ago when all operations and commercial activities at the arrival and departure halls of the Murital Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, were shut down as a result of power failure.
The day was Saturday, November 29, 2008, and for several hours, Nigerians and foreigners alike entering and leaving Nigeria were stranded at the Airport while the power outage lasted.
For those arriving into Nigeria, the story was more pathetic and frustrating as it took between two and four hours for passengers including this writer, who alighted from an Aircraft at about 9 PM to complete arrival formalities and sorting out baggage because of power.
Passengers who arrived from Europe especially in winter cloths because of the cold whether, were sweating profusely that some of the male passengers were left with either just siglets or very light shirts, while the children were strapped to their waists to cope with the heat.
For women, theirs was more pathetic. While the older ones could manage with bras and light cover, the younger ones were a pitiable sight as they could not afford to expose their bodies to the public glare. It was so bad that passengers waiting for their baggage resulted to using light from their GSM phones to lighten the baggage hall and sort out their luggage.
Vanguard gathered that the ignoble power failure started hours before the arrival of this reporter and other passengers at the departure hall.
The moment the passengers from the KLM flight from Amsterdam entered the hall, the whole hall was like an oven and it became obvious that neither the Air conditioners nor fans were functioning and immediately, people started complaining about the heat.
As this writer approached an immigration official and wanted to know why the hall was so hot and why the Air conditioners were not working, a colleague of the Immigration at the counter who was sweating heavily, said. "Welcome to Nigeria. You are asking why this place is so hot. By the time you are through, you will know why. O boy, nothing has been working here today for hours now."
Every body was shocked. Some people asked , in the International Airport?
If passengers had thought they had experienced heat, what awaited them at the baggage section, was an experience many of them are not going to forget in a hurry. At the baggage section, it became clear that the power public supply was not only off, but the generating set or whatever that was being used as an alternative source of power, was obviously faulty. There at the baggage section, passengers waiting to collect their luggage went through hell as some including this writer waited for over two hours for their luggage, while other certainly waited for over three hours.
Between the time the passengers arrived at the baggage hall and when passengers were able to locate and collect their baggage, the so-called alternative power supply, was working intermittently for between three and five minutes on and off hindering the working of the conveyor that was bringing passengers out. As the passengers waited for minutes and from minutes to hours without getting their luggage, they became tensed restive that some became so erratic and agitated that they started raining curses on the leadership of the country for continuously creating hardship for citizens.
For those that were going outside Lagos, the delay raised saftey concern and additional burden to them. A particular passenger who claimed to be leaving for Warri, Delta state, the next Morning, lamented that finding a safe hotel to lodge for the night was his major head ache since at 11 PM he was yet to see his luggage.
Another man from the Eastern part of the country, was so irritated and pissed off that he wondered how Nigerian leaving in the diaspora could be be persuaded to come home to invest in a country like this if an International air port as busy as Lagos, could experience failure and unstable power supply for hours.
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