A True Reflection of the State of Nigeria

This was Asaba Airport at about 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, 3rd July, 2021.

This post is not about Asaba Airport or Delta State politics.

What happened in Asaba repeats itself daily and severally, round Nigeria, in different sections and sectors. Passengers were stranded because there was no alternative power supply. It rained and flights were delayed because of bad weather and public power supply went out.

Even during harsh weather, I used to see street lights in other countries, unless the power lines are blown off. During the wars in Libya and Iraq, despite shells falling, electricity was still on.

There was no airport manager to address the stranded passengers.

This is a fundamental problem with Nigeria: we don’t value human beings. That’s why we equate human beings with cows. Our system created Boko Haram because someone, Yusuf, their leader, was killed without trial. If Yusuf was arrested early, and tried, there would not have been Boko Haram.

Nigeria also created Nnamdi Kanu. If the Ibo nation has a sense of respect within Nigeria and are not treated as second class citizens in their own country, there will be no agitation for Biafra again after the civil war. If the issue of herdsmen was effectively handled by either the state governments or the federal government on time, there will be no need for ESN.

If the herdsmen ravaging and grabbing land in Yoruba land were effectively handled because we value lives, Sunday Igboho would not spring up. If you kill Igboho or Kanu, the issues will still remain and more radical groups will emerge just like in the Niger Delta after they killed Ken Saro Wiwa.

The PIB bill being celebrated now, when properly analysed and understood by the people who produce the oil, will generate new problems.

Nobody is sanctioned for criminality or negligence. In Nigeria, we compare demons with demons. My demons are angels and your demons are more satanic. How do you compare terrorist herdsmen and bandits ravaging, kidnapping and killing people, and collecting ransoms with IPOB? Or spare parts dealers with herdsmen that kill, rape, and occupy land?

A brainwashed political vagrant will attack this post because of either the peanuts he is paid or because he is blinded by religion or regionalism.

All of us will pay for the stupidity of our elite now or eventually. The commissioner in charge of the ministry in charge of the airport will not be sanctioned or the manager sacked because they are our cronies, tribesmen, or party members.

The airport in darkness is a true representation of a nation in darkness. It’s a representation of our mentality towards security, health, education, roads, etc. The design of the airport is absolute rubbish; there are no restrooms in the ‘departure hall’; note, I did not say departure lounge. So you have to exit and go to the arrival hall to use the restroom. The roof was leaking water in the departure hall. Several tiles in the entrance to the airport are broken, and our leaders and the airport manager see them daily. We don’t care.

WE DON’T JUST CARE IN NIGERIA.

The path for disabled people, which is usually by the side with a gradual slope, is directly in front of the arrival area. There are no signs to warn people, so as it rained, people were sliding and hitting their buts on the floor.

It was by 7 p.m. when we were told the flight was cancelled. I got there before 12 noon. Some people had International flights to connect, some came from other cities and states. There was no flight for me on Sunday, and I had not eaten anything till 7 p.m.

Our leaders never respond to issues on time. And when they do, they don’t care about your discomfort and your losses. They don’t value you at all.

As this was playing out at Asaba, my protocol man at the airport in Lagos said there was power outage in the hallway at the airport in Lagos when the passengers were boarding and exiting flights at the airport in Lagos.

I eventually left for Ughelli by 8 p.m. and got home by about 10 p.m. What a risk I took! What if anything had happened to me? What a loss to humanity.

You will ask me why I did not stay in a hotel at Asaba. I just wanted to get home, because I was very angry.

LET’S FACE OUR MAJOR ISSUES IN THIS COUNTRY INSTEAD OF THE SYMPTOMS.