Corruption complaints at Airports should embarrass Osinbajo, federal government

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo heads the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC). At the core of PEBEC’s mandate is improving the ease of doing business in Nigeria by proving to foreign investors that Nigeria is really a cool place to do business.

However, two testimonies from celebrities and a couple of others from members of the public, should leave Osinbajo and PEBEC very worried and embarrassed.

We'll begin with actor Aremu Afolayan,who called out the Nigerian government for the shabby treatment he received at the airport.

Aremu Afolayan ece-auto-gen

Afolayan says he was asked to part with money before his family would be allowed to see him off to the check-in point area. He also narrated how Ethiopian Airlines refused to airlift a passenger for no reason.

Afolayan ended his now viral rant with the following words: “Check the airport. All you see are Nigerians running away from the country. I have never seen an EMIRATI or an AMERICAN that will run away from their country. Until you have no one to be governor or be a president before you know. Long live scared Nigerians!”

The second celebrity to be sore displeased with Nigerian airport officials is movie producer Kemi Adetiba. She tells the story of sexist treatment at the hands of Immigration officials who made her regret traveling with speakers and a bottle of perfume.

According to Adetiba, she was treated shabbily after refusing to offer bribe money to the officials. “Asides from the attempt to shake us down for money without conscience, the fact that this gentleman refused to speak to me about my own property is absolutely disrespectful. Insisting to speak to the “man” in the group is a downright shame.

“The government really needs to do something about customs officers…I was speaking to an expatriate just hours before in Paris and he was complaining about his treatment at Nigerian airports. At every single stop, they try to get money off him by cuddle or by force. Corruption has eaten so deep into our core and it is an absolute shame. Our airports need an entire overhaul. From the workers to the actual infrastructure”, Adetiba writes.

Yet these are the same airports that should act as gateways to all the foreign investments we need to revive a failing economy. These corrupt and decaying airports are being relied on by the Buhari led federal government as the first port of call in a bid to improve a chaotic and corrupt Nigerian business environment.

“As part of our work on the Ease of Doing Business, on making the environment friendly, not just for local businesses but also for those who want to come and do business in Nigeria, the airport obviously is one of the major places where we need to ensure that facilities are working and that things are being run properly,”Osinbajo said in February of 2017.

Muhammadu Buhari and Yemi Osinbajo ece-auto-gen

At about the same time, Osinbajo paid a surprise visit to the Murtala Mohammed airport in Lagos to inspect toilets, carousels, immigration points, etc. “The vice president just wanted to see things for himself”, Laolu Akande, Osinbajo’s spokesperson, said at the time.

At this rate, Osinbajo will need to pay surprise visits to the nation’s airports every other day.

Nigeria is currently ranked 182 out of 190 countries on the Ease of Trade index, according to the World Bank’s 'Trading Across Borders' survey; amid complaints of extortion, rude and overzealous personnel, and missing luggage at the nation’s airports.

Our airports, like our sea ports and road transportation, are a crying shame. If we learnt anything from the complaints this week, it is that the more things change, the more they have remained the same.