The world is moving on

Initially I was angry at how things got so bad in Nigeria that many foreign airlines simply stopped coming. A foreboding feeling of claustrophobia took over, as if Nigerians were being left alone by the entire world to stew in their own broth. What could have happened? The government was quick to remind us that the entire world is in recession. Is this true? Is the world coming to an end? Or is it just a Nigerian thing?

In the first place, no one has been able to explain to us what has been going on with airfares in Nigeria. Many airlines are quoting prices from Nigeria that are a multiple of what they take elsewhere and we seem all helpless to do something about it. The government wards off any complaint by painting the picture that it’s only corrupt elites that travel abroad, while they also ferry top government officials abroad to expensive hospitals at the slightest chance of ailment, on the people’s dime. It just cannot be right that Nigerians are asked by foreign airlines to pay upwards of $3,000 for economy class tickets for the distances where they charge citizens of other countries a tenth of that. A friend in Dubai recently obtained an Emirates flight ticket for 1,800 Dirhams or $450, but the same airline, which now flies to Lagos twice a week, having canceled its entire Abuja schedule, quotes as much as a million naira ($3,000 at the official exchange rates) for the same economy ticket. Is anyone going to bail Nigerians out of this lockdown, or have we accepted that, at least for now, we are doomed to penury?

Some people have tried to explain this anomaly by saying that the airlines struck deals with some local officials to add a premium and that in spite of all what is going on, these guys are still recouping their ‘investments’. They claim that the huge and inexplicable premium on Nigerian-originated flight tickets goes into the pockets of government officials who facilitated one thing or the other for these airlines. Yet, by every global standard, Nigerians are being ripped-off, and the financial lifeblood of our people is being sucked dry from every angle. Such an egregious thing will not fly anywhere else but in this country.

The responses of ‘smart’ people have been to fly one-way out of Nigeria and then book their itineraries from abroad; anywhere will do. Even Ghanaians and Togolese, or Nigeriens, are not so treated. Sometimes, it almost looks like a curse to be a Nigerian. The other day, I discovered that we have been grouped alongside other ‘terrorist’ countries like Iran, Syria, and so on, for financial transactions in most financial markets across the world. The barrage is unbearable. What did we ever do to deserve such ill-treatment from everyone in the world, including our own government? Since it only makes sense to book flight tickets from anywhere but Nigeria, our local travel agencies can as well fold up and die, but we are not solving the problem. Like everything else, the typical Nigerian selfishness kicks in; everybody tries to sort themselves out while the generality can as well go to hell and back.

But that is not the subject for today’s writeup.

I want to thank the ongoing economic recession and whoever brought it about for allowing me fly Ethiopian Airlines again, and to be able to tell this African story. When Emirates Airlines berthed in Abuja, the ease, speed and functionality with which one could connect every other country in the world tended to spoil some of us. I swore off Ethiopian, and was even downgraded back to a Blue member, even though I had hit Gold at some point. I also had a nasty experience traveling through the Bole Airport sometime in 2015 (a story for another day). The Bole Airport is okay, but perhaps because of the sheer crowd that passes through it, its bathrooms have become a nightmare. I had written the airport management about this once, and though my letter was replied all the way to me in Nigeria, little changed on ground. So I dreaded flying Ethiopian, if there was Emirates.

My recent experience was a pleasant delight though, and even though I don’t intend to advertise for that airline, or that country, it will be a sin if one refuses to share the lessons of their transformation.