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Is Murtala Mohammed Int’l Airport Truly International
By Eric Elezuo
The Murtala Mohammed international Airport located in the heart of Ikeja, Lagos, is probably Nigeria’s most important airport. Not only that; it is Nigeria’s pioneer airport, and has played the big brother role ever since it was officially public in 1979 by the General Olusegun Obasanjo administration. But many years after, the airport is still struggling to find its feet among the league of prolific international airports across the world.
Originally known as Lagos International Airport, it was renamed in the mid 1970s, during construction of the new international terminal, after a former military head of state Murtala Mohammed. The international terminal was modelled after Amsterdam Airport Schipol. The new terminal opened officially on 15 March 1979.
The airport which occupies a massive land space could be described as just a massive edifice that is just there, a typical example of a whited sepulcher which somehow presents an atmosphere of activity from the outside while the inside of full of rot and smelly flesh.
The MMA as it is popularly known has had its fair share of notoriety. From 1992 through 2000, the US Federal Aviation Administration posted warning signs in all US international airports advising travelers that security conditions at Lagos Airport did not meet ICAO minimum standards. In 1993, the FAA suspended air service between Lagos and the United States.
The FAA ended its suspension of direct flights to Nigeria in 2001 in recognition of certain security improvements. By 2010, the FAA granted the airport its highest safety rating. These were laudable achievements, but how far have they sustained.
The frustrations of a would-be passenger or a visitor to the airport is developed once he decides his trip, and is heightened as he embarks on the trip to the large expanse of land. The feeling becomes real as he makes a gradual entry into space.
Dilapidated walkway
If you are driving your own car, you are inundated with the depression that comes with moving up to the arrival or departure section depending on whether you are boarding or coming to ‘pick up’. On the other hand, if you are chauffeured in a public transport, the driver transfers the aggression to the passenger as his constant sighing and complaints get to the nerve. He follows it up with the hike of the fares with the excuse that ‘shebi you don see how much time I don waste here’.
At the garage, one is face with the fact that only one shuttle bus is functional among the lot, consequently, it is either you excruciating time waiting or take the inglorious option of trekking the distance. More often than not, the later had been the most preferred the loads one is carrying not withstanding.
The walkway to and fro the halls of the airport are quite a sight to behold. It appears clean but not neat. It can be compared to a footpath connecting two remote villages with the green-netted fence like heaps of unkempt and overgrown grass. The roof of the walkway has carved in, leaving people at the mercy of the elements even as they are supposedly under a shade. A handful of cleaners are also sighted attempting to do a job, but they more the brushes and brooms touch the floor, the more discomfort everyone around becomes. This is because each contact the broom makes with the ground raises lots of sandy dust, constituting serious health hazard.
At the entrances, one is confronted by the presence of agile, able looking security operatives, but you will be surprised to discover that they are just on duty but never alert. Their routine is just ordinary as there is no gadget to ascertain the eligibility of the one entering the airport halls. You are checked for identification, your baggage thrown into the electronic roller, and you are good to go.
Inside, there is a plethora of forlorn looking faces, either at the departure hall where they are checking in to jet out or at the arrival hall where the returnees are making an entry into the Nigerian world. Passengers complained of long hours of queuing before any activity is initiated. While most of them said there is a marked improvement irrespective of the shabby treatment, ‘considering how it used to be in the past’ others agreed that ‘we are just going round and round a circle’.
Non functioning lifts
If you would want to move upstairs, you had better be strong enough to climb the staircase, as the lift ‘is not working’. It has been closed for sometime, and little effort is being made to put them to work again. However, to the average Nigerian, who has little knowledge of the airport facilities, especially as they are in countries in Europe, America and other parts of the world, the toilets look clean. But the Murtala Mohammed toilets are actually far from clean
A passenger, Friday Omorogbe, who was traveling to Belgium recounted nasty experiences he had with security guards at the airport concluding that they were selective in the search, and only needed someone to give them money.
“When I was coming to Nigeria from Belgium, I was hushed to a rude stop by the guards. The surprising fact was that a lot of white folks had passed before me and were still passing; but none of them was disturbed until it got to my turn. They rudely set me apart, asked silly questions about what I was carrying and even searched. All they wanted me to do was give them money. Why did they have to single us out, blacks, for such harsh treatment and accord the whites free passage? Not even in Belgium, but here in Nigeria,” he said.
Interior floors
Omorogbe noted that the ‘only thing that makes this place an airport is the fact that planes land and take off here’, stressing that facilities have greatly decayed and services half-heartedly given.
“The last time I was here, the whole roof was leaking, and the cleaners were packing water from the floor. Imagine, international airport. In Europe, the floors of their airport are a beauty to behold, but look at these ones here, “he added.
Another lady, who was traveling to the United States with her family frowned at the infrastructural decay of the airport, saying ‘it is not up to standard; I don’t even want to talk about it, but I would get there one day’.
For Anthony Raphael, who was traveling to Dubai, his message is simple; ‘we will get there one day’. He wants the authorities to look into the issues of flight delays and rehabilitation of infrastructures to actually have an international status and outlook.
With the return of Haji Srika as the Minister of Aviation and the unbundling of the aviation sector to be become a separate ministry away from transportation, stakeholders believe that the Murtala Mohammed International Airport and other international airports around the country will begin to experience a turn around that will eventually elevate it to really international status.
Israel has confirmed that Iran fired 180 missiles into the country on Tuesday, adding that one person was confirmed dead from the attacks.
An AFP report stated as follows –
Everybody’s phone buzzed at once with an alert at around 19:30 local time.
It read: “You must enter a protected area immediately and remain there until further notice.”
The message was sent by the Israel Defence Forces’s Home Front Command and ended with the phrase “life-saving instructions”.
People began to head for shelter in safe rooms as missiles were launched towards Israel from Iran.
The sirens sounding across the country were heard by millions.
As the wail of the alarm rang outside, we moved to the shelter in the BBC’s Jerusalem Bureau – a secure part of the building with no windows.
We could hear frequent booms as missiles flew overhead and were intercepted by Israel’s defence system.
Videos captured here and elsewhere shared on social media showed streams of light as the missiles flew over Israel – and clouds of smoke as they were intercepted or detonated on impact.
“There’re loads of them,” a contact exclaimed in a video filmed in southern Israel that shows circles of light in the night sky.
At about 20:00, the IDF said its aerial defence array was identifying and intercepting the launches and called on people to “remain in a protected space until further notice”.
It continued: “The explosions you are hearing are from interceptions and fallen projectiles.”
Concern had been mounting across Israel as reports emerged early in the evening that Iran was preparing a strike.
It came hours after Israeli troops invaded Lebanon, in what its military calls a “limited, localised and targeted” ground operation against Hezbollah.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it launched the missiles in retaliation for recent attacks that killed the leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as a senior Iranian commander.
As missiles flew overhead, messages streamed in from people in different parts of the country, waiting in their safe rooms.
“There’s a lot of alarms all the time, so we’re in the safe room… But we’re OK for now,” a mother of two in the south of Israel told me by voice note.
“Very, very scary. I still cannot believe this is our life… it was VERY close,” a message from a journalist in Tel Aviv said.
“Usually we stay on our floor and don’t go down to the shelter but this time…we realised we had to go down.”
“It was very loud,” lawyer Efrat Eldan Schechter says by WhatsApp message from Ra’anana in central Israel, adding that she believes “it is not the end for tonight”.
“We need to see how it will evolve. It is very scary indeed… but we are strong and confident that our IDF will protect us. Iran just made a huge mistake.”
About an hour after the first message, phones again vibrated with a new alert from the Home Front Command, telling people they could leave shelters and protected areas.
Following the strikes, the IDF spokesperson said there were some hits in central and southern Israel.
Videos later shared on social media showed damage from the missiles in multiple locations, including a large crater in the ground near Tel Aviv.
The Palestinian civil defence authority in the occupied West Bank city of Jericho said a man there died during the Iranian missile barrage.
According to the AFP, which spoke to city governor Hussein Hamayel, the victim was killed by falling rocket debris.
Israeli officials have not reported any serious injuries as a result of Tuesday’s air attacks.
“At this stage, we don’t identify more launches from Iran. Stay responsible and listen to instructions,” IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a televised address.
Israel says at least 180 missiles were fired, most of them intercepted. It has said there will be “consequences”.
Foremost Yoruba socio-cultural organization,the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) has condemned the position of the Leader of the Senate, Opeyemi Bamidele on regionalism, saying the lawmaker has lost the trust of the people he’s representing.
Recall that Senator Bamidele had at the National Assembly hearing on constitutional review rejected the bill to return Nigeria to regionalism saying if the lawmakers should allow regional system in Nigeria, it would automatically give the Easterners Biafra
The Publicity Secretary of the OPC, Barrister Yinka Oguntimehin, in a press statement on Tuesday noted that it’s unfortunate that Bamidele who was once a respected activist had also clamoured for a national conference to address the fundamental issues of restructuring in this country suddenly changed and became a centralist- minded person that is now rejecting the bill to return Nigeria to regionalism.
Oguntimehin said the lawmaker has failed to realize all the advantages inherent in regionalism, stating that Regionalism will allow cohesion, healthy competition and regional autonomy.
“It’ll enhance regional and internal security among the regions.
“Even a country with over 10 million people with such a multi-ethnic composition like Nigeria must have a federating unit that allows regional autonomy, regardless of the name you wish to call it, either regions or provinces. That is the normal thing all over the world.
“For instance, 50 states in the U.S are like a region. Also Ghana, a prominent country in Africa with a population of less than sixty million has a region. Even South Africa allows its provinces to develop at their own pace.
“It’s unfortunate that a man of Opeyemi Bamidele’s position, background and antecedents decided to go against the position of many Nigerians and selfishly narrow his thinking to play politics with such a sensitive issue and also believing that regionalism may later in the future give a particular ethnic nationality a country as he was referencing the Eastern region with the Biafra.
“He didn’t even see the wisdom in looking beyond his nose to see the possibilities and importance of regionalism as a potential tool for a successful federating unit.
“I wondered how an activist, a former student union leader, a Senate leader like him with a history of activism suddenly showed how political position and power can easily change his person.
“As far as we’re concerned, OPC condemns his position in totality and it’s unfortunate that he’s one of the representatives in Yoruba land.
“However, we urge him to change his views and position on this because as a foremost Yoruba socio-cultural organization, OPC is monitoring the events in the parliament and history will always judge whoever that goes against the wishes of Nigeria and Nigerians.
“I remember in the beginning of the OPC’s struggle, Senator Bamidele was one of the activists that was at the vanguard of the call for a national conference. He stood by the people then and now like a chameleon he suddenly changed.
“Let it be said that the only way Nigeria can move forward as a nation is to embrace regionalism where the regions develop at their own pace.
“Let it should also be said that for those whose position was that if we have regionalism, the central government will be weakened. That is not true, because the issue of the percentage of the resources to be allocated to the government at the centre will be addressed between the regions.”
Source: Independent
The Israeli military has said Iran has launched missiles at the country.
It added that sirens have sounded all across Israel and urged citizens to move to marked safe spaces.
The attack comes a short while after the US announced that it had received intelligence that Iran was planning an attack against Israel.
IRNA, Iran’s state-run news agency, confirmed that Tehran’s military has started launching ballistic missiles towards Israel.
Footage shared by media houses showed dozens of missiles flying across the sky towards Tel Aviv.
The missiles came as Israeli police said they received a report about a shooting attack in the Jaffa neighborhood of the city.
Police said the initial suspicion of motive is terror.
Multiple casualties were reported due to the attacks.
Iran said it targeted Israel in response to the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah leader, and other leaders.
“In response to the martyrdom of Martyr Haniyeh, Seyed Hassan Nasrallah and Martyr Nilfroshan, we targeted the heart of the occupied territories,” a statement from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said.
“If the Zionist regime reacts to Iran’s operations, it will face crushing attacks.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) urged Israelis to “remain alert and precisely follow the home front command’s instructions”.
“Upon hearing a siren, you must enter a protected space and remain there until further notice”, it added.
Meanwhile US President Joe Biden convened a meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris and top national security officials to discuss the Iran ballistic missile attack on Israel.
The US and Israel had warned that any attacks from Iran would have grave repercussions.
