Public Safety
and VIP Closures of Abuja Airport
By
Jibril Aminu
February 24, 2005
Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport is a prime
aviation facility in the country. It provides both domestic and international
flights in the whole range of aviation specialisation. These include passenger
flights, cargo carriers, private aviation, government flights by all arms of the
executive, visiting foreign leaders and delegations and aviation control
operations like civil aviation. The Nigerian Air Force also makes extensive use
of the airport. The airport is, therefore, ever busy; and it will only get
busier as the aviation industry expands with passenger flights, both domestic
and international, and as the Nigerian Air Force builds their barracks nearby.
Protocol flights are likely to increase in view of Nigeria's highly activist and
leadership roles in foreign affairs; and our high-flying foreign policy means
that plenty of foreign dignitaries will be coming into Abuja through Nnamdi
Azikiwe International Airport.
Our customary demonstration of hospitality and friendship means special
airport arrangements for each Very Important Personality (VIP) flight. This
would result in closures of the International Airport for varying periods of
time to all landings and take-offs until the VIP formalities are over. Some of
the VIP flights, apart from the time spent on ground, need up to 40 minutes of
lead time after take-off. These closures are inconvenient and take a lot of time
and resources. They are fraught with risks to other flights, especially when the
VIP movements are of the nature of an international Head of Government
conference, as happened on Monday, January 31 and Tuesday, February 1, 2005,
during the annual summit of the African Union in Abuja. Large numbers of air
passengers were unnecessarily exposed to the loss of life and limb as they tried
to arrive into or leave NAI Airport.
On February 1, Senator Dahiru (Sokoto South) and I left Yola for Abuja
onboard an ADC Airline Boeing 737 flight which departed Yola at 7:30am to Lagos
via Abuja. While the flight was schedule to land at 8:30am, we landed at
10:30am. Most of the two hours extra time was spent hovering over Abuja Airport.
The pilot informed us that the airport had been temporarily closed on account of
a VIP movement, but quickly assured us that the airport would be reopened soon.
Half an hour later, however, we were still in the air.
Meanwhile, visibility in the Abuja area was worsening. After hovering for
about two hours, the pilot told us that he would declare a state of emergency
and land soon after, whether he was allowed to do so or not; and this
announcement sent a shiver of a rumour that there was something technically
wrong with the plane and that the VIP closure explanation was a just a ruse to
comfort passengers.
We disembarked and met many anxious relatives all over the place. The airport
law enforcing personnel promptly arrested our pilot for landing against
instructions and arrested as well the pilot of another affected aircraft,
Sosoliso Airline, from Enugu. The Sosoliso pilot was arrested because he too
declared a state of emergency and landed. This "land and be arrested" seems to
be the routine treatment meted out to pilots who land when closure orders are
on, regardless of their respective circumstance.
Furthermore, it is sad that throughout the Monday morning up to 10:30 am, no
plane could depart Abuja; and among those affected were a British Airways flight
to London and flights bound to the holy land in Saudi Arabia.
The most recent VIP closures represented a great danger to public safety.
They led to an undue congestion of the airspace and increased the danger of
collision by hovering aircraft. What is more, too many aircraft in the airspace
at the same time stress the control tower staff and increase their chances of
making grave human errors. It is common knowledge that the serviceability of
most of domestic passenger aircraft is short of the international standards and
in a situation of poor visibility, the risk of crash is much higher especially
in a mountainous area like Abuja. Air passengers always consist of all sorts of
people: women, children, the aged, the infirm being medically evacuated and the
easily perturbed. Many of these people could come to terminal grief for
rarefication, anxiety or shortage of needed oxygen and other forms of first aid;
they could set off a commotion from mid-air panic especially as a result of
rumours onboard.
It is inconceivable that any other country of a status of Nigeria will agree
to close its premier city airport, even for a while, for reasons other than dire
emergencies, like runway fires, etc. Which country can put the lives of its
people at risk simply to demonstrate hospitality to foreigners? The unnecessary
and long hovering of aircraft is not only perilous, it is very expensive in
aircraft amortisation, in company time, in the time lost by the passengers in
their business, etc. The fallout could be inestimable. Delaying international
operations like British Airways erodes confidence in our business sense and in
the favourable estimation of investors even if they have been informed. These
frequent closures are not acceptable because they erode confidence in our
business methods and efforts. In addition, we may face nasty reciprocation
elsewhere or in even court actions.
These closures lead in the minds of people to deep but unnecessary resentment
of leaders who may have nothing to do with the actual insult; they are
politically costly to an elected government and its party. Adequate notice of
the recent disruptions was hardly given to people and most probably not the
airlines and other aviators. If the concerned parties knew the extent of the
disruptions, they could have adjusted their routings to avoid Abuja for a
period. There tends to be overbearing behaviour on the part of the controllers
in relation to aircraft and its payload. It is difficult for any decent society
to understand why a pilot who lands in an emergency situation in the only
available airport should be arrested and humiliated.
The most logical solution to delayed and cancelled flights as a result of VIP
movements is to relieve NAI Airport of the burden of VIP flights. In this
connection, the Air Force should have its own facility elsewhere. We recall that
in the 1970s there was a tragedy at Kano International Airport when a trainee
MIG pilot and his trainer landed on top of a loaded F28 of Nigeria Airways
making its final approach to land. No one in either of the planes survived.
Therefore, Nigeria needs to have a special military airport for its Air Force
and VIPs like the Edward Royal Air Force Base near London, Andrew Air Force Base
of Washington DC and Le Bourget Airport in France. Even here in Nigeria, the Air
Force Base in Kaduna has a separate airport which removes the burden of VIP
flights from the main airport.
The envisaged military airport in Abuja should be on the other side of the
town (on Keffi Road) in order to separate even the approaching paths of the two
airports in the Federal Capital Territory. The new airport could be outside the
FCT. After all, Washington DC, for example, is the official headquarters of the
Pentagon, the CIA Arlington National Cemetery and Dulles International Airport
but they are actually located in Virginia. The Andrews Air Force Base, NASA
headquarters, Camp David, National Institutes for Health, etc, are actually
sited in Maryland, rather
than Washington, DC, proper.
In the light of all this, be it resolved and it is hereby resolved: That the
Minister of Aviation and the Airport Commander tender an unreserved apology
within one week to all those affected by the recent airport closures. I pray
that this Distinguished Senate invite them for explanation if they fail to do
so; that all protocol activities and red carpet ceremonies currently conducted
at NAI Airport be conducted henceforth at either City Gate or in the
Presidential Villa so that the airport will be used only for landing and
departure; that helicopters be used to ferry dignitaries direct to the
Presidential Villa to reduce tension on the road and avoid closing some roads to
traffic, thus causing undue hardship to the populace; that from this year, a
proposal be made in the budget for the construction of a military airbase to be
located in the Southeastern part of Abuja in order to decongest the civilian
airport; that under no circumstance should any airport be closed for more than
one hour without prior notice to incoming flights and the general public; that
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs advise its guests to appropriately schedule
their flights to and from Nigeria; that the Nigerian Air Force, with all of its
facilities and operations, be moved away from Nnamdi Azikiwe International
Airport in order to avert the danger of civilian-military plane collision; and
that the Senate congratulate the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on
his Foreign Policy thrust and profile, and, especially, on the last African
Union summit held here in Abuja. We reassure His Excellency that this Senate
motion on airport closures is not intended to discourage his foreign policy
initiative and activities but to safeguard the lives and integrity of Nigerians
in their homeland.
