Gregory Imoh
By March 2018, Saleh Dunoma would have spent four years as Managing Director/CEO of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN). His appointment came following widespread dissatisfaction by many airport users who had bemoaned the continuous poor state of the nation’s airports despite the billions of naira sunk into their rehabilitation, remodeling and reconstruction by the Federal Government. Dunoma was, therefore, handed the immediate task of speeding up work on all the airport projects that were ongoing at that time. His choice was certainly a case of putting a round peg in a round hole.
Dunoma, who obtained a BSc (Hons) degree in Building Engineering in 1979 from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, had been involved over the years (although at what could be described as an ordinary staff level) in the conceptualization, engineering designing, and construction of most of the airports. Sadly, as he resumed work, the country was soon to be hit by a severe cash crunch.
Some contractors handling most of the airport jobs had to abandon site owing to huge debts owed them by the government. But his employers would not take the paucity of funds as an excuse for any form of non-performance on his part. No one cared to listen to such an excuse as to the fact that some of the airport projects were even operated under a Joint Venture (JV) scheme and requiring counterpart funding, and for which the Nigerian government was defaulting in its cash call obligations. Wherever he could find the funds, Dunoma’s assignment was to ensure that 22 of the Federal Government-owned airports scattered across the country were given a massive facelift to assuage the pains of airport users.
I recall running into Mr. Dunoma a few weeks after his appointment in April 2014. He was undertaking a tour of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, accompanied by other airport workers. I was on my way out of Nigeria to Dubai, UAE. The Lagos international airport that day was an eyesore. It was one of those bad days that the air-conditioning system failed to provide the needed cooling effect to soothe its sweating travelers. In fact, that day, even the partially impaired didn’t need to strain his or her ears so much to hear the complaints by Nigerian airport users on the decay or dearth of basic facilities at all of Nigeria’s airports. The litany of the rot ranged from filthy toilet facilities, absence of decent car parks, heavy presence of touts, poorly lit airport environment, insufficient security, epileptic power supply, poor access roads within the airport premises, poor passenger processing facilities, as well as non-functional air conditioners, escalator, lifts and conveyor belts, among others. Most passengers that day had expressed their frustrations – as well as a sense of shame – that the decay at the country’s various airports brought on citizens.
A soft-spoken man, I listened to him address the airport workers and others who had come closer to him with reassuring words. There would certainly be an improvement in facilities in the days and months ahead, he said. As he spoke, he wore a face devoid of any smile, an indication that he was also grieved by the problems air travelers go through at the nation’s airports.
I took him serious. In this type of task, a man should always be given the chance to first prove himself; judgement can only be passed with the passage of time. In the case of Dunoma, I had set a two-year time limit to assess his performance. But fate would only permit my return to the country after nearly four years of his reign as the FAAN boss.
On February 10, 2018, as I touched at down the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, I was stunned by what I saw. And it started with the ambiance of cleanliness that greeted me right from the arrival hall, through immigration and security checkpoints, up to the exit doors of the terminal building. Incoming passenger processing and profiling was made faster and easier with more desks/ counters provided for DSS and Nigerian Immigration officials. The conveyor belts were
working perfectly. When I expressed some level of apprehension on the safety of my luggage, a security official who was present at the luggage pick-up point quickly countered my fears and informed me that the issue of pilfering of passenger luggage had been checked with the total coverage of the airport terminal building with functional closed circuit television (CCTV). “There is no hiding place for a thief in this airport,” he said. “There are CCTVs everywhere within the airport terminal to pick out such a criminal. Things have changed,”he added.
True to his words, it didn’t take long for my luggage to come out. As I stepped outside the airport, family members who came to pick me up, like many others, were accommodated under a tent with chairs provided to aid their comfort. In the past, such persons coming to pick up passengers would have been left to stand outside and under the mercy of the elements. And I did not notice the presence of the usual Lagos airport touts; they had disappeared. A believer in Public Private Partnership (PPP), Dunoma had worked assiduously with a private firm to erect a new and befitting car park for motorists at the Lagos international airport. I was very impressed with the new multi-storey car park. It has eliminated the gridlock along the road leading into the Lagos airport arrival terminal and has indeed proved a more befitting edifice for an airport of the MMIA status.
Similarly, the facilities that aid passengers traveling abroad through the MMIA have also received a facelift. Keying into the Ease-of-Doing Business initiative of the Federal Government, the various screening desks at the MMIA (Customs, NDLEA, Quarantine, Immigration etc) have been collapsed into one – new electronic scanners which have been mounted at the entry doors of the airport now perform that task. More counters have also been created for the airlines. These days, you simply clear yourself with the airline, get a boarding pass and proceed to complete the Immigration formalities, and proceed to board the aircraft. It is the acceptable trend at international airports across the world. I was glad to have witnessed this at the Lagos international airport for the first time.
But it was not just about the MMIA Lagos. I moved through the Murtala Muhammed Airport domestic terminal one (MMIA), the Owerri, Enugu and Abuja Airports during my short stay in Nigeria, and I must confess that indeed I noticed a remarkable transformation in these airports. Duty staff are now properly identified by uniforms and official cards and all off duty staff were no longer found in the terminals. Officials at the airports have also stopped the disgraceful act of openly soliciting or receiving bribes from passengers. There are still power failures, but less frequent now.
Imoh writes from Lagos.