Anxiety is adding to boredom at Nigeria’s three major international airports, the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos; Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja and the Port Harcourt Airport, following the stepping up of security measures in response to Tuesday’s suicide bombing of the airport and subway in Brussells, Belgium, by the terrorist organisation, ISIS, in which 34 lives were lost.
BusinessDay gathered that this is resulting in the build-up of long queues due to the increase in passenger dwell-time (time spent in checking in or checking out) in the country’s airports and that the situation promises to get worse going forward.
Aviation sources say check-in time for local flights has already increased from about 20 minutes to about 50 minutes, while the same procedure for international flights has gone up from about 40minutes to about one and half hours.
BusinessDay is reliably informed that there has been a series of meetings and circulars relating to security between security forces and airlines operating into and out of the nation’s airports.
These meetings are further reinforced by intelligence and advisories from across the world, channeled through the International Police Organisation (Interpol) and international aviation networks, especially to countries such as Nigeria, which have, or are currently experiencing Islamic-tagged insurgencies.
On account of this, physical and electronic searches are said to have been stepped up on air passengers and their luggage, while travel documents are given more scrutiny.
Furthermore, airlines are going tougher on restrictions as to what passengers can carry as hand luggage. Previously, the airlines allowed passengers to carry certain amounts of liquids, including water, lotions, ,perfumes and drugs with prescriptions.
Aviation sources however told BusinessDay that there are strong indications that there will be further restrictions on these and other items.
Security officers in Nigerian airports are now carefully watching out for passengers on local and international security watch lists. They are further deploying security profiling protocols, which imply paying particular attention to passengers whose travel document indicate a certain trend of travel.
Initially, the bodyguards of some higher echelon VIPs were allowed to carry side-arms but that has since been stopped to stave off the possibility of infiltration and misuse, while the VIPs themselves will go through the same stringent screening as other passengers, BusinessDay was informed.
Aviation workers say this will likely lead to the airlines losing money, as some passengers pay for priority services and will not likely continue these payments if the expected waivers cease.
A senior security manager in Lagos, informed our reporter that the authorities are also on the look-out for bad eggs in the security system, who may want to compromise things. These, they say, would be swiftly flushed out.
Airport authorities in Nigeria are also calling for stepped up security training for their staffers but are concerned that approvals might be limited because of financial constraints. Furthermore, as a way of achieving result at minimal cost, airport authorities are planning to encourage the various airlines to conduct security training for their staff at their own cost.
Yakubu Dati, General Manager, Public Communications, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, (FAAN) said the grassroot airport security committee meets regularly at the airport level and takes decisive action on matters bordering on security.
Sam Adurogboye spokesperson, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), told BusinessDay that as a result of the attack on Brussels, the NCAA has restrategised to ensure this incident does not happen in Nigeria.
“Two weeks ago, a four-man team from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) had completed the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) of the nation’s aviation industry with the objective to ensure that Nigeria still abides by the safety status in accordance to ICAO regulations,” Adurogboye said.
Adurogboye told BusinessDay that Nigeria had passed the audit and would regularly be re-examined to ensure that the country does not stray from the accepted international safety standard under which it is rated.
The focal points for the auditors include Legislation (LEG), Organisation (ORG), Accident and Incident Investigation (AIG), Air Navigational Services (ANS) and Aerodrome and Ground Aids (AGA).
Earlier this year, Hadi Sirika, Minister of State for Aviation, said that the Federal Government was determined to provide adequate security at the nation’s airports.
Sirika said that recent happenings at the airports across the world were a source of concern, adding that security of the airports was non-negotiable.
Ifeoma Okeke
