Beyond the Arik Air-British Airways Face-off – By Dr. Jideofor Adibe

Posted by admin Africa & World Politics, Articles, Columnists, Jideofor Adibe, PhD, NNP Columnists Saturday, November 26th, 2011

By Dr. Jideofor Adibe, London, UK – Nov. 27, 2011 – There are several things I feel the federal government is getting wrong. The list is long: its decision to push for a single term tenure despite massive public opposition, plans to remove so-called subsidies on petroleum products on spurious arguments that do not convince anyone, suspected meddling in the recent governorship primaries in Bayelsa State despite a reported court order preventing such from taking place, inability to contain the worsening insecurity situation in the country and above all apparently not realising that it is opening several war fronts simultaneously. In primary school, we were taught that a good army General never opens more than a few warfronts at the same time.

Despite its inability to show purposeful leadership on many fronts, I am full of admiration for the way the government has handled the face-off between British Airways and Arik Air, which denied the latter slots on the Abuja-London Heathrow route despite the existence of Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) between Nigeria and the United Kingdom, which allowed the two countries to have 21 frequencies or slots in each other’s country. I have in an earlier write-up on the issue pointed out that Western governments often use non-tariff barriers to shield local companies from competition and that it is not beyond the UK government to try to use technicalese to muscle Arik Air out of the Abuja-London Heathrow route.

The Nigerian government has, uncharacteristically, since gone beyond the retaliatory slashing of British Airways’ slots from seven to three in the Lagos-London Heathrow route to looking at the differences in fares charged passengers flying from Ghana and Nigeria by the British carrier. It was for instance revealed that while the cost of a First Class ticket from Lagos to London (one-way) is $5,408, the same seat from Accra to London is $2,399. Similarly while a Business Class ticket from Lagos to London (one-way fare) is $3,685, the same seat from Accra to London is $2,049. The suspicion is that the differential pricings on the same higher-end seats is aimed at luring the niche passengers from Nigeria to fly to London through Accra because such class of seats are not being sufficiently patronized by Ghanaians. In Nigeria, the British carrier has apparently no problem with the demand for such higher-end seats. The way the Minister of Aviation, Mrs Stella Oduah, handled the issue forced British Airways to offer a 20 percent reduction on this class of seats in its flights from Nigeria. But the Minister rejected the offer, saying the British carrier must offer the same or similar fares from Nigeria to the UK as is the case in any other equidistant destination within West Africa. This is a very commendable nationalistic stance.

There is also an indication that Nigeria may soon start charging the two British carriers (British Airways and Virgin Atlantic) fees for at least part of the 21 frequencies she allotted to the UK under the BASA agreement between the two countries and which the United Kingdom’s carriers have been enjoying free of charge. Joe Obi, Special Assistant (Media) to the Aviation Minister explained that the renovation and upgrading work at the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) could require a review of current slot allocations and additional funding and that FAAN is considering applying commercial slot rates for slots into Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos. Many people believe this is a polite continuation of the ‘you do me, I do you, man no go vex’ triggered by the attempt to muscle Arik Air out of the Abuja-London Heathrow route.

Additionally the government had, through the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) accused the two British carriers of colluding to arbitrarily increase the Passenger Fuel Surcharge paid by Nigerians and consequently asked British Airways to pay a fine of $135m and Virgin Atlantic $100m. Both carriers denied the allegation, with British Airways saying that it would ‘vigorously defend its position on the matter.’

While we are at ‘paying them back in their own coin’ for the way they mistreated Arik Air, it may be also germane to take another look at the way Nigerians are sometimes dehumanized abroad, very often based on profiling. On March 27 2008 for instance, British Airways evicted 136 Nigerian passengers from its Lagos-bound flight from London simply because they protested against the way a Nigerian who was being deported was being dehumanized. After the incident and despite the public outrage it sparked, especially in Nigeria, British Airways maintained a rather condescending silence on the matter until May 2 2008 when it issued a press statement through a media consultant. The official response from the airline came more than a month later and over one week after the federal government had expressed serious concerns on the issue.

There are also allegations that the quality of customer service British Airways offers on its flights to Nigeria is poorer than what it offers on its routes to North American, European and Asian destinations. This of course raises the question of why Nigerians are not shunning the airline as a way of protesting the poor treatment they receive. I believe that part of the explanation for this is a colonial hangover – that anything European/White is infinitely better than what is designated as Nigerian/Black (which, by the way, is why shoes made in Aba in those days were all labelled ‘Made in Italy’). True, there are issues of customer service which local carriers like Arik need to address if they hope to successfully tap into the disenchantment of many Nigerians with some foreign airlines over the way they are treated. In this regard, Arik Air must ask itself why it has been unable to ‘poach’ all or nearly all of the First Class and Business Class Nigerian passengers who have to travel to Accra to enjoy cheaper fares on this class of seats from British Airways.

Related to the shabby treatment of Nigerians by some foreign airlines is the way Nigerians, including very eminent Nigerians, are singled out at foreign airports, for searches, sometimes in very undignified manner. Of course I am not suggesting that immigration officials in foreign countries should not do their jobs. What I am against is an instinctive profiling of all Nigerians by immigration officials in many countries. There is a need to send a powerful message that such profiling must stop.

It may be equally be germane to take a critical look at the way some foreign companies in Nigeria treat their Nigerian employees. The Daily Mirror of November 20 2011 in a report aptly entitled: ‘Expatriates: How they Dehumanise Nigerians’ reported of high industrial accidents in foreign-owned companies, particularly those owned by Asians and Lebanese. The paper said its investigation revealed that ‘rampant union-busting, arbitrary pay-cuts, unwritten job contracts and none(sic) payment on(sic) maternity leave are the conditions in these Asian-owned businesses’. The government urgently needs to investigate these cases, including why the Workman Compensation Act appears to be observed in these companies more in the breach. Some of the companies mentioned in the Daily Mirror report as discriminating against their Nigerian employees include Therapeutic Laboratories Ltd, Samsung Electronics, Airtel (which is Indian owned), and CWAY Food & Beverages Company (which is Chinese owned).

True, the attitude of some Nigerians to their work can quite frankly be pathetic. But companies, including foreign-owned ones, should not hang onto that to turn their staff into slave drivers. The government needs to tap into the popular support its action on the British Airways-Arik Air impasse is receiving to also address other issues that concern Nigerians. As the Osun Defender of November 20 remarked, ‘… at a time the Jonathan administration is committing many unforced errors due to poorly-conceived policies, the action of the aviation ministry represents what his government can achieve if it will only allow itself to be guided by the national interest.’

The Author can be reached at: pcjadibe@yahoo.comwp_posts

Short URL: https://newnigerianpolitics.com/?p=15130

Posted by admin on Nov 26 2011. Filed under Africa & World Politics, Articles, Columnists, Jideofor Adibe, PhD, NNP Columnists. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry