Aviation Round Table (ART) has condemned the current multiple security checkpoints at the Nigerian airports describing them as “disgrace to the country.”
Chairman of ART, Mr. Gabriel Olowo, who stated this in an interview in Lagos on Wednesday, therefore supported the house of representatives’ position on the centralisation of security checks.
He said despite the federal government’s policy of ease-of-doing-business, multiple security points at the airports had made nonsense of the policy.
He stressed that implementation of laws has always been the major challenge confronting the nation.
He said if the current house of representatives led by the Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila as speaker could ensure the implementation of the policy, the image of Nigeria would swell greatly in the comity of nations, while Ease-of-Doing-Business would be achievable.
He said it was necessary for the federal government to sanitise the Nigerian airports, stressing that if the Transport Security Administration (TSA) of the United States could centralise security information, Nigeria should not be an exemption.
“The Gbajabiamila house of representatives is thinking of giving Nigeria something close to TSA. That is sharing security information and just having one security checkpoint at the airports. That is sharing news for me and the entire body of ART is throwing its weight totally behind this.
“Most of the time, when policy statements come out, implementation always becomes a big task. We have spoken at various times on this matter. Group Capt. John Ojikutu has released a lot of documents on how this can be done several years back.
“The vice president, Yemi Osinbajo came, issued a statement on this matter; many checkpoints disappeared at a time. I don’t know whether it was gazetted or not. Action has always been our problem. We have discussed many issues and matters, but implementation has always been our problem. If that will be our Christmas gift for 2021 for the sector, get it done and sanitise our airports.
“All these many checkpoints at our airports, and the ‘what do you have for the boys’ Give us a bad image non-stop. All these unnecessary compliments at airports, rather than concentrate on the job; check the documents and let the fellow move are unwarranted.”
He insisted that the effort to satinise the Nigerian airports was a task that must be accomplished by the government.
In the US for instance, he said all the information about a passenger – political criminal, corruption, drug and others are centralised for access by all the security agents.
He said the same thing could be replicated in Nigeria through technology.
“Three stages only. Once the check-in is done, you have your boarding pass, you go to the security door and once that is done, you are in the screening area. You go to the shopping lounge, as simple as that.
“But, here, you go through immigration, somebody is in the security team, somebody will check your international passport in and out. World best practices become an issue for us in Nigeria. Why? Are we the only country in the world that has a problem? Best practices are best practices and it is done in other economies. I salute Gbajabiamila and I think he is able to drive this to a good conclusion,” he said.
