Anyone who has encountered the ever-unruly bad behaviour of most airline attendants would have learned self-control to remain calm in the face of their defiant and uncouth behaviour. It is usually as if most of them have taken lessons on how to annoy passengers with ‘shakara’, and they carry an air that they are doing a favour to make you feel humble enough to be grateful that they even sold you a ticket and allowed you on board.
Without attempting to justify any unruly behaviour at the airport or on board an aircraft, I have observed a behavioural pattern of an unusually exaggerated sense of self-importance among many Nigerian airline’s staff and personnel. For some, courtesy should only be accorded to the person who appears and is willing to give a good tip. And should a person appear to be an average Nigerian who has managed to afford an airline ticket to avoid the many dangers of Nigerian roads, such a person is usually treated with an unspoken attitude of quiet disdain.
On the other hand, there seems to be a network of tip seekers among airline staff and attendants who start by showing undue respect, obeisance, and willingness to help passengers they perceive to be rich and traditional, who will give the staff a handsome tip. Should the man or woman who has received such courtesy fail to ‘shake body’, he or she might get the harsh treatment at the next security checking point. Kwam1’s case may not be different.
The few functional Nigerian airlines have come to assume some nearly cabalistic power, and their staff and attendants know it. This stems from the sudden high demand for domestic air travel, which accounts for such exorbitantly high fares that were unjustifiably less by 100% a few days earlier. The airlines practically operate as Lords of Skies as they unwittingly care less about how their passengers feel because they know their power over them.
We live in a country where many people are under so much weight of pressures and are highly troubled, and they often exhibit various forms of coping mechanisms ranging from rebellion, depression and outright violence. Whereas bad governance is mainly responsible for the heightened anxiety among Nigerians, those stronger, especially corporate bodies, social institutions, and the entire populace should learn to be and practice more compassion.
So would Ibom Air truly consider itself to have given the best treatment to that badly behaved female passenger? There is a biblical injunction that proclaims that ” ….a soft answer turns away wrath.” Would anyone stop to think what kind of statement of demand by an airline staff could have elicited such a bad reaction from the passenger? And when a passenger had become some intransigent and unruly, should the airline gather its enforcement resources to detain, humiliate and forcibly remove a female passenger in the full glare of recording mobile devices, fully revealing her cleavages? Was that really the best the airline could offer? That was quite a feat, and the real victims of the traumatised country are not only condemning the unfortunate passenger but are quick to point out why she deserved what happened to her. Has the airline ever considered what registers in the subconscious minds of everyone who saw its brand associated with such barbarity?
If the treatment meted to the unruly passenger was mishandled by overzealous airline attendants, what about a particular statement allegedly credited to the airline that the passenger had been issued a life ban from flying on the airline? Later, news broke that the female passenger had been remanded in Kirikiri Correctional Centre after being taken to court. Did she get the service of a counsellor or lawyer and first aid medical treatment? That would have made a huge difference!
So here’s the airline’s tough guy stance would be: “A passenger on board our airline misbehaved. She was thoroughly humiliated in the full glare of recording mobile phones; we ensured she was sent to prison immediately after.” Only the airline can ask itself whether it could have done better.
Some years ago, a former commissioner in Delta State was banned from flying on a particular airline because he vehemently protested the lack of air-conditioning during a flight. It didn’t take long before that airline went into liquidation. That was predictable because an airline whose corporate culture was that high-handed would certainly not have planned to stay in business long.
To the Nigerian public that has taken so much delight in condemning that unfortunate passenger, let’s remember the famous quote by Isodore Okpebho: “… we are all victims.” Every Nigerian, at home and abroad, is a victim of the dysfunctional Nigerian state. If we fail to build a more compassionate and humane society, it doesn’t take long before the malaise takes its turn on any of us. How many would change their minds about the unfortunate female passenger if they truly knew what transpired or what troubled state of anxiety she had been in?
Development is by choice!
Frank Tietie, Esq.
Lawyer & Executive Director of Citizens Advocacy for Social and Economic Rights (CASER), writes from Abuja
