If the consequences were not so tragic, the Nigerian approach to ensuring security would be comical and one could have a really good belly laugh at the antics of our so called security officials, private and police.

Take the example of the local wing of the Murtala Mohamed Airport where as soon as you make to enter you are faced with an enormous scanner, necessary no doubt for those who come with large suitcases that must be scanned before they are checked in for travel. Every minute object that you hold external to your body must however also be passed through the scanner, even if all you have come to do is to make enquiries. Should you be going beyond the ticketing lounge, you must at least have a ticket to prove that you are never mind if it is a stub from an old trip, then you are passed through a second smaller luggage scanner, supported with a body scanner and hand held metal detectors. All this meet with internationally prescribed measures for ensuring safety of air travel and is therefore a good thing.

The irony is if you manage to ‘pass’ through all the security checks, there are various points by which any criminal worth their salt can foil the security measures at the airport. The casual observer will see that intending passengers waiting in line to pass the second security point buy newspapers through the metal grids (that serve as additional security against intruders). It is a no-brainer to see that if you can get a newspaper through without creasing it, you can get a small package through, whatever it might contain. However, there is a second security checkpoint, so what is the point of the first? If there is no need for that level of security in the ticketing lounge, why put customers through the inconvenience of lifting often very heavy suitcases on to the scanner and if the need exist, why leave such obvious breaches? In addition, where are the considerations for other emergencies like fire that necessitate quick evacuations of a large number of people?

Right next to the tarmac where the airplanes are parked waiting for passengers, is a gate that leads on to the airport thorough fare. This gate is as rickety as they come and probably provides access to airport operational vehicles but persons of questionable intentions are always gathered around there and packages are handed through and across the gate enough for anyone to take notice. However, with all the security measures already described safety must have been ensured. Let us not forget that the ever-vigilant security officials can be seen talking to friends or eating from bowls or simply taking well-deserved naps under convenient shades even as they keep an eagle eye out for that sloppy criminal. I am yet to see security operatives less able to stand erect and to attention anywhere other than in Nigeria. Ability to lounge or kip in broken down furniture must be a job requirement. Periodic patrols of perimeters are of course a no-no.

I once asked the security guard at a bank what would happen in the event of a fire after nearly a dozen people were kept waiting while trying to get me through the single metal detection door into the bank. In spite of carrying just my chequebook and a pen, the foolish door kept requesting that I stepped out to be frisked or whatever these talking doors say. The guard confidently answered that God will not let that kind of thing happen. I could not help thinking to myself that it was okay for him to rely on God to take the preventive measure after all his duty post was outside. Even so, his response was telling. The responsible official for such things in that building had not thought to provide appropriate training and briefing for such emergencies. Perhaps he was a temporary replacement of the regular guard since the guard inside readily told me that the manager on the upper floor kept the key to the giant padlock that secured the wider gate hidden behind large boards advertising the banks products and services. He also explained that there was not a need for fire or other emergency drills since no cooking is done in the office and the single metal door will not let dangerous intruders in. The chances of one of these nice young faces behind the counter going berserk and hacking each other or customers to death was also zilch to nothing. Where madam, did you ever hear that such a thing happened. Dis people wey don tey for abroad sef!

Entrances to most government owned public buildings are usually narrowed down to let one not very fat person through at a time. If you happen to be in a wheel chair or use crutches to get around you should not work or have anything thing to do in these buildings. The entrances are dominated by huge desks and are manned by at least four pot-bellied decrepit men who spend time dreaming up new and ingenious ways to impede passage through the doors. Unable to respond to even the simplest enquiry (like where the toilets are located for instance - for that simply follow your nose and when found use at your own peril), they exchange office gossip and banter with the many female food vendors that seem always to be parked nearby, further limiting ingress and egress. There is no better deterrent to the intending criminal who will never be able to make his way out of the building since every other exit is securely locked, even though it is made of glass that can be easily broken through. 

The security measure that takes the cream is the well-displayed armed mobile policeman in the front seat of a vehicle making its reckless way through Lagos highways. His rifle, sticking out of the front window, for some yet unexplained reason, always points to the sky. No the window of the obviously expensive car was not brought down to make room for that rifle, it was brought down because the policeman stinks up the car enough to suffocate other passengers. Believe me I asked since I wondered how this poor sitting duck would lay hold of his weapon in the event of the attack that he is there to defend.

Nigerians who can afford it found a solution to that stink that could kill them before any anticipated attacker and now make additional arrangements for transporting their security goons who are usually armed police. It is for the comfort of the important, rich and pastors that we now have the reckless convoy that has become an ever-present threat to the life of the unwary road user. The police men sent to give security cover to Mr. Mukhtar Ibrahim of EFCC on his way from the airport recently demonstrated how much of a threat they could be.

On driving towards the third mainland bridge on the Gbagada section of the Oworonsoki   Express Road, the Peugeot vehicle conveying Mr Mukhtar Ibrahim’s guards sent a little grey Honda Accord careening into another car, but luckily with no great damage done.  The hapless driver, who apparently only recently arrived from the US, however had the temerity to demand of these officers of the law what the problem was and received a beating that he will not be forgetting in a hurry.

The man, under a barrage of blows from the butts of rifles and kobokos, managed to get out of his car and would have been shot for his trouble had he not grabbed on to the stem of the rifle, effectively holding that weapon captive. Perhaps due to some training or out of sheer desperation, he also managed to get a second police man in a grid lock while his little boy hopped all over the road begging for his daddy not to be killed in his high child’s voice. By this time, traffic on the express rod had come to a complete stand still while Lagosians always ready spectators gathered round to enjoy the free show. Mr Ibrahim Mukhtar of EFCC must have noticed the absence of his goons because he soon backed up and taking time off vital EFCC investigative duties asked that his men let go of the man, who was then asked to drive after them. I would like to tell you how the story ended but since I did not follow the group to their Ikoyi destination, I have no way of telling.

Locking ourselves in, intimidating the citizenry or beating up on innocent by-standers has often been our way of ensuring that security is maintained. We have been unable to define security in our context, and by this omission ensured that all measures taken, including endless convoys and route lining for our most senior rulers, have been mere exercises in futility. Otherwise how was the driver of a Volkswagen Gulf able to insinuate himself in Obj’s very own convoy on the way into Abuja from the airport.  Oh, he got the beating of his life and was locked up for a couple of days, but think if he was an honest to goodness assassin on a mission.

Robot  Villager

# 1 If the consequences were not so tragic, the Nigerian approach to ensuring security would be comic...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 12.08.2006 21:16

Mutti  Villager

# 2 Govt bares fangs on terrorists at airports with improved security profile By Wole Shadare THE country may have caught the security frenzy rattling the UK aviation sector, following the recent aborted terror plot, with a noticeable enhancement of security presence at the nation's airports by the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN). The Acting Director of Aviation Security and Safety of the FAAN, Alhaji Saleh, Dunoma, explained that the development was sequel to last week's terror alert in the United Kingdom over alleged plot by some terrorists to blow-up three airliners departing for the United States. He noted that part of their preparedness was to give their personnel mandatory training requirement by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). Said he: "Aviation business is an international business, so we are prepared to meet up with the international challenges. We have so many things we have put in place which we would not want to disclose for obvious reason." Asked on the emergency response of the authority in the face of terrorist threats, he explained that there is aviation security in all the airports and a good security programme in place. He added that the airport security personnel would quickly swing into action if there were security threat, depending on the level of threat that is available at that time. The training, which is periodic, focussed according to the General Manager, Training, FAAN, Salamatu Umar- Eluma on how to identify bombs and other dangerous items on board aircraft. She noted that international requirement stipulates that the personnel be recertified to face new threats in the aviation sector. The global aviation industry focused on aviation security after September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, after aircraft were used as weapons of attack that caused imaginable number of death. The incident led to 100 per cent of screening of passengers before boarding and the introduction of machines to detect explosives and other dangerous weapons. But what would have turned a mass murder was promptly nipped in the bud by Scotland the Yard as terror alert was raised to the highest level in the United Kingdom on Thursday last week, following the disclosure of an alleged plot for a "mass murder on an imaginable scale," by terrorists. The terror alert caused the U.S. to deploy extra sky marshals on flights between the U.S. and UK, and passengers were banned from carrying any liquid on to planes. The expansion of the arrival terminal of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja has commenced. The development is intended to enable the facility to cope with the increased traffic expected from new entrants into the nation's aviation industry. Increased traffic is expected on the international routes following the influx of new airlines into the country in recent times. On July 17, direct air links between Nigeria and the U.S. resumed with North American Airlines flying the Lagos-New York route, while two other American airlines have also signified interest in commencing operations in Nigeria. In Nigeria, Arik Air, a new entrant in the industry, has been designated on the Lagos-U.S. and Lagos-U.K routes, while Bellview Airlines has also been designated on the Lagos-U.S. route. Minister of Aviation, Prof. Babalola Borishade told newsmen while inspecting some facilities at the airport that it was already congested. ``We're discovering that there's a lot of congestion at the terminal and we're really reorganising to cope with new entrants and the increased traffic,'' he said. Beyond the expansion, Borishade said that airlines, which were not optimising the usage of counters allocated to them, might lose them to others who were in need. Borishade said that various fingers at the airport were also being expanded to cope with the increased traffic. The minister also said that the new domestic terminal, being constructed by Stabilini Visioni, would help reduce the traffic at the international airport when it becomes operational before the end of the year. ``In some other countries, it would be an international airport and we believe it should be able to help us reduce the traffic at the international wing,'' he said. ? 2003 - 2006 @ Guardian Newspapers Limited (All Rights Reserved). Powered by dnetsystems.net dnet We just might be able to catch terrorists at the airport .......... Posted by Mutti| 15.08.2006 17:39

The Saint  JJC

# 3 Why should we catch 'Terrorists' at the airport, when we can not put a stop to the 'TERRORISTS' in town; both those with uniforms( Black-Black) and those without uniforms. A security officer is saying the banking hall cannot go up in flames because "God will not let that kind of thing happen"and also because" no cooking is done in the office " These are the kind of people hoping to catch terrorists. The truth is we are a nation where bulk passing is the only way we solve problems. The ultimate responsibility has been passed to God, what next????????? Posted by The Saint| 15.08.2006 22:28