Lessons From Terminal 5
By Reuben Abati

As the aircaft touched down at Boston Logan airport, bringing to a smooth and happy ending our seven-hour plus trip across the Atlantic, the first thing I noticed was the viewer-friendly skyline of the city of Boston, and as we descended onto the tarmac, I did not miss the fact that the runway at the airport is next to a busy river. And I joked about how if this had been the case in Lagos or anywhere in Nigeria, pilots would have been missing the runway routinely and dipping the aircaft and its passengers into the river with fatal consequences.

For the past one week, the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos has been without regular power supply. When international flights arrive, passengers have to wait sometimes for upwards of 40 minutes while airport authorities struggle to find diesel to start the generators which supply electricity to the airport. On one ocassion recently, an international flight had to be diverted to Accra for landing. Airport managers are complaining that diesel is so expensive and so scarce, they can't afford to rely exclusively on it. The airport is like an oven, its air-conditioning system is not working. Even the carousels are in a poor state, it takes hours for luggage to be released for collection. This is presumably the busiest airport in Nigeria, Lagos being the country's commercial centre, but it bears all the marks of the Nigerian dilemma.

The airport has become a national security risk and a tourism embarrasment. Nigerian airports generally are not being properly run. They are not being maintained. When you arrive in the country through the Murtala Muhammed Airport, just watch the faces of foreigners. What I see is disbelief and shock.

An airport is the first point of contact for foreigners and visitors. As they arrive, they look through the windows to take in the skyline and the city below. As they pass through customs and immigration, they are on the look out for signs of welcome. But we don't seem to care enough and it is a terrible pity. Our leaders travel all the time and they see how other people organise their own countries and manage to turn national monuments into major statements about national priorities and character. But back home, they are more interested in spending money. So much money is spent and nothing concrete is done in terms of service delivery. This is the sad point about the current probe of the aviation sector and the N19. 6 billion earmarked for the upgrade of the country's four international airports. I wonder how Nigerians living abroad manage to remain happy when they visit Nigeria with its spectacles of inefficiency compared to the efficiency of the other societies abroad where they live.

Arriving at London Heathrow Terminal 5, opened for use in March 2008 by the British Airport Authority, for example, I felt like looking around if I would see a Nigerian public official to tell the fellow: "my friend, can you see this? What does this new airport say to you about the British and what we should be doing back home? All the money that you people have mismanaged, stolen, given out as bribe to crazy contractors, in the transport sector, you guys could have used the same amount to build something like this or something close to it." Indeed, travelling from the Murtala Muhammed Airport to Terminal 5 in London is like stepping out of the Paleolithic age into a post-modern reality, from a pre-industrial society to a living, post-industrial context.

Terminal 5 is a traveller's delight, a product of vision and mastery, a thing of beauty, a work of art, vast. Monumental. It is all steel and glass, the robust steel columns rising from the ground through a set of round and bold suspenders which converge at the roof level, like a carefully engineered tree, stretching out over wide acres of land, in a symphony of technology, lighting and scenic art. For Nigerian travellers, Terminal 4 used to be the main port of entry and exit through the United Kingdom, apart from the Gatwick airport. Terminal 4 now looks like an old and small edifice compared to Terminal 5, and yet it has shops, space, 24-hour round the year electricity supply and a high volume of air traffic. Terminal 5 is bigger, bolder and a great improvement on other Terminals. The British Airports Authority have provided in this new Terminal, an answer to the needs of the traveller for the next many years. Check-in is quicker and faster. There are over 80 self-service check-in points, over 100 customer service desks, and drop bag points all lined up before you as you enter. The old, long queues at Terminal 4 are gone, nobody loiters, passing through is one smooth process, with the traveller in control. The entire building is encased in natural light, and anywhere you turn, there is a view of an aircraft or the landscape.

In those days when Nigerian Airways had a desk in London at Heathrow Terminal 3, Nigerians complained that the check-in counter for Nigerian travellers was too close to the toilet. In Terminal 4, they complained that they were placed outside the Terminal where they were required to sort out their usual problem of excess luggage, and that the departure gates were too far away. In Terminal 5, there is a properly designed luggage repackage point and to move from the main Terminal to Terminal 5B where the departure gates are located takes less than 5 minutes; there is an underground train shuttle service linking the two sections of the Terminal. We spent some time at the Lounge in Terminal 4, but the Lounges in Terminal 5 are bigger, more user-friendly, far more tasteful.

But the more interesting thing about this new Terminal is the effort to use it to showcase British art, commerce and culture. The entire airport is littered with British art and entrepreneurship: over 100 shops, art by Christopher Pearson, Oona Culley, Robert Orchadson, and Troika, those dark horses with overhead lamps, bits and pieces of British aviation history: the Concorde room, the four flowers representing the Isles, British cuisine represented by Gordon Ramsay's outlet and so on. The indication here is that some quality thinking has gone into the building of the Terminal. Our luggage was already waiting by the time we passed through immigration. Someone must have reckoned that someday, Terminal 4 would no longer be adequate and had figured out the need for a more modern Terminal that would cater to the taste and needs of a post-modern society. There are plans already to build a Terminal 5c and a Terminal 6. It is such foresight that is lacking in Nigeria's development process.

Long before Terminal 5 was built, the British had even cretaed the Paddington Express which takes you from Heathrow, non-stop in 15 minutes to Paddington. There is also the Picadilly train line and direct bus transportation from West Croydon and Central London to Heathrow. From Terminal 5 to Terminal 4, we didn't have to leave the airport premises. There is a proper linkage from one Terminal to the other and between the airport and the city making travel a harmonious experience. The Heathrow Airport handles a volume of over 65 million passengers per annum and over 50 airlines operate from its various terminals, with Terminal 5 dedicated exclusively for now, to British Airways (you see how the British have chosen to reserve the best for their own airline?). But how on earth is the Murtala Muhammed International Airport the way it is? Built in 1976, no new wing has been added to it.

The plan to expand it and build additional Terminals has been abandoned. The local airport in Lagos is less than ten minutes away from the International wing, but there is no intra-airport transportation or operation that links both locations. You have to go out of the MMA International. And when you do so, you go straight into the hands of touts, money-changers and common criminals who are looking for victims. Motorway 4 which is serving the Heathrow Airport has been expanded into four lanes each way, A bus lane has been provided, and there is a new road by Junction 14 of M25 to serve Terminal 5. In Nigeria, once you step out of MMA International, you are likely to run into a traffic hold up.

The main express road to the busiest airport in the country is one of the worst in the city of Lagos. It has been taken over by road-side vulcanisers, car washers, furntiture makers, hawkers, pickpockets and so on. Inside the airport itself, the electrical wiring, the infrastructure, the conveyor belt system, in spite of previous attempts to tinker with them, remain at pre-1976 levels. Drop off system in Terminal 4 used to be difficult. Somebody with a brain has tried to sort that out in Terminal 5, now everybody has to go through an automated car park, which takes an electronic record of where your car is parked and which leads you to available spaces. In Lagos, the car park has been pulled down, and these days, you are required to park your car on the main road, in hidden places where your vehicle can be vandalised or stolen.

Have you been to MMA during peak hours to see how difficult it is to drop off a traveller? There is no standard car park and yet hungry officials threaten to clamp your car wheels as you struggle with other travellers to get your bags out of the boot. There is an improvement at the Murtala Muhammed II, the local wing of the airport which was recently rebuilt by Dr Wale Babalakin's Bi-Courtney after a fire incident reduced it to ruins, perhaps the only attractive airport in the country today, but it is still a small operation which needs to be expanded.

Terminal 5 is designed to expand capacity, and can handle about 45 mullion passengers per annum. It was built at a cost of about 350 billion pounds, on a public-private sector partnership (PPP) model with British Airways contributing to the design and the furnishing of the building. But providing quality infrastructure is not necessarily about money; it is about will power and commitment. Nigerian officials have stolen more than 350 million pounds in recent years! PPP is something that we talk glibly about and although we have seen how this can work in the example of the the rebuilt local wing of Murtala Muhammed Airport, new officials in power and other collaborators have been trying to harasss the private sector investor. It is as if here in Nigeria, we do not like good things. It is as if we are incapable of promoting and ensuring the good life on our shores. There is too much bile too much malice within us, which holds us down. Surprisingly, the problems with MMA Inetrnational have since been reproduced in the other three international airports: Port Harcourt, Kano and Abuja.

Nonetheless, Nigerians love to enjoy good facilities abroad, they like to gape and gawk at other people's achievements and I saw quite a few of our compatriots admiring the Heathrow Terminal 5 in London. As they do so, let them ponder why it is so difficult to perform similar feats in our country. The Arabs produce oil like Nigeria, but they have reproduced the pleasures of human civilisation on their soil. If they see a beautiful hospital in Europe, they go back home and build a better one, using foreign skills and developing local expertise in the process. This is how they have managed to create Dubai, the beautiful city where Nigerians now buy property and every Risi and Ekaette now go for shopping. In Nigeria our oil money is stolen and pocketed by a few. There is corruption and greed abroad too, but there is a greater focus on the common good. There is a fine underground tunnel in the heart of Boston, I hear the cost of its construction was inflated, but there is a lovely tunnel there, and the law can deal with the other issue. In Britain, the MPs are behaving like Nigerian legislators: they want generous allowances but do you want us to compare our own parliament to the British Parliament in terms of capacity?

Here, we always fail to plan. Our country continues to enlarge but service delivery is shrinking. We wait till pot-holes begin to show up on our runways before we start talking about maintenance. About three years ago, an aircraft ran into a cow on the runway of the International Airport in Port Harcourt. Airport officials were more interested in scrambling for free meat, as they all descended on the slaughtered cow with knives and bowls! The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway was constructed in 1978, nobody has thought of an alternative to that highway which is now so congested. A serving Federal Permanent Secretary who used to be in charge of Works in Abuja disclosed last week that the Niger Bridge may soon collapse because the Federal Government has refused to do anything about it. That is the only bridge that links the East to the Western part of the country! The British are hosting the Olympics in 2012, ahead of it they are developing new infrastructure: housing units in East London, extension of the Euro Tunnel and a new runway at Heathrow. When we have a similar opportunity, our public officials choose to steal and award contracts to their families and friends.

Travelling abroad and looking back at home fills one with so much anger... No wonder there are many Nigerians who have vowed never to return home to settle down, and these are talented, well-trained Nigerians who may be forever lost to a country that is in desperate need of a new set of leaders. The present probe of Nigeria's transport sector by the Senate has been most revealing, but the panel must ask the hard questions: who got what contract, especially the Nigerians who collected public funds to do runways and roads and walked away? The mismanagement of public funds has been established even if nobody is accepting responsibility. The cost is to be measured in terms of the failure of our airports and the transport sector as a whole. It is time we started jailing public officials/contractors for holding the country to ransom.
 

Robot  # 1 | 06.07.2008 09:03

Lessons From Terminal 5 By Reuben Abati As the aircaft touched down at Boston Log...Read the full article.

truthsayer33  # 2 | 06.07.2008 10:25

Reuben,thanks for another beautiful write up. It beggarrs belief that the reports of the inquiries into all those plane crashes in Nigeria have yet to see the light of day. What on earth is wrong with these monsters who have imposed themselves on Nigeria?What have Nigerians done to deserve such crude, callous and unpatriotic looters?

fxo  # 3 | 06.07.2008 11:34

It is time we started jailing public officials/contractors for holding the country to ransom. Its frightening and sickening the long term implications of all of this missed opportunities to build institutions and infrastructure that we can be proud of. What does one point to a young toddler as the distinguishing advantage of being Nigerian?

delemajek  # 4 | 06.07.2008 13:25

Comparing T5 with MMA in my opinion na very long thing Have you seen the world of difference btw 'common' London City Airport with our own 'Giant' MMA. Make we leave story where e belong. RA, nice piece though. Keep up the good work

akuluouno  # 5 | 06.07.2008 14:18

Your article RA came at the right time. What with Femo and Boris et al languishing in jail over the 19.5 billion Naira whala and all the muck that have been unveiled. Did you hear our man Femo talking about revealing the blood sucking witches responsible for the various crashes. I believe this man don kolo. You may not know that the man in charge of HSE ie health and safety throughout the design and construction of the T5 was a Nigerian in diaspora who have cried himself hoarse to help Nigeria out in her airports quagmire during the reign of Pharoah Obasanjus.:sad::sad::sad::sad:\ I sorry for Nigeria..( song by Femi Kuti)

Dewdrops  # 6 | 06.07.2008 14:30

=delemajek;4295066262>Comparing T5 with MMA in my opinion na very long thing Have you seen the world of difference btw 'common' London City Airport with our own 'Giant' MMA. Make we leave story where e belong. RA, nice piece though. Keep up the good work :D:razz::smile: Nothing to add for Nigerian topics abeg. . .I just dey pass by. Make una no vess! Peace out!

aguabata  # 7 | 06.07.2008 15:07

is it me or did someone else suspect that RA is still flying BA. by the way RA should save this beautiful article until we have a government/nation, we dont have a nation yet, we are still grabbing for our selves, then family,then relatives, then friends, then ethnic group.......we need to denounce the nigerian psyche before anything can work in this multi ethnic convolution

Miliki Way  # 8 | 06.07.2008 15:14

The Heathrow Airport handles a volume of over 65 million passengers per annum and over 50 airlines operate from its various terminals, with Terminal 5 dedicated exclusively for now, to British Airways (you see how the British have chosen to reserve the best for their own airline?). Great article, Reuben, but isn't there an ongoing crusade for Nigerians to boycott BA? Has that been lifted already?

depirate  # 9 | 06.07.2008 17:12

I read this article earlier on the guardian website and looked to see if it was up here but it had not been posted, while Reuben makes a good point on part of what is wrong in Nigeria the fact that he was in terminal 5 said only one thing to me - that he was flying BA - and he confirmed this when he stated that it is used exclusively by BA and while it is not for me or anyone else for that matter to decide if someone else joins or ignores the boycott of BA i think it says a lot if a leading contributor to NVS (that has championed that cause) is unmindful (? that is the right word) enough not only to fly BA but to also throw that act in our face when he included his time with them in the article (he could have claimed he knew someone who flew through there). I do not know if Reuben has ever given an opinion one way or the other regarding the boycott but i think after this gaff it is time he let us know where he stands (with us or on the fence). Depirate Ps did i mention that was a good piece by Mr. Abati (even if he DID fly BA)

ozoodoo  # 10 | 06.07.2008 18:47

@Depirate, RA may have obtained a boycott buster ticket (complimentary ticket) from BA. That is the problem with my fellow Nigerians. We are so bereft of principle. And to say we are having this from a newspaper editor that spends lots of his time penning articles that criticise public servants and politicians. What a shame.

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