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THE aviation sector is abuzz, for the wrong reason. The indiscretion of two people has put an already challenged sector in an unnecessary turmoil, which has developed many wings. It is, to say the least, a gratuitous drama!
Act 1, scene 1: Fuji musician, Wasiu Ayinde Marshal, aka KWAM 1, wanted to board a commercial plane in Abuja, enroute Lagos. He was told, as is the standard practice, that he would not board with a flask containing liquid of more than 100 millilitres.
Feeling above-the-law, KWAM 1 insisted that he would board with the flask. During the altercation and vehement resistance by the airline officials, he alleged spilled the liquid content on one of them, in an expression of anger.
Act 2, scene 1: Ms Comfort Emmanson boarded a commercial plane in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital, enroute Lagos. An announcement was made for all passengers to switch off their phones for take off. As the story goes, Ms Comfort refused to obey the instruction until literally compelled to do so.
When the aircraft landed at the Lagos airport, the young lady, already seething in anger over the affrontery of the cabin crew members to compelled her to switch off her phone, launched an attack, leading to a commotion inside the aircraft, in what has been nationally tagged “unruly behaviour.”
Drama everywhere! Two air passengers, who never advertised when they bought their flight tickets have put the aviation sector on the spot. Their actions and the reactions of airline officials have had a spiral effect on the aviation sector and bring to question the conduct of people generally.
Ms Comfort and KWAM 1 are just isolated cases of what happens at the airports every day, which are usually nauseating, with passengers behaving in a manner that calls to question their maturity and discipline.
I once boarded a plane in the United States for Lagos, Nigeria. There were other Nigerians on the plane, also travelling to Lagos. At the Dulles International Airport, Virginia, everybody behaved well – in talking to the airline’s ground staff, observing queue etiquette at boarding space and immigrations. The plane landed at London Heathrow Airport and the passengers flying to Lagos had some hours layover.
In the final leg, everything was orderly, during boarding, with a lot of courtesy from the passengers for the airline staff. However, immediately the plane landed in Lagos, hell was let loose. There were three young Nigerian passengers who also boarded with me in the US. They behaved themselves in Dulles International Airport, Virginia and London Heathrow Airport. In Lagos, the Nigerian in them (or was it the animal in them?) manifested. These passengers, at the immigration hall in Lagos, openly jumped the queue and were laughing doing so. Their conduct was very annoying. The same people who behaved well in two foreign countries a few hours ago, suddenly became unruly, without decorum in their own country.
It is unbelievable that Ms Comfort and KWAM 1 would misbehave at the airport and get people’s sympathy over attempt to make them face the full weight of the law. It is condemnable that staff of Ibom Air or other passengers would video-record the ugly incident involving a passenger to post it on social media, which is a breach of privacy. Such acts are wrong.
Everyday in our lives, we come across people who feel that they are above the law and can do whatever they wish. It is the product of over-bloated ego and the “do-you-know who I am” mentally, which have eaten deep into the social fabrics.
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On the plane, passengers are under obligation to follow flight attendants’ instructions and be respectful and courteous to airport staff and fellow passengers, just as they expect to be treated. Behaving otherwise is crude.
Crude behaviour can harm an individual’s reputation, leading to loss of trust and respect. It can strain relationships, making it difficult to build and maintain positive connections with others. It can lead to social and economic consequences, such as loss of business opportunities, diplomatic tensions, or even sanctions. It can perpetuate negative stereotypes, reinforcing harmful and inaccurate perceptions of individuals or groups. It can escalate conflicts and create tension, making it challenging to resolve issues and achieve peaceful resolutions.
All these can be avoided. It does not take much to do what is right. We do not need to be forced or compelled to do what is right. However, where people fail to maintain standard practice, compulsion is necessary. That is why the War Against Indiscipline (WAI) by the military government of General Muhammadu Buhari in 1983 was good for Nigeria, at that time and at present. The WAI was the greatest thing that Buhari ever did. At the time it lasted, Nigerians were whipped into line, so to say. And most people deserve to be whipped.
There are rules in the country designed to ensure good conduct. The problem has always been enforcement. In enforcement, sentiments and circumvention of penalties come into play. KWAM 1 breached airport security. He got a slap on the wrist, with just a six-month flight ban, which was reduced to one month, and rewarded with aviation ambassador title. Ms Comfort did the same thing. She was dehumanised, stripped, taken to court, remanded in prison and eventually pardoned. That is the double standards that erode trust, create conflict and undermine fairness and justice.
Even though, one considers the treatment of Ms Comfort as dehumanising, eventually telling her to go and sin no more is preposterous. The mistake of double standards became her gain. She was taken to court, but KWAM 1 was not. Had the authorities applied the law without bias, as it concerned KWAM 1, there would not have been any sympathy for Ms Comfort.
KWAM 1 and Ms Comfort should have faced charges and allowed to prove their innocence or otherwise punished. It is when such consequences begin to happen that people would caution themselves and do what is right at the airport. One must, however, add that the life ban earlier placed on Ms Comfort, before her pardon, was to the extreme. The AON should have left the court to determine the punishment, as stipulated by the law, instead of taking the laws into its hand, as it were.
Going forward, one expects that the incidents involving KWAM 1 and Ms Comfort should be a wake-up call for the authorities, airline passengers and Nigerians in general to know that there are unpleasant effects for doing what is wrong. There should not be a closure to this ugly incidents until the authorities fish out the person or persons, who recorded and shared the embarrassing video of Ms Comfort and dispense the right punishment.
Recording and sharing people’s videos without their consent are invasion of privacy, defamation, or harassment. It amounts to cyberbullying, and online harassment. The defence would be that what happened in the public space is already public. It may be public, but it is usually crucial to exercise caution as well as adhere to social media platform guidelines and policies regarding content sharing.
The authorities should use the Ms Comfort saga, in respect to the video recording and unauthorised sharing, as a basis to teach Nigerians a lesson regarding social media madness. This should be done by punishing those involved in the Ms Comfort unauthorised video recording and sharing. The Cybercrime Act, which addresses this, should be invoked to set an example and caution people about illegal recordings and sharing of videos.
Finally, the authorities cannot bring sanity to the aviation sector without also ensuring that the airlines respect people’s rights and adhere to global standards. The practice of delaying and cancelling flights, without careful thought of the damages to air passengers, should have consequences also for the airlines. As the authorities protect the airlines, the passengers deserve protection too.
