OF LITTLE THINGS AND OUR PUBLIC IMAGE 

Leadership at all levels must be alive to their responsibilities, writes Johnson Olawumi

On a recent flight from Istanbul to London on board the Turkish Airline, something drew my attention.  Usually, on a long flight of this nature, I get myself busy listening to recorded music of King Sunny Ade, Sikiru Ayinde Barrister or sometimes Orlando Owoh to while away time and to take my mind off any turbulence on flight.  On this day, I chose to play around with the inflight entertainment screen. On the menu options, I noticed a particular icon ‘Mardin’ in Turkish language which means Destinations and got impressed to know that the Airline visits 198 destinations worldwide including its local flights within Turkey. A further click on the page shows that the destinations are segmented into five regions: Turkey, Europe, Africa, Far East, and Asia as well as the Middle East.  

In each of the segments, one will see the destination countries and cities.  For Africa, we have Cote d’Ivoire (Abidjan), Djibouti (Djibouti city), Ghana (Accra), Cameroon (Douala and Yaoundé), Rwanda (Kigali), Senegal (Dakar), South Africa (Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban), Tanzania (Kilimanjaro, Dar Es Salaam, Zanzibar), Chad (N’Djamena), Mali (Bamako), Mauritius (Port Louis), Guinea (Conakry), Sierra Leone (Freetown), Gambia (Banjul), Algeria (Algiers, Constantine, Oran), Gabon (Libreville), Ethiopia (Addis Ababa), Sudan (Khartoum), Benin Rep (Cotonou), Mozambique (Maputo), Morocco (Marrakesh), Mauritania (Nouakchott), Egypt (Hurghada, Sharm El Sheikh) and Tunisia (Tunis). Surprisingly, there was no Nigeria and any of its cities patronised by Turkish Airline. This raised some curiosity, when it is known that as of September 2022, Nigeria was the Airline’s third largest destination in the African market. 

Beyond listing the countries and cities, on the click of a destination city, there is a short video of about three minutes that introduces the city, its people, culture, infrastructure, places of interest and other activities that could appeal to and attract a potential visitor to that city.  It is also a sort of guide for potential tourists not only for those on their way to the country or city, but those on board who may be interested in a future holiday destination.  It was therefore surprising that none of the three destination cities of Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt appeared in the electronic compendium, and this has raised some pertinent questions in my mind; why are the Nigerian cities not in the video, who is to provide the information for the Turkish Airline, did the Airline contact the relevant authority in Nigeria, who did the airline contact, was there a response or not?

As a patriotic Nigerian, one will feel terribly embarrassed by this omission or negligence. The issue here is that of national pride. It is bad enough that we don’t have a national carrier to showcase and project us, but when another airline with massive global reach now provides a platform to showcase our destination cities, and we still fail to ride on it, then questions need to be asked about the seriousness of those in charge. The issue may look mundane, but in the international system, nothing is too little to project relevance and power. Nations project these attributes using politics, economy, military, sports, tourism, aviation, etc.  It is therefore necessary for the Ministry of Aviation, as well as that of Information to investigate this anomaly and omission, by engaging the airline on why Nigerian cities were omitted in the airline destination list, and if the fault is from our end as it probably would be, to identify those who have failed to act on it. 

The above is just an example of how as a nation we continuously fail to use little issues to showcase our good public image either due to ignorance, lack of interest and commitment as well as nonchalant attitude of those in charge of our national lives. The case of gross violation of traffic rules in Abuja is another that readily comes to mind. Undoubtedly, Abuja Central District has some of the best infrastructure especially roads that could compete with those in developed countries.  Unfortunately, it is a common sight to see motorists proudly and jubilantly violate traffic rules without any consequence, sometimes at the danger of causing harm to other road users. Yet in this beautiful city, there is a Minister who either is ignorant or does not care about what chaos the city degenerates into.  Kudos must be given to President Buhari on the massive infrastructure development notably roads, going on in Abuja since 2015, but his minister in charge of the FCT must wake up to his responsibilities, one of which is to ensure sanity on the roads.  Abuja is our pride, and we must not wait for any calamity to happen, or for a foreign media to tag us as a lawless nation on account of our flagrant violation of traffic regulations before we start to respond by casting aspersion on such foreign media.

Activities of security agents and terminal operators at our international airports have also been a source of concern for our public image.  It is common to see passengers miffed by the unprofessional conduct of some security agents in their stylish solicit for tips at both the departure and arrival halls of our international airports. At the arrival baggage hall, passengers are made to pay some money to use the trolleys, while several airport attendants who have no business in the hall compete for space with genuine travellers. The security implication of the presence of these nonessential persons seems lost on the managers of our airports.  As someone who has travelled wide, this is against global practice. The implication is that a foreign traveller starts to form some negative impressions about the country right from the arrival.  One must acknowledge the enormous efforts of the Minister for Aviation especially his fervidness and drive to rebirth a national carrier; the fact however is that those little things left unattended would continue to rubbish his efforts and besmirch our public image.  One could go on and on, x-raying those areas that have continued to diminish our public image, but must we fold our hands and take no action?

Leadership at all levels must be alive to their responsibilities.  It is true that a leader cannot be ubiquitous, but he would always be held accountable for every action or inaction under him.  They can borrow a leaf from President Harry Truman, who kept the phrase ‘the buck stops here’ permanently on his table at the Oval Office throughout his tenure, to constantly remind him that he alone would bear the consequences of any misdeed. Nigerians are proud of their country and heritage, and do not want to be portrayed in bad light.  Our leaders and indeed all Nigerians must ensure that we live up to that slogan; Nigeria: Good People, Great Nation, and it starts by paying attention to those little things that could taint our good public image.  

Olawumi, retired Major General and former NYSC Director General, is a member of THISDAY Editorial Board