The Ugly Side of Nigerian Airport Toilets

Chinedu Eze

For several years, air travellers in Nigeria have complained about the toilets at the airports, describing them as dirty, squalid and dilapidated.

As a matter of fact, many Nigerians and foreigners familiar with the toilets don’t use them; they rather wait till they get home before they relieve themselves or they seek for alternatives to airport toilets.

The toilet facilities are known for their filthiness for decades that it seems to have become a tradition.

THISDAY investigation revealed that in all the airports managed by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the toilets are inadequate for the number of passengers that use the facilities. Also, they are not cleaned regularly and the toilet system suffer frequent breakdown.

It has been observed that at the domestic terminals of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja and the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, the small toilets are usually crowded and toilet rolls are either not there or it is being handed over to passengers by an attendant.

Industry stakeholder and erstwhile General Manager, Business Development, FAAN, Adams Nuhu, told THISDAY that there was urgent need for FAAN management to review the toilet system at the airports and make a radical change, observing that airports are the first port of call for foreigners who start the rating of a country from what they see at the airport.

He urged FAAN to take action urgently in response to many years of complaints by travellers and other airport users.

“FAAN should re-plan the toilets at the Lagos and Abuja airports, make them bigger and add more urinals and toilet basins. Travellers were elated when the check-in counters were expanded at Lagos airport and provided better facilitation for passengers who now spend less time on the counter. The airport toilets should receive that kind of expansion. The toilets should be made user friendly,” he said.

It was learnt that the major drawback is that FAAN gives the management of these toilets to contractors who collect money from the agency and provide embarrassing service. The contracts are given out as third party, which means the main contractor sub-contracts the service, indicating how low they rate the importance of toilets in an airport.

THISDAY findings also showed that the toilet rolls they use are very inferior, which leaves particles on the body of the users. As if that is not enough, the attendants who provide service there, most of the time, beg for alms, especially after handing over some pieces of the toilet rolls.

Recently, an America who said he has been travelling to Nigeria through the Lagos airport said he travelled through the international airport in Togo and compared the two airports, saying that the airport in Togo is very clean with easy passenger facilitation and above all, the airport workers do not beg for money or try to extort travellers.

Nuhu suggested that FAAN should review its decision to contract out the management of the toilets and urged that they should employ toilet attendants directly, give them job security and supervise them closely, adding that quality toilet rolls should be procured and reiterated that the airport is the window, which foreigners see Nigeria; so, it is important that there should be total revamp of the toilet system.

He also admitted that the international wing of the Abuja airport has clean toilets but the domestic terminal has dirty toilets and said they are overused because they are inadequate.

Many passengers that travel through the Nigerian airport complain about how unfriendly the facilities are and whenever they talk about airport service, they always rate the domestic terminal in Lagos (MMA2) better. MMA2 managed by Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited has remained consistent in maintaining very clean toilets and the number of toilets is very adequate for the passenger capacity of the terminal. This explains why there are no queues on arrival because there are toilets at every turn at the airport.

Country Manager of one of the foreign airlines that operate to Lagos, told THISDAY that flight crew of foreign airlines do not use the toilets at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos; rather, they wait until they get to their hotels.

He disclosed that the Lagos airport toilet is known globally as very dirty.

THISDAY learnt from a FAAN official that the contract to manage the toilet is usually given at the ministerial level.

“We have been talking about this over the years but what Nigerians who criticize FAAN do not know is that many of these things are micromanaged from the Ministry of Aviation. You just come around and somebody will come and introduce himself that he has been given the contract to manage the toilets,” he said.

THISDAY also learnt that the attendants who manage the toilets are underpaid and their salaries are delayed. One of them who was cornered at the international wing of the Lagos airport, told THISDAY that although the main reason they come to the airport is to maintain and manage the toilets but that they depend on other means of survival in order to make both ends meet.

“If the pipes are broken and you complain you will not get a response from the contractor. Everyday people who use the toilet spoil things. It is either they want to flush and the handle breaks or the float may just break down or the chain or the refill tube in the cistern. In fact, because most of those fittings are old, they easily break down and need urgent replacement but this does not happen. Do you know that sometimes we beg to get detergents and even the toilet rolls they supply is inadequate but we have to be managing things,” he said.

THISDAY spoke with the new Director of Airport Operations at FAAN, Captain Zubair Mahmood, who said that there would be urgent improvement of the toilets, adding that giving the airports better outlook and enhance easy passenger facilitation are some of the priorities of the new Managing Director of FAAN, Mrs. Olubunmi Oluwaseun Kuku.

“We know the challenges and we have mapped out our priorities and one of them is improving the outlook of the airports, especially the Lagos and Abuja airports. So we are going to work on the toilets immediately and address other yearnings of the passengers,” Mahmood said.