TWO major ironies are staring Nigeria in the face at the moment, in so far as it concerns air travel. A few days ago, the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development rolled out the drums to celebrate 100 years of civil aviation in Nigeria. An international air show was organised and held in Abuja, among other events, to commemorate the milestone. It was on November 1, 1925 that the first flight into Nigeria landed in Kano.
It is therefore an irony of developments that citizens of a nation celebrating 100 years of civil aviation can no longer afford to travel by air. It has been in the news for some days now that the cost of air travel tickets to the South-Eastern part of the country, in particular, is hitting an all-time high.
Before change happened on us in 2015 BC, it was easy and affordable to fly to any destination in the country. The highest air fares were on routes like Lagos-Maiduguri, or Lagos-Sokoto, which were the longest from Lagos, and cost below N50,000. Lagos-Abuja, Lagos-Asaba, and other routes generally sold below NN40,000. But after change happened in 2015, the air fares proved to us that they were really creatures of the air and left the skies for the stratosphere. In those days, newsmen often left Lagos in the morning for Abuja to interview a news source and returned to Lagos in the afternoon to write the story. Such a reporter would have spent about N70,000 on flights and airport transfers. Not any more. At the moment, a one-way ticket to Abuja costs well above N100,000.
Now, after May 29, 2023 when fuel subsidy was summarily removed without any effort to prepare the citizenry for its effects, air fares left the stratosphere, and headed for outer space. The immediate casualty for air travel was high cost of aviation fuel, which led to airlines doubling or tripling the fare on some routes to be able to stay in operation.
For the average business traveller here, and in fact anywhere in the world, time is money. Therefore, a trip by air is preferred to making the journey by road. In any case, traveling by road has become hellish, nasty and brutish. Most of the inter-state roads, belonging to the Federal Government, are in such states of disrepair that they have not just become highways of horror, they are also death traps. That is in addition to the risk of being kidnapped by marauding terrorists, who usually laid siege on the roads at the very bad spots where it is inevitable for a motorist to slow down, often to a crawl, to navigate the bad spots and avoid damage to vehicle and incur less risk of accidents.
As of now, a one-way ticket to any of the capitals of the South-Eastern states costs as much as N430,000, with the cheapest fares on some airlines as high as N360,000. Similarly, one-way tickets to Abuja are selling for as high as N130,000.
Another irony is that this ugly development is coming at a time that nearly all states of the federation, including those that do not have the market for it, have built their own airports. Others even added their own airlines. So, we find ourselves in a situation where there are airports, but no flights, and where there are flights, they are not affordable. Who made Nigeria like this?
At this time of the year, with the Yuletide season on us, travel is always at its peak. Now, Nigerians can no longer afford to travel by road because the roads are bad, and where they are motorable, terrorists are lurking in the bushes to stop vehicles and herd the passengers, like cattle, into the forest, where the ransom trade will begin. Daily, travellers from various parts of the country who made the trip by road, safely, tell stories of woes about how a five-hour trip now takes as long as 11 or 12 hours. Given the current status of the Benin Bye-Pass through Agbor, onward to Asaba, and the Benin-Sapele Road, it will take a minimum of 12 hours to do a trip from Lagos to Anambra by road. Ditto from Lagos to Ughelli, or Warri. Meanwhile, it costs N180,000 for a one-way ticket from Lagos to Warri.
The other safe option of travelling, which is by air, is now being priced out of reach. Yet, distance decays interaction. What options are left to the Nigerian, including the rich?
Gradually, the option staring us in the face is to stay where we are; no more travelling by road to see relatives, or fraternise with friends any more. Thank God there is telephone; we just keep saying hello to each other, or converse with voice notes through the messaging applications on our phones. Amid all these woes, one can still ask: Is this the way those who are in charge today met the country? Is this the way the country should run? Daily, government officials and spokesmen assault us with figures from the World Bank, IMF, or the rating houses like Fitch, or Standard & Poor about how well the economy is doing.
The reality is that the economy is suffocating! People cannot move about for fear of terrorists and horrible roads, and those that can afford to travel by air can no longer afford to do so. Yet, the lords of the manors in Abuja keep telling us it is well. IT IS NOT! For how long must this continue? Let the faction of the power elite in charge at the moment rise to the occasion by showing love to us, the governed. This can be done by dumping the agbada, rolling the sleeves, and going to work for Nigeria and Nigerians. Let the country run and halt the threat to the economy! TGIF.
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