olusegun.adeniyi@thisdaylive.com
President Muhammadu Buhari was in Qatar
last week and the major news that came out
of the visit was the signing of Bilateral Air
Services Agreement (BASA) between Nigeria
and Qatar to pave way for direct flights
between major cities of both countries. While
I continue to wonder whether any due
diligence was done by the relevant
authorities before committing Nigeria to such
an agreement, there are pertinent questions
as to whose idea this BASA deal is. Since
Nigeria currently has no national carrier, it
stands to reason that Qatar initiated the idea
and that is where the problem lies: I don't
believe that the interest of our people was
served by the agreement.Early in January
this year, I got a mail from a lady, Mrs
Chioma Okigbo, narrating one of those
unpleasant experiences to which Nigerians
are usually subjected in their own country.
On receiving the mail (with supporting
documents), I immediately forwarded them
to THISDAY aviation editor, Chinedu Eze,
asking him to investigate the claims and give
me a feedback. Since Mrs Okigbo's enclosed
her phone number, I also called to assure her
I would follow up on the matter. It took
Chinedu a week to get back to me but he
confirmed Mrs Okigbo's story. Now, this was
what she wrote in her mail:
"Dear Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi,
"I felt a need to share an event that
happened to me with you. On 19th
November, 2015, I accessed Qatar Airways
website with the intention of purchasing a
ticket to visit Doha and Dubai. The visit to
Dubai was the major reason for the trip as
we had planned a reunion of our secondary
school classmates from all over the world in
that location. Having a friend working in
Doha, I opted to leave Nigeria some days
earlier than the planned reunion dates of
25th – 28th February.
"Before buying my ticket, I confirmed from
the website that the airline was able to
process visa for visitors to Qatar; in fact this
information was very prominently displayed
on their website. I proceeded to purchase my
ticket and on Tuesday, January 19th, a
month to my travel date, I visited Qatar
Airways website again, this time to complete
the visa process. The site redirected me to a
website called Discover Qatar, which I believe
is the official information center for all
visitors to Qatar and had been set up by the
Qatari government to provide accurate and
timely travel information to visitors. I was
required to complete a simple form but the
first unpleasant surprise was that Nigeria
was not listed among the countries under the
pull down menu for Nationality. I found this
curious and told my classmates that I had
planned the Doha trip with a friend (who
would be flying in from London) and she
suggested that a country called Niceau was
their own clever way of writing Nigeria. I
decided however to contact the center and
make proper inquiries.
"To my shock and utter dismay, I received an
almost instant response from the website
informing me that the government of Qatar
does not issue visas to Nigerian nationals.
This response upset me a great deal and
raised a number of questions in my head: If
we, as Nigerians are not good enough to visit
their country, what exactly are they doing
running an airline in ours? What is the
Nigerian Government's stance on Qataris
visiting Nigeria? Do we issue visas to them or
are they also not allowed in Nigeria? Why is
the Federal Government of Nigeria allowing
a company to run a business in Nigeria,
whilst their host country feels we are all
criminals?
"Anyway, I went to the Qatar Airways office
where, by the way, I met some really nice
Nigerians, and asked for a full refund. To
add insult to injury, the airline will be
deducting a 10 percent fee for cancellation!
Where in the world is this fair and
equitable? I felt that I needed to share this
with you as I do not know the number of
other unsuspecting Nigerians that would be
affected by such discrimination."
When THISDAY sought explanation for such
discrimination against our nationals, the
Qatar Airways Lagos Airport Manager, who
simply gave his name as Hashim said: "for a
Nigerian to get a Qatari visa, he ought to
have a sponsor who is resident in Qatar; that
is the new policy for those countries that are
not listed among the nations that its citizens
are allowed to visit the country (Qatar)."
And it is this same Qatar with which Nigeria
has just signed a BASA deal!
For those who still may not get it, what we
are dealing with here is not the usual
impunity of some foreign companies
operating in our country, the summary of
Mrs Okigbo's ordeal is that Qatar Airways
operates and makes money from Nigeria yet
our citizens are considered not good enough
to enter their country like other nationals.
There are several critical issues here for both
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the
Consumer Protection Council but I will
highlight only two. First, Mrs Okigbo was
practically fleeced of 10 percent of her ticket
money because she did not embark on a
flight to a country that would not give her a
visa. Two, it is an official policy of Qatar to
discriminate against nationals of Nigeria.
I believe that the humiliating experience of
Mrs Chioma Okigbo should not be seen as a
personal insult, it is a serious affront to our
country. What is perhaps more worrying is
that the presidential statement announcing
the BASA deal went further to disclose that
Nigeria has commenced discussions on
partnership (with Qatar, I imagine) towards
establishing a national carrier without
providing any details.
Given that the nation's aviation industry is
currently going through financial crisis with
many of our local airlines highly indebted,
the Buhari administration has refused to
answer the most pertinent question about
this idea of national carrier that is being
driven more by nostalgia than economic
common sense: On what model will the flag
carrier be based and what are the funding
plans, especially at a time like this?
Again, coming up with a prestige project at a
time Nigeria needs all the resources it can
muster to meet pressing national demands
betrays a clear lack of seriousness on the
part of this administration. Against the
background that even countries like Italy and
others that are better managed have found
running airlines a difficult proposition with
most of them divesting from the business, I
still fail to understand what is driving this
obsession with national carrier. However,
more pertinent is the question of why the
latest announcement was made in Doha after
signing the BASA deal.
Since our international aviation sector is
very lucrative (Nigerians travel a lot and to
everywhere in the world) and we currently
do not have a national carrier, the
implication of any BASA deal with Qatar can
only be to the advantage of Qatar Airways.
While I should not begrudge them for that, I
hope the Nigerian authorities also have ready
answers for the questions posed by Mrs.
Chioma Okigbo. Yet, there is something in
this untidy affair that should make one very
sad. Apparently because we are now looking
anywhere and everywhere for "foreign
investors", we don't have a sense of shame
anymore. But just how cheap can a nation
be?
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