The dispute between the airline, Air Peace and the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero could have been sorted out behind the scene but for its mishandling by his chief protocol officer, Isa Bayero.
What are the issues? The emir had arrived at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos from Banjul, Gambia at about 5.52am and wanted to connect the 6.15 am Air Peace flight to Kano. His cousin who doubles as his chief protocol officer, Isa placed a call to the chairman of the airline, Allen Onyema around 5.59am requesting that the flight be delayed for an hour to accommodate the emir and nine others in his entourage.
Onyema who was woken up by the early morning call, requested for some time to get across to his officials at the airport on the situation on the ground. On learning that the plane was already fully loaded and taxing to take-off, he got back to the emir’s cousin on the difficulty in acceding to his request. He then offered to accommodate the emir in the 7am flight to Abuja.
The suggestion was said to have been turned down outright by Isa who later wrote a petition to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority NCAA against the airline over what he termed “disrespect to the Emir and the people of Kano”. In the petition, Isa demanded punitive measures from the NCAA against Air Peace.
It is not clear the type of punishment Isa wanted from the NCAA against the airline for alleged disrespect to the emir and the people of Kano. Neither is the public privy to the response he got from the aviation regulating authority on his petition. But comments from Isa as the altercation progressed indicated that the NCAA viewed his position as incitement to the people of Kano against the airline. Isa admitted that much when he said: “I wrote to the DG of the NCAA to complain but if someone claimed my statement is inciting, well they are entitled to their opinion”. We shall return to this.
In their reaction to the petition, the Chief Operating Officer of the airline, Toyin Olajide denied claims that the organization disrespected the emir. In a detailed account of what transpired between them and Isa, the company said their decision not to delay a fully loaded and taxing aircraft was rather to protect the image of the emir.
“If we had agreed to stop and delay an aircraft already set to take-off, for another one hour only for the doors to be opened and the emir to walk in, there would have been a very serious uproar in the media against the airline and the emir”, Olajide said. The official further claimed they pleaded with Isa to understand the situation but he refused.
Apparently rattled by the reaction of the airline, Isa issued a 72-hour ultimatum to them to tender apology to the emir in a national daily first and then come down physically to Kano and show remorse or they will go extra miles to press home their dissatisfaction with the conduct of the airline.
Isa’s case is that the airline delayed their flight from Banjul to Lagos for over one hour resulting in their late arrival. He is contending that since the same airline was responsible for their late arrival, they should take responsibility for their inability to connect the Kano early morning flight.
To prove the point that they made bookings in that aircraft, he said when they wanted to re-book the next available flight to Kano billed for 7pm, the airline asked them to pay a “no show” fee.
But the airline had claimed that the Banjul-Lagos flight terminated in Lagos and had no connection with any other destination. These claims need to be proven conclusively.
Even as the emir’s chief protocol officer is yet to furnish evidence of bookings for that flight, there are salient issues of customer relationship that are thrown up by the dispute. If an airline delays a connection flight and makes it impossible for their passengers to meet up, the responsibility should be heaped at the shoulders of that airline and not the passengers. That point has to be made.
But that is beside the issue. The dispute is not about the airline denying responsibility for the delayed Banjul-Lagos flight. It is the propriety in tagging the refusal to stop a fully loaded and taxing aircraft for one hour as a mark of disrespect for the emir and the people of Kano. There is obviously, no positive correlation between the two. It is mischief in its extreme form to impute such motives into the incident. Isa failed to give the matter the professional handle required of it.
Rather, he escalated and politicized it by dragging the entire people of Kano State into a routine infraction common to our domestic airline operations. Ordinarily, the airline should have no difficulty tendering apology to the emir for the delay if that was the issue. But that was not the initial demand of the emir’s cousin. After all, a customer is always right, in business parlance. He was only bent on extracting punishment from the airline.
The dispute got to its current entanglement because of its obvious mishandling by the emir’s cousin. First, he wrote the NCAA bandying inciting and combustible allegations to procure undeserved punishment against the airline. But he failed and was rather cautioned by the NCAA on the implications of his letter but it made no difference to him.
Apparently dissatisfied with the position of the NCAA, he went further to issue royal ultimatum and award judgment for the publication of an apology in a national daily. The last time I read of such costs, they were issued by a court of competent jurisdiction. He has even threatened dire consequences should the airline fail to accede to his royal proclamation. Very strange indeed!
Isa even made veiled threats to incite the people of Kano State against patronizing the airline, all in the desire to avenge the alleged disrespect of the emir. He is free to patronize any airline of his choice if he is dissatisfied with the services of the one in question. But to drag in and incite the people of Kano on this singular issue is revealing of how many of the crises in those cities are generated by the elite.
Isa has already erected obstacles to a mutual resolution of the dispute through his brash and arrogant posturing. If Air Peace accedes to the condescending ultimatum, then, other airlines should be prepared to take orders from an Obi or Oba on similar matters.