Federal government’s reprieve for popular Fuji musician, Wasiu Ayinde Marshall and Comfort Emmanson for their unruly conduct while boarding the aircraft to their respective destinations, must have come to many as a huge surprise.
Given the circumstance the pardon came, it struck as a hurried intervention to resolve allegations of selective justice arising from the handling of the two embarrassing incidents. It is not surprising that the reprieve has since divided opinion across the board. What were the issues?
Ayinde and Emmanson were in two separate incidents involved in unruly conducts while travelling to Lagos from Abuja and Calabar respectively through different flights. The Fuji musician’s case arose from his refusal to surrender a flask suspected to contain alcohol while boarding a flight to Lagos.
Under pressure from the airline staff, he allegedly splashed the contents of the flask on some of the staff including the pilot who came down from the cockpit when the incident was disrupting flight take-off. As the aircraft was about to taxi off leaving Ayinde behind, he quickly moved to the front of the plane to prevent it from take-off which posed serious security risk both to his life, the plane and its passengers.
His conduct led to public condemnation even as the pilot was not spared for attempting to move the aircraft while the musician and some other airport staff were still standing in front of the plane. The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) subsequently placed a six-month no-fly list on Ayinde and lodged a complaint with the Inspector-General of the Police (IGP). The pilot and the first officer of the flight were not spared as their licenses were equally suspended.
Before the dust raised by the musician’s behaviour settled, another serious security breach involving a female passenger in another airline flying to Lagos occurred. This time, one Comfort Emmanson who allegedly refused to switch off her phone as the flight was taxing to take-off was at the centre of the fracas. Reports had it that on refusing to switch off her phone after pleas from the cabin attendant, a passenger sitting close-by had to snatch the phone and switched it off.
Events took another turn on arrival at Lagos airport as Emmanson allegedly attacked the cabin crew inside the aircraft. As the situation deteriorated, posing serious danger to the aircraft, the crew called for reinforcement from those on ground who rushed into the plane and forcefully dragged down Emmanson in circumstances that exposed her body indecently.
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The scene at the tarmac was really riotous as the lady virtually attacked anyone that tried to restrain her. It did no good to the image of the country.
She was immediately taken into custody and subsequently arraigned at a Magistrate Court. Her inability to fulfil her bail conditions landed her at the Kirikiri custodial centre same day. The airline also placed her on a permanent travel ban.
But the swiftness s with which Emmanson was arraigned in court and remanded in custodial centre, quickly elicited accusations of selective justice. This was especially so, given that Ayinde who was involved in an earlier breach of airport security and misconduct was allowed to go home free. Faced with this allegation, the NCAA was to explain that they had reported the Fuji musician’s case to the IGP as they lacked the powers to prosecute such offenders. They further explained that it was the airline Emmanson boarded that took her matter to court and not NCAA.
That was the setting when the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo announced the discontinuation of the prosecution of the two suspects. The minister said in a statement that he conferred with Ibom Airline to withdraw the complaint against Emmanson and the leadership of the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) and got their agreement to lift the life ban on her.
In the same vein, the NCAA is to reduce the flight ban on Ayinde to one month even as “FAAN will also work with the music star with a view to engaging him as an ambassador for proper airport security protocol going forward”, Keyamo said. He also directed the restoration of the licenses of the pilot and first officer of the VALUEJET Airline after a period of one-month ban.
The minister rationalised the decisions on compassionate grounds even as he warned “government will never pander to base sentiments, politically motivated views or warped legal opinions when clear encroachment of our laws are involved”. It is not clear whom these warnings are directed to.
But the government had been accused of selective application of justice given the seeming different standards in the handling of the two unruly behaviours. Before the minister’s intervention and subsequent reprieve for the duo, there had been calls for the trial of Ayinde for his unruly behaviour.
Thus, the reprieve for Ayinde and Emmanson would appear a convenient escape route out of the contradictions raised by allegations of selective justice in the handling of the two incidents. That may well be. But the reprieve has not completely addressed that contradiction.
These contradictions underscore the absurdity in engaging either Ayinde or Emmanson as good ambassadors for proper airport security protocols. The aphorism, you cannot give what you don’t have should be instructive in the circumstance. It is not possible to place nothing on something and expect positive outcomes. It is one thing to pardon them for their unruly conduct and another ballgame to reward misconduct.
Such roles should be reserved for persons who have over time, exhibited exemplary behaviour in airport security protocols, if such standards of assessment exist. Rewarding misbehaviour would serve wrong messages. Even then, there are other acts of indiscipline airport staff and cabin crew contend with in their daily operations.
Take the case of orderly disembarkation for instance. Just before an aircraft taxies to a halt, copious announcements are made on the need for passengers to disembark in orderly and responsible manner-row by row. The announcers sometimes go further to explain that the measure is to avoid loss of personal belongings associated with disorderly disembarkation. What do you get thereafter?
As soon as the aircraft stops, some people at the back quickly leave their seats and rush towards the front in utter defiance of the security measures for which orderly and row by row exit was put in place. This writer saw this in action in an Abuja-Lagos flight on Monday August, 4, a day before the incident involving the Fuji musician occurred. And it is a regular feature in disembarkation protocols.
In the instance cited, at least three passengers from the rear defied that security protocol to the protestations of other passengers. Those inconvenienced by the disorderly conducts grumbled aloud, others hissed even as shouts of Naija, Naija rented the air. So, it is not just enough to blame airport staff for not managing crises or misconduct effectively. The suffocating indiscipline by the citizenry is the issue to contend with.
The message embedded in shouts of Naija, Naija speaks eloquently of the larger indiscipline and moral decay that permeate the entire fabric of our society. Crass indiscipline, disregard for rules and orderly conduct have become so pervasive that one begins to ask how we got into this mess.
Though not entirely new, the situation appears to be getting worse by the day. Incidentally, it is difficult for any country to make reasonable progress with undisciplined and disorderly citizenry – one that breaks rules at will or seeks loopholes to sabotage well intended policies. That is the miserably position the country has found itself.
It requires ethical and moral revolution to reverse the ruinous trend. A country ensnared in such huge moral deficits should not be seen trivialising serious acts of indiscipline bordering on brazen breach of airport security protocols. Ironically, that is the impression the proposal to make the music star an ambassador to proper airport security protocol conveys.
