“Mr. President any Option you Choose People Will Die.”
That is the Catch 22 Dilemma
“A dilemma or difficult circumstance from which there is no escape because of mutually conflicting or dependent conditions.
“A catch-22 situation”.
The Air Peace Chairman seems to be a child of fortune. Whenever he seems to be in hot soup with some sections of the public something pops up to extricate him and turn things in his favour.
In the current case with the Emir of Kano the public opinion seems to favour him. Similar to the UAE spat where he came out as the winner of the Impasse.
Just before then he was in the bad book of his Igbo brothers who claimed that flights to the North were 50% cheaper than to the East. UAE saved him from that with their mishandling of Air Peace. Public opinion suddenly swung in his Favour.
Once again, Air Peace found itself in big trouble with passengers over delayed flights. The battle was getting heated up and passengers have been getting very aggressive with airport staff. The airline had been waging a losing battle explaining itself and why they were having delays. The public were not taking any of their excuses to heart. AON published 16 reasons for incessant delays in Nigeria.
Then out of the blues a petition against Air Peace is published by Daily Trust. Suddenly the wind changed directions. “So this thing Air Peace has been saying is true” becomes the New Song.
The Nigerian mob quickly forgot that it is Air Peace that we should be beating for delays. They brought their canes, forgave Air Peace of all infractions and started beating the Emir and the Prince. The Emir here is a victim. The Prince could have acted on his own.
From a PR point of view the petition by the Prince Isa Bayero would have looked contrived by Air Peace to escape from the lynch mob. It helps them in the public eye.
Just when the mob were about to catch up with them through the National Assembly the Prince intervenes. Talk about “Deux ex Machina”. The NASS had passed a bill last week to get the Airlines sanctioned for rampant delays and cancelled flights.
Nigerian Airlines had delayed over 55% of their flights in 2021. Air Peace delayed 9098 flights out of over 17,000 flights carrying 3 million passengers.
What Really Happened
The Emir and his team bought 2 separate tickets on Air Peace(Note This) one ticket from Banjul to Lagos. Another ticket from Lagos to Kano(note this also).
The Flight from Banjul departed one hour late by 1am and arrives Lagos at 5.30am.
The flight from Lagos to Kano departs at 6.15am. There is no way except driving on the tarmac that the Emir can move through Immigration, pick his luggage and drive from MMIA to GAT and check in to board in 30 minutes or even 1 hour.
But he is an Emir, accommodation can be made for him as is done on International Flights when the connecting flights arrive late.
I have benefited many times from this. Connecting flights(Note this) are delayed to accommodate late arriving flights. All Airlines do that.
In this case it was not a connecting flight. It was a separate flight. 2 different bookings and 2 different tickets.
Now the Mess.
The Prince calls the Chairman of Air Peace at 5.45am asking for the 6.15 fight to be delayed to allow the Emir join the flight. The Prince claims Chief Onyema flatly refused. Chief Onyema claimed he told him that he will revert after checking with the airport.
He found out from the Airport that the doors of the plane were locked and flight was ready to depart. If you ask me he should have called the Chairman at night when the first delay in Banjul happened. Then alternatives would have been put in place for him.
Catch 22. If he exercises his Authority to delay the flight for one hour, there will be air rage by passengers and subsequent cascade of delayed flights all through the day.
He chose not to stab himself first. He declines that option and chose to get the Emir on a later flight to Abuja and from there to Kano.
It looked like all problems were solved. But in Nigeria “Wahala be like Bicycle” e no dey finish. Lol
Boom. The petition from the Prince to Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority demanding punitive action against Air Peace for disrespecting the Emir and his status..
That emotional letter from the Prince received a much more emotional response from the Airline.
As it stands now both will receive reputational damages. Time for cool heads to prevail. Air Peace should tender an apology to the Royal Father who will in turn bless the airline and wish them well as the flag carrier for Nigeria. Air Peace can issue a statement to offer the Emir 20 Free Flights in 2022 to make up for the embarrassment caused him.
Case closed. Emir looks good. Airline apologised and Air Peace had made their case.
AON will now add this as number 17 in the causes of flight delays in Nigeria.
Chaii. Sense no go Kill me oh.
By Ikechi Uko
