A major topic that has formed the fulcrum of public debate in the last decade is the maltreatment of Nigerian travellers by some of the global leaders in the aviation industryBritish Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways. These two are British-owned. They both behave as if Nigeria is still a colony of Britain, whereby they can only cart away some prized assets captured from the colonised people back to the British Empire.During the regime of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo (1999-2007, the aviation ministry engaged the British Airways in an intense battle of wits over allegations bearing on outright racism. The then Aviation Minister, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, lambasted the hierarchy of British Airways for doing almost next to nothing to curb the unprecedented rise in racism against Nigerians and indeed black travellers.Many years after, British Airways and a few others have failed to respect Nigerian travellers and have even graduated to the worst level of enforcing discriminatory ticketing regime that makes travelling from Abuja/Lagos to the United Kingdom much more expensive and stressful than say travelling from Ghana.The current Minister of Aviation, Ms. Stella Oduah, one of the few ministers picked from the private sector, has told these defaulting foreign airlines that enough is enough. The Ministry of Aviation recently imposed an embargo on British Airways but following high level political interventions from the British government, this was dropped.The British mega carriers were consequently ordered to pay $235m by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority as compensation to Nigerian passengers for their unfair method of competition, deceptive practices and violation of Nigerian law.The two defaulting airlines have disclosed that they will legally challenge the validity of the fines.A statement recently issued by the NCAA Director-General, Dr. Harold Demuren, said, The NCAA has concluded that both airlines violated Nigerian law, exploited Nigerian consumers and have remained adamant about whether those consumers should be compensated even when confronted with the fact that they are already compensating similar consumers in Britaintheir home country and the United States. NCAA accused the airlines of increasing passengers fuel surcharge, which were added to fares without any authorisation.The Nigerian aviation authorities said these foreign airlines were also operating approximately 90 per cent of the direct flights between Nigeria and the UK, thereby operating a duopoly. The effect continues to be devastating on Nigerian travellers who have limited choices and have had to and continue to pay indiscriminately high fares.NCAA said it insisted on the compensation after a thorough investigation over a period of six months and gathered information from other authorities, different courts in the United States and Canada, from both airlines, travel agents, NCAA database and other sources.According to the findings as disclosed by Nigerian aviation authorities, both airlines had committed unfair and deceptive practices against Nigerian consumers, the downstream aviation sector and the Federal Government.In addition, both airlines were accused of engaging in unfair competition. The offences were allegedly committed from 2004 to 2006.Besides, both airlines have paid consumers in the US and the UK approximately $204m in compensation of the anti-competitive method of setting and conspiring to increase the PFS.It is therefore my considered opinion that these two foreign owned airlines must pay to the last kobo the fines imposed on them and also made to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Aviation to henceforth exorcise all traces of racism and unfair treatment of their Nigerian customers because of the universal belief that the customer is king.A situation where Nigerian passengers are subjected to unfair treatment like the fumigation of British Airways planes before take-off in Abuja and Lagos, even when such is not replicated in BA aircraft flying from the UK to many other international destinations, must be stopped. These foreign airlines must redress these evil practices and unfair treatment or Nigerian passengers should boycott them.What suffers irredeemably when these kinds of practices are not checked is that the human dignity and the essence of human dignity is eroded.Writing under the beautiful and original title of Ubuntu - the essence of human dignity, the retired Anglican Archbishop of South Africa, Reverend Desmond Tutu, rightly said, Ubuntu has to do with the very essence of what it means to be human, to know that you are bound up with others in the bundle of life. In our fragile and crowded world, we can survive only together. We can be truly free, ultimately, only together. We can be human only together.Scholars of international repute assert that in this strong statement, Archbishop Tutu argues like other humanists that we are bound together as human beings and that our being, our survival, our freedom is dependent on our togetherness.Knowledgeable commentators also assert that the statement by the South African cleric is a good reminder of another powerful statement hidden away in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in its preamble states, recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.As the world marks Human Rights Day on December 10, the BA management should be told in clear terms that it ought to exorcise racism from its operations in Nigeria and communication with Nigerians and/or black customers because, in the words of John Dovidio of the Colgate University, racism like a cancerous tumour can be identified, removed or treated for it to be contained and the rest of the system will be healthy.The American psychologist Mr. Gordon Willard Allport (November 11th 1897-October 9th, 1967) painted a graphic picture of how painful modern day racism can be.Gordon Allport posed the question, What would happen to your personality if you heard it said over and over again that you are lazy and had inferior blood' And then he answered, Group oppression may destroy the integrity of the ego entirely and reverse its normal pride, and create a grovelling self-image.The other day, FIFA President, Mr. Sepp Blatter, said racism on football pitches should not be seen as a major problem but could be solved by handshake between the aggressor and the victim before the end of the match.Blatter came under intense media criticism from many distinguished persons, including British football prodigy, David Beckham. The footballer faulted Blatters prescription and further described racism as a grave crime that must be exterminated by humanity. How I wish the BA management will listen to Beckam and do what is right. Onwubiko heads Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria and can be reached on doziebiko@yahoo.com.
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