When, a few days ago, I heard Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, pouring encomiums on the Ethiopian Airlines being the major partner/shareholder of the Nigerian Air, which is being revived, I shrugged in utter disgust.
Yes, we often hear that Ethiopian Airlines is one of the most efficient around and prides itself as ‘The New Spirit of Africa.’ Nigeria is one of the African countries where the Ethiopian mostly flies to with daily flights to Lagos, Abuja and Kano. In other words, Nigeria is a heavy contributor to the airline’s revenue, and by extension the Ethiopian economy.
However, recent experiences of some Nigerians who flew the Ethiopian Airlines leave a sour taste and dent its so-called reputation of over 70 years.
On October 15, 2022, I and three of my bosom friends, namely Dahiru, Musa and Abdulrahman, set out for our return trip to Nigeria from Makkah, Saudi Arabia, where we performed Umrah (the lesser Hajj). We left Nigeria on Saturday, October 1 and arrived Jeddah on Sunday, October 2 via Ethiopian Airlines.
After we completed our Umrah, which lasted for two weeks, we left Makkah on the night of October 14, at about 11:20.pm, to the King Abdulaziz International Airport, Jeddah, for our return trip. On arrival at the airport, we proceeded to join the queue to check in. That turned out to be a nightmare. Musa was the one ahead, so he presented our passports to the official at the counter, who happened to be the manager of the Ethiopian Airlines at the airport. The man, whose name sounded like Ishmael, asked for our Covid-19 vaccination certificates. We had our certificates but back home in Nigeria. He asked that we call our relatives back home to snap and send them to us. But it was late, because this happened minutes past 2.am Saudi time, while it was minutes past midnight in Nigeria. Abdulrahman had his certificate, so it was myself, Musa and Dahiru that didn’t come with ours.
All pleas for the manager to allow us to check in, since other people were being attended to without presenting covid vaccine certificates, fell on deaf ears. Everyone checked in, leaving the four of us behind. At some point, he called us and asked if Abdulrahman, who had his certificate with him, would not want to travel, and we told him pointedly that we were together, so no one would go and leave the rest behind.
Unfortunately for us, the poor network at the time did not help matters. We scrambled to make calls at first but in vain. When we eventually got our agent in Kano, he said he would get us the certificates. Each of us called someone he knew to help, but that didn’t come immediately. Eventually, one of our compatriots by the name Sani, who was also traveling back home, offered to help. He called his brother in Kano to help us get the certificates. The flight was for 4:30.am and at about 3.am, Sani’s brother sent us the certificates, by which time the Ethiopian Air’s manager had left to supervise the boarding process. Unknown to us, he had instructed the Saudi Ground Service (SGS) guys manning the counter not to attend to us (no matter what) as the events that later unfolded showed.
We presented the pictures of the covid vaccine certificates to the SGS officials, and immediately their supervisor noticed we were being attended to, he called his subordinate and spoke to him in Arabic. The official told us thereafter that he could not read the names on the certificates and asked us to go and see the supervisor, but the latter ignored us completely. When we insisted that he should take a look at the pictures, he said in a heavily-loaded Arabic accent that, “Wallahi, I want to help you, but the manager asked me not to attend to you.” He ended up saying they had closed the check in. That was when it dawned on us that it was sheer hatred for the four of us and by extension Nigerians. That was how we missed the flight.
Interestingly, before leaving Kano, we inquired from our agent if the covid vaccine certificate was still a requirement for international trips, but he said it wasn’t an issue. And based on our knowledge of the happenings around the globe, the Covid-19 vaccine was not much of a requirement for international travel. And nobody asked us at the Aminu Kano International Airport before leaving, not even the Ethiopian officials. What they were concerned with was the yellow fever vaccine certificate. I remember a friend traveled to the UK recently, and when he presented his Covid-19 certificate at the airport, they laughed at him and said, “Who cares about this here?”
What shocked us all was that other people boarding the same aircraft, mostly from other countries, were attended to without being asked to present covid vaccine certificates. Before our very eyes, anyone that came was allowed to check in without hassle. In fact, we had to ask some passengers, including some. Nigerians, if they were requested to present any evidence of covid vaccine, but they responded in the negative.
We became stranded after missing the flight. The next thing was “Where do we go from here? Do we go back to Makkah or do we stay here at the airport?” We were dejected and downcast. Different thoughts ran through our minds. The thought of how to handle our luggage alone was nauseating. Each of us had a box and souvenirs carefully wrapped in separate bags. Everyone picked his luggage in a trolley, and we left the departure hall. We found a place outside, sat down and continued to think of what to do next. From nowhere, the representative of our agent, Baita, who had received us during our arrival two weeks earlier, appeared. He inquired what was the matter, and we explained to him. He then asked one of the drivers around, who is also a Nigerian, to take us back to Makkah. He also put a call through to his colleague in Makkah, Alhassan, to pay for the car hire and provide accommodation for us. We all heaved a sigh of relief.
Next was how to reschedule our flight. That too became a thorn. Ethiopian doesn’t fly to Kano on Sundays, which meant we would have to wait till Monday, October 17. We toyed with the idea of changing our route to Abuja so as to go on Sunday, but the flight was fully booked. Willy-nilly, we settled for the Monday flight to Kano. But that came with some charges, over 82,000, which each of us paid.
To avoid what happened the day before, we left Makkah at about 10.pm on Sunday, October 16, and arrived at the Jeddah airport before midnight. Our early arrival was a saving grace as we went through another hurdle. Immediately we got to the check-in counter and presented our passports, the SGS official punched his computer to check our tickets. Alas, he asked the four of us to go and see his supervisor – the same guy that was instructed not to attend to us on the first day.
That marked the beginning of another nightmarish night. Adel, which we later learned is the name of the supervisor, asked another guy, Sultan, to take a look at our tickets. Before then, a Nigerian, who apparently is used to the SGS guys, had to speak to the supervisor about us.
You know what? We were ‘red-flagged’ by the Ethiopian Airlines manager from the first day. But he had yet to resume at the time we arrived. There was back and forth among the officials, and in the end, it was one Mohammed that took his time to dig deep to know what the problem was. He later told us that our rescheduled tickets did not drop in the system. He later rectified the problem, after over an hour of waiting. He printed our boarding pass, and we thanked and prayed for him profusely. Nobody asked for our Covid-19 vaccine certificate this time around.
In the first place, our choice of airline was the Saudi Airlines, which would have taken us to Madinah directly, but we couldn’t get the airline as it did not have any scheduled flight from Kano in the entire month of October. We were left with three options: Ethiopian Airlines, Egypt Air and Qatar Air. We decided to go with the Ethiopian, albeit hesitantly. As it turned out, Ethiopian was a wrong choice, and we have resolved not to fly Ethiopian Airlines again in our lifetime no matter the situation, In Sha Allah.
Similar stories about how Ethiopian Airlines maltreated Nigerians abound. A friend told me after our experience that “Ethiopian is notorious for all that nonsense.” It is, therefore, appalling to hear that this same Ethiopian Airlines will manage the Nigerian Air. I must say it was gratifying to hear that eight Nigerian airlines have dragged the Federal Government to court, and joined Sirika and co as defendants over the Ethiopian Airlines involvement as the major shareholder in the Nigerian Air. One hopes that such a misadventure never comes to fruition.
With our experience, you can only imagine, where is the African spirit in the Ethiopian Airlines?
- Adamu wrote from Kaduna
