[bababoyz]

Dr Phil is 99.9% correct with this writeup. Below in bold is my response to an aggrieved passenger on a listserve who wrote to complain about the treatment he experienced in Nigeria. Many Nigerians irrespective of our societal status or academic laurels do not like to follow simple instructions.



I am sorry about your missed baggage, and I hope you eventually
receive it. However, I disagree with the idea of blaming the
unruliness of the passengers on the inability of the NAA officials
to control a simple commonsense exercise of forming a queue. I have
witnessed Nigerians in Paris, @ Heathrow and many other
international airports running to board plane just like stranded
passengers in Oshodi who are running to board the popularly known
Osa straight bus.

I flew on a schedule flight of NAA (flight NAA131) from NY ON Dec
14th 2006 to Lagos and returned through flight NAA132 on Jan 04,
2007 to NY, and everything was fine with both legs of my flight. The
only annoying part of the flight is the inability of many of us to
follow and adhere to simple instructions.

It is very understandable that you might not like the allusion of
the NAA officials as regards the attitude of Nigerians, but to be
candid am not too sure if the NAA officials are not correct when
they say Nigerians are unruly and unmanageable. If there is anything
about my flight that I need complain about, it is about the
primitiveness of many of us who after spending donkey years in a
civilized environment still cannot imbibe simple orderliness in a
public place.

Please do not misconstrue my mail as an effort to justify the
lackadaisical attitude of the airline officials or totally exclude
them from their responsibilities, but many a time I have wondered if
we are not the ones who presented those people the opportunity to
mistreat us.



================================================== ========


Mr. Jeff Wehrenberg
> The Chief Operating Officer
> North American Airlines
> Building 75, Suite 250, North Hangar Road
> JFK International Airport
> Jamaica NY 11430
>
> Dear Sir,
>
> A VERY BAD FLYING EXPERIENCE – NORTH AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT
132 FROM LAGOS TO NEW YORK JAN 6, 2007
>
> On Nov 23, 2006 I bought a round-trip ticket on North American
Airlines (NAA) from New York to Lagos for $2,778. In spite of the
European route being cheaper I preferred to try your direct flight
to Lagos rather than experience the delay involved in flying through
Europe. This turned out to be a bad experience – probably the worst
in my 17 years of international flying experience.
>
> The following was my experience.
>
> Check-in
>
> As instructed by that check-in for the 1:30 am flight would
start 5- hours before the departure, I arrived the Lagos airport at
8 pm to get an early check-in. On arrival I met two low-level
personnel of NAA administering a queue – no high ranking officer was
present. The personnel instructed me to join the queue and I obeyed,
becoming number 12 on the queue. Due to space limitation the queue
was forced to loop back with me being at the turning point. As more
passengers arrived on the queue the structure started breaking down –
at this point NAA agents made no effort to organize the queue.
>
> At 10 pm, after standing on the queue for two hours, some other
NAA officials arrived and started some efforts to commence check-in.
About 10:30 pm one of the two low-level personnel came back to
announce that the check-in counter had changed and that the people
on the queue should follow him. He made no effort to ensure the
integrity on positions on the queue, he just made the announcement
and turned back towards the new check-in counter. As can be imagined
a stampede started with the last passengers on the queue gaining the
lead positions (since the queue had looped back). I and most of us
that arrived first ended up towards the end of the new queue /
queues. From this point on chaos ensued with passengers joining the
queue in front and being attended to. The queue I was on was
supposed to be the official queue but it ended up not moving for a
very long time. Throughout this chaos there was no visible leader
from NAA to take charge and put things under control. The only
> attempt I witnessed was when two NAA personnel – one Nigerian and
a Caucasian – approached the airport security standing close to me
to ask for assistance to deploy some policemen to control the crowd.
In response, the airport security personnel wondered why it had
become an everyday experience that NAA was the only airline at the
airport that could not control its passengers and had become
notorious at the airport. The security personnel subsequently
refused to intervene.
>
> At a stage, out of my frustration, I approached some NAA
officials to express my disappointment and frustration about their
inability to manage what looks to me like a very simple operation.
The response I got was that Nigerians were unruly and unmanageable.
The response I gave them was that this was a lame excuse and that
the fault was NAA's. NAA has the responsibility to provide good
service to its fee-paying customers from check-in to luggage claim.
>
> I finally checked in at 1:30 am, after standing up for 5 hours
30 minutes and missing my dinner. The plane finally took-off at
about 4:30 am after – a three-hour delay.
>
> Missing luggage in New York
>
> We arrived JFK airport New York at 10 am. In an effort not to
miss my connecting flight at 12:20 pm, on disembarking the plane, I
raced to be the first person at immigration. After immigration I
proceeded to await my luggage. After waiting till the very end and
not seeing any of my two boxes, I approach an NAA official who
produced a list containing my name. She informed me that my luggage
did not leave Lagos and that I should go to the NAA counter after
customs to fill a missing luggage report. This was now about 11:15
am and I was at the risk on missing my connecting flight. I had to
go to the front of the queue and beg other passengers to allow me to
go ahead of them in order not to miss my flight.
>
> I completed the "Property Irregularity Report" as instructed and
was told that my luggage would arrive JFK on Monday and would be
sent to me "after some time". No guarantee of delivery here. When I
asked the agent exactly when I would get my luggage he replied that
I could come and collect it at JFK if I wanted it quickly – he did
not read my completed form to see that I live in Durham, North Carolina !
>
> So here I am back at home in Durham with my luggage still in
Lagos. I wonder if NAA would compensate me for any lost item in my
luggage or even for the delay. I wonder when my luggage would
eventually be delivered to my apartment in Durham. I am waiting and
counting the days……
>
> Conclusion
>
> During my visit home I read the comment of the Minister of
Aviation – Chief Fani-Kayode in the newspapers complaining about the
poor treatment some airlines were meting out on Nigerians. He
specifically mentioned Virgin Atlantic and British Airways which in
my opinion are not even close to NAA on the "bad treatment" ranking.
He should add NAA to his list, which is why I am copying this letter
to him.
>
> As a Nigerian I feel insulted and take serious exception to the
comment by the NAA officials in Lagos that Nigerians are unruly and
uncontrollable. How come it was only NAA out of over 20 airlines
operating that night that had an unmanaged queue? Were the other
airlines not serving Nigerians? NAA was just plainly incompetent!
>
> I would not like to finish this piece without proffering a
solution. The following is one of the possible solutions to NAA's
crowd control problem in Lagos.
>
> 1. Appoint an experienced and competent station
manager in Lagos and give him/her overall responsibility and
accountability for the operations.
> 2. Design a check-in queue management system.
> - You could make 500 plastic, sequentially numbered
tallies with NAA Lagos printed on them.
> - On your online booking confirmation and tickets state
clearly that check in at Lagos would be based strictly on a tally
system and explain how it works.
> - State clearly when the check-in/tally distribution
queue would commence e.g. 8 pm. As soon as people arrive on the
queue give them a tally for the order in which they arrived.
> - Let the station manager announce to passengers before
and during the check in that the tally order would be strictly
followed.
>
> As I await the arrival of my luggage I hope you will find my
feedback useful to improve your services to your customers on this
cash cow route.
>