As Bunmi walked into the expansive departure lounge of the Manitoba airport, he noticed that the signs of human activity were rather minimal. It was a ghost town and he was the only passenger, as far as he could tell. Though a few of the Check-in counters were open, there were no passengers being attended to. Even though rather unsettling, this was not entirely strange as the government had just declared a lockdown of sorts because of the COVID-19 outbreak which had made it to Canada. He headed to the counter of the Airline on which he was to fly home to see his family after several days away for work. He had been recalled to attend to a family matter and he was rather anxious to get home. There was no other passenger at the Check-in Counter and the staff didn’t seem to be expecting that anyone would need to be attended to. He had a small twinge of anxiety as he quickly glanced at his watch. He was on time and had not missed his flight. He checked in and headed to the departure gate with the sound of the beautiful Airline staff echoing in his ear: “have a safe flight”! He did not have to wait for long before the announcement for boarding came through the tannoy. He picked up his backpack and sauntered through the tunnel towards the door of the aircraft.
Bunmi did not immediately notice he was the only person that had responded when his flight was announced and didn’t pay much attention to the fact that he was alone on the short trip through the tunnel. He was welcomed into the aircraft by 2 flight attendants standing at the door. “Welcome Mr. Bunmi. Happy to have you fly with us. Please seat anywhere you wish’! He was perplexed. How did they know his name? This was made clear when he stepped into the cavernous aircraft. He was the ONLY Passenger. This was confusing. He had paid $300 for the two and half hour journey. He hadn’t chartered the aircraft. Why was he the only person on board? As the door closed and the engines started up, the Pilot’s voice came through welcoming him on board the flight by his name and assuring him of a safe flight to their destination. He was advised to sit back and relax while the full complement of Flight Attendants would tend to his needs. One of the very friendly Flight Attendants later came forward to ask if he would like a picture taken for posterity. It wasn’t often you paid $300 and got a whole aircraft to yourself.
What had happened was almost unheard of. Bunmi had turned out to be the only person who booked for that particular flight and didn’t cancel his trip. He had shown up at the airport and the Airline had an obligation to get him to his destination. It was no concern of Bunmi’s that the operational cost of a 1 hour flight was almost $11,000. The airline had a binding contract with him when they took his money and they had to deliver on it, even if it was at a loss of almost $20,000. No delays while the Airline tried to try and ‘call’ passengers like a Molue at Oyingbo bus-stop. No cancellation of the flight ‘due to operational reasons’. Nobody came to meet him to ‘reason’ with him to ‘understand’! “Bros, you too check am nah! Make we carry only you from Lagos to Sokoto. You no get milk of human kindness? If na your business, you go gree carry the person?” Nothing of the sort. Contract entered into, contract fulfilled. No ifs, no buts. You can draw up your own list of reasons why that flight would not have taken off if the same situation had happened in Nigeria. As a matter of fact, I would not be surprised if you got thoroughly insulted for even daring to think such unholy thoughts. “The Airline should take only you from Lagos to Sokoto? Are you possessed? Do you require deliverance?” would probably be the contribution from other passengers who themselves are being made to sit and wait in a horribly uncomfortable waiting room for hours as their flights had been delayed ‘due to operational reasons’.
Our service culture in Nigeria is undoubtedly one of the worst in the world and as consumers, we have become acculturated to bad service and being treated as if those we pay to serve us are doing us a favour. That is why when someone stands up for his customer rights, he is quite often confronted with opposition not just from the service provider, but also from other customers who feel he is being unreasonable or in the Nigerian parlance, ‘wicked’! They are often so impatient that they see the person that is complaining as a hindrance to their getting served quickly. We have gotten so used to bad service that we are always ready to ‘manage it like that’ and the person who refuses to go down that road is demonized. I was once kept at the Lagos airport for over 8 hours by one of the local airlines. A Port Harcourt flight that was supposed to take off at 11.000 was delayed until almost 8pm. We were then informed the flight would be making a brief stop in Abuja before taking us to Port Harcourt. After 8 hours!!! That would have seen me arriving in Port Harcourt at midnight. I was not having that. I was already terribly upset and I demanded for a refund so I could just go home. The Station Manager, probably afraid that giving me back my money would start a deluge of requests, told me it was not possible. I went ballistic and promised him either one or both of us would not be sleeping at home that night if I didn’t get my money, and very quickly too. This brought out the Finance and Admin guy who, with a look of pious superciliousness, announced: “Mr Bakare, I am surprised you are acting like this. This is not expected of the President of the Men’s Fellowship”. I looked closely at him but could not recognize him. Apparently, we were both members of the church I attended at the time and that was the cudgel he was bringing to the fight. By the time I finished with him, I expected to be called out by Pastor the following Sunday to kneel in front of the church for punishment.
The bottom line is that we will only get the service we deserve if we insist on not settling for less. Whether in governance, commerce, schools, or just at the shop of that second cousin of Satan’s who calls himself a Tailor. The Consumer Protection Agency being led by Tunde Irukera is doing a wonderful job. With the establishment of the Consumer Tribunal now by the Government, the process of seeking redress for some of the poor services Nigerians have been saddled with has been made that much better with the certainty that your voice can be heard. We must however be willing to put the Institutions to the test and be patient enough to see the process through. We are an impatient people and that is one of the reasons why we have failed institutions in the country. We would rather settle for quick, immediate ‘palliatives’ to the pain at hand rather than go through the rigour that would help address the root cause of a problem and ensure it is sorted for good. That mindset has to change. Rome was not built in a day and it was not all those that started building it that were fortunate to see it in its glory. Sacrifices must be made all round for us to get to the promised land. Enough of the ‘palliative’ mentality. We need to start insisting on all or nothing. We deserve the best.