Today I had a field day staring at corruption in the face at Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport Kano.
I took my daughter, Mauludatu Ahmad, there and was accompanied by another daughter, Mubinatu Ahmad.
Mauludatu, a medical student at Ahfad University for Women, Omdurman, Sudan, was on her way to Khartoum, Sudan, after a well spent annual leave.
The Airline was Ethiopian Airline and right from the first entrance to the departure hall, I had an interesting encounter with the security guard.
He looked at the three of us and then the luggage and asked who was the traveller among us. I showed Mauluda to him. He again looked at me meaningfully and said, "Ideally, only she would enter". I looked right back at him knowingly, flashed a toothy grin and enquired, "And if it's not ideal?" He smiled further and said he would let us in since she alone could not carry the luggage.
We thanked him and walked in. After passing through screening "for Ebola?", we went on to the check-in counter. Just before reaching there, another security guard stopped us, hesitated and said I needed to follow her in as it appeared we might have to pay for excess baggage.
Sure enough, the two bags exceeded the set limit of 46 kilograms by about 12kg. The guy carrying the luggage on to the scale looked at me and said it had passed the limit. I said I could see that and asked what I was supposed to do. He pointed at their office and said I should go there and pay for the excess. I thanked him and made to move, but he scratched his head and said, "But Oga, if you like, I can talk to this woman who would let the luggage be". I said that was fine. He went and started whispering to her. They both glanced at me, but I kept my face completely expressionless. When he finished, he came over to me and asked if I could pay them twenty thousand naira. I said no. Deep down, I had no intention of giving them one kobo. He explained that if I went to the office I would have to pay much more than that as the money would be calculated in Dollars. I said if I could buy the ticket, why couldn't I pay for excess baggage? I made to move but he stopped me again and asked how much I wanted to pay. I smiled and said two thousand naira. He actually looked shocked and said, "I think you'd better go and pay".
At that time, another of his colleagues appeared from nowhere and took me to one side and said, "Oga, give them a little more, otherwise you'd have to reduce some of the things she's carrying in the bags and take them back home with you". He suggested five thousand naira.
I thanked him and said that was a good idea. I went back and told my daughter to reduce the excess she did not need. They then pointed at another guard, a female, who was selling "Ghana must go" and advised us to buy from her. Even the price of that was hiked to exploit people. I bought two and took back the excess baggage. I left them scowling at me.
From that encounter, it's clear that corruption has eaten deep into every institution in Nigeria. How can David Cameron, the erstwhile British Prime minister not conclude that Nigeria is "fantastically corrupt"?