Air Peace airline and the Emir's Cousin
Air Peace has released an official statement to deny the claims by Isa Bayero that the airline disrespected the Emir by refusing to delay a flight for him. (Photo credit: Punch) |
Sense of entitlement is a big thing in our society and we have to find a whole month to dedicate to a fight against it, it’s that serious and my piece today borders around it, you too see!
I remember
the last time I traveled to Abuja, it was a 7am flight on Air Peace but we didn’t
leave Lagos until some few minutes before 9am, almost two hours delay and when
we were going to eventually take off, it was discovered that the flight was
delayed for a certain Lagos senator…
This information
is to confirm to you that airlines in this part of the world legit delay
flights for certain “eminent personalities”, they waste people’s time because
of these individuals and we don’t talk about it enough, the spat in the media
between the Emir of Kano’s team and Air Peace finally brings the chicken home
to roost.
You may have
heard of the incident between the royal head of Kano, Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero and Air
Peace airline over the latter’s refusal to delay a flight for the former and
his entourage, prompting the Emir’s cousin to call on the people of Kano to
cancel the airline and the governing body to sanction them.
Let me
summarize the incident in case you missed it and from a balanced view as well.
The Emir and his entourage of nine men in total flew in from Banjul, The Gambia
few minutes before 6am and were due to connect another Air Peace flight to Kano
same morning, the flight was for 6:15am.
It’s been
widely reported that the flight to Lagos from The Gambia was delayed by at
least an hour, which affected the landing time. On arrival, Isa Bayero (Emir’s
cousin and protocol officer) rang Chief Onyema, the chairman of Air Peace Airline,
asking him to use his good office to delay the 6:15am flight for as long as it
takes for the Emir to make it through the door.
The
communication from the Emir’s camp says the Airline boss refused the request
flatly but the airline refuted the claims, saying their chairman immediately
called the airport to find out the status of the flight and at that time, the aircraft
was fully boarded, chocks off and it was taxiing out.
Air Peace
maintained that they couldn’t have done anything at that point and the only
option was to put the Emir and his team on a flight to Abuja by 7am and then connect
them to Kano without a cost on arrival at Abuja, Isa Bayero wasn’t going to
have this and instead, he took it as an insult to the revered head and there
must be consequences.
Air Peace
said they decided not to reroute the already taxiing aircraft because they didn’t
want to subject the Emir to social media ridicule, and in truth you have to
imagine what would happen if folks realize it was the Emir that kept them
waiting for about an hour when they’re already in taxi, just imagine twitter
rants.
For me, the four foolscap sheet Air Peace used to explain themselves on Twitter was pointless, the "shalaye" was way too much for something they shouldn't expend energy on, it's actually Isa Bayero's guts for me to be very honest.
A lot of
people have berated Isa Bayero for inciting the people against the airline
after the incident and rightly so, how do you want a fledging business taken down
simply because they didn’t concede to your ridiculous demands? Who does that?
I
intentionally threw in the delay in The Gambia as that’s Isa Bayero’s excuse
but from the whole information available, it’s clear that it’s a norm for such
request to be made and to be granted, if the dynamics this time doesn’t favor
the royal head, can’t they consider plan B?
I won’t be
the one to ask the Emir to get a private jet if he wants easy-peasy moves but
why not get a chartered flight? At least they can afford it, so why crying foul
on social media? Is it so hard? And doesn’t this rank under gross sense of
entitlement?
Isa Bayero is
screaming that the Emir was insulted by the airline for not grounding the
aircraft for the Emir to arrive, is that itself not a disrespect to every
single soul onboard? Or because they’re not Emirs they can be disrespected?
Does it even make sense?
Someone is
asking if the flight won’t be delayed if the request was from Obi of Onitsha,
meaning it’s already on the border lines of tribal war, that’s the last thing
we want right now but my answer to that would be the same, let the Obi charter
a flight, simple.
It will be
barbaric for AMCON to punish Air Peace for not delaying a flight for anyone at
all, it’s a stupid request from a spoilt brat and should be treated as such,
Isa Bayero’s request that the people of Kano stop patronizing Air Peace should
be publicly retracted and the Emirate should make a statement to dissociate
themselves from such idiocy.
As far as I
know, the Emir’s office is classy and his person is full of grace, I refuse to
believe he’s aware or even in support of the gross indiscretions of Isa Bayero.
However, the
delays from Banjul should be investigated, if there’s a case to be made out of
it, by all means please but not enough to waste people’s time on the Lagos to
Kano flight. It is only ill-informed sense of entitlement that will make anyone
cry over denial of such request, what do you think? I hope you leave your name
while dropping your comments too.
Isa Bayero guts though. It is well
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