Ibom Air, Comfort Emmanson and the allure of nudity

It’s very embarrassing and disgusting to read of so many men making all sorts of attractive offers to Comfort Emmanson, the lady who created a storm on Sunday when she refused to turn off her phone on that Ibom Air flight. Emmnason was eventually charged and remanded in Kirikiri Prison, but had she been let go from the prison after the intervention of Aviation Minister, Festus Keyamo, than these offers started coming in. An aide to Delta state governor quickly offered her a job on a monthly salary of N500, 000. But the details of the job were not released.

Another man from Ebonyi state, who is described as a ‘’real estate mogul’’ says he would offer her a plot of land in any area of her choice in Abuja. Veteran journalist and friend of mine, Richard Akionnola writes: ‘’Ebonyi has one of the highest out-of-school children numbers in the country. That doesn’t interest his philanthropic spirit.’’ Another man wants to fly Comfort Emmanson to Texas and give her a shopping allowance of $100,000. The offers from the men are mouth-watering, but no single woman has made any offer.

But I want to advise Emmanson to be careful of these gestures. These lecherous men are simply attracted by the flesh she exposed at the airport. They have no other intention than to explore the concupiscence of her flesh. In the psychology of men, any vulnerable young woman is an easy prey. That was the first thing I noticed in my early days in Lagos soon after my graduation.

After a heavy rainfall, some men would bring out their cars, moving from one bus stop to another, looking out for a beautiful, young girl, who is waiting out the rain at the bus stop, to give a ride and take home. They didn’t care about stranded men like me at the bus stops; just as these people making offers to Emmanson don’t care about out-of-school children or widows who have no sources of livelihood. They are looking for something else. It’s the allure of nudity. Once they lure Comfort into their lair, they will move on.

Another point relates to the orchestrated malicious attacks being written about Ibom Air since Sunday, most based on uninformed position. Some are even asking the airline to release the CCTV recording of the aircraft’s cabin. They erroneously assume that there must be cameras inside an aircraft that records everything in the cabin, just like the Flight Data Recorder and the Cockpit Voice Recorder (collectively known as black boxes) record every flight parameters such as speed, attitude, control surface positions and the conversations between the pilots in the cockpit.

Few airlines in the world have installed or are in the process of installing cameras, but no Nigerian airline has cameras in its cabins. In the US, authorities have guidelines on cabin-cameras, but even then only few airlines have bothered to install due to privacy and other concerns. The attacks against Ibom Air are unwarranted. Emmanson was dragged off the aircraft by aviation security personnel; not by Ibom Air staff as some claim. This is a standard procedure for dealing with any recalcitrant passenger all over the world. In the US, hundreds of such persons are whisked off air planes every year. Aviation is a very risky and sensitive business, and safety is of paramount importance.

Last year, Ibom Air recorded a turnover of about N100 billion and a profit of about N10 billion, making it a thriving carrier and the most successful state-owned enterprise in the country. It has the best on-time departure rating of about 80%, and is easily the favourite of the business travellers, especially on the highly competitive and lucrative Lagos-Abuja-Lagos route. In its six-year history, Ibom Air has only recorded two such incidents involving badly behaved passengers.

The first was in January. That’s not a bad performance in customer relations. As a former bank branch manager (I actually managed four branches in my career), I have seen bad tempers and I understand what it takes to deal with such customers, working under pressure. I want to commend our aviation personnel for providing safe air travels across the country. It is due to their diligence that this country has not recorded a fatal accident involving a commercial plane since 2012.

Ibom Air’s success has inspired other states like Enugu and Cross River to contemplate establishing their own airlines. I wish them the best. I call on Ibom Air to continue to train and retrain their staff and I ask the travelling public to obey simple rules and guidelines when they get to the airports. Aviation is a global industry, regulated by the Montreal-based ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization). A specialized agency of the United Nations, ICAO is responsible for promoting safe, secure and efficient air travel worldwide by developing and implementing international aviation standards. The switch-off-your-phone announcement is therefore a standard announcement on every commercial flight in the world. It’s not an Ibom Air rule.

I believe that the travelling public, Emmanson, security agencies, civil aviation authorities and the airlines have learned some lessons from these aviation episodes. There is no need to besmirch Ibom Air.