Nigerians worry over French airport scrutiny
Posted by Nelson Dafe, Edo | 20 November 2015 | 2,975 times
Travellers from Nigeria to France are likely in for some special tough treatment at French airports following expected increased security in the aftermath of the recent terrorist attack in that country’s capital, Paris.
A Nigerian Professor of English based in Canada, Pius Adesanmi, has complained about the unfriendly and harsh treatments French airport officials dish out on travellers from Nigeria, as against their treatment of passengers from western countries.
In a Facebook post he said: “Arrival at Paris Charles de Gaulle from the US or Canada is always such a lovely experience...
“You just get off the plane to full human treatment. You breeze in and go and look for your
connecting gate. Nobody is waiting menacingly at the door of the plane...
“The return trip from Lagos or Abuja is the part I never look forward to. French harassment always starts at the airport in Nigeria. If it were possible for Air France to check your dental records at the airport before boarding, they’d do it. So many checks and counter-checks, bordering on the demeaning.
“Then you arrive in Paris and menacing, very menacing and unfriendly policemen – some with dogs – stand at the very door of the airplane, ready to check and sniff and inspect you before you proceed to immigration for exactly the same checking and sniffing and inspection...”
A commenter to Adesanmi’s post, Tope Fasua, who says he never liked that aspect of French scrutiny, added that “(it) would be worse now after the (French) bombings. But they know their enemies. Not us.”
Adesanmi added: “It is because Nigeria has never really wielded her economic power against Air France and I can’t for the life of me understand why.
“Remember how we dealt with British Airways and they took an economic hit and came crawling – apologising and all that? The last time I flew Air France from Abuja, they inspected me so many times that I felt that my luggage received better and far more humane treatment than me. The fact that I could curse them in their own language and tell them that it is the fault of the Nigerian government for letting them get away with treating Nigerians that way on Nigerian soil
further irritated them.”
•Photo shows Prof. Adesanmi.
Source: News Express
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