By By Ebenezer Adurokiya
FOR someone who started active journalism sometime in 2005, the highest electoral coverages, especially presidential elections, I had ever been privileged to undergo were those held in Nigeria with restrictions to Ogun State and Delta State, besides being to Bayelsa State twice for governorship elections, as a Senior Reporter with my previous employer.
On our way from the Cotonou airport to Azalai Hotel
So, when I got the nod, the third day after arrival from the Republic of Uganda in March, that I should forward my passport and other details for an election observation assignment in the Republic of Benin, my heart leaped for joy. I actually screamed to the hearing of the caller. To be nominated, among over 250 million Nigerians, to be part of an ECOWAS Observation Mission to Benin Republic for the April 12 presidential election, like a close friend would remark: I was overwhelmed. No be moin moin! This is at a big stage! God bless Dr Brown Odigie. Although. such errands fall under my professional jurisdiction and what I love to do (for I strongly loathe office work), but this time around, at it’s at a global. Isn’t God good?
ECOWAS identity card for the Presidential Election
So, from April 11 when I was given the offer, I had been ruminating over how realistic it would be in the end. Fast forward to April 3rd, I received a mail from the ECOWAS Secretariat to that effect: flight tickets, dates, logistics and what have you. So, it’s for real!
Dr Mrs Kaltume Kamselem and self aboard Asky Airline’s Boeing 737-800
Colleagues making the trip from Lagos axis in Nigeria were included in the mail detailing the itinerary. So, Samuel Okereafor, Wisdom Udo (a brilliant lawyer) and Dr Mrs Kaltume Kamselem, a meticulous lecturer with Bayero University, Kano, were able to connect for the trip. To benefit from this arrangement were Samuel and I, being first-timers to the mission. While Samuel’s flight was scheduled for April 8, the other three of us had ours slated for April 9.
Via Asky Airline’s Boeing 737-800, we were scheduled to land at Cotonou en route Lome, Togo! Don’t ask me why. Samuel, whose flight was Wednesday April 8, didn’t escape this cumbersome arrangement. Cotonou wen I fit ride my bicycle enter from Seme Border naim dem say make I first take flight from Lagos go Lome, then to Cotonou. Well, after all na free, and who no wan enter Boeing 737?🫢🫢😅
At the Azalai Hotel reception
But the morning of Thursday April 9 when Dr Kamselem, Wisdom and I met at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), we were shocked with the news that our flight had been rescheduled for the following day April 10 without any earlier notification from ECOWAS. This mix-up was eventually resolved with an unexpected direct flight from Lagos to Cotonou, affirming Romans 8:28 that all things work together for good…
The Cotonou airport
In less than 40 minutes, we had touched the ground at Cotonou airport, and the three of us were ushered out of the big bird to the arrival lounge. Clean, beautiful, and serene airport we beheld. Courteous people we beheld! No harassment of any sort from any airport official. The courtesies were top-notch.
In no time, having contacted the ECOWAS Secretariat in Cotonou ahead, an official branded SUV came to convey us to Azalai Hotel, a seemingly five star hotel also serving as the ECOWAS Secretariat. Around the hotel are roads under reconstruction.
With my wonderful roommate, Barrister Wisdom Udo
On the way from the airport is a beautiful wall of about half a kilometre with a tale-telling artistic designs of the ideological, cultural and historical nuances of the Republic of Benin. The time-honoured project appears still ongoing.
Among the significance of this semiotic wall of signs and designs is the Benin Republic’s leadership reconstruction of the mindset of the people towards the realisation and reaffirmation of their identity with a view to entrenching and invoking the spirit of patriotism in them. Do we have such in Nigeria?
The sordid activities of our people at MMIA, the first port of call for every traveller, including first-timers to Nigeria, tell it all. Rowdy, noisy, stuffy, chaotic, extortionistic, frustrating, energy-sapping, and what have you! We can be better than this. We must stop being an agbaiya country.
At Azalai Hotel where all incoming observers were meant to congregate after landing, something curious and funny happened…..
To be continued……
