I arrived abuja airport on tuesday afternoon with my colleague Femi. we were on our way back to Lagos to catch our flight to New York via London to attend the UNFPA youth advisory panel meeting.

We bought our tickets to lagos and we were scheduled to leave Abuja by 5.30pm and arrive lagos by 630pm. We hwever did not leave abuja until 7.30pm due to what was officially explained as Presidential movements.

The president of Libya, Mr. Ghadafi was visiting Nigeria and he flew from Lagosto Abuja meaning tha for 30 minutes all flight in Lagos were grounded. Unfortunately, after the 30 minutes delay, those headed forAbuja, got to Abuja to find out that they could not land their plane becauseMr. Ghadaffi was at the airport.

I was angry. I complained and everyonewas like it happensall the time. I kept quiet.

I was glacing through the papers online today to discover that Ghadaffi arrived Nigeria with an army of escorts, who came with several pisotls and assaul rifles for his supposed protection i Nigeria and they wont allow theNigerian immigraton to check these weapons and register them.

In fact, Mr Ghadaffi was said to have become very angry over the delay and over the fact that due process was to be followed. eeven the presence of our mnister of aviation could not solve the problem.

It took the intervention of Mr. President himself who insisted that the ammunitions must be reducedand those allowed in to the counry registered before Gadaffi and his goons succumbed.

I wonder what sort of security measure do we have in Nigeria that woud mean that planes would not land when Mr. President or any of his wierd African friends (presidents) were at the airport.

I doubt if this is done in other african countries. This practise in the name of scecrity, if not stopped, will undermine the safety of the aviation secotr in Nigeria. The safety infact is currently under serious questioning considering the number of plane crashes in the last 16 months.

I implore the new avation minister to look into this!

Cheers