Aviation Round Table (ART), has thrown its weight behind the centralisation of security screening checkpoints at the nation’s airports, saying the current multiple checks by various security agencies are a disgrace to the country.
The President, ART, Dr Gabriel Olowo, made this known in an interview with newsmen in Lagos on Wednesday.
Olowo who is also the President, Sabre Travel Solutions, Central and Western Africa, declared that it was necessary for the Federal Government to sanitise the Nigerian airports.
He stressed that if the Transport Security Administration (TSA) of the United States could centralise security information, Nigeria should not be an exemption.
Olowo lamented that despite the Ease-of-Doing-Business scheme of the Federal Government, myriads of security points at the airports had made nonsense of the policy.
The ART president said the implementation of laws had always been the major challenge confronting the nation.
He insisted that the effort to satinise the Nigerian airports was a task that must be accomplished by the government.
“In the U.S. for instance, all the information about a passenger – political criminal, corruption, drug and others are in one centre and accessible by all the security agents, insisting that those could also be replicated here through technology.
“Three stages only. Once the check-in is done, you have your boarding pass, you go to the security door and once that is done, you are in the screening area. You go to the shopping lounge. As simple as that.
“But, here, you go through immigration, somebody is in the security team, somebody will check your international passport in and out.
“The world best practices become an issue for us in Nigeria. Why? Are we the only country in the world that has a problem? He said”
Olowo explained that if the current House of Representatives could ensure the implementation of the policy, the image of Nigeria would swell greatly in the comity of nations, while Ease-of-Doing-Business would be achievable.
