mma2 - world class airport?

There has been so much hype about the Murtala Mohammed Airport Terminal 2 (mma2) in Lagos. Well, not until today, the last time I saw the terminal was in the early stages of the construction work when there were controversies surrounding which contractor would handle the construction of the terminal. If I can remember, this occurred when Kema Chikwe was the Minister of Aviation, during the Obasanjo led government. The job was originally supposed to have been given to a Canadian company, but somewhere along the line the Nigerian magic came into play and the contract was awarded to Bi-Courtney which is owned by Wale Babalakin.

From the point when my flight taxied into the parking area, I could already see the poor quality of work that was done. As soon as I got off the plane all I could was the typical Nigerian way of finishing a building...rough and dirty walls, broken tiles, falling ceiling boards, everything was just not done well. I was not impressed with the men’s room either.

It is really a shame, when would anything ever be done properly and with quality. From all the noise that was made, (Babalakin himself said the airport would be better that that in Miama) one would expect some world class construction work. This looked more like ‘direct labour’ and nothing like Miami. Julius Berger Nigeria would obviously have done a much wonderful job.

Whatever happened to standards (I guess we have none) FAAN, NCAA,..... I wonder why NCAA is not saying anything about all the squabbles going on between the Federal Government and Arik and Virgin with regards the MMU.
I really don’t want to go into any details but the bottom line is that the airport is crap. End of story. No one can stand up and tell me that any form of quality control and care was put into the construction work. Babalakin also recently bagged a national award...for a very poor job...this tells you all you need to do in Nigeria to get such. With the way these awards are being dashed out, personally I have no respect for them anymore.

I could go on and on, but I would take a break here, maybe when I'm returning (unfortunately I still have to use the terminal) I would be find some more interesting things to write about.