Expert calls for training of government security agents at Airports

Mr Ikechi Uko, the founder of Akwaaba Travel Fair, has called on the Federal Government to train and re-train immigration and customs officers at Muritala Muhammad Airport (MMM1 and 2) in Lagos.

Uko told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Friday that the essence of the training was to enhance their professionalism.

He expressed concern over the unfriendly attitude of some officers of government security agents at the airport to international tourists.

The expert said that the attitude and approach of security agents to tourists were discouraging.

“The government security agencies have poor human relations with foreign tourists and their policies are unfriendly to them.

“The officers at the airport need to be trained and re-trained on human relations and on job proficiency,” he said.

He appealed to government to organise workshop periodically for training and retraining of the security agencies, most especially at the Lagos Airport for efficiency and proficiency.

“The officers are doing a good job but their attitudes need to be checked from time to time,’’Uko said.

Uko said that the idea was to give a positive image about the country and to attract more international tourists into the country.

He said that Nigeria was known to be a tourism friendly country; therefore, such warm and friendly attitude should be demonstrated at the point of entry at the airports.

Uko said that his call was against the backdrop of complaints by some of the tourists that attended the recent tourism fair in Lagos, two days ago.

He said that most of the international tourists made one complaint or the other about the attitude of the security agents at the airport.

“They commended the officers for doing their jobs but shouldn’t have been to the extent of making it difficult for them to enter into the country.

“The foreigners also complained of extortion by the officers, loss of baggage and several frustrating experiences at the airport.”

The founder of the travel fair also urged the government to be proactive in addressing such ugly situation at the Lagos Airport.