Delta flies a daily Boeing 767 from Lagos, Nigeria to Atlanta. You’re still allowed to use your large electronics on flights from Nigeria to the U.S. not to mention on flights from Baku, Azerbaijan to the U.S.
The US government has said this is because they don’t trust security screening from Mideast airports as much as European ones (perhaps US officials don’t know geography).
Copyright: rebius / 123RF Stock Photo
The President of Nigeria signed an order requiring airlines to stop manually searching passenger bags effective June 1. Bags are supposed to be searched by machines, since having your bags searched in front of you in public by another person is considered humiliating.
[President] Osinbajo said screening machines at the entrances of the airports and baggage areas underground, especially at the Lagos airport, should be used to screen passengers’ luggage, rather than the disgraceful act of physically ransacking passengers’ luggage in the open by the agencies’ officials.
Initially several government agencies — Quarantine, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Nigeria Police Force, Bomb Squad, Department of State Security Service, Customs Service — ignored the directive.
However the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria ordered that the President’s directive be followed and endeavored to remove screening tables. Only Delta refused to comply,
After the meeting, it was gathered that the Managing Director of the FAAN, Saleh Dunoma, ordered the removal of the tables by each airline’s aviation security personnel.
It was gathered that other airlines within the premises complied with the order, but Delta refused to do so.
…As part of the implementation of the executive order, screening of passengers was supposed to be carried out at the entrance of the terminals of major airports, including the Lagos airport. Passengers are not supposed to be manually screened by security agencies at the airline counters.
Delta’s station manager indicated that US rules require the manual screening of passenger bags. Delta is, in effect, caught between Scylla and Charybdis.
“The airline insisted that its staff must manually carry out the screening of passengers after the machine would have screened their luggage at the entrance of the terminal. They said that was the order they received from their home country. They even threatened to stop processing Nigerian passengers if the agency did not allow them to manually screen the passengers,” an airport source disclosed.
Copyright: moovstock / 123RF Stock Photo
At the end of the day, in a showdown between U.S. security bureaucrats and Nigeria’s President, the U.S. will be free to pressure Delta to drop its Lagos service unless the President chooses to escalate matters to the point of non-cooperation in dealing with Boko Haram since Nigeria shares intelligence with U.S. drone operations in Cameroon (although that would in some sense be like Cleavon Little holding a gun to his own head in front of the townspeople of Rock Ridge in Blazing Saddles).
(HT: Rob F.)
Oh, heaven knows that Nigerians are extremely reliable. :)=
Actually, I’d prefer they just ban Nigerians from traveling to the US. Except, of course, those personnel transporting the $6.7m they owe me on a petrol contract.
Time for Delta to get the hell out that hell hole. It’s Nigeria for christ’s sake. What is USA doing allowing flights anyway? Since 2014, few short years:
January 26, 2014-Attacks. At least 78 people are killed in two separate attacks in north-east Nigeria — one on a busy market in Borno state and the other in neighbouring Adamawa, with suspicions falling on Boko Haram
February 11, 2014- Attacks. Suspected Boko Haram militants torch houses in the village of Konduga, killing at least 23 people, according to the governor of Borno state.
February 15, 2014-Attacks. Dozens of residents in northeastern Nigeria are killed in two separate attacks launched by Boko Haram, according to officials and residents.
February 26, 2014-Attacks. At least 29 students die in an attack on a federal college in Buni Yadi, near the the capital of Yobe state, Nigeria’s military says.
March 14, 2014-Attacks. Hundreds of militants were said to have taken part in the attack on the Giwa barracks in Maiduguri,
March 30, 2014-Failed Attack. Heavy gunfire that may have lasted some hours very close to Aso Rock, the presidential villa, starting at. Sunday morning. The gunfire appears to have been centered at Yellow House, the headquarters of the State Security Services (SSS).
April 14, 2014- At the suburban Abuja bus station a suicide bomber blasts himself in an explosion that killed at least seventy-five people and probably many more.
April 17, 2014-Kidnappings. More than 200 girls and young women went missing from their school dormitories
April 20, 2014-Attack. Suspected gunmen set ablaze some houses in the staff quarters of Government Girls Secondary School, Yana, killing a five-year old girl
April 23, 2014-Assassinations.Two Borno State politicians have been killed by suspected members of the outlawed Boko Haram sect in an highway ambush[9]
April 26, 2014-Attacks. Boko Haram insurgents have attacked a military unit at Blabili, 29 April 2014 Relatives say they have been told of mass weddings involving insurgents and some of the girls abducted two weeks ago
May 5, 2014- Statement. Leader of Boko Haram that kidnapped the girls announced plans to sell them
May 20 2014-Attacks. At least 118 are killed and 56 injured in two car bomb attacks on a market in Jos, central Nigeria, which go off within 20 minutes of each other. The regional governor blames Boko Haram.
June 1, 2014-Attacks. At least 40 are killed when a bomb explodes at a football stadium in Mubi in the north-east of the country shortly after a match. The attack is blamed on Boko Haram.
June 14, 2014- Attacks. Hundreds are feared dead in a suspected Boko Haram attack on four villages in Borno state, with local leaders putting the death toll as high as 500.
June 17, 2014- Attacks. 21 football fans are killed when a bomb rips through the viewing centre where they are watching the World Cup in Damaturu, northern Nigeria.
June 24 2014- Attacks. Local officials report 30 killed and more than 60 women kidnapped in a series of attacks over several days in Borno state, although the Nigerian government denies the abductions.
June 25 2014-Attacks. At least 21 people are killed and 17 injured in a bombing at a crowded shopping centre in the centre of Abuja. The attack — the third on the city in three months — is blamed on Boko Haram.
July 3 2014-Failed Attack. suspected Boko Haram fighters killed 5 people in Konduga (Borno) when a bomb believed to have been planted in a pickup van loaded with firewood exploded.
July 4, 2014-Attack. 15 people, including motorists, were killed when suspected Boko Haram gunmen laid ambush along Maiduguri -Mafa- Dikwa Road.
July 6, 2014-Attacks. Suspected Boko Haram fighters, dressed in military uniforms, killed seven people in an attack at Krenuwa village in the Marte district, near the northeastern border with Cameroon.
July 8, 2014-JTF Operation Nigerian soldiers attempted to regain control over the Damboa military base that resulted in 15 soldiers killed when Boko Haram fighters counter attacked.
July 11, 2014-Attacks Suspected Boko Haram fighters destroyed the main bridge linking Maiduguri-Damboa-Madafuma- Biu Road.
July 14, 2014-Attacks. Dille village in Askira Uba Local government of Borno State was attacked by suspected Boko Haram gunmen and killed 26 people as well as torching houses and three churches.
July 14, 2014-Attacks. Suspected Boko Haram fighters attacked the Mandafuma village in Biu Local Government Area of the Borno state, injuring one person and destroying property.
July 15, 2014- Attacks. Suspected Boko Haram fighters attacked the Borno State village of Huyim village in Biu Local Government Areawith and killed about 9 people.
July 15, 2014-Attacks. Suspected Boko Haram fighters attacked the Sabon Gari village in Damboa Local Government Area of Borno State and killed approximately 27 people. Sabon Gari is located about 40 kilometres from Biu in southern Borno, and 145 kilometres away from Maiduguri.
July 16, 2014-Attacks. Suspected Boko Haram fighters kidnapped a German in Gombi town of Adamawa State. The man, who is said to be the principal of a technical skill acquisition centre in the town, was abducted on his way to work.
July 17, 2014-Attacks Suspected Boko Haram fighters destroyed a bridge in Gambou Ngala (Borno State), which linked Nigeria to Cameroon.
July 18, 2014-JTF Operation Boko Haram fighters killed approximately 80 villagers and set homes a blaze in Damboa (northeastern Nigerian town just 85 kilometers (53 miles) from Maiduguri).
July 23, 2014-Attack.Two suicide bombings in Kaduna (north central city in Nigeria) during which approximately 82 people were killed.
July 24, 2014-Attacks. Suspected Boko Haram fighters launched a crossborder raid into Cameroon during which 2 Cameroonian soldiers were killed.
July 25, 2014- Attack.Boko Haram fighters attacked a community in the south of Borno State, killing its district leader, Alhaji Ibrahim Dawi, and about 12 people. Residents of Garubula village in Biu local government area of the state confirmed that Dawi was shot dead.
27 July 2014-Kidnapping. Boko Haram fighters kidnapped the wife of Cameroon’s vice prime minister and killed at least three people during an attack on the northern town of Kolofata, Cameroon.
July 29, 2014-Failed Attack. Boko Haram is accused of two suicide bombing in Potiskum (Yobe State) during which 55 people were killed. According to witnesses, the first explosions occurred near the palace of the Emir of Potiskum at the Shi’ia Kalli Alkali Mosque. The second explosion was at a Majalisa, where Shi’ate Muslims were resting at one of the primary schools in Potiskum.
July 30, 2014- Boko Haram fighters set a light five churches in communities south of Borno, namely Kwajaffa, Tashan Alade and some communities in Hawul Local Government Area in the southern part of the state.
And we let Delta fly there? really… and now they want “machines to carry out security checks? Yeah right. And remember this is one of the Big 3 airlines that enabled a laptop ban from Qatar, UAE, Egypt et al.
Imagine being stupid enough to fly from Nigeria on DL. Not for me thank you very much. I can tell you what is humiliating…. we still sell shit to Nigeria and we have one of the Big 3 flying there. that’s embarrassing
Very sad to see all this hate for Nigeria in your blog. It’s a country full of dynamic young people – and yes a small minority who are scammers and Terrorists. Personally I never minded the gate security owing through my carry on bags as it gave me additional comfort. but I won’t miss my water being confiscated.
@ Boraxo: You must be living an alternate reality. “Small minority”? You do know that thievery and fraud is, by official and conservative estimates, over 50% of the Nigerian economy.
Factually, it’s a turd that happens to be big enough for people to live on.
Statistically, more scammers, terrorists, frauds, in US history than in Nigeria’s if you ask me…
@Boraxo,
So by small minority, let’s say 1% of Nigeria’s ~182 million population are scammers and terrorists, that would be about 1.8 million scammers and terrorists… I don’t like those odds, I like them less at a more reasonably believable 50%…
Any of you actually ever been there? I have – both Abuja and Lagos. I went to Abuja five days after the national strike (and a month after the Christmas attack on churches). Difficult time for the people there. If you were overseas and read the NY, Chicago, LA, and Houston papers, you would have enough murders, violent crimes, and robberies to scare you from ever coming to the US. Don’t think your world is so perfect….
@ Jim L: Yes, been there. It’s a shitehole.
@J.C. It’s home to 140 million people. It’s not my favorite place to visit but no reason to ‘dis them all. Most live in poverty thanks to kleptocrats. Most of them are good people and some might even agree with you about living conditions. Of course none of that has anything to do with airport security which IMO is better than the TSA drones and contractors who repeatedly fail 90% of tests. PS. Not a big fan of DL (if you look at the history the skymiles program could be the Nigerian equivalent of mileage programs) so it won’t bother me if they lose this route. LH provides better service, better beer, better food, better lounges, better connections…
It’s a shithole and so is the US. I’m thinking any list of mass shootings in the US since 2014 will by far surpass the Boko Haram hits “Robbo” so took his/her precious time to list. That’s why ignorance persists in the US. Sit your ignorant as*** down and don’t come to Nigeria, cause your only goal is to steal what you can and boost western economies. And yeah, it’s all about the economy…stupid! Or else Delta et al wouldn’t be whining about how Emirates, Qatar Airways, and Etihad are seriously tapping into the business of flights to Africa!
I know this is an older post, but to the individual who took so much time to document Bokoharam attacks or abortive attacks in 2014, I have this to say to you: I am writing from 2023 and the list of mass shootings in the US in 2023 alone number more than 120 and counting (and the year is only three months old!!!). This record gives Bokoharam a run for their money! Look at your own “shithole”…the one that you live in and call home, before you begin defending your arguments by listing the “sins” of others and calling them names.