Ibadan Airport: The Mystery Cow

Ibadan airport is one of the federal government owned airports in the south western part of Nigeria. The airport with large expanse of land has been poached regularly by the villagers and the air force authority; some reasons adduced for this action are long neglect of facilities, poor funding or non release of operational allocation, under utilisation and most importantly the lack of fencing and support from its host- the Oyo State Government.

The staff quarters are derelict while facilities in and around the airport itself are begging for overhaul or outright replacement. It’s in this sorry state that, the runway safety was challenged by a mysterious cow whose dung was the only evidence.

The airport manager and his team rolled up their sleeves to get the mystery cow, after searching for days; they had to call the Nigerian police to join the search team, with a shoot at sight mandate.

The police did not disappoint, just like the boko haram issue, they successfully located the cow in his resting place, fired a volley of bullets that could not produce carcass or blood stained leaves, as expected the usual nauseating rhymes of the police was flown again -the cow escaped with serious injuries later the story changed to the ridiculous. It’s a mystery cow that must be appeased spiritually, despite wasting tax payers’ bullet and the inevitable mobilisation fee.

The manager became restless knowing the safety implications of having a spirit filled and still wandering cow on the runway of an airport that is gradually recovering commercial flights after years of abandonment, without a carcass and the dung littering the runway daily before dawn.

He and his team invited local hunters, provided official vehicle, the only serviceable vehicle anyway for the mission. The hunters armed with shakabula (local gun) were able to find the well fed cow without injuries resting under a parked aircraft.

They carefully guided the cow from the aircraft before delivering the fatal shot. The cow did not go down without fighting, it went straight for the airport manager's official vehicle conveying the hunters and inflicting severe wreckage before finally giving up the ghost. You may ask what happened to the carcass after afterwards. Check Molete meat market.

We are thanking God today because it was only the FAAN vehicle that was damaged, what would have happened, if that attack was on Associated Airlines Embraer 120, Overland Airways Beech craft or Oyo State subsidised Arik Dash 8 flight that was either landing or taking off with the mystery cow on the runway?

These carriers operate props to this airport with some other charter flights that have consistently made the airport operational after long period of non operation. Our hard and well earned new safety records and certification would have been dented; happily the Ibadan FAAN team responded appropriately, un-mindful of the disappointing, conventional security.

Though FAAN has commenced work on the perimeter fencing at the airport, the project is slow and quality of work is not encouraging, considering that some part of the recently erected fence has cracks while some other part caved in during the last rainy season.

It is exciting to hear that the new management has been releasing allocation to the airports on time and regularly unlike in the past, they should also consider looking into the backlogs that have made their airport managers chronic debtors.

Also the unutilised airport land cannot continue to lie fallow. FAAN should begin to think outside the box or the alternative will be the continuous encroachment. Also is it true that some investors are willing to start a hospitality firm around Ibadan airport? if it is true then, the commercial department of FAAN should dust up the file and process the application.