The President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Afam Osigwe, has called for the retraining of the crew members of Nigerian local carrier, Ibom Air, following an incident with the airline’s air hostesses and a female passenger Comfort Emmanson.
The NBA President was a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Thursday.
During the interview, he mentioned that a meeting should be held to discuss the etiquette of crew members and the procedures for airline bans, as well as the process of carrying them out legally and in a civilised manner.
Osigwe faulted the actions of the airline staff members who filmed the passenger’s behaviour, exposed her “nudity and further degraded her, subjecting her to public ridicule”.
Osigwe said crew members need to be educated, examined, and given necessary training and retraining.
“Airlines need to educate the air cabin crew,” he said, even as he faulted “the conduct they exhibited and their overly sensitivity to incidents they should let slide, and their inability to ignore some things to de-escalate situations. Their language, tone and approach are unnecessary”.
Osigwe said passengers also need to understand that there are legal obligations when flying on an aircraft.
“So, there is the need for training for everyone on the aircraft and everyone has a responsibility to carry out to ensure orderly conduct and behaviour on the aircraft,” he added.
He emphasised that adopting these measures would not only prevent future conflicts but also retain the dignity of passengers and preserve the reputation of the Ibom airline industry and Nigerians.
Examining the case that involved Fuji musician Wasiu Ayinde popularly known as Kwam 1, the NBA president stated that his actions appeared to pose a threat to the airline passengers, but since the Ibom Air passenger was the victim, she was given a ban, even though it has now been renounced.
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Hardship: Okonjo-Iweala Calls For Social Safety Nets After Meeting With Tinubu
The Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has called on the Federal Government to put social safety nets in place for poor Nigerians who are feeling the pains of President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms.
Okonjo-Iweala stated this on Thursday after a meeting with the president at the Aso Villa in Abuja.
Though she commended the president for the economic reforms including petrol subsidy removal and the unification of the foreign exchange windows, the former Nigerian finance minister said the government must put social safety nets in place for poor Nigerians to cope with the economic hardship occasioned by the government’s reforms.
In a chat with newsmen after her meeting with the president, the WTO boss said, “We think that the President and his team has worked hard to stabilised the economy. You cannot really improve an economy unless it is stable. So, he has to be given the credit for the stability of the economy. The reforms have been in the right direction.
“What is needed next is growth; we now need to grow the economy and we need to put in social safety nets so that people who are feeling the pinch of the reforms can also have some supports to weather the hardship. That’s the next step.”
Tinubu, who launched a string of economic reforms when he assumed office in May 2023, has come under heavy criticisms in over two years, as many Nigerians have attributed soaring food inflation and skyrocketing cost of living to majorly his removal of petrol subsidy and the unification of foreign exchange windows.
Angry citizens have held a number of rallies to protest the hardship faced by the middle class and ordinary citizens in the last two years, the most prominent of them being the hunger protests or #EndBadGovernance demonstrations of August 2024.
The Nigerian president’s meeting with Okonjo-Iweala took place two weeks before the expiration of her first term as WTO Director-General on August 31, 2025, and the commencement of her second term on September 1, 2025.
The renowned development economist and global finance expert made history in 2021 as the first African and first woman to lead the 164-nation-member WTO.
The WTO chief, accompanied by Trade Minister Jumoke Oduwole, also briefed the president on the progress made on the Women’s Exporters’ Fund for the digital economy.
Okonjo-Iweala said, “We came to brief him about something very joyful that we did today with the help of the first lady.
“We launched a Women’s Exporters’ Fund for the digital economy. This is a fund that is jointly managed by the World Trade Organisation and the International Trade Centre and supports women to weather the storms of the economy and create jobs for themselves.
“It is part of the thinking of the social safety net and what we can do to support Nigerian women to contribute more to the economy and themselves.
“Nigeria competed and one one of four countries that won globally to be part of this initiative.
“We have 67,000 Nigerian women who applied for this, and 146 of them won, and they are going to have money disbursed directly to them.
“16 of them won what we called the Booster Track; those who already have businesses, but their businesses would be scaled up. They would receive technical and business support from the WTO and the ITC for 18 months.
“Another 100 would get $5,000 each to start and strengthen their businesses, with 12-month reforms.”