Nigeria’s busiest airport, the Murtala Muhammed International Airport was grounded by power failure for two days this weekend – Saturday and Sunday.
Power was finally restored this morning after the embarrassing incident had disrupted international flight operations in and out of Lagos for two days.
The General Manager, Public Affairs, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Yakubu Dati, told the News Agenc of Nigeria: “There was a power outage from the PHCN [Power Holding Company of Nigeria] and the airport has continued to rely on our independent power supply. However, when power was restored, the surge adversely affected the K16 transformer that serves the air-bridges and rendered them unserviceable. This has adversely affected operations of departing flights. The heavy rainfall has further delayed attempts by our electrical engineers to effect repairs immediately.”
There was a similar power outage in November last year and it appears no lessons have been learned from such incidents that not only damage the country’s reputation as a destination for investment, but also pose severe security threats in light of its struggles to defeat terrorism.
