Arit Effanga is a results-driven corporate communications executive and media strategist with over two decades of experience spanning broadcasting, public relations, and reputation management. After an extensive career in radio, television, and digital media, she transitioned into strategic communications and currently serves as the Head of Corporate Communications within the aviation sector. Recognized for her expertise in crisis communication, storytelling, and public positioning, Arit specializes in leveraging media influence to strengthen corporate brands and shape positive public perception.
Being handed the job of fixing even one thing in Nigerian aviation is a rather dangerous privilege. Would you start with a new terminal, a committee, or a policy document?
Sometimes the biggest challenge in Nigerian aviation is not that we do not know what needs fixing. We do. The challenge is that the experience can depend too much on which day, which airport, which airline, which agency, or which person you meet.
For the passenger, aviation is not a collection of agencies, regulations, and operational manuals. It is a journey. They buy a ticket, arrive at the airport, check in, board, land, collect their baggage, and continue with their lives. Simple, right? Well, until you realise that here, sometimes even simple tasks need a committee.
Choosing consistency would mean that safety standards are consistently enforced, information is communicated clearly, passengers are treated with dignity, disruptions are handled professionally, and airlines operate within a system where expectations are clear and predictable.
It would also mean that good operators are not constantly fighting the system to do the right thing, while poor practices are allowed to become the way “we do things here”.
Airlines have their responsibilities, regulators have theirs, airports have theirs, passengers have theirs too, as the industry is a chain. When one link is weak, everyone feels it.
Nigerian aviation has some remarkable people doing difficult work under challenging circumstances. There is expertise, ambition, resilience, and genuine progress. What we need is a system that allows those qualities to thrive consistently, not occasionally.
So if tomorrow came with one magic button labeled “Fix one thing,” I would press consistency, because when the system works predictably, passengers trust it, airlines can plan better, employees can perform better, investors can have more confidence, and the entire industry becomes less about surviving the next disruption and more about building for the future.
But that is my one button.
If you had the power to fix just one thing in Nigerian aviation tomorrow, what would you fix and why?
