Turkish Airlines, Why?

By Stephen Atta Owusu

 I was always skeptical about flying to Ghana on Turkish Airlines. Many things have been said about the airline. It is commonly known that transit in Istanbul sometimes took about 24 hours and passengers had to spend a night in a hotel. I also felt that Turkey was so close to Iraq, and that the long standing dispute between Iraq and the Turkish Kurds could suddenly spark off terrorism which could affect planes flying from Turkey.

All these things frightened me and I always said to myself never to fly Turkish Airlines. This year, at the time I was about to travel to Ghana, Turkish Airlines happened to have the cheapest rates of all the airlines I checked. I was tempted and decided to give them a try.

A bit of facts about Turkey: They have been trying hard to be counted among the developed countries of Europe and want to join the EU. They hype their achievements and one of their prides is Turkish Airlines. They have advertisements in major international media saying how good the Airline is and the awards they have received.

Some major footballers in the world have appeared on some of these ads. One popular and funny one pits Drogba against Messi in an epic food battle featuring many exotic dishes served on the airline which you are not likely to get on the Accra journey. It is evident in my personal opinion that what they say in these ads did not meet up with their services as I experienced when I travelled in their aircraft to Ghana. I get the impression that they have different and better services to the developed world but poorer services to the third world.

Through inefficient management of the Airline or absolute and deliberate corruption, Ghana Airways collapsed never to rise again. Ghanaians have been travelling very much with airlines which are better known to them, and these are: British Airways, KLM and Lufthansa. These companies use huge aircrafts for long distance journeys. These are wide-bodied passenger jet airliners.

The article will mainly be talking about Turkish Airlines and the uncomfortable treatment meted out to passengers travelling to Ghana. In July there was an urgent need for me to travel to Ghana. Since their rates were some thirty percent lower than the next cheapest airline, I chose to travel with them for the first time despite the mixed feelings and suspicions I have for the airline. The plane left very early in the morning and we were to transit in Istanbul. The immigration process was simple and waiting period to board another plane to Accra was just three hours.

President Mugabe Clamps Down On Gays

THE Zimbabwean government has reportedly clamped down on foreign gays and lesbians attending the International Conference on Aids and STI’s in Africa (ICASA) in Harare and seized their workshop material at Harare International Airport, NewsDay has learnt. 

*President Robert Mugabe and his wife, Grace 

This came as suspected State security agents yesterday pulled down an exhibition stand mounted by the group to display and house its members and sex workers at the conference venue.

The exhibitors were later allowed to display their wares, following massive protests and lobbying by local and international human rights groups.

Addressing a pre-conference workshop for key people, Kene Esom, the executive director of African Men for Sexual Health and Rights (AMSHeR), said the confiscation of most of their material by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) had disrupted the group’s programmes.

“The material is still held because the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority is still conducting an assessment on them. The challenge is that we have attended many conferences of this nature and we have never been required to pay duty on such conference material, especially when you had bid to host the conference,” Esom said.

“As you can see, it has impacted on the quality of the pre-conference because we have agenda material and information material for interaction, which we haven’t gotten.”

Esom said when Zimbabwe won the bid to host the conference, his organisation made an effort to lobby Health and Tourism ministers, as well as the National Aids Council (NAC), among other stakeholders, to guarantee the non-discrimination of key populations such as transgender people.

[VIDEO] We Are Not Gays - Mugage 

Presidential Jets: Buhari On Jonathan's Part Of Wastage

By Ikhide Erasmus

By November 29, precisely six months after assuming office, President Muhammadu Buhari and his handlers would have be hard put to explain why images of corruption, inherited from former President Goodluck Jonathan's administration still cloud the nation's and airspace.

It comes to the news once again that the Federal Government would have been spending about N5.8bn on the 10-aircraft Presidential Air Fleet it inherited from the former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration. The PAF is the third largest fleet in the country, coming after Arik Air and Aerocontractors Airlines which have 23 and 12 aircraft in their fleets respectively.Other domestic airlines including FirstNation, MedView Airlines, Dana Air, Air Peace and Overland Airways have less than 10 aircraft each in their fleets.

According to calculations done from estimated data obtained from aviation parastatals and domestic airline operators in the country, President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration will have spent about $58.58m (N11.598bn) on running and maintaining the 10-aicraft presidential fleet by May 29 next year when it turns one year in office. This means that the half of this amount, $29.29m (N5.799bn), is expected to have been spent in principle on the large fleet when administration turns six months in office by November 29.

A few weeks after his inauguration, President Buhari had reportedly ordered the immediate disposal of some of the planes in the PAF. However, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, later denied knowledge of such directive: “The story of the order for the sale of aircraft in the Presidential Fleet, about which so much interest is being expressed, is not known to us,” Shehu quipped. 

Analysing the scenario then I wrote in the first paragraph in a piece entitled: "President Buhari, PAF and Images of Corruption" thus: "As the dawn broke over the nation in 2013, the plush lifestyle of former President Goodluck Jonathan and his propensity for frivolities and mellifluous came to the open. Bounded to the fantasy of presidential prestige and power, his obsession clings to its vanity. He swiftly abandoned his earlier pledge to “demonstrate leadership, statesmanship, vision, capacity and sacrifice, to transform our nation” in his May 29, 2011 inaugural address. But he never did."