DANA CRASH: Sorrowful memories are made of this
No, not any more, especially for churches in some parts of the North. The news was still floating across the country that suicide bombers just killed fifteen in churches in Bauchi; then these deaths strewn around Iju-Ishaga. Neither are the mosques sacrosanct of deadly visitations any more from the agents of mortal violence. Fridays too […]
No, not any more, especially for churches in some parts of the North. The news was still floating across the country that suicide bombers just killed fifteen in churches in Bauchi; then these deaths strewn around Iju-Ishaga. Neither are the mosques sacrosanct of deadly visitations any more from the agents of mortal violence. Fridays too do carry deadly burdens from the hands of those who claim, in part, that they are defending the faith from ‘pollution’ according to Western education. It should be interesting to find out why most of these air disasters happen on weekends, including otherwise holy days—Fridays and Sundays!
Be that as it may, nobody was expecting fresh deaths from the air. The dimensions and proportions are too gory for the nation to bear. The losses are colossal, from intimately personal, groupal and national perspectives. 153 men, women, boys and girls, Professors, professionals, business executives, military menand so on—all wrapped in serially exploding plane in horrifying smoke, just minutes before journey’s end! The nation is mourning, but the intensity of the mourning differs—from the extremely intimate to the general. Yes, the country’s leadership has declared three days of national mourning in honour of the departed ones, but what of the immediate families? Families of five or three gone, rolled up into their graves from a single plane crash. How do you placate their relations? How do you appease the new widows and widowers emerging from this single, tragic, incident? What of the new orphans and those who have lost their benefactors upon whom their livelihoods depend, exclusively? What of those who have lost their best, closest and blossom friends? Sordid and sorrowful memories are made of these?What manner of succour, condolences and consolation do you offer to these categories of deeply ravaged survivors of these bizarre, and perhaps needless, avoidable air disaster?
What of those non-travellers whose only crime is that they live in the Iju neighbourhood? People who were going about their businesses or non-businesses on the fateful Sunday and got cut down by unsuspected death—in their houses, in their bedrooms, on the street, at play, catching fun or in supplication? Many of them may never have entered an aircraft before but DANA brought death to them in utter disbelief and surprise as callous death came tumbling in fire balls from the air-inexorably. There areno exact figures put to these dead non-travellers? How does one define this manner of tragedy and unearned fate (less-ness)?
What have we as a nation (government to be precise), the carrier, DANA, aerial business experts and as citizens done to address this calamity that came killing our people—at times the best or our citizens continually and in criminal mortal enormity? The Nation newspaper of Monday graphically drew a timeline of plane crashes in our country since November 20, 1969, when Nigeria Airways BAC VC 10 crash-landed, recording 87 deaths to this most recent tragic MD 82 DANA Limited aircraft. The paper documented 40 air-crashes in 43 years—nearly one crash per year, with thousands of deaths! Sordid and painful memories are made of these!! What are the responses quotients to these national calamities? First from our Government.Our President is the chief mourner. He has visited the disaster space and he is terribly and vividly shaken. He is evidently, palpably in grief. Correct emotion, and prompt one at that. What next? He has expressed deep and impassioned condolence to the families of the deceased, some of whom are still trying to gather the remains of the killed loved ones; wives, husbands and children are still frantically searching for the charred bodies of their wives, husbands and children. All manner of techniques are being deployed in this identification exercise, including DNA tests. He has declared national mourning for three days. A correct political action. He has also defined aviation business as an international business with international laws and the technical people have been ordered to determine what went wrong. He has also, quite curiously assured the nation that this will not happen again. Curious because, apart from emotion, nothing in the history of government’s response strategies to all the forty odd calamitous crashes supports this assurance, and it is only hope and wish that the people can depend on, in attempting to trust the re-assuring words of their President. Now, there is massive national shock and stupefaction over this heart-rending air calamity—across board—Governors, legislators, Ministers, civil society, labour and professional Associations. Will this end in a firm and purposive action that will make Mr. President’s promise of a final remedy to air disasters in our country?
Now, what is the record of reprisals meted out to the air-lines owners and their handlers who have been found, through investigations to have, through their errors, faults, carelessness and callousness—as the case might have been– enabled previous plane crashes? There has been wide outrage over this last one. Governor Akpabio has cried foul in a strident voice, remarking that DANA airline was fore-warned not to endanger the lives of Nigerians since one of their aircrafts recently had a technical problem. Akpabio had charged regulatory agencies to ensure that airline operators strictly adhere to global operational standards. Apparently, the warning fell on deaf ears. General Buhari of the CPC blames corruption in the aviation sector, since former Ministers of Aviation are facing prosecution. If un-rectified technical hitch is found responsible in whole or in part for this massive wastage of valuable Nigerian lives, what is the assurance that there will be prompt and open reprisals?
What is DANA’s response to this ill-fated calamity its plane has wrought on ourbemused and beleaguered nation? Is it claiming guilt or taking responsibility for the crash, beyond making refunds to air passengers, who in in self-interest are cancelling booked flights with her aircrafts? What is the management of the plane saying about the grave charge of criminal neglect levelled against it by Governor Akpabio? Thus far, what we hear are testimonies that DANA Air is one of the biggest or leading airlines in the country, with Boeing MD 83 aircrafts. It boasts that it places meticulous attention to air safety. It says it strictly adheres to maintenance regulations and schedules of its aircrafts. It is said to have won various awards for excellence in air travel performance and service delivery quality. The question is this: do all these premiums applicable to MD 82 that has just slaughtered numerous Nigerians? The nation may have to wait for an answer to this question when and if thorough investigations are carried out and the cause of the disaster is determined.
What is not in doubt is that this disaster is another grievous setback for Nigerians already in the grips of national uncertainty of all kinds. Horrible memories are made of these as we seek for solution to our numerous national problems, including mounting insurgency violence, poor quality of living for majority of Nigerians and a comatose economy.
May the soul of the departed ones rest in perfect peace as their lives have been needlessly cut short. May the bereaved families, groups, institutions directly affected by these calamity gain relieving consolation, material and spiritual succour.