The VP chopper crash: A post mortem
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has survived a second helicopter crash in less than one year. Last year, he had a near miss in Gwagwalada, where he had presided over a Customs Service graduation ceremony. He made a land return home. Last weekend, the vice president’s hired chopper keeled over in Kabba, Kogi State. Neither the […]
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has survived a second helicopter crash in less than one year. Last year, he had a near miss in Gwagwalada, where he had presided over a Customs Service graduation ceremony. He made a land return home. Last weekend, the vice president’s hired chopper keeled over in Kabba, Kogi State. Neither the Vice-President nor any member of his entourage suffered any physical injuries and he continued his campaign tour as if nothing happened.
I am delighted that the vice president realized that a political campaign falls outside the scope of his official functions as our employee and hired a chopper rather than commandeer any of the ones lying idle at the Presidential Wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport. According to those who know, the same could not be said of the first wife, who is said to have access to fly official planes conscious that our constitution have no roles for her. If you ask me, that is kwarrupshion and wanton abuse of office!
Amateur videos from the Kabba crash exposed our inadequacies as a nation. In spite of the whirling sirens, hosts of security personnel on duty, nobody knew or was prepared for emergency landing or a crash. We know how to take our pay and ask God to do the job and the vice president knows this too. He was quoted as saying that his survival was as a result of the prayers of his spiritual leader, Pastor Enoch Adeboye. Nothing was said about the inadequacy of government to cater for its second citizen.
If you were a relative of the late footballer Emiliano Sala, whose plane dropped into the English Channel a few weeks back, you’ll be wishing you had Adeboye’s hot number. Ditto for any relative of the passengers of Flight MH370 that disappeared between Kualar Lumpur en route Beijing. The efficacious prayers of our spiritual leaders cover our nation. A Naija believer is the apple of God’s eyes. The sspiritual canopy spread over us protects us against preventable and non-preventable disaster. Governor Yari once attributed an outbreak of a preventable disease in Zamfara to sin! As governor, he is a saint!
You’ll be penciled down for deliverance if you ponder why God would leave six million Jews in the hands of Hitler but go the extra mile to save one soul from Epe! Amen, no weapon fashioned against our vice president shall prosper. Now that we know that this accident was as a result of spiritual weapon, we don’t need an accident investigation report.
Once a Naija is sold to the opium of religion, they start a life-long battle with seen and unseen demons. Our people have more faith and fear of their spiritual leaders than they value, respect or worry about God or obedience to his commands. The law only catches up with the poor. People feel that being in the good books of their spiritual leaders protects them from demonic powers on earth and guarantees them a prime position in paradise. Of course, this apostolic canonization has no basis in faith, but the Naija man has never seen God. No matter how high people fly on the political ladder or on the social pecking order, once their brains are mixed with the opium of religion, everything goes south.
A lot of things could have gone wrong in Kabba, that chopper could have caught fire in the absence of a standby fire truck. Nobody on ground in had first aid or emergency response training; none is required when God is sentry. Indeed, the state governor has recently returned from an overseas medical trip, just like his mentor, President Buhari. A governor who does not pay the salary of his workers has no reason to fund a functional hospital in his domain.
When a system works, it works for all and when it fails, nobody is safe. We do not have a working nation hence we are quick to resort to spiritual rationalizations for the things that have rational explanations. Nobody knew what to do in an emergency. No fire service and no fire drills. Nobody trains for first aid. Hospitals are in shambles and the president was one of the last to commiserate with his deputy. Apparently he was not briefed early. But Pastor Adeboye is always available. He’ll pick up Osinbajo’s call and fast for the safety of his spiritual son, so – who functional institutions epp?
As things stand, there’ll be no need for a post-mortem of the events in Kabba. There’ll be no need to change the rules. Indeed, what I foresee happening in the coming days and weeks is a line-up of spiritual authorities to bind the spiritual forces that downs choppers. While we await those visits, let us hope that Professor Yemi Osinbajo would go get himself checked out. Where I stand, when God finished creation, he handed the keys to the human body to doctors…ask Muhammadu Buhari, he would testify to that even after praying exclusively in the House of Saud’s holiest shrine!