What? Accidents are ‘inevitable’?
Like all air travellers I was a bit anxious after last Thursday’s incident at the Murtala Mohamed Airport in Lagos when an Associated Airline Embraer plane that was conveying ex-governor Segun Agagu’s remains to Akure crashed shortly after takeoff. Even the hardest hearts in Nigeria were touched that 13 family members and friends should die […]
Like all air travellers I was a bit anxious after last Thursday’s incident at the Murtala Mohamed Airport in Lagos when an Associated Airline Embraer plane that was conveying ex-governor Segun Agagu’s remains to Akure crashed shortly after takeoff. Even the hardest hearts in Nigeria were touched that 13 family members and friends should die while undertaking the sombre task of assisting with a funeral.
I was fully expecting to hear some reassuring words from our country’s aviation authorities. In this situation, even normal Nigerian buck passing would have satisfied me. I would have been glad to hear the aviation authorities say it was all the fault of the airline or the pilot, that they did not service the plane as regularly as they should have done blah-blah. At least I would have convinced myself that the pilots and owners of the plane that I will board will not be like the other ones, that they will be dutiful and law-abiding. If someone had said that the crashed plane was too old to be in the air, I would have been consoled. I would have looked around my own plane and said “well, this one looks new.”
Can you believe it? When Minister of Aviation Princess Stella Oduah finally commented on the latest plane crash, it destroyed all the little confidence that I had managed to assemble for myself. She was quoted by the newspapers as saying that air accidents are inevitable! She said, “We do not pray for accident but it is inevitable. All we do is to do everything to ensure that we do not have accidents. But it is an act of God.” This statement left me very confused. On the one hand the minister said we would do everything to ensure that we do not have accidents, on the other hand she said accidents are inevitable. When something is inevitable, what then is the point of “doing everything possible” to stop it? Maybe Madam Neighbour-to-Neighbour wanted to say something else but had difficulty due to a shortage of vocabulary. Unless she clarifies this thing about the inevitability of accidents, my bags will remain unpacked. Shikenan!
When two motorcades collide
Accidents are inevitable on Nigerian roads [to borrow from Princess Stella Oduah’s maxim] but one accident that happened on the Bauchi-Gombe highway last Monday was a bit unusual. Two VIP motorcades travelling in opposite directions ran into each other, throwing 16 vehicle occupants into the nearby bushes. Luckily no one died, though some of the travellers sustained injuries.
According to reports, Acting Governor of Taraba State Alhaji Garba Umar’s long motorcade was travelling from Jalingo to Bauchi, there to condole with Governor Isa Yuguda on the recent death of his younger sister. Travelling in the opposite direction was Emir of Bauchi, Alhaji Rilwan Sulaiman Adamu, who was on his way to Gombe Airport to catch a flight. According to those who saw what happened, the lead vehicle of one of the convoys was attempting a dangerous high speed overtaking of another vehicle when it rammed into another vehicle in the other convoy.
Two over speeding VIP convoys, each one insisting on its right of way. Oga Garba UTC, where were you speeding to? You were going to offer condolences on a death; surely that was enough to teach your overzealous drivers to take it easy with this world? And Your Royal Highness the Emir, you were on your way to catch a plane. Which speeding again? Within a short time when you are airborne you will be travelling at 1,000 kilometers per hour. That is enough speed to give an ocean sailfish room for pause, so please take it easy. Haba!