A Wrong Government: More On The Bellview Air Crash, Dis Nigeria Sef!

By

Prince Charles Dickson

Jos, Plateau Nigeria

 
In the last few days after the Lisa air crash of Bellview flight 210 so many experts and novice have spoken, blames have been traded here and there, infact yours sincerely wrote an essay on the tragedy almost immediately, having lost two friends on the flight, my grief was like any other person who had value for life. However as the days go by, it is obvious that this nation is a shop that maybe should be closed.
 
As facts, rumours and fiction all rolled into one keep pouring out one is more confused about the exact kind of specie of beings that govern us. What are their priorities, what drives them, how do they live with their conscience...the lists of questions are inexhaustible. However as we continue to mourn, let us do the best we can do for the dead by averting a reoccurrence. Though I know deep down that it is a tall order.
 
I cannot pretend to knowledge o f all the facts of aviation but I know enough to ask some very honest albeit moronic questions. Maybe someone can help with answers.
 
Did we need to loose 117 lives to know that our aviation sector was being run like molue and touts in a Lagos park. That most of our runaways have deteriorated to the point of potholes and bumps like the Oshodi – Apapa expressway. That foreign airline operators had to boycott their flights before the President would start barking orders, it’s funny that it would take over one year to refurbish a runaway and it would take ages for lighting to be imported from somewhere in Finland.
 
Already the President’s order in itself is likely to cause more damage than good as the job is being rushed and safety and standard issues are being compromised just for one ‘stupid’ thing called commissioning…no sense of remorse after needlessly killing people we want to commission, so that some jobbers will have money to play around with. Instrument Landing System ILS, Radar and airfield cables that are incompatible and generate differen t types of frequencies are hurriedly laid together. Will we ever get it right? 
 
People had to die before the aviation Minister started issuing the threats and the President started speaking tough. Where were the authorities when pilots after flying for their employers fly for other airlines to make extra pay? Where on earth is there a thing such as crew exchange between two different airlines, was it not a fact that pilots were paid for extra flight hours to violate their rest period.
 
It took the lives of 117 people for the government to know that NCAA, FAAN, NEMA, NAMA were just an idle bunch. In Nigeria, leaders never resign because power is their birth right. What moral or integrity does Prof. Borishade have to still cling on to the ministry of aviation after such colossal failure? His tenure in education was also a shame and embarrassment to the nation. I do not know what the nation owes men like him.
 
We cannot travel by air, we cannot by road, we cannot by ship or canoe, we all better become witches and wizards so we can fly the other way hoping prayers do not bring us down.
 
The crash like every other affair in Nigeria has come and slowly is being forgotten, we need to import a machine from Germany to mark the runaway, the ship bringing it is on the high sea or it is from Finland, it has berthed, oh! No the port is congested. God, Nigeria is an embarrassment; I shed tears because of the thieves that are leading us. Imported machine for parking
 
Meanwhile as investigation that never ends goes on, the Ministry of Aviation in its foolishness went media crazy absolving itself, pilot, airline and everyone involved. The Ministry in the paid advert said the plane just crashed…things like this happen from time to time. With this kind of approach the investigation can as well be forgotten lets spare the living the agony.
 
When an airline forged papers with which it sought partnership with AirFrance and was caught, only God kno ws how many such documents it must have forged under the pig eyed surveillance of our aviation regulatory bodies. That particular airline is still flying our skies.
 
To the ‘touchy’ part of all this foolishness on the part of our government, the President for lack of ‘human sympathy’ has carried on with his “reckless dictatorship”. At least he has buried his own wife and abandoned the remains of the 117 crash victims, no state burial, and no hope of seeing anything that would help memories of those left behind. Already the so-called insurance to be paid has been delayed twice due to logistics we hear, after the whole media hype of the millions the victims’ next of kins would receive.
 
I am sure the Presidency was more concerned with the Dollar notes that Police reportedly claimed were flying about, yet not one passenger seat was rescued intact and the black box is missing…told a friend that the black box died in the crash as only the skeleton may be found. Even theorists are claiming that it may be possible that government knew the crash site but wanted to buy time by going on a wild goose chase 280 kilometers instead of the five minutes outside Lagos.
 
The President has resumed his waka-waka-waka to Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, and Germany. The crash has become history he has told Nigerians to go on with their lives, his cabinet of over 40 foolish men are more concerned with the PDP while people’s friend, relatives wives and husbands bodies are rotting.
 
The government promised a mass burial- when, not in this age, it promised a befitting monument-when all the gardens have been named after Stella and all rats and mosquitoes of Ajegunle have become PDP members.
 
Truth exists only lies are created. The Messiah called Governor Daniel like his father President Matthew has delivered dividends of democracy only on the pages of newspaper, be cause the tragedy has shown the truth that is Lisa village. The villagers cannot go back to their farm; their faces are that of agony and starvation that the nation has been subjected to.
 
The Lisa of a village has no single access road, no water, it’s just an environment and neighbourhood of no this and no that. And the pages of papers are filled with electrification, water and educational projects, but the place when visited is a replica of Alice in wonderland and in Hausa ‘chara ar gaban zero’, in Yoruba boju-boju and shakara oloje, the more you look, the less you see, the less you understand.
 
Our airports are not fenced, we have radar equipments that were installed the late 70’s and it does not work on weekends. This Nigeria and its leaders are a mistake, an error. An entire aircraft dropped from the air like... dis Nigeria sef, May Almighty Allah help us