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
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