EARSHOT

Did NASS members get the message?

During a recent visit to Anambra State, the president was said to have stared at Senator Ben Obi (Anambra Central) and vowed to ensure he (the Senator) does not return to the Senate in 2007. Obi was one of the distinguished Senators with integrity and rectitude who stood against the president’s greedy third term bid in spite of the N50 million bribe thrown in his direction. I have repeatedly declared on this page that if the distinguished Senators and Hon. Members do not remove Obasanjo before the next election, the same way he has been doing to governors, the president will rig out all those who opposed the third term bid. Obasanjo will not forgive you, if you stop him from breaking any law to his advantage. He still has not forgiven Governor Bola Tinubu for stopping him from rigging him out in 2003. And Umar Ghali Na’Abba and the VP are learning the hard way. So NASS members, especially those who stopped the president from seeking a third term should act in self defence now by stopping the president before he removes them, or should, like Anyim Pius Anyim refrain from seeking re-election if they will not remove him.
Obasanjo has already sent the message. And if NASS members want to shoot, they should shoot quickly, and stop talking!

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Last Word: A Not-So-Honourable Minister

By

Sam Nda Isaiah

samndaisaiah@yahoo.com

How many times have we heard a plane crash in Ghana, Niger, Chad or Burkina Faso, countries we consider less developed than Nigeria? Or don’t they have flying aircraft at all? At busy international airports in Europe, Asia and the United States, airplanes take off almost every other minute or even less. How many times do planes crash there, the way we have noticed it here virtually every other month? The only fear in most of these airports is from terrorists who may hijack planes and smash them on buildings, and not from the consequences of incompetent leadership as we see here in Nigeria. Babalola Borishade, the aviation minister has become a byword for incompetence in the world and he is not even ashamed of it. Just to remain in government, he has lost his dignity and honour. He even descended lower last week when he lied against a dead pilot who was not around to defend himself.

President Obasanjo has shown that there are people like Borishade who are sacred cows. As minister of education during the president’s first term, Borishade did so badly that universities were shut for up to nine months. He had no answers or enough intelligence to avert such calamity. After that, he was given the assignment of digitalising the rigging of the 2003 elections. He did that one with distinction. When a rigged-in President Obasanjo presented Borishade’s name to the Senate for re-confirmation as a minister, the Senators, most of whom were themselves rigged in, refused to confirm him even with an Obasanjo lapdog Senate President Adolphus Wabara presiding. Obasanjo had to present his name several times again before the Senators grudgingly gave their consent. And to confirm that Borishade has no sense of self-worth, he even agreed to serve as minister of state (a kind of demotion) because all the substantive ministerial offices had been filled. He had to wait for space to be created for him in the aviation ministry. Just to be around the precincts of power, Borishade will accept to be anything, even a state commissioner if that is what is available.

Borishade would have no scruples remaining the aviation minister even if people (including kids) die in plane crashes weekly as long as he is allowed to continue to enjoy the perks of office as minister. In roughly one year, he has presided over five terrible air crashes. In the Bellview crash, no corpse was recovered for burial. It was that gruesome. A few days later, a private aircraft involving the son of Ahmadu Ali, the PDP chairman, crashed in Kaduna. If the fire fighting equipment were in order, lives would have been saved. In the Sosoliso air disaster that followed a couple of weeks later, several children, innocent kids were burnt beyond recognition. That was most upsetting and unsightly. Eyewitnesses said again, that if the fire fighting equipment were in order at the Port Harcourt airport, it would have been possible to save the lives of most of the kids. Quite a pity! When the mothers of the dead kids demanded Borishade’s resignation, the minister started weeping and wailing. He was not one of the bereaved. He was only asked to resign.

Last week again, an ADC aircraft crashed killing the Sultan and some of the brightest and best Nigerians. That was about a month after a military aircraft crashed in Benue State wiping out a generation of the nation’s army generals. In the ADC crash, the Sultan died, together with his son, Senator Badamasi and grandson. One of Nigeria’s assets, and most promising Senators, Sule Yari Gandi died together with his mother, wife and children. The third and last Senator representing Sokoto State, Umaru Dahiru, who was lucky to escape, also lost three of his children in the disaster. Five medical doctors died in the crash. The Sokoto State deputy governor, Alhaji Garba Muhammed died in the crash, and several days later, his body could not even be identified for burial. Commissioners died. For Nigeria, it was a sombering experience. When news of the crash pierced through Abuja on that Sunday morning (29th October) and I hurriedly placed a call to Sokoto, the governor, Dalhatu Bafarawa’s response to my question about the rumours of an ADC plane crash involving Sokoto people said it all: “Yes, Sam, I lost my Sultan and my VIP’s.” The pathos in his voice was unmistakable for a man who was normally very calm and in charge of his environment.

While the Sokoto-bound ADC flight was crashing at the Abuja airport, another ADC aircraft that left Calabar for Lagos that same morning could not land for about 30 minutes because the landing gears had stopped working. And this minister is telling us that he will never resign. What an outrage? What an insult? He has now been redeployed to the culture and tourism ministry. That’s bad luck for the upcoming ministry.

About four weeks ago, a FRESH AIR aircraft, which took off from Abuja to Lagos, almost crashed because it lost all its four tyres. The tyres were overused and the threads were already showing. Aircraft tyres cost only N160,000 (one hundred and sixty thousand naira each), and are supposed to be changed approximately every two weeks because of the frequent impact on them but because they know they can get away with murder almost literally, some Nigerian airlines continue “managing” their tyres for up to one year.

The level of disregard and disdain some airlines show the “souls” that board their aircraft can be gleaned from ADC’s insurance policy. ADC has a total insurance cover amounting to N1.64 billion ($12.59 million). In most other countries, it is not less than $500 million. The breakdown of the insurance components of ADC shows: N325 million ($2.5 million) for the hull of the aircraft; N1.3 billion ($10 million) for premises liability; N7.41 million ($57,000) for passenger liability and N4.94 million ($38,000) for third party liability. Clearly, the owners of ADC think their premises, which they insured for a princely N1.3 billion, and aircraft hull (the main body of the aircraft) which they insured for N325 million are more valuable to them than their passengers (“souls on board”) whom they insured for a paltry N7.41 million. This is the real insult and impudence. There is nowhere in the world you see this kind of nonsense. Until airlines start insuring their passengers reasonably, they will not sit up. In the United States and Europe, passenger and third party liability is put at a minimum of $750 million. In Saudi Arabia, it used to be $500 million until a few months ago. It is now a minimum of $1 billion. The highest Nigeria has had was from Albarka Airlines which has $100 million passenger and third party liability.

In the United States for instance, before any company can start an airline, it must first develop and submit to the National Transport Safety Board “a plan (“accident plan”) to address the needs of families of passengers and other victims involved in any aircraft accident…” Ditto for other decent countries where human life is viewed serious. Was Borishade aware of this? Or was he too busy rigging elections and plotting a third term for his master? Maybe he saw his station as minister more as a mere opportunity to have a good time.

What we have in Nigeria is not just air disasters, but a leadership disaster. Only in an Obasanjo government would an aviation minister not think it is his responsibility to make the skies safer. Not quite out of character in any case!