It's been a really sad past few days for Nigeria and Nigerians in general. We received with great shock the passing of the late Governor Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna State. He was in Bayelsa State to attend the burial of the father of President Goodluck Jonathan’s aide, Oronto Douglas, in Okoroba. Upon his departure, the Naval helicopter he traveled in crashed. He was accompanied by the ex-National Security Adviser, Gen. Oweye Andrew Azazi rtd and four others. (Yakowa’s Special Adviser, Dauda Tsoho; Azazi’s bodyguard, Warrant Officer Mohammed Kamal and two Naval pilots, Commander Murtala Mohammed Daba and Lt. Adeyemi Sowole.)
This crash comes on the heels of the October 25th air mishap involving another Governor, Danbaba Suntai of Taraba State and his aides. Fortunately, they escaped death and are receiving medical attention in foreign hospitals (a topic for another day).
Indeed, the Nigerian Airspace is not new to plane crashes and has had, by far, more than its fair share. The spate of it's continued occurrence is disturbing as it is aggravating. The death toll is on the increase going by the number of recorded incidents in such little time. In this year alone, Nigeria has witnessed seven plane crashes. Statistics show that from the year 1967 through 2012, there has been a recorded 131 accidents involving both helicopters and planes killing about 1,166 people.
What to do then? This might be where traveling by road might suffice. Unfortunately, it offers no encouragement or hope by any means. If any thing, it is particularly worse off. The Federal Road Safety Corps have ranked Nigeria as the 2nd country in the World to have the highest road accidents, after Eritrea.
What Is Really Going On?
At the start of each year, every normal Nigerian eagerly looks forward to the release of that year's budget. And every year, a very large chunk of the nation's resources is allocated to maintaining major highways (both federal and state). It's been the practice for years. It thus becomes a major cause for concern when these same roads continue to claim the lives of thousands and more thousands of innocent Nigerian citizens. A very good example of one such death trap would be the Lagos-Ore Road, a road that connects all the South-Western States of Nigeria but has surprisingly been left in a deplorable state over the years. On this one road, terrible things have transpired. A luxurious bus laden with passengers were accosted by dare devil men of the underworld and after they had been robbed and female victims had been raped, the people with no money to exchange for their lives were then asked to lie on the road under the open sky and thereafter were crushed to death by an oncoming truck.
Young girls also plying that road unfortunately ran into another band of hooligans who raped them and left them scarred for life. Countless accidents involving families traveling home for the holidays or a young man taking his young soon-to-be-bride home to his family have occurred where all the victims were snatched by the cold hands of death, simply because the road has seriously taken to its name of being one of the deadliest death-traps Nigeria plays home to.
A good number of souls have been lost on that one road and one begins to wonder, just where exactly the billions of Naira allocated to it's renovation went. Perhaps the drainage systems which are almost non-existent on most popular Nigerian roads. The question stands. Is this a case of bad governance, misappropriation or embezzlement of funds?
Prominent Nigerians have aired their minds on the issue. Once, Dieziani Allison Madueke, then the Minister for Transportation broke down upon seeing the condition of the road in the year 2008. In her words, “I weep at the sight of everything that shows failure of government in Nigeria." Even a former member of the House of Representatives, the Honorable Patrick Obahiagbon threatened to embark on a protest led by his self against the Federal Government decrying the unsatisfactory state of the road. Still, the road continues to play host to armed robbers, kidnappers/ritual killers and continues to claim the lives of countless innocents by means of the killer potholes and craters, poor drainage and the dangerous parking of heavy duty vehicles found on the road. At the last cited example, the Lagos-Ibadan road (the part situated along Ibafo town) readily comes to mind. These huge vehicles have caused many unpleasant driving experiences and countless fatal motor accidents.
On account of all these, people continue to die on a daily basis and it is almost as if no one is doing anything about it save for counting the rising death toll.
Not safe on land? Then flying is a no-no.
If traveling by road is such a disaster, one would think that like so many other instances in our country today, the rich would be able to avoid it by the means of air transportation. Truth be told, road travel is unsafe, travel by air is equally unsafe. What other option have we?
A great number of Nigerians have perished in the reoccurring carnages that has continued to rock the nations boat for what seems almost forever. One doesn't have to go back in time to begin to recall all the accidents in which scores of people have died. A tragic incident that readily comes to mind is the Sosoliso Airlines DC-9 crash in Port Harcourt, that killed 103 on board most of whom were students of Loyola Jesuit College, Abuja who were traveling for the holidays on December 10, 2005. A family lost all 3 children in the painful incident.
Another painful accident happened on October 29, 2006. A Boeing 737 belonging to the Aviation Development Corporation Airline was carrying 104 on board when it crashed only minutes after take-off from Abuja’s airport during a rain storm. All but 6 perished in the disaster. The spiritual leader of Nigeria’s Sunni Muslims, His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Maccido was among the dead.
After every such plane crash, the Minister of Aviation comes on National Television to first of all cry, then mumble something about looking into all the technicalities of the crash. Many of sch investigations are yet to reach fruition. For a few days, FAAN and NASA get enough airtime on the news and on the national dailies. Most of th etime, we don't ever get more than a manifest and stories of the last few minutes before a crash as recounted by the areas locals.
Where Does All The Money Go?
In the light of this, I wonder. The ill-fated Augusta 109 Naval Helicopter that carried the late governor and his fellow passengers to an early grave was said to have had 80 hours more of flight time before it went for its routine maintenance. Did it really? And if yes, what about the other aircrafts that are unworthy of the Nigerian Air Space but yet carry more passengers day to day. Nigerian airlines have the highest number of abandoned aircrafts in maintenance the world over owing to lack of funds. The same funds that run in into billions of Naira allocated every year or is it not just enough or what?
Written by Temitope Benjamin.
http://temibenjamin.hubpages.com/
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