A
abujagirl
Guest
Last year on June 3rd 2012 there was a plane crash in Nigeria in which over 163 people were killed. The plane was owned by Dana Air. The day before that on June 2nd 2012 a Nigerian cargo plane owned by Kabo Air left our shores and flew to Accra, Ghana where it overshot the runway, crashed into the main road behind the airport and killed many Ghanaian motorists. What made this all the more tragic was the fact that Ghana had never experienced a plane crash at Kotoka International Airport before this incident. It is a pity that it had to be a Nigerian plane, with a Nigerian crew and cargo that had to break that enviable record.
Over one year later on 3rd October 2013, which was last thursday, there was yet another plane crash in Nigeria in which 13 people died. The plane was owned by Associated Airlines. Worse still the following day, which was 4th October 2013, a Saudi Arabian-bound Nigerian plane which was owned by Kabo Airline and which was carrying 400 passengers on board from Sokoto, almost crashed when both it's tyres exploded mid-air and it had to crash land. Had that plane actually crashed we would have lost another 400 precious souls on that day. Before the first crash took place last year and between the two major crashes there were numerous other smaller ones involving light aircraft, private jets, military planes and helicopters that were not publicised. All these unfortunate events occured under the tenure of Princess Stella Oduah, who is the current Minister of Aviation. Under her watch close to 200 souls have been killed in air crashes in the last two years alone.
This does not surprise me given the nature of the individual that is involved. What does surprise me however is the fact that just one day after those that perished in the latest crash were killed, before the victims were buried, before the site of the crash was cleared, whilst the charred bodies and burnt parts of the victims still lay at the crash site and before any formal investigation into the causes of the crash have commenced, the ruling PDP, through their spokesman Chief Olisa Metuh, has told the world that they have ''full confidence'' in Stella Oduah and that ''she should be allowed to continue her good work''.
Is there any greater evidence of the fact that the PDP is a sick party that is led by sick people than this? Such insensitivity is rarely seen anywhere in the world. Only in Nigeria can this happen. Not only am I surprised but I am also utterly disgusted. How many more people have to be killed in air crashes before our President realises that he needs a new Minister of Aviation?
The truth is that there is far more to aviation than beautifying airports. The first and most important consideration has to be the safety of the passengers and the airworthiness of the planes followed by a solemn and avowed commitment to ensure the discipline, professionalism and efficiency of the aviation parastatals. Most important of all when a plane crashes, whatever the reasons or causes, the Minister ought to assume full responsibility and even offer his or her resignation. Failing that he or she ought to be redeployed to another ministry or completely removed from the cabinet. This is because it is his or her primary responsibility to keep air travellers safe and alive.
Sadly it does not appear that this is likely to happen anytime soon. As a matter of fact I am convinced that even if 1,000 people were killed in air crashes in the space of just 6 months under President Goodluck Jonathan he would still not redeploy or sack Stella Oduah because our President just ''doesn't give a damn''.
Each time a plane crashes it saddens me deeply because to anyone that has ever worked there before aviation is like a family. Worse still those people that lost their lives were our people- they were our fellow Nigerians. It really does hurt. Suffice it to say that there were no air crashes under my watch and not one drop of blood was spilt from the air whilst I was Minister of Aviation, whether it be passenger plane, private jet, helicopter or light aircraft. I thank God for that because if it had happened I would not have been able to sleep at night. I am the only Minister of Aviation in Nigeria between 2002 to date that can lay claim to that. I put it down to hard work, prayer and the grace of God and nothing else. Unlike some others I was literally paranoid when it came to air safety and security because it was obvious to me that there was more to the whole thing than meets the eye.
Permit me to go into a little detail. The year before I became Minister of Aviation there were 5 plane crashes and 453 people perished from our skies. The airlines that crashed were Bellview (2005), Sosolisso (2006), a Nigerian military plane carrying a large number of senior army offficers (2006), ADC (2006) and a private light aircraft in Kano which had on board the adopted son of the PDP National Chairman Ahmadu Ali and a pilot (2006). At the time that all these crashes took place Professor Babalola Borisade was the Minister of Aviation. In November 2006 Borisade was redeployed to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism where I was Minister and I was sent to Aviation and by the grace of God from that point on my team and I, with the full backing and support of President Olusegun Obasanjo, put a stop to the crashes and we broke the cycle.
We left office in May 2007 and almost immediately after that the standard dropped again and the cycle of terrible air crashes returned to our shores. They have not stopped since. As I pointed out in another essay which I wrote last year after the Dana crash, 90 per cent of the crashes that have taken place in Nigeria in the last 11 years have taken place at weekends. That in itself is strange but what is even stranger is the fact that there are two ten year cycles of major crashes that have been in operation in our country since 1992. I call them ''sacrificial cycles''. The details are as follows. There was a major crash in 1992 (C-130 military airplane in which 160 army officers were killed). Ten years later there was a second major crash in 2002 (EAS Airline in which 105 people were killed). Ten years later there was a third major crash in 2012 (Dana Airline in which 163 were killed). This represents the first ''ten year cycle'' of crashes and if it is not broken there will be another major crash in 2022 which will result in a large loss of life.
The second ''ten year cycle'' began in 1996 when ADC crashed with the loss of over 160 lives. This was followed by another crash ten years later in 2006 which involved another plane from ADC and which again resulted in the loss of over 160 lives. If the cycle is not broken I have little doubt that there will be another major crash in Nigeria in 2016. These observations have nothing to do with superstition but they are based on painstaking research, facts and logic. There have many other big and small crashes within and between the dates of the two major ''ten year cycles'' but what seems amazing and strange to me is the recurrent and definative pattern of the ten year cycles themselves.
It is almost as if it is some kind of pagan or religious obligation or debt that is being paid to some hidden and dark forces. Some may dismiss all this as mere coincidence but the actual day and month that all those crashes took place on tells another story which I will not go into here. Whatever anyone else may believe or think I have no doubt whatsoever in my mind that there is a spiritual dimension to these matters and I have been saying so publiclly since I was at aviation. Other than sheer hard work, an insistance on full compliance with safety standards and the display of the most rigorous form of discipline from the top to the bottom, in order to break these patterns and cycles of crashes and protect our skies, much prayer and intercession is required. There are a number of other rather startling and strange patterns as well but I am not prepared to share those with the public in order not to create any panic.
One thing that I know though is that God is in control and that, as the bible says, ''He reveals to redeem''. There is absolutely no cause for any fear or alarm. I have written and spoken many times on this. I have pointed out the problems over and over again and suggested how it can be stopped. It may not stop though because there are some depraved people in our country that do not want it to stop, that benefit from it, that delight in it and that believe in it. This is the bitter truth. That, together with the fact that in Nigeria not enough people care for or truly value human life. We only pretend to care.
For more on this I urge those that are interested to read my essay titled ''Air Crashes In Nigeria, Sacrificial Cycles and the Weekend Phenomenon'' which was published in a number of newspapers after the Dana crash last year. They can also read the first segment of my submissions at a public hearing of the Senate Aviation Committee in 2008 which was titled ''My Mandate At The Ministry of Aviation''. They are both on my website (www.femifanikayode.org) or they can just be googled.
Read more at https://www.facebook.com/femifanikayode