14
THE NATION ON SUNDAY JUNE 17, 2012
Comment & Analysis
Before we forget Dana crash victims Ogochukwu Ikeje ohgeeoh@gmail.com 08084235961 (SMS only)
T
HE Nigerian has a lot on his plate but not for his nourishment. It is often to his embarassment and the ruin of the nation. Damaging scandals occur in high places at something near the speed of light. One drops this moment with a deafening thud, only for another to come falling the next. We are almost always distracted by crisis, humiliated by scandals and hopelessly tormented by inability to resolve them. One nasty result of this is a terribly shorthened national attention span. We quickly forget everything about one disaster or scandal as another happens. Take the $620,000 bribery allegation hovering over Rep Farouk Lawan and businessman Femi Otedola. But why should we forget the Dana crash of June 3, which still feels like a thousand needles in the skin? How or when will relatives of that family of six ever come to terms with their loss? Yes, a man and his wife died in that Sunday plane crash, alongside their four kids. When will management and staff of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) push the Dana Air tragedy of June 3, 2012 off their memory? Nearly 160 people perished in Iju, Agege area of Lagos as an incoming plane crashed into a building. It is a tragedy on the home front, horror in the ivory tower, disaster in the corporate world, and a nasty nightmare for the Nigerian nation.
We should learn from the tragedy? Yet, the Nigerian tragedy does not simply lie in that crash. It lies in one simple, rhetorical question: when will Nigerians stop dying needlessly? When will we begin to prioritise the basic things of life? The answer is far-fetched and that is the nation's worst problem. It lies in the very heart of the country, in the engine room that should have propelled it. You find it in virtually every sector. Today, Nigerians are weeping for the dead, and whipping Dana for its role in the tragedy. The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), airline's regulatory body, has suspended Dana's operations. The Director-General of the NCAA, Mr Harold Demuren himself has been asked to step aside in the mean time. Talk of sweeping probe is heard here, there and beyond. Many have accused the airline of negligence, if not barefaced criminal mercantilism. Fearing the worst, one Indian manager of the airline is said to have fled the country. Everyone is breathing fire. Traditionally, grief greets disaster everywhere in the world, but in Nigeria, after
tons of preliminary tears and initial verbal thunders, things quieten down and life generally continues as though nothing serious ever happened, until another disaster strikes. What becomes of the probes, which I fear will be mounted from sundry directions at taxpayers expense? Indeed, what became of such probes in the past? Panels have been set up and well funded to investigate tragic incidents like that of Dana Air but their reports have not seen the light of day. Before Dana, there was Sosoliso and there was Bellview. Every year we remember scores of people that perished in a Lagos canal while fleeing from exploding munitions at a military facility but no word on who caused that needless tragedy. Nor on the culprit's penalty. Reputable men and women have been inaugurated to probe communal and sectarian crisis in the country, Plateau violence being an example, but the public is yet to know what became of those investigations. It speaks volumes of the character and integrity of a nation, of its leadership and people. It goes beyond just one administra-
“Traditionally, grief greets tragedy everywhere in the world but in Nigeria, after tons of preliminary tears and initial verbal thunders, things quieten down and life generally continues as though nothing serious ever happened, until another disaster strikes
tion and tells the story of a people who fall into the same pit again and again. Indeed, what do we hold dear in this country? Is it life? Is it institutions? If we valued life, we would not be a country that takes the sort of chances we are known for. We would not gamble with life. Facing the aviation sector, do we ensure that no one compromises safety standards? Do we indeed have such standards? One early report has blamed the Dana crash on poor fuel. If that was the case, should't someone have checked before it was piped into the aircraft's tank? It has been said that foreigners of dodgy backgrounds set up shop in the country because they know how to circumvent the Nigerian system. What they may not contemplate on home soil, they thrive on in our land. What is the maximum age of an aircraft in Nigeria and how are the rules on maintenace and certification enforced? The average mentality in these parts is to keep going until something happens. Leaving aviation, what is the health profile of our motor-vehicles on Nigerian roads? Are cars meant for the scrap-heap overseas not imported into this country? How many deaths have resulted from such defective cars? What serious efforts have been made to fix the death-traps called Nigerian roads? Is it not because the roads are so unsafe that many people take to the air? If our aviation sector is rotten, as some have inferred after the Dana disaster, how healthy is the education department? Or of power and energy into which trillions of naira has been sunk? The Dana crash hurts beyond words, and it is hoped that those found culpable will be sanctioned so that others will be careful and professional. But where is the hope that we will ever learn to take basic precautions in every sector of the Nigerian life? To me, that is the country's worst tragedy.