A lot has been written and uttered in the media about the DANA air crash in Lagos, Nigeria which occurred on Sunday June 3rd, 2012. Some may contain atoms of truth while most for now are considered rumours. What hurt us are the over 153 lives on board and ground it took to wake us up from our slumber.
In times like these, it is worth noting the virtual impossibility for most of us in remaining impartial when analysing issues associated with this type of incident. This is probably as a result of the difficulty involved in putting aside the issue of the dead as well as our prejudices for a minute in order to give everyone involved the benefit of doubt no matter how impossibly hard it appears.
As human beings and not just Nigerians, we don’t have to lose someone-loved one, friend or colleague-in any form of disaster before we can feel the trauma involved. Most of us might be able to recall things we learned from different settings-home, school, work and so on; things like the cause and effect of our thoughts, actions and words. An array of people (including I) have voiced our different feelings about the crash; words which in this early stage of the investigations ought to be restrained because anyone of us could have been involved-the deceased, pilot, maintenance and so on.
After having a chat with a friend and ex-colleague on Saturday, I couldn’t help ponder over our discussion. We know for a fact that death is inevitable even though we don’t know how we’d go. As I thought about the dead, I couldn’t help feel some form of animosity towards our government and not really with DANA and its allies. Back in the 1980s, Nigeria’s image was better: fairly strong currency, good supply of foodstuffs, petroleum products, better educational and health systems and so on. It makes one think whether we weren’t better off then than now. Anyway that’s for another day; back to the crux of the matter.
Being part of a religious community, we rely a lot on God to help manifest the somewhat impossible, while sometimes forgetting that one’s level of success depends on one’s ability to stop dwelling on the past and try adapting to change because it is inevitable. We can try and change people but we shouldn’t beat ourselves when this does not occur because NOBODY WILL CHANGE UNTIL THEY WANT TO. I’d like to reiterate that it isn’t because I didn’t lose someone in that crash nor know anyone of the deceased that makes me talk in this manner. It’s very disheartening about the dead because they and the families they left behind deserve more; they deserve answers to ‘hanging’ questions. We must be strong and careful not to allow our words control the outcome of things BECAUSE words-written or uttered-can make anew or do a whole lot of damage so we must tread cautiously and avoid insinuations etc.
Yes we have heard from people who’d previously boarded the ill-fated plane in the past that it had been problematic, we’ve also heard about North America’s refusal to allow the plane, we also know that the same plane was cleared for takeoff ; there are so many questions and What Ifs that come to think of it as rightfully pointed out, “What if after all this media hype it is ascertained that the cause of the crash did not have anything to do with DANA, its maintenance culture or personnel BUT probably with some object entering and damaging an engine while airborne, bad weather or aviation fuel etc” . Unfortunately the damage would have been done resulting in loss of business, jobs and therefore loss of revenue and income.
Human emotions cannot be ruled out but there’s the need to create a balance between religious and logical reasoning otherwise we’d continue beating about the bush and still end up with unanswered questions. Irrespective of the present situation, what has happened has happened; the dead need to be properly buried; their dependants catered for; displaced habitants of the crash site building re-housed etc. At the moment, we may have few agencies like the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) assisting with crisis management of this nature but the Nigerian government must give its citizens cause to trust them by being totally honest with us, trying their best possible to do a whole lot more like establishing or improving on whatsoever form of Emergency Response currently utilized which would also help in creating employment and probably touch on one or two other neglected areas of importance in the lives of her people.
I’d like to end by asking each one of you reading this post to please keep an open mind despite the anguish, renewal of air crash syndrome and to implore you to view this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg
It is a video presentation by our very own renowned novelist, Chimamanda Adichie on ‘The Danger of a Single Story’, which is all you need is to show a people as only one thing over and over again and that is what they become. Please watch it if you haven’t. Our Mouths and Pens are powerful weapons of creation and destruction especially in times of anguish and pain like these.
MAY THE SOULS OF ALL THOSE ONBOARD AND ON GROUND WHO DIED, REST IN THE BOSOM OF GOD ALMIGHTY, AMEN.
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