Month: June 2012

After the Dana Air Disaster

/ Adeola / 3 Comments

By Adeola Aderounmu

The Dana Air Disaster was altogether avoidable.

More than 160 people dead. Men, women, children, passengers, pilot and crew members all perished in one swoop.

There have been series of technical faults with the aircrafts that belongs to DANA AIR. It is likely that the one that went in flames and crashed in Lagos was one of the faulty planes.

Sometimes I wonder if the pilot and crew members are briefed about the state of the aircrafts that they are embarking upon. It is possible that the owners of the flight company hid facts and figures from their flying crew because I don’t think that anyone will add flying in a faulty aircrafts to the high risk of flying in the air. May the souls of the departed find peace.

Now is the time to withdraw DANA’s license if it is found that the management intentionally put the life of its passengers and crew at risk.

The Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation should be fired to send very strong signals about the seriousness of the Nigerian government to wipe out preventable air disasters.

The rulers of Nigeria and the government of Lagos State should find the families of the deceased (both the passengers and those killed on the ground) and make sure that they receive psychological, emotional and financial support needed to move on with their lives.

The insurance companies should not be found wanting on the side of Dana Airways and the individuals that have lost their lives. Life insurances, where applicable, should start rolling out without delay and without unnecessary bottlenecks. Some people have insurances that are not known to their families. The insurance companies owe it as a duty to find the relations and surviving members of the deceased.

The Dana Air disaster reminds us once again that Nigeria and indeed many parts of Africa remain dumping grounds for waste products from the rest of the world. The Nigerian government should ensure that planes in Nigeria are modern and air-worthy. Efforts must be genuine and realistic to stop the importation of abandoned airplanes to Nigeria.

Pius Adesanmi has criticized the Lagos State Government for buying old and abandoned trains from the Canadian government.

Nigerians and Lagosions can show their protest and dissatisfaction by refusing to embark on such trains. These trains, abandoned in Canada and unveiled in Lagos, should be sent to the recycling center and burnt or the metals recycled-with immediate effect.

Governor Fashola should make haste to discard those trains because they will kill Lagosians one day. It is too true to ignore.

Old trains, old airplanes and old buses fall in the same category of moving coffins. Why do we need to shed the blood of Nigerians by bringing obsolete transportation means to Nigeria?

When are we going to learn and use our brains? Why buy cheap stuffs that will take innocent lives?

Nigerians don’t need a ruler who shed tears at the scene of accidents that are preventable. They need leaders who know what leadership means. They need leaders who can lead by examples. Jonathan buys himself new presidential jets every now and then and his government did not see the need to ensure that Airlines like DANA do not fly old and faulty planes in our sky. That is such a scandal and there is nothing wrong laying the blame at the table of the ruler of Nigeria.

This disaster is very sad. We lost our friends, families, brothers and sisters. The people we know lost their loved ones and we are all together in this grief. It could have been anyone of us in that flight.

We travel by air trusting that the flight company has done what it should do, the right way. Travelling by air will continue to be a huge risk and it is therefore necessary to remove and eliminate already detected potential source of danger. DANA airline is guilty of flying faulty aircrafts and does not deserve to remain in business.

The Minister of Aviation must be sacked and other people who one way or the other contributed to the negligence that led to the crashing of the plane should be made to face the music accordingly.

If there are no consequences for this avoidable scenario, Nigerians have not learnt anything and this could happen again.

Lastly it is no secret that the worst roads in the world are likely in Nigeria. Our roads are bad and our waterways are underutilized for water transportation. Militants are kidnapping sea/ocean workers and robbers are way laying night buses. How can people travel safely in Nigeria? This question requires an urgent answer.

 

 

 

ANOTHER BLACK DAY IN NIGERIA: SUICIDE BOMBER IN BAUCHI AND A PLANE CRASH IN LAGOS

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

By Adeola Aderounmu

Remarkable and terrible things are happening in Nigeria. June 3 2012 and we have a suicide bomber in Bauchi killing more than 15 other people at a church service.

The news is yet to settle down when we heard that a plane had crashed in Lagos. The plane was flying to Lagos from Abuja. More than 153 are dead. The plane belongs to one DANA AIR FLIGHT.

CNN reports that 3 houses are affected which means that the death toll will be higher than 153 when the dusts settles and the fire off.

Obviously the government of Jonathan is a disaster. This is a government that we all know now should never have happened. The helplessness and ineptitude of Jonathan’s government is incomprehensible.

Security situation in Nigeria is at a record low and anyone can be murdered or kidnapped at any time in Northern Nigeria. It is no longer a hidden fact that Northern Nigeria is out of control of the Jonathan government. It’s a dead zone and people who live there are doing so at their own risk.

One hopes that adequate and reportable investigation will reveal the cause of the plane crash so that lessons can be learnt and future disasters averted. What we are not expecting to hear is that the plane is over 30 or 40 years old because there have been accidents in the past caused by usage of old and aged aircrafts.

If the accident was caused by preventable causes, then those who are responsible should be held liable and accountable. If it means that the Minister of Aviation should be fired, so be it.

Emergency responses in Nigeria are bad. People were actually begging other people on facebook to make contact with NEMA. Really?

Well, there are several aspects of the Nigerian life that needs reviewing and the events of June 3 2012 reminds us of the need to end this useless regime and find new ways to move the various regions of Nigeria forward.

Delay is dangerous and 2015 is too far for comfort. Change is Now!

HOSNI MUBARAK GOES TO JAIL

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

By Adeola Aderounmu

Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak will serve a life sentence. He is already 84, almost having nothing to lose.

Mubarak was accused to ordering the killing of protesters in 2011. It was actually very difficult to prove this case against him. The Police could have acted on its own. But Mubarak was in charge and the bulk stops at his desk.

Mubarak is ill, suffering from a heart condition. It would not be a shock if he is released on compassionate ground or if he is still allowed to continue to live at the Military Hospital.

Mubarak was a dictator. I don’t have enough knowledge to access his regime and I have refused to read Wikipedia for any details.

I am just going to complete this essay as an ignorant observer of Egypt.

Egypt remains a hot destination for tourists. Many Europeans will still spend this summer in Egypt. Therefore there must be something that Mubarak did well as a dictator or killer of protesters.

There must be something about Egypt before, during and after MUBARAK that makes it a wonderful place to live and visit.

Egypt remains a great footballing country. The images of Egypt that I see and observe are wonderful and delightful.

My own brother visited Egypt a few times as a tourist and businessman. It must be great there.

Usually I write to compare situations around the world with the country where I was born, that is Nigeria.

In Nigeria Mubarak will still be a hero like Babangida. Babangida killed several people including Dele Giwa and a generation of Nigerian young and promising military service men. Babangida rolled out the tanks in 1993 and Killed Nigerians protesting the annulment of the Presidential election won by MKO Abiola.

Babangida in one swoop stole more than 12 billion dollars during the Gulf war.

Today he is still a hero. He has never been convicted or imprisoned for any of these crimes.

When I watched the trial of Mubarak, I thought to myself: what if the Egyptians visit Nigeria and discover that Nigeria is covered by darkness because of the lack of electricity?

If they come, the Egyptians will see that there is no public education in Nigeria because nobody cares if the poor man and his children receive any education.

What if the Egyptians come to Nigeria and see that Nigerian hospitals are big jokes and that infrastructure in Nigeria is dead.

Nigerian roads are prone to accidents and they are among the worst in the world.

In Nigeria the politicians are thieves and they are wicked.

This week in Nigeria the heartless regime that continues to loot and steal decided to increase the price of something it is not providing. Nigerians will pay more for electricity while they live in darkness.

My conclusion?

If the Egyptians come to Nigeria they will fish out all the past and present rulers of Nigeria and tear them into pieces. This group includes the present president, all his serving committees, all the governors and all the people occupying government houses across Nigeria.

The Egyptians will take them out and sentence them to life imprisonment or to death. They are worse than Mubarak. They are the heroes of Nigeria. What a world!