In his celebrated statement
released on Wednesday, former aviation minister Femi Fani-Kayode wondered why
almost all 12 air crashes in the Nigerian airspace in the last decade, which
killed 611 people, happened on weekends. He did not provide a definite answer
to his own question, though he made a passing reference to “strange practices,
spiritual wickedness in high places, rituals, sacrifice, ignorance, occultism
and mysticism”. Nevertheless, Fani-Kayode is not the first to marvel at certain
occurrences or actions that are uniquely Nigerian.
Two weeks ago, the current
aviation minister, Ms Stella Oduah, added another Nigerian wonder: Even before
tears are yet to dry following the death of 153 passengers and crew members
(plus 10 other victims on the ground) of Dana Air Flight 0992, the minister has
restored the operating licence of the airline whose aircraft committed the mass
murder on June 3, this year. Some of the victims have not even been identified
and buried. Few of the bereaved families have received insurance benefits. And
there has been no official confirmation of the cause of the accident. Only in Nigeria can this happen!
But what was Minister
Oduah’s justification for the volte face? A statement announcing the lifting of
the suspension said the government was satisfied with the airworthiness of Dana
after “a rigorous technical, operational and financial audit of the airline.”
On a TV programme, Oduah said the suspension of Dana’s licence early on was a
mistake because the global best practice was to isolate a particular aircraft
involved in an accident while proceeding with thorough investigations into the
cause of the crash.
The minister makes it sound
as if Nigeria owes Dana Air an apology
for the tragedy. But what she did not say is that in countries where the
aircraft type involved in major incidents are isolated, the regulatory system
would, among other things, compel the airline involved to self-correct at a
huge price. The cost of new issurance premiums alone - not to talk of
liabilities arising from ligitation - would force operators to treat safety as
priority. Unfortunately, in Nigeria, we are still wide off the
mark.
In the absence of any
credible report so far on the possible causes of the crash, there have been
strong speculations that only contaminated fuel could have led to the sudden
loss of two engines. Why is that lead left unattended? Who supplied the fuel?
The minister’s decision to squelch ongoing investigations and restore Dana
Air’s licence, almost with desperation, will keep tongues wagging.
It is incredible that the
woman who shed [crocodile?] tears at Iju-Ishaga, Lagos, scene of the fatal crash,
was the same person who uttered those words, adding: “A firm cannot be indicted
until the results of investigation are released. Rather than indict it (Dana),
the result clearly showed that the airline is one of the best in the country
today.”
Really? If the Indian-owned
Dana Air was so pure, then, maybe it was witches and wizards on the Nigerian
airspace (to borrow from Fani-Kayode’s speculation) that caused the crash. Or
perhaps it was not an air crash, after all!
And whatever happened to the
minister’s decision to tackle British Airways and other foriegn airlines for
thier exploitative charges and shabby treatment of Nigerian passengers? Even
though Abuja and Lagos are closer to London than is Accra, Nigerians still pay far
more and get far less to travel to the UK than their neighbours. So,
what’s the point in the ultimatum which the minister issued to the foreign
airlines last year or the so-called Open Skies if discriminatory pricing
persists and Nigierian carriers still fly to London-Heathrow only from Lagos?
Yet, this was the woman that
this newspaper nominated as Public Officer of the Year 2011? It’s important to
state that her nomination/award is for 2011 - a time when she showed clear
signs of promise. Ms Oduah has not always acted like this. When we voted her
for the award, we took notice of her impressive performance within her first
six months in office. In particular, the “Amazon” had vowed to end the exploitation
of Nigerian travellers by British Airways on the Lagos-London route and even
laid down an ultimatum. Operators on the international route were ordered to
revert their passenger service charge to N1,000 from N2,500. We believed then,
like many Nigerians, that she had courage and conviction in managing the
aviation sector.
Every air accident in the
country is remotely connected to the failure of supposed regulators to do their
job properly. So all the talk about Dana Air being the best airline in the
country today is, to say the least, suspect.
We insist that the minister
must tell Nigerians and the public as a whole what really went wrong with Dana
Air Flight 0992 and what lessons, if any, have been learned.
Too much blood has been shed
to sweep under the carpet.
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