Why I mourn

When I heard the news of this Dana
Airline plane crash, I was so sure someone would survive. I was also sure
someone I knew closely would be on it. As the details came in, I was wrong and
right. No passenger or crew survived and people I knew were on that flight.

I’m not asking the usual questions
of why this person or why that…,
because why not this person or
that… is equally a valid question.  My reflections
on this national tragedy are stirred by some overwhelming and recurrent issues.

Many years ago, a dear friend of mine Frank Ozoemena once
said, “I’ll gladly be in a plane crash anywhere outside the shores of
Nigeria because my chances of survival are far higher. I’m almost certain I
will be rescued if I had a few minutes to live.” You can’t argue with him.

I’m wondering how it is that this plane crashed in a
populated area and no one on board was rescued. Did it explode on impact? Were
the first people at the scene of the crash active sympathetic rescuers or
seekers of lost treasures? A commuter bus wreck, a burning house, a plane crash
site are all gold mines of some sort. Their diggers know themselves.

Dana Airlines until
this crash was one of the best airlines in Nigeria, if not the best. Did their
standards begin to drop, and their frequent fliers never noticed the abracadabra? Was this a one-off
error (equipment or human) that has claimed many souls? Or was it sabotage?

As I chew on these hard and very distasteful questions, I’m
reminded that the baggage collectors we see hanging on those waste disposal
trucks once use to abhor the stench from the trash they ride with.  The way it becomes normal and acceptable to them is the same way poor services,
corruption, mediocrity and selfishness has become part of us.

It is the way we are now, isn’t it? Nigeria is a Country of
sub-standard products and services; where it is the fashion to cut corners at
the expense of human lives. It’s not in the Aviation industry alone. Even our
local road transport is sick. A commuter bus should not seat more than three
passengers in a row. But what do we have?

How often do we see a commercial bus on a one-way lane with
uniformed personnel in the front seat?

What of fake medications and fake spare parts that has
contributed to the death of millions of innocent people? Nigeria is probably
the most notorious market in the world where service providers tell you to
choose between a fake product and a genuine one.

What about building and house construction standards? What of
employment of staff? Experience is jettisoned for cheap inexperienced labour.

Nigeria is a dumping ground for all sorts of sub-standards
goods, and in terms of service delivery, the permissiveness of the environment
has encouraged persons and institutions to perform below the minimum, creating hegemony
of mediocrity. In China, South Africa and other Nations with very active trade links with Nigeria, the label, “For Nigerian Market” marks substandard goods.

So from sports to our universities, what we have is the
subversion of human dignity and the utter collapse of values and institutions.
This, in my view is the explainable why
to this tragedy, others before it and the ones to come.

If we fail to deliberately teach and model the truth to our children,
we hurt their innocent souls and mortgage their future, we shortchange ourselves and
ultimately disappoint our Creator.

Someone somewhere now knows their
name is not unique, as it appeared in that
manifest. But what if it was really you, yes, your name in that list? Would you
be ready?

The three days of National mourning
ends today and life as it were for many Nigerians will return to “normal“. In fact, some who should
care don’t, chiefly because someone very close to them wasn’t named in the
crash.

Our normal is the same mess from
yester years. The investigations have started, a few people will lose their
jobs, some airlines may sit up, security may be beefed up, our sense of safety
will hit new levels, some people may prefer road trips instead or suspends scheduled
trips altogether. Sadly, we soon forget and return to our woeful dispositions
to serious life issues.

We mourn with the mourners. But
none of us will continue to so do longer than the bereaved. We soon forget,
even when we say, “We’ll never forget…”

Every tragedy including this plane crash provides us
opportunities for learning some lessons about life but especially, the
afterlife. Remembering God just before takeoff in that aircraft with a silent
two minutes prayer said out of fear rather than genuine fellowship is
deception.

You need a truly personal relationship with Jesus Christ to
guarantee a happy landing at the destination on your ticket or on the other
side of eternity.