The well-being of any country at any time can be measured by the number of needless deaths the country is able to avoid so to keep life expectancy going up. This is no different with Nigeria where the number of citizens who survive each day to the next tells the story of the efforts the country is making to protect its citizens or the lack of it.
Nigerians have come to expect needless deaths or at least get used to needless deaths happening among them with alarming frequency. In Nigeria, there are people who die from all manner of curable ailments. Many of these people die because healthcare is not immediately available to them. Arent many hospitals which are accessible to the poorest Nigerians broken? Arent many Nigerian medical personnel disgruntled and eager to flee the country for greener pastures?
In Nigeria, there are also many who now fall daily to insecurity. This extremely exasperating situation has become unbearable. It is not just civilians – those who cannot defend themselves- that are being caught in the dance of death. Almost on a daily basis, in many parts of the country, security personnel also pay the ultimate price imposed by insecurity and demanded in defence of the country.
Because of their highhandedness and lack of professionalism, Nigerians have always enjoyed a somewhat frosty relationship with the men and women who form the bulk of the country`s security forces. This frosty relationship is unfortunate given the terrible price many security personnel pay daily in defence of the country.
Nigerians have watched in horror as soldiers and policemen have been cut down in their prime by the bullets of terrorists and criminals.
Nigerians have also watched in horror as the countrys security formations and posts around the country have been repeatedly breached by crude criminals who have taken up arms against the Giant of Africa. Whenever these breaches occur, security personnel usually pay with their own lives. Whether or not their sacrifices amount to anything is highly doubtful given the trajectory of the war on terror and the fate of many of the families of Nigerias fallen heroes.
The price a country besieged by terror is extracting from those who defend it whether by sea, land or air is a very steep one indeed. On April 19,2022, a military aircraft belonging to the Nigerian Airforce, NAF, crashed in Kaduna killing the two officers on board. Although details at about the time of the crash remained sketchy, the trainer aircraft, a Super Mushak, was said to have crashed inside the Nigerian Airforce facility in Kaduna while on a training mission. It may have been nothing more than a tragic training accident though many Nigerians are understandably reluctant to rule out sabotage given the tenuous security situation in the country.
The crash has opened old Nigerian wounds. On May 21,2021, Nigeria was thrown into mourning when its 25th Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru and 10 other officers were killed when a NAF`s Beechcraft 350, military aircraft crashed at the Kaduna airport.
Between August 29,2015 and 2021,Nigeria had suffered about 11 military plane crashes causing the deaths of no fewer than 33 military officers. In 2021 alone, the Nigerian Airforce, NAF, lost at least three jets. They were the Beechcraft KingAir350i which went down with all seven officers on board in Abuja on March 2, 2021; the Alpha Jet which crashed while supporting troops in the North-East on April 3,2021 and the crash that took the life of the former Chief of Army Staff and ten other officers on May 21, 2021.
Some experts knowledgeable about the workings of the Nigeria Airforce, aircrafts, operations and training have argued that these crashes are part of the equation. But should the authorities not be worried about the alarming regularity with which they occur?
It is true that Nigeria is knee-deep in the war against terrorism but it appears that the bulk of these crashes has not come in the heat of combat with terrorists.
If it is so, it begs the question of what it is with all the frequent plane crashes which do not fail to prove immeasurably costly. It will pay to identify the root of the problem because until this is done, Nigeria will continue to record the losses of personnel and aircraft to largely avoidable crashes.
Given the scrupulous nature of the Nigeria Airforce, it is safe to assume that technical difficulties with the aircrafts are attended to before they imperil the safety of officers. But this is only an assumption.
Could it be that the aircrafts are too old? Could it be that they are used beyond when they are longer 100% safe when Nigeria has resources in abundance to equip its Airforce with the best aircraft if only of course corruption can be tamed? These questions are relevant given that the frequency of these crashes has become embarrassing to put it mildly.
These crashes are metaphors for a country that is crashing into many rocks all at the same time. The scariest thing about chaos is that one it is hurtled into motion, it renders accounts to no one. A country going apart at the seams can do without these crashes which serve poignant reminders of just how far we have come along the path of ruination.
May the souls of the fallen officers rest.
Kene Obiezu,
keneobiezu@gmail.com
