AIR CRASHES,
ROAD ACCIDENTS, BUILDINGS COLLAPSING, What Next?
Monday
A couple of weeks
ago I wrote about the appalling state of our infrastructure. Making particular
reference to roads like the Lagos Ibadan expressway and the fact that it is a
death trap and the government must intervene immediately. Well only last week
over a three day period there were two major accidents claiming many lives and
disturbing passage on the road for up to twelve hours.
In both
accidents, tankers and trailers were involved causing infernos and trapping
people. This is not reporting the accidents and loss of life that occur daily
due to the pot holes, armed robbery and careless driving of tankers, trailers
and other vehicles. Many of these vehicles are not roadworthy and driven by
careless drivers. I could go on and on.
Suffice to say that unless something is done very soon about this and many other
dilapidated roads, the needless carnage and loss of life will continue.
Tuesday
Continuing on the
state of our infrastructure and lack of maintenance culture, to the horror of
the nation over the weekend on Sunday 3rd June 2012 at about 4pm a Dana flight
from Abuja crashed into buildings on its approach into Lagos. All 153 on board
perished as well as many others on the ground in the buildings. Our nation as
thrown into mourning from yet again
another avoidable plane crash, allegedly due to the poor state of the aircraft
and the lack of its maintenance.
I coincidentally
wrote in one of my recent articles, that due to my fear of air and road travel
in Nigeria, this had prevented me spreading my portfolio to other states. This
incident has reinforced my fear. I know that our lives are in God’s hands and
one must always take risks to move ahead. Sure, I agree and know that logically
this is true, but until I feel able to, I will not be setting foot on any local
aircrafts. May the souls of those who lost their lives, rest in peace, and may
their loved ones find peace and strength to carry on without them.
Wednesday
Over and over
again, many fires have been failed to be put out due to the lack of water, even
though fire engines reach the scenes of accidents, they are hampered by the
lack of water and even manpower to operate the hoses, as a result, the fires
invariably destroy property and lives that could have been saved. A house
caught fire in the Surulere area of Lagos and despite the fire engnes getting
to the incident within half an hour, the fire could not be put out for three
hours, after spreading to adjoining properties, due to lack of water.
Thursday
The Murtala Muhammed
Airport is in such a sorry state that I feel embarrassed and angry at the
increasingly dilapidated state travelers have pass through each time they enter
or leave the country. There are frequent incidents of power outages which have
even affected the runways and compromised the landing of planes. All too
frequently you hear airport staff saying 'our systems are down' so they cannot
provide or check documents. Everything ends up being done manually. Your
luggage come out 3 hours after you arrive as they are manually loaded piece by
piece on the conveyor belt at a rate of one piece per 5 minutes! The facilities
in the airport are shockingly poor. God help you if you need the toilet!
Friday
As a country are
we progressing or regressing? It is such a sad state of affairs. Where do we
start? Do we train staff in maintenance techniques first? Or improve
infrastructure first? This is a classic chicken or egg question. What is clear is that whatever needs to be
done and whichever comes first, needs to be done with utmost urgency
RIP to all who
perished in the Dana Air crash! Too sad for words
Until next week!
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