December 17, 2012 by Ross Alabo-George Leave a Comment
It
was just a few minutes to 13.00hours and the service of songs was in
session when our chartered Caverton helicopter landed in the ancient
breezy coastal community of Okoroba, hometown of Oronto Douglas,
President Goodluck Jonathan’s Special Adviser on Research and
Documentation. I had flown with my Uncle, Engr. Mayne David-West,
Principal Consultant of Pearl Consultants, and George Kerley,
Coordinator of The Jonathan Project and an unrepentant crusader of the
President.
We proceeded directly to the venue of
the service of songs. It was a 10-minute walk from the school field
where the helicopter had landed, and it offered an opportunity to see
the sprawling ancient community and the new developments taking place.
The people were very happy. They were seeing new faces – ministers,
governors, commissioners, corporate executives, and citizens they only
read about and saw in the newspapers and television stations walk on the
new rigid pavements of their community. I think above all, they wowed
at the Nollywood stars who dazzled the natives to disbelief. Ramsey
Nouah, Rita Dominic, Segun Arinze and others. The big masquerade — Kanu
Nwankwo — was right there also. I said to myself, the children of
Okoroba town would be inspired by the time the body of Pa Douglas was
finally laid to rest.
In this flourish and fanfare, Gen. Owoye
Azazi sat quiet, listening to the incisive message delivered by Pastor
Ayo Oritsejafor. He seemed consumed by the pastor’s deep rhetoric about
how ephemeral life was, and how wealth and money were necessary vanity
but how a life well-spent is eternal in value. Still, I interrupted his
intense engrossment. He was excited to see me. We exchanged pleasantries
and asked that I stay around for a chat after the pastor’s message. I
did.
The General is a towering man. Dressed
in a grey-striped French suit and black shoes, I watched him walk in his
usual calculated steps as he left the tent to the other tent where the
reception for visitors was to be held. He looked fresh, like he had
rested well after his surprising removal as the National Security
Adviser. His warmth was charming and his humility ever evident. He was
led to a roundtable on the first row and he took his seat by his friend,
Engr. David-West whom he hadn’t seen in months. They chatted warmly
while they poured themselves a little champagne. He was served soup and
he ate light. In about 45 minutes he was done. Just about then, he
received a signal that the ill-fated helicopter was on its way.
He walked around to the other tables,
shook hands and made his way out. He was headed for the helicopter, but
he was obviously not in a hurry. He strolled with Governor Patrick
Yakowa, a governor whose humility endeared me to him. Yakowa spoke
softly, greeted warmly and smiled like he knew it was a final moment to
be enjoyed. We walked ahead of the governor and the General, and in a
few minutes we were all at the Okoroba Primary School field.
There were a few chartered helicopters
arriving and taking off. The choppy drone of rotor blades slicing
through the air ruffled us a bit. The primary school was sufficiently
solicitous of intervention. The classroom had neither doors nor windows,
in fact it looked abandoned. While we stood inside, I asked why a
primary school in Douglas’s hometown would be this wrecked. I called a
young man, and in intense curiosity I began to question him. My findings
were that a new primary school was being developed with a new community
library built and well-equipped. I was satisfied, I would have been
disappointed.
Azazi watched these happen. Now it was
time to take him on. I had not seen him since his removal as the NSA. He
was a deep man, and I was eager to hear him say something. I knew him
to be blunt in a very smart way. He would not say a thing if he had not
thought it through intensely. I probed into his period as the NSA and
asked what his take was on the Jonathan Presidency. He had lost no love
for the President. He said “…Ross, the President is very intelligent and
smarter than most people know”. He talked about the Boko Haram issue
with plenty caution, but was optimistic that the President would check
their menacing activities.
Now, we were joined by the Ijaw Youth
Congress President, Mr. Miabiye Kuromiema, and I surprised the General
when I fired: “Sir, it is about time the President threw Mrs. Diezani
Alison-Madueke under the bus”. I maintained that the Jonathan Presidency
was haemorrhaging severely because of her continued stay as minister. I
expected him to say something, his face expressionless, he remained
quiet. Kerley, a known defender of the minister, quipped with a straight
face: “Ross, you are right. It is time the President is told the truth…
He is taking too much bullets for some of these ministers”. The General
shook his head, not in approval or disapproval; he was just enjoying
the chat. He brought up a few issues and we all talked with surplus
warmth. We hadn’t pressed him enough when the Navy helicopter appeared
within sight in the sky.
He offered us the two spare seats in the
helicopter, but we declined as our chopper was at that moment already
landing. He pulled Kerley aside for a two-aside talks. They talked for
about two minutes, and he joined Yakowa again, as they strolled on the
rigid pavement into the boisterous windy path of the chopper. The pilots
dismounted the chopper to greet their VIP passengers; they looked smart
in their military uniform. It was the governor’s and the general’s
final handshake.
Mr. Darego Williams, a seasoned pilot
turned business man, was joining our chopper back to Port Harcourt. He
cringed at the manner the chopper had taken off and didn’t stop starring
at the effects of the rotor blades. I noticed he was a little
uncomfortable, but then he had been off the cockpit for over two
decades, so he contained his thoughts.
Less than 10 minutes later, we were
ready to go. The captain welcomed us on board and soon after we were in
the air. We had just done about 10 nautical miles when the pilot
suddenly did a 180 degree turn. Williams was curious and called on the
captain. The captain apologised to all on board and announced to us that
a helicopter had just ‘gone down’. He actually meant ‘crashed’. We were
the first search party.
Less than a minute ahead, smoke plumed
from the thick swampy forest. It was a clear sign of danger. We did
about four low fly passes to capture the coordinates of the incident
site. Our helicopter had ingested the smoke and smell of burning metals,
wires and flesh. We could see the helicopter and the appendage bearing
the ‘NAVY’ inscription had severed from the main body. The moment was
intense, we doubted the very facts we knew. We all believed some miracle
could have happened; the worst case was not an option. It just could
not be true.
•Alabo-George, an energy analyst based in Port Harcourt, wrote in via imaginasion@gmail.com
2 comments:
Akin Akin December 17, 2012 at 3:51 am
May the merciful Lord be with the families they left behind.
My thoughts:
1. If indeed ppl jubilated in Kaduna over Yakowa’s death..then we really do not need further confirmation as to how pathetic ‘fellow’ Nigerians are! I was part of the very ppl that celebrated Sani Abacha’s death in 1998. But as far as I can remember, that is the only time I ‘celebrated’ the death of anyone. D only reason why his death was celebrated was because he ruled d country as if ‘Sani ‘ in his name was ‘Satan’. But in 2012, d supposed youths in Kaduna did not celebrate Yakowa’s death on the basis of his being corrupt or bad…Rather, they jubilated because of their ethnic & religious leanings!Sincerely speaking, Nigeria is sitting on a keg of gun powder!There’s so much hatred based on religion and ethnicity especially in the Northern part of d country…!!! Are the youths that jubilated today the leaders of tomorrow ?
2. One can only hope that our politicians will learn a big lesson from this…death is inevitable!!! All the riches of this world will go with the world, not a pin will be taken by anyone after death. Why corruptly enrich yourself and your family when the next minute is not guaranteed?
3. Many ppl absolutely think the crash is the handiwork of some people…Whilst no one can not say for sure, there’s also a possibility that indeed it was just an accident. But whatever the case, one thing is sacrosanct…It is no longer convenient for the rich and VIP’s in our society to think they can create another ‘life’ for themselves and another for the poor. At best, so many VIP’S have died as a result of one plane/ helicopter crash or the other. The airspace is now as unsafe as our roads! This is perhaps nature’s way of telling them to start constructing our roads….
4. No matter how powerful we are, we will all die one day! This life is undoubtedly short compared to where we will spend eternity… Yakowa, a sitting governor died despite all the paraphernalia of office after spending 23,755 days on earth. In spite of Azazi’s unparalleled CV as an intelligence officer, he had no premonition of his death. He only spent 22,598 days on earth. We need to always remember that our eternity is tied to how we live our life here on earth! So, no matter what you do and no matter where you are, always ask yourself this frank question…where will I spend my eternity?
#my heart goes out to their families
Indeed @Akin as the good book tells us in Jeremiah 10:23-24 and in Job 5…..it is not for man to order his steps or hope to device means to dictate all the angles….the death of Yar’ardua and now Yakowa has shown the futility of all the struggle for power by both northerners and southerners and should humble all to accept that…in the end life is vanity and we should learn to live by sharing as a common people rather than fighting over things we will all leave behind….the same things they were fighting GEJ from claiming is what the simple minded are now joyous to claim even before Yakowa has been interned….if you ask for equity musnt you do equity?
Post a Comment