The Helicopter Crash that killed: Gen. Andrew Owoye Azazi, Gov Patrick Yakowa, Dauda Tsoho, Warrant Officer Mohammed Kamal Commander, Muritala Mohammed Daba and Lt. Adeyemi O. Sowole: The dearth development of Niger Delta as seen by Rotimi Oyetunji.
The Helicopter Crash that killed: Gen. Andrew Owoye
Azazi, Gov Patrick Yakowa, Dauda Tsoho, Warrant Officer Mohammed Kamal Commander,
Muritala Mohammed Daba and Lt.
Adeyemi O. Sowole: The dearth development
of Niger Delta as seen by Rotimi Oyetunji.
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| Gen. A O. Azazi & Gov. Patrick Yakowa |
I hold that Nigeria is on
trial again, but the nation seems not to understand her sign or time.
A Governor from the North and
a General from the South died together after mourning the death of an elderly
Bayelsa State. 'Come and join me on board', the General beckoned to the
Governor -traveling through oil-filled land without roads, served by innocent
dutiful officers and aides.
Together they walked, talked,
communed. Together they died, their blood mingled never to be separated:
splashed upon trees, grass, soil, and waters never to be recovered. The smoke
from their burning skin ascended up to the skies as eternal testimony: because
there were no roads, no bridges across Niger Delta tributaries. This is a great
testimony against a Nation.
But it is reported that the
General would be buried in the nearest available space, rather than buried in
his own hometown which he greatly loved, and where he would have preferred to
be laid, because there are no roads and bridges!
He comes from Peretorugbene,
a major oil producing community. Most oil companies' barges traveling from
Warri to Port-Harcourt would stop, rest and pass the night at this community.
From the resources of this community and sister communities across Niger Delta,
roads and bridges were built in Lagos and other cities across Nigeria in the
70s, Abuja in the 80s and 90s, and a New City within Abuja is commissioned in
2012... But Peretorugbene could not be accessed by road in 2012!
This community not only contributed
to Nigeria's financial wealth from the oil beneath her soil, but also a son
from within her womb, who has served the nation in every capacity imaginable of
a General, but forcefully taking over the reign of power undemocratically.
There was another Brigadier General Enai, from the same community, a WWII
veteran, this is in addition to medical doctors, many barristers, company
executives, and other personnel.
Developmental facilities
within the Community by which these men and women were raised were mainly by
self-efforts: Two Primary Schools, One Secondary School, One Comprehensive
Health Centre, Diesel-fed electrification, etc.
The Federal Government has
presence in form of an OMPADEC built bungalow as a doctor's residence but which
the floor was submerged by flood before it could ever be inhabited. OMPADEC
also sand-filled about 100meters of land to extend habitable portion of the
community. There is also a Shell Petroleum Development Corporation built
science laboratory, but which the community had to agree to co-sponsor in form
of financing accommodation for NYSC science teachers sent by SPDC before it
could take off in 1997!
If it were within their
financial capacity, Peretorugbene would have linked herself to the world by
roads and bridges. And would General Owoye Azazi be laid in Yenagoa because the
nation could not afford to give back a little to the community who has joined
others to carry the financial burden of the nation for about five decades? No!
He must be carried to Peretorugbene by a road, and be laid to rest.
Because in Yenagoa, Lagos,
Port-Harcourt, Abuja or elsewhere his soul, his blood, and that of his very
last friend, Yakowa, and the other four witnesses would forever cry to God the
Almighty against the nation Nigeria. And no government would succeed, nor
Nigeria progress until the evil is reconciled. For God has given to his
community that which should make his final journey easy, but for a nation which
takes the resource and takes no diligence to give back.
He must be kept safe
somewhere until the roads and bridges are completed for the journey. There must
be bridges like the Third Mainland's of Lagos crisscrossing the Niger Delta
creeks to make the commute of these benevolent people comfortable like those of
Lagos, Abuja, Sokoto, Maiduguri, Onitsha, Ibadan etc. It is not because of him
as an individual, but because of Niger Delta communities as of necessity,
belatedly. It is an urgent national moral imperative.
There may be some in
government (and outside) who would want to work against this, and laid the
blame at the step of Niger Delta State governments, forgetting that major roads
and bridges in Nigeria were not built by respective States. Or they want to
follow the steps of those who hinder Mark/Ekweremadu Senate from increasing
allocation to Niger Delta after leading the whole Senate to visit these creeks
in two companies in October 2007, and seeing first-hand the utter neglect of
the region, to say the least! One of the arrowheads of antagonism then, and an
oratorical Federal Government Secretary went to Port-Harcourt and delivered a
message thus killing the move. But the Almighty God is greater than men, and it
is He who rules in the affairs of men.....! The government then had been duly
informed.
Owoye Azazi is, doubly, a
Prince of the Niger: born along the Niger tributaries, and a defender of
Nigeria in , in uniform and out of uniform! Would anyone now want to block this
move!
But President Jonathan and
Governor Dickson should read the sign, understand the time, and heed the divine
writing. It is not nepotism, but roads, bridges and restitution-due to develop
a nation's greatness.
The time is now! They should
not put their hands in pockets and look the other way!
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