Category: Travels on Saturday

Finally, Nigeria could boast of a holiday destination in Cross River State.

It was really refreshing once again seeing families troop in large number on the holiday trip to the country’s local destination, Calabar. As it was in Lagos, so also from other major local airports.

As always, Calabar did not disappoint. Arriving at the Margaret Ekpo International Airport, the first thing that hit one was the feeling of calmness, coming out of the arrival hall. The decorations around the airport and, of course, the small carnival train playing and welcoming guests to the People’s Paradise. Calabar created the unique ambience, making every visitor felt at home. As visitors come out of the airport building, they swayed to the music as they head for their waiting cars. The holiday had already started.

Despite this seeming normalcy, there was a thing of unease by this reporter, being afraid that this year, the normal Nigerian factor may likely come in, being mindful of the absence of the substantive chief executive of the state and the Nigerian tendency of tying activities around the governor and once he is not around, almost all things grand to a halt.

Thankfully, all the fears were unnecessary. The 32-day fiesta held with the Carnival Calabar as the climax.

The 2012 Carnival Calabar was probably one of the most keenly contested in the history of the carnival. The carnival float, although kicked off unusually late, right from the outset, it was clear it was going to be a show-stopper when the tall elegantly costumed girls stepped out with the flag of the different corporate and government agencies that sponsored the carnival. The state’s acting governor, Mr. Efiok Cobhams, flagged off the carnival.

The level of creativity in costuming was probably the best the carnival had seen. The choreography had touches of professionalism. Bands like Masta Blasta had to hire a seasoned choreographer to teach band members the dance steps. Live bands were always used to add flavour to the showpiece.

The float decoration was not the best one has seen in the carnival in the past years, but the costumes of the carnival kings and queens, both the junior and senior categories were out of the world. It must have been very difficult for the judges to make their choices.

The level of competition was so high that past top pacesetters such as Passion Four, Freedom Band and Seagull were faced with a serious competition.

There were logistic problems at the flagging off, but these were quickly over-comed and everything went on smoothly.

The position within the tourism circle had always been that for a tourism product in Nigeria to truly establish itself as one, it must go beyond the overbearing influence of the government executives and strike a life of of its own. For example, the resurgence of the Argungu International Fishing Festival was tied to the whims of the then Kebbi State Governor, Alhaji Adamu Aliero. However, with him out of office coupled with the current security challenges in the north, the festival has been jettisoned.

Currently, the most successful festival in the country is the Osun Osogbo cultural festival. It is a festival not tied to the government of the day. It has a life of its own that with or without the support of the state government, the festival would still go on. Only that the level of success might be reduced. That was the level of consistency that many tourism enthusiasts were hoping for the annual Calabar Festival, especially Carnival Calabar.

Right from the first edition of Carnival Calabar, the sing-sung had always been that the carnival was a key tourism product that destination Cross River tried to build other products around. As such, the incumbent state executive always pulls every string to make a monumental success.

One major development in the growing reputation of Carnival Calabar was the presence of contingents from three countries: Brazil, with Vaivai Tobais Band, Trinidad and Tobago with a steel band and Botswana.

At the end of the carnival, Masta Blasta Band deservedly won the 2012 Carnival Calabar Competition, thereby carting home the star prize of N10 million as Band of the Year.

Announcing the  results of the competition, the Chairman of the State Tourism Commission, Mr. Gabe Onah, said the second position was won by Passion 4 Band, while the third place was won by the Freedom Band and went home with N5 million and  N3 million respectively.

The Masta Blasta Band also  won the  Carnival Float, Best Band on the Move, Carnival Spirit, Best Interpretation of the  Carnival Theme and Best  Costumes and received  N2 million respectively.

In the Junior Category, the Band of the Year was won by the Seagull Band,the second was Masta Blasta, while the third was Passion Four and they got N3 million, N2 million and N1 million respectively.

The Seagull Band won the Carnival Spirit, Best Interpretation of Carnival Theme, while Masta Blasta Band won the best costumes.

The Junior King was won by Masta Blasta and Queen by Seagull, and each went home with N5 million.

Once again, Calabar has done what it knows how to do best, hosting people and giving them a good time. As long as Cross River continues to offer leisure and succour during the Yuletide, the people that troop to Calabar will keep on increasing.

The leader of the federal government delegation for the 2012 Christian pilgrimage, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, has called on the Israeli authorities to help in facilitating the easy and smooth clearance of Nigerian pilgrims at the Ben Gurion International Airport, Tel Aviv, Israel. He made this known in Jerusalem while meeting with the Israeli foreign affairs officials recently.

The meeting, which was attended by other members of the federal government delegation, members of the house committee on foreign affairs and the executive secretary of the Nigerian Christian Pilgrim Commission ( NCPC), Mr John Kennedy Opara, was important in order to strengthen the entire pilgrimage exercise.

Pastor Oritsejafor, who is also the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), further canvassed for a permanent permit for Nigerian pilgrim desk officers in Israel. He equally appealed to the Israeli foreign affairs officials to reduce the visa approval period for Nigerian pilgrims from five days to three days.

He also charged them to help in facilitating and fast- tracking the signing of the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) between Nigeria and Israel as this would reduce the stress the pilgrims go through.

Earlier, the Israeli head of African division in the ministry, Mr Ari Granot, described the visit of the Nigerian delegation to Israel as a home visit as the country has become a second home to Nigerians who yearly come to Israel to fulfil their spiritual desires.

The aviation sector recorded the highest number of tragedies in the country in 2012. The nation suffered a total number of five plane crashes in which no fewer than 159 lives of eminent and promising citizens were untimely terminated. This excludes the 10people killed by a Nigerian cargo plane that crashed in Ghana. The crashes occurred all on weekends and two in each half of the year.

 The gale of air crashes started on June 2 when a Nigerian cargo plane attempting to take off from the Kotoka International Airport in Accra, Ghana, crashed killing 10 people and injuring an unspecified number of others.

The plane smashed through the airport’s fence before slamming into cars and a bus loaded with passengers on a nearby street. The crash happened in an area near the Kotoka International Airport, which sits near newly built high-rise buildings, hotels and the country’s Defence Ministry. The plane was labelled as belonging to Allied Air Cargo.

Less than 24 hours after the fatal incident, the country experienced one of its worst air disasters  when   a Dana Airline passenger plane from Abuja- Lagos crashed into two houses at Iju, a suburb of Lagos State killing all 146 passengers and seven crew members on board. An unconfirmed number of the residents were said to have also been killed in the crash.

The Boeing, McDonnell Douglas (MD-83), with registration number 5N-RAM crashed barely five minutes to touchdown at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja.

The  Dana Airline enroute Abuja-Lagos exposed the country’s shoddy response service, as the aircraft which was not engulfed in fire immediately after impact, took about an hour and 30 minutes after the crash before emergency services and the first rescue team arrived the scene.  The late arrival of the officials of the Nigeria Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) provided an opportunity for scores of looters who scavenged the crash site, pilfering the personal effects of the 153 passengers who died in the crash.

 Dana Air Flight 992 has the highest number of aviation fatalities in 2012 and the worldwide highest death toll of any aviation accident involving a McDonnell Douglas MD-83. It is also Nigeria’s second-deadliest plane crash behind the January 22, 1973 – Royal Jordanian Airlines flight 707 carrying 171 Nigerian Muslims returning from Mecca and five crewmen, who died in crash in Kano, Nigeria.

It has also gone down on record as  the air crash that claimed the lives of multiple number of family members. For instance, Rev. Ayodeji Cole and his wife, Ngozi, died in the crash, leaving three children behind. He  was the resident pastor of the Redeemed Evangelical Mission (a.k.a Vision House Parish) Utako branch, Abuja, until his death.

Mrs. Fortune David-Kolawole died  in the crash alongside her baby, Eyinojuoluwa David-Kolawole. She got married to her husband David Kolawole, in March 2010 and  was the group head, HR Outsourcing at Resource Intermediaries Limited.

There was also the Anyenes that lost an entire family: Onyeka Anyene; Maimuna Anyene; Noah Anyene; Kamsiyona Anyene and Kaiyenotochi Anyene.

The same could be said of the Wasas and the Onyeagochas.  Mrs. Ruth Wasa and her daughter, Awyetu died in the air disaster. Eleven-year-old Chimdinma Onyeagocha and her mother, Ogechi, also lost their lives in the crash.

   Among other individual victims of the crash were the Group General Manager, Public Affairs Division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Dr. Levi Ajuonuma and Ehime Aikhomu, son of the late former Military Vice-President Augustus Aikhomu.

Though many of the residents died in the disaster, few of them narrowly escaped death. One of the lucky survivors and  owner of one the building on which the DANA Air plane crashed, Pastor  Daniel Oluranti Omowumi,  who attributed the survival of his family to God. But for an after service meeting at his church, Living Faith Church, Canaanland, Ota, Ogun State, which delayed him and his family, he said he would have been home with all members of his family and his aged mother before the plane crashed into his building. The meaning is that the entire family would have been wiped out if he were home before the crash.

Few days after the incident, some relations of the victims engaged in mild drama over who should be the next of kin that would get the compensation to be paid by the airline. A victim’s wife and brother  caused a scene when they simultaneously  appeared at the airline’s office as the next of kin.  Another drama ensued at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, (LASUTH) mortuary where some of the relations had problems getting the remains of their dead family members.

The family of retired Assistant Comptroller of Fire Service, Mr. George Moses, a victim of the crash, had difficulty retrieving his body and raised the alarm over the whereabouts of his corpse. A member of the family, Mr. Moses Olajide, alleged that in June, the name of the victim was among the 29 identified names pasted at the Lekan Ogunsola Memorial mortuary of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, Ikeja.

He said the body of the deceased was intact when he entered the morgue, and even was identified by his ID card which was in his wallet. The name surprisingly disappeared on the list after  the arrival of the  DNA test results from the United Kingdom thereby aggravating the plight of the family.

A photojournalist with Leadership Newspaper, Mr. Benedict Uwalaka was brutalised in the process of taking the pictures of the handing over of copse to the relations.

 Dana Air recently announced that it has started paying insurance claims to the families of those involved in the June 3 tragic crash.

 Then came the news of Taraba State Governor, Mr. Danbaba Suntai’s involvement in a plane crash on the 25th of October. No life was lost in the crash as he and the other occupants narrowly escaped death. The governor, his aide-de-camp and chief security officer, who were also in the plane that took off from Jalingo, the Taraba State capital, and three others were seriously injured.

Suntai, who graduated as a pilot from the Aviation College in Zaria last year, was piloting the crashed plane.

The plane, a Cessna 208, 5N-BMJ, owned by the state government, crashed at about 7.45 pm, near the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) depot, on the outskirts of Yola.

He has since been moved to a hospital in Germany where he is currently receiving medical attention.

The nation was again thrown into another round of mourning  when, Governor Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna State and former National Security Adviser, Gen. Andrew Owoye Azazi and four others died in a helicopter that crashed in Bayelsa State on December 15. They were among many political figures who attended the burial of the father of senior presidential aide, Oronto Douglas, in the Nembe area of Bayelsa State.

The naval helicopter in which they were travelling crashed and burst into flames in the forest of Okoroba, Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, shortly after take-off.

The four other persons on board the ill-fated helicopter were the orderly to Azazi, Warrant Officer Kamal Mohammed; a prominent politician from Kaduna, Dauda Psokho; the pilot, identified as Commander Muritala Mohammed Daba; and co-pilot, Lt Col. Adeyemi O. Sowole.

The helicopter, a Navy Agusta, with number NN07, crashed and immediately burst into flame at about 3:30p.m.

Yakowa was buried on December 20 with many dignitaries led by President Goodluck Jonathan in attendance.