Death and Decay! BY DR. TONY RAPU

FAITH & REASON

Last week, we had cause to mourn again as the plane bearing the remains of the former Ondo State governor crashed in Lagos, killing fourteen people. 

It was a tragedy of several dimensions.  The latest in a series of troubling disasters that have plagued the local aviation industry in the last decade, it was a tragedy for the families that lost loved ones. 

Added to the senseless slaughter of college students in Yobe State by terrorists a few days earlier, it completed a very black week.  Death seems to be stalking the land in search of whom to devour.  The innocent students slain in Yobe were claimed by a readily defined and identifiable enemy. 

Those that perished in the plane crash were consumed by something less tangible, the tragedy of their passing arising from the utter meaninglessness of the accident.
These moments call not only for mourning and the prayerful, emotional and spiritual support of the bereaved families, but also for reflection on how much life has become devalued on our shores. 

Serious questions ought to be asked if we are to avoid the continuous waste of human life in accidents that are avoidable.  Media reports allege that the crashed aircraft was no longer airworthy due to its age.  Informed industry practitioners have said that the problem is not so much the age of the aircraft as it is a lack of rigorous adherence to mandatory maintenance schedules.  The aviation industry is the most regulated industry in the world. 

Companies must comply with high levels of quality control.  There are standard operating procedures that have been honed to scientific precision and which are to be stringently enforced if we are to benefit from the industry’s technological advancement.
Our local aviation industry cannot be said to be compliant with global best practices.

  News on the social media point to gross negligence of these standards. 

One internet report states that the crew of the bedeviled aircraft “never kept records required by the engineers”.  It reported that “parts were sourced from local electronic stores” instead of adhering to the manufacturers rigid specifications.  It noted that records were falsified while the staff of the civil aviation authority looked the other way. 

There is an abysmal lack of a maintenance culture in the industry as well as the wider crisis of deficient infrastructure in every area of our national life.  Tragedies like these point to a broader dysfunction.  Even as the crashed aircraft smouldered, some of the first people to reach the site reportedly took to stripping the dead of their valuables with scuffles breaking out among the scavengers over their loot. 

Such callousness is a symptom of the horrific debasement of our values.
Such accidents are typically the result of a chain reaction of institutional and personal moral failure.  Incompetent and negligent aviation operators habitually put poorly maintained aircraft in the air, risking passengers’ lives for profit.  Corrupt government officials fail to stringently regulate the industry.

  Inquests into plane crashes tend to end with no one held accountable or sanctioned for criminal negligence.  Were the media not on ground when the black box was located, it may have simply been stolen or hidden away. 

The very laxity of the system ensures that such disasters will reoccur.  The scavengers who sought to make quick and easy profit by robbing the dead only mirror the debased atrocities of a system that had already robbed the passengers of their lives.
As Nigerians, we have become so accustomed to death and decay that we are no longer capable of recognizing or rejecting mediocrity. 

Dead bodies on our streets merely evoke a sense of apathy and powerlessness.  Surrounded by all the signs of a dysfunctional state, we have almost completely lost the will to insist on excellence in any sphere of society. 

Even Nigerians who have lived abroad and encountered functional systems and institutions seem to find it hard to retain a keen sense of propriety for standards of proficiency. 

By sacrificing our standards in favour of managing mediocrity, we are reaping the deadly consequences of dysfunctional institutions. 

The Nigerian mindset of cutting corners and “just managing” is costing us dearly.  A country where expiry dates are routinely extended on expired products for quick profit, where any kind of certificate and license can be bought, and where human body parts are sold for fetish reasons, is clearly on the brink of collapse.

  But here lies the true test of the efficacy of God’s Word.  For a church that has consistently preached the person and power of salvation in Christ, perhaps we need to shift the emphasis to the value system and principles of Christ.
We have the means to buy state of the art technology but lack the discipline of competent resource management.  We have a socio-cultural mindset of gross material acquisition, yet that same mindset is oriented towards destruction, degradation and dilapidation rather than maintenance and care.

  The needless loss of so many people, including youths, suggests that we have become a society that devours its young.  Tragedies like these should provoke outrage.  Not just an emotional outburst at the loss but also a questioning of the institutional conditions that give rise to such tragedies.  But there is often a weariness among activists. 

Then comes the acceptance of such evils as “the will of God” or “the work of satanic agents”.  But we cannot truly condemn the ills that we condone.
The redemption of our institutions will begin with a renewal of our minds; a reorientation of values that cause us to insist on excellence and to reject mediocrity in every dimension of society.  Daniel had an excellent spirit.  Paul said, “We have the mind of Christ.” 

If indeed we have the mind of Christ, we must restore the ethic of doing things right, due process and propriety to our public conduct.  Indeed, we must become custodians of social and institutional virtue. 

The mind of Christ should impart to us a new kind of morality and it must take the form of insisting upon right processes and rejecting the cutting of corners.  We all, in some way, stand guilty of accepting the unacceptable and justifying it with the explanation that, “This is Nigeria!”  Sometimes, even how church is run disregards the mind of Christ. 

The lack of accountability and corporate governance endorses an anti-Christ position while loudly espousing the person of Christ.  The mind of Christ must now reject the “Nigerian way” of doing things and insist on higher standards. 

A return to good old-fashioned public morality is in order.  Therein lies the mind of Christ.