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UGWUANYI: REMEMBERING 1983 ENUGU PLANE CRASH

Published

5 years ago

September 11, 2020

By Dr. Dons Eze

It was Monday morning, November 28, 1983. The harmattan season was on the air, and the Christmas breeze had also started to blow. As usual, a lot of people were in the upswing mood, moving up and down, looking forward to the great celebration.

In Enugu Coal City, that day, many residents had gone out for their normal daily businesses. Nobody was expecting or suspecting anything untoward. Then, came a news flash on the radio: “a Nigerian Airways plane on a scheduled domestic flight from Lagos to Enugu has crashed at Emene Airport” (the outskirts of Enugu Metropolis), as it was preparing to land.

Everybody was alarmed, shocked. Those who could make it hurriedly rushed to the scene of the incident. Behold, there was the ill-fated plane, and scores of its passengers, inside what looked like an unquenchable fire, burning ceaselessly, in a cassava farm. Some frantic efforts were made to salvage the situation, to put off the inferno, all to no avail. At the end of the day, 53 people were counted dead, while the plane itself was reduced to mere rubbles. It was a black day in Enugu.

The plane, a Forker-28-2000 aircraft was carrying 61 passengers, but crashed about 3.2 kilometers, short of the airport’s runway, and caught fire immediately, after a steep approach, due to poor visibility. Fifty-one, out of the 61 passengers on board the aircraft, and two crew members, were despatched to the world beyond. It was a horrific sight, a sorrowful event, very painful, and most regrettable.

Among some notable individuals who lost their lives in that tragic incident, was Josephine, daughter of the then Governor of old Anambra State, Chief Christian Onoh. She was said to be on a humanitarian mission, trying to help some little children trapped inside the aircraft, but did not make it.

There was also Uche Offiah-Nwali, flamboyant former Anambra State Commissioner for Social Welfare, who then was a serving member of the House of Representatives. She equally perished along with her five children.

News about the plane crash sent shock waves across the length and breadth of the country and threw many people into mourning. In the former Anambra State, which Enugu was then part of, government offices were ordered closed in honor of the victims of the crash.

The then Nigerian Vice President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, in a special radio broadcast, described the crash as one of the worst air disasters in the history of Nigeria. He said that an inquiry would be instituted to investigate the cause of the accident.

Minister of Aviation, John Nnia Nwodo Jnr., flew into Enugu, to undertake a first-hand assessment of the situation, while Transport Minister, Umaru Dikko, also visited. Later, wreaths were laid at the graveside of the mass burial of the victims by some Nigerian dignitaries. That was where everything ended, no more, no less.

As typical with the Nigerian system, the people were soon to forget everything about the Emene crash. In other words, after the noises, the hullabaloos about the crash, nobody mentioned or remembered the tragic incident anymore, not the least, those who lost their lives and a few of its survivors.

Everything died down, completely forgotten, so to speak. The scene of the crash, which incidentally was the grave of the mass burial of the victims, returned to its former usage, a cassava farm.

Now, almost 37 years after that tragic incident that happened at Emene, Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, remembered it, resurrected it, and brought it back to life, so as to honor the victims. He thought it wise that such horrific events of November 28, 1983, which brought sorrow, not only to Enugu people, but to Nigeria, and the world as a whole, should not be forgotten, obliterated, or buried in history.

Thus, shortly after the reopening/inauguration of the rehabilitated runway of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, on Sunday, August 31, 2020, Governor Ugwuanyi led dignitaries that attended the event, to unveil a newly reconstructed and beautified airport roundabout with a monumental aircraft statue in memory of the 51 passengers and two crewmen who lost their lives in the Emene air crash.

The Governor also unveiled a plaque where the names of all the victims of the air disaster were clearly engraved. What a commendable effort by a man with a deep sense of history!

With the unveiling of that monument in remembrance of the Emene air crash victims of November 28, 1983, the Governor has done well in reconstructing the history of Enugu. The history of any nation, or any society, is made up of both the good and the bad, the pleasant and the despicable. You cannot leave out any of them. Without these, the history of such a society will not be complete.

Following on the heels of this monument constructed for the Emene air crash victims, however, is also the need to build a memorial arcade for the 21 coal miners who were brutally killed at Iva Valley, Enugu, on November 18, 1949, by the British colonial police, for merely demanding a marginal increase in their salary.

The Iva Valley massacre was a tonic that ignited the fire of revolution for the country’s independence. It brought together nationalist politicians from all tribes and all creeds, who formed a united front against the evils of colonialism, with Enugu as the center of the struggle.

It was the Iva Valley massacre that quickened the departure of British colonialists from Nigeria, as Nigerian nationalists began to stoke fire on them and to demand immediate independence of the country.

It is, therefore, necessary that the people who played such a significant role in the history of a nation should be appropriately honored.

By Dr. Dons Eze

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Business

Tax Reform Bills: The Verdict of Nigerians

Published

2 weeks ago

March 6, 2025

The Gleamer

Ismaila Ahmad Abdullahi Ph.D

The public hearings conducted recently by the two Chambers of the National Assembly have elicited positive responses from a broad spectrum of Nigerians, cutting across regional interest groups, government agencies, civil society groups, concerned individuals, the academia, and Labour Unions, among diverse others. Contrary to a few dissensions hitherto expressed in the media, almost all the stakeholders who spoke during the week-long sessions were unanimous in their declaration that the hallowed Chambers should pass the tax reform bills after a clean-up of the grey areas.

The public hearings were auspicious for all Nigerians desirous of economic growth and fiscal responsibility. They were also a watershed moment for the Federal Inland Revenue Service, which had been upbeat about the tax reforms. Indeed, the public hearings had rekindled hope in the tenets of democracy that guarantee freedom of expression and equitable space for cross-fertilisation of ideas. Without gainsaying the fact, the tax reform bills have been unarguably about the most thought-provoking issues in Nigeria today, drawing variegated perspectives and commentaries from even unlikely quarters such as the faith-based leaders, student bodies, and trade unions, which speaks much about the importance of the bills.

In the build-up to the public hearings, not many people believed that the bills would make it to the second reading, much less the public hearings. Even the Northern stakeholders who seemed unlikely to support the passage of the bills have softened their stance and have given valuable suggestions that would enrich the substance of the bills. The Arewa Consultative Forum came to the public hearings well-prepared with a printed booklet that addressed their concerns. It concluded with an advisory that the bills should be “Well planned, properly communicated, strategically implemented and ample dialogue and political consensus allowed for the reforms to be accepted.”

The concerns of ACF ranged from the composition of the proposed Nigeria Revenue Service Board as contained in Part 111, Section 7 of the bill, the unlimited Presidential power to exempt/wave tax payment as proposed in Section 75(1) of the bill, the family income or inheritance tax as contained in Part 1, Section 4(3) of the bill, to the issues around development levy and VAT. On the development levy, the ACF stated that unless the Federal Government is considering budgetary funding for TETFUND, NASENI and NITDA, it does not see the “wisdom behind the plan to replace (them) with NELFUND”.

The position of the North was equally reinforced by the Supreme Council for Shariah in Nigeria, Northern Elders Forum, Kano State Government, Professor Auwalu Yadudu, and the FCT Imams. Like the ACF, these stakeholders lent their respective voices to the Section on the Inheritance Tax in Part 1 of the bill and the use of the term ‘ecclesiastical’, which, in their views, undermines certain religious rights and beliefs. The Kano State Government, represented by Mahmud Sagagi, affirmed that “we support tax modernisation” but cautioned that “we must ensure that this process does not come at the expense of states’ constitutional rights and economic stability”. Professor Auwalu Yadudu, a constitutional law professor, drew attention to the use of the ‘supremacy clause’ and cautioned that the repeated use of “notwithstanding” in the bills would undermine the supremacy of the Nigerian constitution if passed as such.

Other stakeholders that made contributions at the sessions included the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, Nigeria Customs Service, and a host of others. While most of their concerns bordered on technical issues requiring fine-tuning, they were unanimous in their support for the bills. They aligned with the position of the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Zacch Adedeji, Ph.D. and the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, which is that the extant tax laws and fiscal regulations are obsolete necessitating reforms aimed at creating a fair and equitable tax and fiscal space to grow Nigeria’s economy.

In one of the sessions, Dr Zaach Adedeji expounded on the criss-cross of trade activities in the Free Trade Zone whereby companies misuse tax waivers as exporters to sell their goods or services in the Customs Area at an amount usually less than the price the operators in the Customs Area who pay VAT and other taxes sell theirs thereby disrupting business transactions. This way, the operators in the Free Trade Zone shortchange the government in paying their due taxes by circumventing extant regulations, which are inimical to the economy’s growth.

Overall, the presentations were forthright, foresighted, and helpful in elucidating the issues contained in the bills. According to the statistics read out at the end of the hearings at the Senate, 75 stakeholders were invited, 65 made submissions, and 61 made presentations. At the House of Representatives 53 stakeholders made presentations. By all means, this is a fair representation. Given the presentations, it is evident that the National Assembly has gathered enough materials to guide its deliberations on the bills. As we look forward to the passage of the bills, we commend the leadership of the National Assembly for their unwavering commitment to making the bills see the light of the day.

Abdullahi is the Director of the Communications and Liaison Department, FIRS.

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