A Nigerian's perspective! Sorry, no link available.
One Giant Leap for Mankind And One Sleeping Giant
Lagos, Nov 24, 2008 (This Day/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- Glitz
Contrast with Ebuka
Where were you on the 21st of July, 1969? Don't even ask me because my parents
were just 3 days away from their 6th month wedding anniversary. I have 2 elder
siblings and so that should mean that I was not even anywhere near being thought
about.
For most people who were alive and old enough to remember, and were living in
Nigeria at the time, the Nigerian Civil War was probably the thing on their
minds then. The breakaway Republic of Biafra on the one hand and Nigeria on the
other, were at war and had been for about 2 years before that date (and would be
for another 6 months thereafter). My parents always told us about their wedding
in January of 1969 and how there were a couple of helicopters and jets flying
over as the ceremony went on. I keep trying to imagine what it must have felt
like trying to enjoy the happiest day of your life and at the same time,
imagining that it could actually be your last if anything dropped from the
skies! But I digress
While Nigerians were at war against one another on that late July day, the
United States of America and the rest of the world were celebrating a huge
achievement which many only dreamed of witnessing. The Russians (then Soviet
Union) led by Yuri Gagarin had earlier won the race to first go into space in
1961 and so the Americans knew that they had to achieve something equally as
huge if not more monumental, for them to look as much a super power as they had
gradually become at the time. The moon seemed like the best bet to be conquered
since no one had gone there. The Americans in typical fashion set out to achieve
that as soon as they could, especially so that the Soviet Union did not get
there before them. They planned for years tirelessly even though not a lot of
their country men had faith in the project. But on the 16th of July 1969, the
Apollo 11 mission was launched and everyone watched in suspense, probably
expecting the worst. But it turned out
to be a smooth launch. As the spaceflight disappeared into the sky, everyone now
waited to see if they would actually get to their destination; the moon!
On the 21st of July 1969, in a live transmission from the moon via the Voice Of
America, the whole world (or mostly those who had any access to radio or even
radio stations at all) listened as history was being made. What most people did
not and still do not know is that there was just about 15 seconds worth of fuel
left in the tank and so they were unbelievably close to having a failed mission
and most likely death!
Then, America's poster boy for Astronomy and the reason why every child born in
the 70's wanted to be an astronaut, Neil Armstrong, stepped out of the
spacecraft and became the very first man in the world to set foot on the moon. I
have watched that clip and have goose bumps whenever I do. I can then only
imagine what the world felt as they witnessed his walk down the ladder, unto the
surface that is the moon! What seemed so far away and heavenly at that point
immediately became connected to everyone.
Then at the point when his left foot touched the moon's surface, he uttered
those very famous words that still mean a lot even in today's world; "That's one
small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." A lot of analysts have assumed
that Armstrong meant to say; "That's one small step for a man " The fact that he
omitted the word 'a' was talked about a lot but no one cared. He had achieved a
huge feat and nothing was going to take away that shine. Neil Armstrong and Buzz
Aldrin both later spent some 2 and half hours planting the American flag on the
moon, receiving a phone call from President Nixon and doing other research. The
world celebrated!
Surprisingly, no other country has landed an astronaut on the moon apart from
the United States till date and even the United States, closed the Apollo
program in 1998 citing funding problems even though there are plans to re launch
it by 2020 (this our Vision 2020 year go hot o!). Some other countries have been
able to send spacecrafts to the moon though after that but they have all been
unmanned. None other than America has sent humans to the moon.
Meanwhile, this past week, India made history by joining the very exclusive
league of countries that have successfully launched a mission to the moon. This
list does not include countries like Germany, Britain France or Japan so that
should show how much of an achievement it must be for them. On the 14th of
November 2008, at exactly 8.31pm New Delhi time, India's Lunar Orbiter,
Chandrayaan-1 crash landed on the moon's surface and completed the first phase
of India's planned eventual manned spaceflight sometime in 2020 (this year
again). It was received with mixed reactions in the country with many saying
that a mission to the moon was not a priority at a time when there is still a
lot of poverty in the country. But the government stated that it was in
connection with their plans to advance technologically with the rest of the
world since that was the direction the world was going. The fact remains that
whatever angle you want to look at it from, it
must have been a proud moment for the people of that country especially since
they have been touted as the next technological super power. It all ties into
their plans for the future and it sure was a giant step for them.
In the same week though, just two days earlier on the 12th of November, news
broke out in Nigeria that our N40 billion NigComSat-1, which was built and
launched by the Chinese in May 2007, was missing. Apparently, contact had been
lost with it and no one could locate it. It made no sense at the time I read it
on the cover of Thisday mostly because I never knew satellites could get
missing. It just seemed strange to me and I hoped somehow that there was a mix
up somewhere. I also expected that there would be a response from the government
as soon as possible and I was not disappointed.
The next day, our Federal Government, through the MD of NigComSat, denied that
the satellite was missing. According to him, they and their Chinese counterparts
had found problems with the satellite a couple of days earlier and so decided to
shut the satellite down so as to carry out fault analysis of the problem. At
that point, instead of allaying my fears, I immediately knew that the satellite
was in jeopardy. There is just something about how we deny reports in Nigeria
that always makes the case look even worse than it was before the attempted
denial. And in typical Nigeria style; and confirming what my instincts were
telling me, the Voice of America, confirmed the next day November 14th (while
India was landing on the moon), that Nigeria's NigComSat-1 was spinning out of
control in outer space and thus was making a free fall back to earth. One Paul
Ceruzzi, a curator at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in America,
clearly said that a
satellite could fail if the antennas do not point properly towards the ground to
send signals or if it simply runs out of fuel even though these sorts of
problems are not normal these days. Well, obviously not with Nigeria!
There was apparently a power failure and a subsequent loss of contact with the
satellite. Whether there was so much fuel scarcity that the commodity could not
be bought on time to refuel, or PHCN had extended its services to space or there
was some fuel queue which NigComSat-1 could not jump before it ran out of gas,
is all talk for another day. What bothers me more is whether no one saw this
coming. How did a satellite with an average life span of 15 years last just for
over a year? Who awarded the contract to the Chinese company when (we are only
now just hearing that) there had been a failed satellite in that country just 2
years ago? Is the N40 billion it cost to build that satellite now lost in space
too? Was that project insured? If it was, when will compensation be paid and why
then is NigComSat seeking another $500 million to build new satellites just a
few days after the first satellite failed? Who is going to take responsibility
for what has
happened?
We are used to asking many questions in Nigeria but we never get answers? We
launched a satellite project at a time when a more beneficial thing like
repairing the terribly bad Benin-Ore expressway (which is still bad as my cousin
spent about 12 hours going from Lagos to Onitsha just 5 days ago) could have
been repaired. And even if they felt like the satellite was a priority at the
time, what happened to managing it better?
Nigerians are just tired of these sorts of stories and it looks like there is
nothing like a bright future for this country as it is. While the rest of the
world takes giant steps towards having a brighter future and fixing their
countries, Nigeria just stands there looking more stupid by the day with our
many embarrassing acts that never seem to cease. What with siren blaring big
men, harassing and beating up citizens just so Oga can quickly have lunch! It's
all just terrible and I like many other Nigerians, am really tired of wondering
when this sleeping (so called) giant of Africa will ever wake up. Sadly, it does
not seem like it will be happening any time soon. After all, is Aso Rock even
awake?
ANSWERS ANYONE?
and we leverage propaganda to the maximum extent.
)...so train crash in India or temple stampede is considered more eye catching.
