By Gideon Njoku
Dozens of Nigerians watched in shock, disbelief and a dose of shame on Thursday, as Army Paratroopers failed. In dangerous jumps, the Paratroopers landed on absurd and places.
One jumped and landed on a parked car, mercifully. He fell from there, hard on the ground. Another landed on a tree. And another landed on a house.
“This is a national embarrassment”, remarked an onlooker who had joined others to watch.
The Army Paratroopers were assembled in Abuja to rehearse for a display to mark Nigeria’s 62nd
Independence Anniversary
on 1st October, 2022.
Usually a thing of raw joy to watch, the rehearsal ended in embarrassment and near-tragedy. “Those boys should be in hospital for urgent medical attention. They must have been hurt. I was on edge, watching as they failed and fell. My heart throbbed no end”, remarked another spectator.
Because of the incident which happened on Thursday, September 29, and to avoid any mishap on October 1, the Army has cancelled any parachute-jumping display slated for 1st October. “Good a thing they cancelled it. What if they jump on VIPs that day, people will not believe it was not deliberate”, noted a source.
So what went wrong?
There are two schools of thought.
One school of thought attributed it to non-training, no rigorous training of the boys. They did not have adequate training, they noted. “This is what is happening in the Military, not just the Army. Adequate and rigorous training are lacking. All they needed to do was invite veteran Paratroopers who are now retired to come and train the boys. The first second and final words are training, training, training. Were the jumpers experienced? What type of training did they have? For how long”, submitted a retired Paratrooper.
But another school of thought blamed it on the type of parachutes given to the jumpers. They were given the wrong ones to use, this school of thought noted.
One very experienced retired Paratrooper noted that the parachutes they used were MC 1 parachutes That type, he said, is meant only for combat jumps. He also noted that the jumps were badly affected by strong winds.
However, another expert differed. Describing what happened on Thursday as a national shame, he asked: Why send the boys to jump under strong wind? He said that heads should roll. Asked how? He said a board of Inquiry should immediately be set up to investigate what happened and who and who failed in their duties.
