Landing Political Aircraft!

By Jefferson Uwoghiren

An aircraft is any structure or machine designed to travel through the air, whether heavier or lighter than air; airplane, airship, balloon, helicopter.

The skill and ingenious science behind its creation is one of the wonders of modern age.

There are three interesting genies behind any successful flight; takeoff, in-flight and landing.

Each facet demands different, dissimilar and distinct operations not only from the command and control centres at the airports but from the cockpits.

The mach speed of takeoff, altitudes and landing are never uniform.

Any attempt to misapply Mach 1 for Mach 3 manoeuvres will not only nosedive into turbulence but disaster in extreme cases.

This aircraft scenario aptly captures the political processes of gaining political power, retaining it and exiting it.

The politics behind gaining or snatching political powers aren’t similar to or necessarily relevant to retaining it.

The pleadings, campaigns and cries for votes are usually absent in the affluence and influence of political power. A smooth transition from underdog to demigod.

However like any pilot knows, the most challenging job of piloting an aircraft is successful landing.

Taking off and in-flight entertainments usually end with the sordid realities of hitting tarmac in one piece.

Similarly, any politician or political offices holders, who failed to anticipate, navigate and activate the right landing instruments in our ever murky, sloppy, shifty and tenuous political weather, will not only crash land and disintegrate on impact, but will become the jokes of historians.

I don talk my own!