Obasanjo relives scary 10 minutes on Ethiopian plane, spin doctor lied

Former Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo has offered a dramatic narrative of the 10 minutes of anxiety while aboard the Ethiopian Boeing 777-300 plane that false landed in Lagos on Wednesday.

About 400 passengers were on board the plane.

His narrative debunked the spin offered by his spokesman, denying Obasanjo was aboard. Kehinde Adeyemi described in news reports as Obasanjo’s spokesman said that the former President was at home in Abeokuta and that he did not travel, let alone board the flight. The story went viral, deflating an earlier report that had equally dveloped wings of its own.

The BBC Pidgin News equally reported that Obasanjo was not inside the plane, quoting the same Adeyemi.

NAN had reported Obasanjo was on the plane as he was returning from a stakeholders’ dialogue on Continental Trade and Strengthening Implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) which ended on Tuesday in Addis Ababa.

Obasanjo has now confirmed that he was on the plane, as reported and has gone further to describe the anxious moments experienced by the passengers.

In an interview with the online newspaper, Premium Times, he narrated his experience while on board the flight that nearly crashed at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.

Obasanjo said “he remained calm and read papers while the scary situation occurred.”

“While it all happened, I was reading my papers,” said Obasanjo.

“One man, who was next to me, said, ‘Oga you no worry?’ I said, ‘Íf I worry, what will I do? If you are on a plane and you have a situation like this, why should you worry?’ I left everything in the hands of God.”

“Rain just came down heavily,” he recalled in the interview.

“The pilot thought he could land. And he landed. He touched down. But I think he took a swift decision that he had to take off again.

“So he took off. If he did not, I think he probably would have overrun the runway. He then apologised and said he would try to land again. He tried again, and we landed safely. And we all clapped.”

He said the pilot first landed the plane at about 12:20 p.m. before the incident, but finally landed safely on return at 12:30 p.m.

“He touched the ground. Then he took off and apologised and landed again at about 12.30. We spent just about 10 minutes in the air before we landed again,” he said.

Obasanjo’s narrative raises a question mark on the authenticity of statements issued by spokesmen of Nigeria’s big men and politicians.

It is clear their statements need a caveat henceforth, as they may not be conveying what is authorised and truthful.

In January this year, a spokesman of Atiku Abubakar denied reports that Atiku was on his way to the United States. As it turned out, the spokesman, Paul Ibe had simply lied. Atiku indeed went to America.