Son’s death after losing my husband to plane crash devastating.

Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of News Engineering, Josephine Nwaeze, tells FRIDAY OLOKOR how she lost her husband to a plane crash in 2006, among other issues.

What were the circumstances that led to the death of your husband?

I remember it happened one Sunday morning. We both woke up, and he was preparing to travel to Sokoto State while I was preparing to attend church. He left the house for the airport. So, on his way to the airport, he decided to enter the office. I think he met with one former minister in the office before he proceeded to the airport.

While on the plane, he had a culture of calling me before take-off, the moment the plane landed and before he disembarked from the plane. Without having anything in mind, I went to church and came back. That was about 11:30/12 noon. I wasn’t expecting anything unusual to have happened, and then I received a call from our office, specifically from our accountant in Sokoto State. Usually, everybody would be on alert whenever he (my husband) went there. So, the office would be open, not minding if it was a Sunday. They were expecting him.

So, she (the accountant) called and said, ‘Aunty, have uncle taken off?’ I said, ‘He should’. Since I was back from church, I checked my time; it was about 1pm. I began to wonder why he had not called. I called the driver that dropped him off and said to him, ‘Chidi, has oga taken off?’ and he said, ‘Yes, madam.’ I said, ‘Were you there when the plane took off?’ He said he was there when the plane took off. Then I began to wonder what was going on. I now called his phone and heard, ‘The number you are calling cannot be reached at the moment’.

That sound, up till now, has had a very negative effect on me. My heart will start jumping if I call anybody and get that from the phone. I called the driver and told him to come to the house so he could take me to the airport. I needed to know what was going on. I called Sokoto State and asked them what they knew about everything. The lady said that the plane had not taken off and that they said the aircraft had issues. So, I was neither here nor there. I couldn’t wait for the driver to take me to the airport. I decided to drive and wished the car could fly because I throttled down to the last limit. I remember I had my elder sister in the car, and she was saying, ‘Take it easy so that you will be alive and get to the airport’. I said, ‘At this point, I don’t think life matters anymore.’

What happened afterwards?

I drove off and almost ran under a trailer because my mind was just to get to the airport. I wasn’t concerned about how I was going to reach the airport. So, God just helped me, and I could get there. Then my phone started ringing continuously. The people calling knew that Sokoto State was my husband’s route; they must have heard about the crash and were just calling to confirm if he was on the flight. They didn’t know I was at the steering.

I was able to pick up, and the call was from Sokoto State; the same lady calling to know if he had taken off. She now said, ‘Aunty, they said ADC’; that was how I heard it and suddenly applied the brakes. The next moment, I saw myself in the bush. I temporarily became mad; I didn’t know what else to do. I started running inside the brush and noticed that ambulances were just passing. That was the little I could remember.

There was this Good Samaritan that was passing through the other side. He saw what happened, and people wondered, ‘Why should this woman park her car and run inside the bush’. So, the situation was attracting attention, and people began gathering. So, the man already knew what happened; there was a plane crash. The man ran after me. According to what people said, I was eating grass. The man dragged me out, brought me back to the main road, and said, ‘Are you not a Christian?’ I said, ‘Yes, I am a Christian.’

He said, ‘Look at ambulances passing, the crash just happened at the airport, and most of them are alive. They are taking them to the hospital. So, pray that he (my husband) is among the living. I started praying that ‘he is among the living.’ The man said, ‘Have faith, don’t cry’. So, I said, ‘Yes, he is alive’, and the man collected my phone and called the last person I spoke to, my husband’s driver. He said, ‘Chidi, where are you? I want you to come to the airport road now.’ So, the man stayed with me, and he refused that I should drive the car again. He ensured I was stable and stayed with me until Chidi arrived. When Chidi came, he now told Chidi, ‘Drive madam to the airport and take her back to the house.’

 I went to the airport and noticed panic everywhere, and nobody was there to give any helpful information. The little I gathered was that they had taken them (plane crash victims) to one hospital close to the airport, maybe it was Air Force Hospital. So, I went there, but my husband was not there. I went to Maitama General Hospital, but he wasn’t there. I went to Gwagwalada Hospital, but he wasn’t there. So, that was how I was going around; his friends were there, and they insisted that I go home, but I refused because I had this mindset that even if anything happened, he would be among the survivors. So, that was how I looked for him until it was late.

Were you still optimistic that your husband was still alive at that point?

It now dawned on me that it had happened. Then I went back to the house. For a few days, we could not see his corpse; we didn’t know where he was taken. So, this was the situation. When my second son, Ugonna, the one I lost a few years after, came back, just by the leading of God, he went to Julius Berger Hospital, which is the hospital my husband was using. My son went there, and he was able to identify him. That was how I got the news of my husband’s death.

After that, I sealed my mouth. I swore and told my husband’s friend, former Governor of Niger State, Abdulkadir Kure, that I wanted to go to the site; remember, it happened in the bush. So, he provided all the bullet-proof cars and SUVs that could go there. I went there and prayed, and from there, I went back to my house, and I told them that nobody should disturb or force me to eat food and that I would never eat food until he was buried.

How many days did you stay without food?

When we lost him, it took nearly three weeks to conclude the burial arrangement and everything. I was only drinking water; I was only on fluid. Everybody did everything humanly possible to make me eat, and I told them that they were just wasting their time and that the only thing that would make me take food was when my husband would be laid to rest. They brought all the dignitaries, including Mariam Babangida, but I told them I would not eat. That was the situation until he was laid down, and that was when I ate.

Did you have any premonition about your husband’s death or that something wrong would happen?

He had (presage of his death).

How?

I had an unusual relationship with my husband. We were more than husband and wife; we were very close. He would always travel, but his not being around didn’t affect our relationship. We did virtually everything together; we watched movies together. At every point, anywhere he was, I was in the know, and he would know anywhere I was. That was the kind of relationship I had with him.

He said he had a dream, and there were many flies in that dream. He saw himself somewhere that he didn’t understand. When he woke up, he had to bathe because of the feeling. We prayed and cancelled it. It was the next day that he travelled and it happened. So, he had a premonition. I had (a hunch) as well, but I can’t remember exactly. I have a series of dreams about that period, but I can’t remember exactly now because this is almost 18 years.

Talking about ascending to your current position in office, were you informed earlier that you would fill his position after his death?

Nobody told me, but we sought a saviour when he passed on. My first son was 21 years; that year was the year he was supposed to graduate, while my last child was three, and I was not mentally ready. I was heartbroken and couldn’t gather myself together; nothing made sense. Whether the company survived or would not survive, that wasn’t what I thought then.

What mattered most to me was that I lost a friend, a companion, and my father. I lost a partner; that was what was in my head. I didn’t bother about News Engineering (company). No matter what you go through, reality must always set in. So, when clients started writing…there were lots of projects he was handling that money had been paid. The clients had the right to ask when the projects would be completed. When banks started writing, at least the first few weeks, they would use it to send you condolences; trust that the following letter won’t be as lovely as the first.

Some banks were owed, and something had to be done to be able to complete the project and service bank loans. A day came when the management staff came to the house. They had been privy to the letters the banks and clients had been writing. They said, ‘Madam, you are the one we know now. We don’t have anybody to run to; you must sit up. We assure you we will stand by you, but you must clean your eyes’. So, I had to gather myself together because if I didn’t sustain that baby (firm), it would die, and then I would enter into a more profound problem because the children’s school fees had to be paid. I summoned courage and then called the first metingssure them that I would take the lead and needed their support. So, I had to stoop to conquer because most of the things they did then were strange.

We know his death may have caused some setbacks; can you mention one?

His death caused a lot of setbacks. The fact is that News Engineering would have made more news today if he were to be alive. News Engineering was his dream; he had his vision of News Engineering. He was the one that got the idea, and he had a bigger plan for News Engineering. Judging by what the bank did, they didn’t have the trust that if they released money, it would be used on the project we were handling. It is the same way when you go to source funds from the bank to expand your business; they will say you are a woman; they won’t tell you, but you will realise this from their body language. If my husband was alive today, he wouldn’t have the problem of assessing funds from the bank, and News Engineering would have made better and more significant news.

What happened to your son, who died recently?

He was sick, and we all believed he would come out of it. I started mentoring this boy from secondary school because he was a younger version of his father; he behaved like his father, talked like the father and made friends like the father. So, I told him, ‘You are going to be an engineer’, and he accepted, and I made it work. I gave him all the support, and he became an engineer when he graduated and joined the company as the operations manager; I was relieved. I came to work maybe a few times a week, three times a week if coming daily because I knew somebody was there. My son took most of the responsibilities from me. So, I started withdrawing from the day-to-day management of the business, and then his death came in. I now went back to 2006; it was a hefty blow.

His dad died in 2006; which year did he die?

He died just a few years after, in 2017.

What have you been doing all these while to fill that vacuum your husband left?

I now bury myself in the work; it is work and work. So, I don’t have time for anything besides work. I have a triangular life; family, office, church. That is the kind of life I live now.

What is your advice to women in such a challenging situation?

You know that challenges are different, and it is not everybody her husband will die in a plane crash. What I will only say is that nobody should give up. It doesn’t matter what you are going through; trust God, work hard, don’t go and say you are a woman, and you will sit down and look for sympathisers and people saying, ‘Madam, sorry’. That is what I never accepted. So, just try your best, work hard, trust God and never give up. That is what I have to say to every woman going through one challenge or the other.

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