In the face of sin, we often forget the place of grace. We rush to call for punishment, especially when the sin is captured through the unforgiving lens of citizen journalists.
Before the age of social media, it was the camera of a professional photojournalist that preserved the evidence for courtrooms where rights and rules were weighed before judgment.
Courts may be strict, but the law also makes room for grace. Like the biblical King David, who killed Uriah and married Bathsheba, we condemned Fuji maestro King Wasiu Ayinde Marshall for his outburst at the Abuja Airport.
We kicked and spat when Comfort Emmanson protested aboard an Ibom Air flight, unmoved by her claims of private assault mid-air.
She was manhandled, bundled into Kirikiri, and could easily have languished there under the weight of delayed trials. But grace came for both her and KWAM 1.
This week, Federal Government, through Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo, announced a sweeping act of clemency: ordering the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to drop criminal charges against Emmanson, and reducing KWAM 1’s six-month flight ban to one month.
Keyamo explained that the decision followed consultations with aviation stakeholders, appeals from well-meaning Nigerians, and remorse shown by both parties.
Emmanson has now been released from Kirikiri, with the Airline Operators of Nigeria expected to lift her lifetime flight ban.
ValueJet pilots Captain Oluranti Ogoyi and First Officer Ivan Oloba also caught in the fallout of these incidents will have their licenses restored after a one-month suspension and professional reappraisal.
The Minister also ordered aviation agencies to hold a retreat next week on security, de-escalation tactics, and customer relations.
KWAM 1, in an ironic twist, will serve as an ambassador for airport security protocol. It is a masterstroke transforming punishment into service but it does not erase the fact that pride and arrogance drew the penalty in the first place.
Will KWAM 1 truly learn from this point of grace? Only he can answer. For even King David, after God forgave him, never saw the sword depart from his house. His children became his enemies, committing acts of moral collapse that stained his legacy all because of one grievous sin.
I applaud the Federal Government for shutting down the airport saga before it turned into political fodder. But whether victim or villain, all involved must now embrace humility because grace, once received, is not a license to return to folly.
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