I assume you know the story already. We’ve run several tributes.

I’d like to also inform you that Aliu and Feyi are very real, yet fictional. Four people died in that crash: Captain Joseph Wyatts (Pilot), Peter Bello (co pilot), We-Don’t-Know (let’s call him Aliu) and I-Don’t-Know (let’s call her Feyi).

It is not surprising that Peter Bello is the most condoled. Perhaps, a lot more know him on these streets than the others. Or those that really do know the others are grieving so hard that the thought of e-condolence has found its way into a mental abyss. One can’t really be sure of these things. Agony is at its mildest, crazy.

Ebuka told of Peter’s sheer goodness. Noble said he was friendly, inspiring, and kind. These are just 2 of the seemingly countless that have paid glowing tributes to ‘PB’. They’ve probably met him, they may know better. And though I feel many have jumped on the agony trail to metastasize poetic ridicule to the bona fide mourners, I think Peter was a good man.

In similar fashion, I’d like to reach out to three others. Full of life and aspirations, I strongly believe they also deserve everything we have, and do give Bello.

To Captain Wyatts, a husband, brother, father of 3 lovely daughters and an excellent professional. You must have observed hundreds of drills and precautionary measures against the very kind of situation that took your life. You must have known that the job you’d signed up for was one that could demand your life in a split second, yet you took it on. You knew joy was contagious and you had to have it first, to give others. You must have been proud of your strides on the job, but more importantly what you shared with Christina; your life, love and those beautiful lookalikes aged 5, 7 and 10. Death cannot separate people who share the kind of bond that you do (certainly, not ‘did’) with these hurt ones. May everyone who knew you find peace and the comfort that comes with it.

Aliu might have been ‘dreamy and planny’ for the next hour. For the next sunrise. He could not have thought he was going to be the Sun that would set on that fateful day, never to rise again. He might have been an expectant father eagerly anticipating the joys of fatherhood. He must have been someone’s closest friend, another’s confidante or the very inspiration that some basked, and dwelled in. A brother, son and possibly a husband and father, ‘Aliu’ would forever illuminate the very essence of his ‘goons’ with his laughter and humanity. You shine on in their hearts. Rest well, Bro.

Feyi could have been every parent’s dream girl. Every boy’s dream bae. Every girl’s dream bestie, and even every child’s desirable momma. Maybe the daughter of a widowed 68 year old, who had lived through every form of discrimination to attain the height she was. Even, the height in the sky that their helicopter flew. A woman of substance and depth must have gone with the winds in those history-changing seconds. A fiancé might have lost his ‘best half’ or a lonely kid would have reasons to question God as he grows. Even life misses the very breath that you took. Dear. You are deeply missed.

Till fate brings us all together again, still in our hearts, dear Fantastic Four.

Seyi Albert