His joy knew no bounds when he told Weekly Trust he made it into the military institution last September. “I pray now that God will enable me to successfully finish the course that I have embarked upon,” he said.
Exactly 13 then, he was working at his family farm located several miles from his village when the military aircraft heading for Obudu Cattle Ranch in Cross River State crashed on the Ngokugh Hills of Mbakunu, Shangev -Ya, Kwande Local government area of Benue State.
The crash scene was within his sight, but instead of taking to his heels from the devastating scene, the boy summoned courage, approached the helpless victims, picked one cell phone among the many scattered items at the scene and called his father, Chia James Anakula, who at that time was the only person in his village that owned a GSM handset.
Chia then alerted relevant authorities who organised a rescue operation that saved some eight persons out of the 18 passengers on board. The ten who died were senior officers of the Nigerian Army. The boy, now 21, could still vividly recall the crash scene.
Happy with the courage of the young Chia, the then Chief of Defence Staff, Late General Owoye Andrew Azazi, promised to make Detimbir’s dream of joining the army a reality. Azazi who visited the scene of incident on behalf of the military promised the boy an unhindered admission into the Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA) as a way of rewarding him. But, in 2012 when Weekly Trust caught up with Detimbir and his family, they were still waiting for that promise to materialize, even as they decided to leave matters in the hands of God. However, the Director of Defence Information Colonel Mohammed Yerima said then that he was not aware of the matter. “I was not around when the matter was discussed,” he said.
Based on Azazi’s earlier promise to the boy, former Benue State governor George Akume offered Detimbir a scholarship which led to his relocation to Command Secondary School, Makurdi, where he completed studies in 2011. He passed his WAEC examination with seven credits including the compulsory university requirement of Mathematics and English. Consequent upon which he proceeded to obtain the NDA form to qualify him for the mandatory entrance examination into the academy and he was shortlisted for interview.
Few days thereafter, he had headed for the academy in earnest, but he was turned back at the screening exercise on the ground that he failed to scale through the routine medical examination for new entrants. Disappointed, Detimbir returned back to his guardian, Chief Emmanuel Viashima, who expressed dismay over the development.
According to Viashima, the state government, under the administration of former governor, Akume, had appointed him as guardian to the boy until the completion of his education and since then, Detimbir has stayed with him. He had expressed shock on account of his ward’s rejection at the school on medical ground after performing excellently in all previous qualification examinations. “I went with him to Kaduna for the screening and left him there to seek medical attention in Abuja. After one week, Detimbir called me to say he had been asked to return home and that he was told that the rejection was because of High Blood Pressure (HBP).”
“I became disappointed because I had taken him for medical checkup before the exercise and he was given a clean bill of health. It is not just one hospital, even on his return, we tried to confirm again and the results showed the boy was perfectly fit.” In addition, Detimbir’s guardian disclosed that he made frantic effort to get in touch with relevant personalities at the Defence Headquarters but was ignored, except for Brigadier-General G.N Nimyel who made positive moves to help remedy the situation.
“We went back to Abuja but the general has said we should go back and that the boy would write the next session examination with a promise to pave way for him since he (Nimyel) had written to the Defence headquarters about the development,” Viashima disclosed. Today, no doubt, Viashima sings a new song as indeed the Army had lived up to their promise. He expressed gratitude to God and to the ‘angels’ who stood their grounds to pave way for the admission.
Speaking with our correspondent in Makurdi, Viashima said he is thankful to God that the young man succeeded through General Nimyel and another senior military officer. He further advised Detimbir to stick to rules of the institution by remaining the obedient and brilliant boy he has known over the years, maintaining however, “that I know the boy will do us proud. He is very intelligent.”
On the part of Detimbir’s father, Chia, who spoke to our correspondent by telephone, he expressed thanks to all who made it a reality, just as the child hero echoed his father’s expressions: “I thank all relevant authorities that helped make my dream come true.” He also added that he aspires to rise to the rank of General.
Source: Weekly Trust
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