Aviation
FEC Ratifies Nigeria, USA Air Transport Agreement
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, approved the ratification of Air Transport Agreement between Nigeria and the United States of America (USA) as well as Siemens Power Project.
The Ministers of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and that of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, disclosed this when they briefed State House correspondents at the end of the virtual Council meeting in Abuja.
According to the minister of information, the air transport bilateral agreement is to strengthen economic, social and cultural ties between Nigeria and the USA.
Mohammed, who stood in for the Minister of Aviation, Sen.
Hadi Sirika, said:“The Aviation Minister presented a memo today on the approval for ratification of the air transport agreement between the Federal Government of Nigeria and the United States of America.
“The minister sought council’s approval for ratification of the air transport agreement between USA and Nigeria.
“You will recall that both United States and Nigeria are parties to the Chicago Convention on the Dec. 7, 1994. Article 6 of the convention actually urges parties to sign air services agreement with member states to improve social, political and economic ties.
“The US has ratified its own and Mr President and council graciously accepted today to also ratify this agreement.
“So, today, Mr President signed valid agreement of air transport service between Nigeria and the US with the attendant benefits for both countries, especially as Nigeria is working towards having its own full national airline.
“So, we will now take advantage of this air transport bilateral agreement to strengthen economic, social and cultural ties between the two countries.”
On her part, Zainab Ahmed revealed that the Council ratified President Buhari’s anticipatory approval of 15.2million euros offshore and N1.708billion onshore as counterpart funding for the execution of Siemens Power project in the country.
She said the affected power project under the stage one of the Presidential Power Initiative, was designed to include 23 transmission initiatives as well as 175 separate transformative projects in the electricity distribution franchises in the country.
“Today in Council, the ministers of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, and Power, Saleh Mamman, jointly presented a memo, requesting the council to ratify President Muhammadu Buhari’s anticipatory approval for the release of 15.21 million euros offshore and N1.708 billion onshore.
“This is towards the counterpart funding for the bilateral from German Consortium guaranteed by the German government through Euler Hermes to finance the implementation of the end to end grid modernization and expansion programme.
“So, today at council, we discussed the stage one of phase one of this project under presidential power initiative.
“This project is designed to include 23 transmission initiatives as well as 175 separate transformative projects in the electricity distribution franchises that we have in the country,’’ she said.
The minister stated that the project would also support the regulator, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), to transition towards a programme of improving metering in the electricity industry in the country.
“Let me remind us as citizens that Mr President and his German counterpart met in Abuja in Aug. 31, 2018 and committed to jointly increase the capacity of the Nigerian electricity grid from current capacity of 5,000 megawatts to 25,000 megawatts over a three phased programme.
“After this meeting, an MOU was executed on the July 23, 2019 between the Nigerian Government and the Siemens AG with the German Government support.
“The MOU is designed to deliver this end to end modernization programme which we are calling the presidential power initiative,’’ she further maintained.
The minister explained that the presidential power initiative was meant to address the intractable problems that have bedeviled the Nigerian power industry over a period of years.
According to her, the project will be implemented in three phases as the phase one has been approved by FEC today.
“The facility for this programme is to be sourced from the German consortium and it would be guaranteed by the German government through Euler Hermes covering 85 percent of the project cost, the highly concessional facility with two to three years moratorium, 12 years loan repayment period with an interest rate of liabor plus one per cent to liabor plus 1.2 per cent.
“And also the federal government is to provide 15 per cent counterpart funding as its contribution towards the project.
According to Ahmed, there is a provision in the 2020 revised budget for the government’s counterpart funding.
“The federal government is taking the loan from the German government with the plan to on-lend this particular loan to the distributing network.
“So, it’s a convertible loan facility to the DISCOs and we will be working with the DISCOs to restructure an appropriate loan agreement as soon as we are able to close out on this initial phase of the process.
“And council approved and ratified Mr President’s approval,’’ she said.
The Minister of Environment, Alhaji Mohammed Mahmoud, who also spoke on the outcome of the meeting, said the Council approved a revised New National Forest Policy.
“The old one (forest policy) was formulated in 2006. We realize that the old one is not catering for the current situation at hand. Forestry is a big sector of the economy.
“It provides a lot of employment opportunities, reduces poverty, and provides means of livelihood and foreign exchange from export of wood. Without a sustainable forest management, you cannot have all of these benefits.
“We also know that right now particularly with the issue of climate change, forest is a big part of climate change mitigation. The more forest we have, the more cover we seek.
“It means taking out the emission out of our planet and stabilizing the temperature of the planet and the catastrophic effects of climate change.
“So, we have revised it and produced a new one. And we believe this will go a long way in regenerating employment which is an issue at hand,’’ he said.
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Niyi Adebayo, said the Council ratified the Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement signed between Nigeria and Singapore in 2016 as well as Nigeria and the Kingdom of Morocco
He said: “We presented a memo to Council today, seeking Council’s approval for Mr President to ratify the Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement, which we signed in 2016 between Nigeria and Singapore on the one hand, and Nigeria and the Kingdom of Morocco on the other hand.
“In 2016, the Attorney-General of the Federation came up with a new model of Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement and that year Nigeria signed based on that new model between Nigeria and Morocco, and Nigeria and Singapore.
“The whole idea was to grant more protection to Nigerian investors, when they invest abroad and to give Nigeria more protection when other investors come into Nigeria.
“Basically, the Council graciously approved that Mr President should ratify and the Attorney-General will present to Mr President for his ratification and the agreement will come into effect thereafter.’’(NAN)
By Ubong Ukpong, Abuja
The House of Representatives on Wednesday, expressed deep anger over faulty air crafts in the Presidential air fleet, just as it summoned the National Security Adviser, (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, for investigation.
The House in plenary, during a heated debate on the motion, reiterated that billions of naira was budgeted to maintain the presidential Air Fleet.
The motion, which was moved by Hon Satomi Ahmed was followed by a heated debate by members who were divided over the issue.
Recall that the Vice President Kashim Shettima was on Sunday forced to cancel his trip to the United States where he was scheduled to represent President Bola Tinubu at the 2024 US-Africa Business Summit, due to a fault with his aircraft.
Moving a motion of urgent public importance, Satomi who is Chairman House Committee on National Security and Intelligence, and represents Jere Federal Constituency, Borno State, noted that in April, President Bola Tinubu was embarrassingly, forced to fly in a chartered plane from Netherlands to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to attend the World Economic Forum.
He noted that Vice President Kashim Shettima similarly used a chartered jet recently as presidential jets were undergoing repairs.
He expressed love for the President and Vice president insisting that such incident was a national embarrassment despite billions of naira budgeted yearly to maintain the air fleets.
In his contribution, member representing Balanga/Billiri Federal Constituency, Gombe State, Ali Isah while supporting the call for investigation of the state of the presidential aircrafts, said the development should offer President Tinubu opportunity to travel by road to enable him understand the state of road infrastructure across the country.
He said, “I think this will afford our President and other leaders the opportunity to travel by road and appreciate the state of our roads.
“This happens all the time in some countries of the world.”
However the proposal did not sit well with Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu who presided over Wednesday’s plenary.
“Are you saying Mr President, the number one leader should travel around by road?,” he asked rhetorically amid support from All Progressives Congress lawmakers.
Supporting Isah’s position, the Minority Leader of the House, Kingsley Chinda argued that “In Britain, the Prime Minister flies British Airways. I don’t see anything wrong with a public officer using commercial transportation.”
Chinda also said that bringing the motion to the floor of the House was not necessary as it is the duty of the relevant committee to go ahead with the investigation without necessarily bringing it on the floor of the House .
Chinda further advocated the resuscitation of a national career as a way out of the embarrassment.
The Deputy Speaker however, said it was indeed not necessary to bring the motion before the whole House as it was within the duty of the relevant committee to investigate the incidence of it deems it fit he therefore called that the motion be stepped down
By Idris Umar Feta Abuja
Many air travellers were left stranded following the closure of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, by officials of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Thursday.
A combined team of NLC and Trade Union Congress (TUC) blocked both the entry and exit ways of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport.
The protest was part of the series of actions that the two labour unions say they would zero in on Imo, following the attack on the NLC president, Joe Ajaero.
The NLC and TUC had on Tuesday, declared a nationwide strike, which will commence on Tuesday, November 14, due to the face-off with the Imo State Government.
Anambra State Governor, Professor Charles Soludo has renamed the state’s International Passenger and Cargo Airport after the late Chinua Achebe, a novelist, to immortalise him for making an indelible mark on the history of human civilisation.
Achebe a native of Ogidi in Idemili North Local Government Area of the state, died on March 21, 2013, at age 82, in Boston, Massachusetts.
Soludo said this on Sunday in Awka at the Independence Day parade, to mark Nigeria’s 63rd anniversary, describing Achebe as an example of Africa’s unsung hero.
“Achebe, a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic, gave the African literature an identity and a voice and he rightly reconstructed and refined the identify of the people,” he said.
The governor said that Achebe was not just an Anambra hero nor a Nigerian hero, but an African and global hero and yet largely unsung at home.
He said that henceforth, the state shall be deliberate in fishing out and celebrating its largely unsung heroes as motivation to children and youths.
“Unfortunately, some people wrongly think of legacies in terms of brick and mortar. Legacy is about impact on human life and human civilisation.
“Achebe was not a president or governor or military. He did not build bridges or roads or airports but he will outlive most presidents, governors and ministers in our minds.
“Achebe rejected Nigeria’s national honours twice in protest against what he perceived as injustice to his home state Anambra. Today, Anambra will finally honour him.
“After wide consultations, there is a broad consensus that no one is more deserving to be named after the first airport in Anambra than Anambra’s all-time greatest literary gift to the world, Chinua Achebe.
“Consequently, we will rename the Anambra International Cargo and Passenger Airport, Umueri, to Chinua Achebe International Airport, Umueri.
“Yes, it has to be an international airport, and we hope to work with the Federal Government to give full effect to its international status,” he said.
Soludo urged Nigerians to be intentional about making the project Nigeria work and believe in the potential greatness of the country.
“We have muddled through the past 63 years with squandered opportunities and yet with the promise of potential greatness
“No country or nation is a perfect. Every nation continues to struggle in its match to a more perfect union. The path to stability, growth and sustainability will be challenging as there are no quick fixes.
“But all of us must collectively think and work Nigeria out of the current challenges. We have no other country but Nigeria, and we must make it to work for everyone, “he said.
The governor said his administration was founded on the true progressive agenda and would continue to create the enabling environment for residents to thrive and survive.
The police, paramilitary organisations and students from different schools took part in the parade. (NAN)
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