The court case instituted by domestic carriers against the national carrier project and its foreign technical partner and majority shareholders and the plan by European countries to ramp up gas importation from Nigeria to the tune of 22 million tons per year are some of the leading stories in Nigerian newspapers on Monday.
The Punch reports that the national carrier project may be stopped by the court as domestic airlines have taken the Federal Government and its foreign technical partner and majority shareholders to court.
About eight local airlines and their association took the government to court on Friday, listing Nigerian Air, Ethiopian Airlines, Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, as defendants.
Among other prayers, the indigenous airlines want the court to stop the national carrier deal and withdraw the Air Transport Licence already issued to Nigeria Air by the Federal Government/Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority.
They also claimed that the firm which served as Transaction Adviser for the transaction, was incorporated in March last year and alleged that the company was linked to the aviation minister.
The local airlines further alleged that ATL issued to Nigerian Air did not pass through the normal security clearance.
According to them, the Federal Government’s partnership with Ethiopian Airlines on the project will send domestic airlines out of business by opening up the domestic air travel market to Ethiopian Airlines.
In September this year, the Federal Government named Ethiopian Airlines Consortium as preferred bidder for Nigeria Air. The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, announced this in Abuja.
The newspaper says that European countries are making plans to ramp up gas importation from Nigeria to the tune of 22 million tons per year, providing an opportunity for Africa’s most populous nation to earn revenues.
A document obtained by The PUNCH from the Global Gas Monitor entitled, ‘Europe Scrambles for African Gas’, published by DW on Friday, said Africa was the next gas hub for European countries.
The document put Nigeria as the country attracting the biggest European interest after Algeria (29 million tons).
Apart from Nigeria and Algeria, the report identified eight other African countries to also benefit from the plan to include: Mauritania, 10 million tons; Mozambique, 19 million tons; Democratic Republic of Congo, 1.2million tons; and Tanzania, 4 million tons.
Others are: Cameroon, 6 million tons; Equatorial Guinea, 5.2million tons; Angola, 12.2 million tons, and Egypt, 29 million tons.
The EU declared fossil gas a transition fuel this year, describing it as ‘sustainable’.
The Punch also reports that data obtained from the website of the Central Bank of Nigeria on Sunday revealed that Nigeria’s educational sector suffered massive capital flight during the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd).
Specifically, using the CBN’s balance of payment statistics, Nigerians have spent a hefty sum of $3.5bn on foreign education in the past seven years (June 2015 to August 2022).
The PUNCH reports that education in Nigeria, most especially in the tertiary education sector, has been marred by industrial actions by unions such as the Academic Staff Union of Universities and the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics.
Recently, academic activities in Nigerian universities, polytechnics and colleges of education were grounded for months in 2022.
According to the CBN data gathered from amount spent on educational services under the sectoral utilisation for transactions valid for foreign exchange, a sum of $375.99 million was released by the apex bank between June 2015 and December 2015,
Further analysis of the data revealed that a total of $269.1 million was released in 2016.
So far in 2022, only the data from January to August has been made available which revealed that a total of $609.5 million has been released so far.
The Guardian says that as Nigerians join the rest of the world today, to observe World Diabetes Day (WDD), the Endocrinology and Metabolism Society of Nigeria (EMSON) has warned that over 10 million Nigerians are living with the disease and the numbers are expected to double by 2030, if nothing is done urgently.
The Society also decried a situation where there are only 150 endocrinologists in a population of more than 220 million to manage the condition, adding that diabetes is a major cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks, stroke and lower limb amputation.
The alarming dearth of endocrinologists is worrisome, as these specialists and diabetologists investigate, diagnose and treat disorders of the endocrine system. Endocrinologists treat diabetes, a disease of the pancreas and diseases that affect other endocrine systems such as the thyroid, pituitary gland and adrenal glands.
WDD provides an opportunity to raise awareness about diabetes as a global public health issue and what needs to be done, collectively and individually, for better prevention, diagnosis and management of the condition.
This year’s theme, ‘Access to Diabetes Education’, underpins the larger multi-year theme of ‘Access to Care’. Nine in 10 of diabetics have the Type 2 variant, a lifestyle disease linked to obesity and unhealthy living. The Type 1 variant is an unpreventable autoimmune disease that develops in childhood.
President of EMSN and Consultant Endocrinologist/Physician at Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, Prof. Olufemi Fasanmade, told The Guardian that the burden of diabetes mellitus in Nigeria is increasing.
“In the 1960s to 1970s, diabetes was found in only 0.5-1 per cent of adults in Nigeria. In the 1980s to1990s, the figures rose to 1.4-2.2 per cent of adults. Currently, there is about 5.7 per cent of adults affected with diabetes and 10 to 15 per cent with pre-diabetes.
“In urban towns and cities in Nigeria, one in 10 adults have diabetes and we have just 90 to 100 million adults in Nigeria. Almost 10 million people in Nigeria have diabetes, while 30 per cent of people with hypertension also have diabetes.
“The total number of people in the country with diabetes is the highest in sub-Saharan Africa. Higher than the number of tuberculosis, Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and COVID-19 put together. Diabetes kills more people in Nigeria than COVID-19, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and cancer put together,” he said.
The newspaper reports that the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) has painted a gloomy picture of the roads and highways, saying they have expired, with little or no capacity needed to utilise.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Nuruddeen Rafindadi, said some of the roads, regrettably, had exceeded their lifespan.
Rafindadi spoke through the Kaduna Head of FERMA, Atiku Sadiq, at the weekend, on the topic ‘Utilisation of Our Highway Capacity, Prospects and Challenges’ at the 10th public lecture and presentation of awards organised by the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Kaduna branch.
He said: “Most of the nation’s highways have expired. What we are doing now is managing expired highways that are supposed to last 15, 20 and at most 25 years. But we are having highways that were built to last for 40, 50 to 60 years. We need to devise a way of maintaining our roads and it requires planning.
“Despite the noticeable benefits of highway development to the socio-economic and political affluence of Nigeria and its huge capital investment, highway transportation is still faced with numerous management and operational challenges in the country.”
These challenges, according to the engineer, majorly stem from man-made and natural causes, which could be deficiencies in the supply and distribution of traffic; inadequate provision of infrastructural facilities, faulty carriageways, poorly-designed or unavailable drainage systems, thus causing washing away of pavements, collapsed hydraulic structures, and noticeable surface failures.
On the way forward, the FERMA boss said: “The most effective way to maintain operational capacity of roadway is to ensure preventive maintenance to nip failures in the bud and sustain pavement surface maintenance and keep the carriageway in serviceable condition. This is only possible with enough funding, adequate and well-trained manpower, as well as creating awareness and adequate education of drivers, especially commercial, on-road discipline.
GIK/APA