The presentation of Air Transport Licence to the interim management of Nigeria’s national carrier, Nigeria Air on Monday by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Monday.
The Punch reports that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority is to present an Air Transport Licence to the interim management of Nigeria’s national carrier Nigeria Air, on Monday (today) barring any unforeseen change in plans, it was gathered on Sunday.
An Air Transport Licence is issued as authorisation to airlines to provide scheduled and non-scheduled services.
It is one of the licences received by airlines before they can commence operation just as they await the all-important Air Operator Certificate that fully guarantees them the right to begin air services.
The issuance of an ATL to Nigeria Air on Monday will be coming four years after the branding and livery of the new airline was unveiled by the Federal Government during the Farnborough Air Show in London.
Impeccable sources at the Federal Ministry of Aviation told our correspondent that the issuance of an ATL to the carrier on Monday (today) was to ensure that the airline commences operations in a couple of months.
In July 2018, the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, unveiled the branding and livery for Nigeria Air in London and stated that the airline would be inaugurated at the end of that year. But this did not happen.
Since then there had been several efforts to get the proposed new airline running, as interim management was created recently to drive the process for the full establishment of the carrier.
The newspaper says that the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, has said that Nigeria needs affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy resources to eliminate widespread energy poverty and drive economic growth.
He said this at the Nigeria-Africa Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit in Abuja.
According to the minister, energy poverty is still prevalent in the world, especially in Africa where millions of people do not have access to electricity or clean cooking fuels.
Quoting data from the United Nations, he said that about 760 million people lack access to electricity worldwide, with three out of four of them living in sub-Saharan Africa.
He added that one-third of the world’s population (about 2.6 billion people) had no access to clean cooking fuels, with over 900 million of these in sub-Saharan Africa.
He also said that only 48 per cent of the Sub-Saharan African population have access to electricity, while only 18 per cent also have access to clean cooking fuels, compared with a global average of 90 per cent and 70 per cent respectively.
The Guardian reports that it was supposed to be Pentecost Sunday when Catholics were expected to commemorate the solemnity of the occasion, but pains, agony, gloom and fear, yesterday, descended on the densely populated Owo in Ondo State, as yet to be identified gunmen opened fire on the congregation at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, which was celebrating the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples of Jesus after his ascension. The attack left at least 50 dead.
The incident occurred in the morning at the church, located on Owaluwa Street, Owo, where suspected bandits launched an attack in a grand commando style, as the mass was almost ended. The invaders shot at the worshippers and ignited dynamites that caved in parts of the building.
It was a gory sight as dead bodies, both old and young, mostly women and children littered the church. Some bodies were dismembered with internal organs splashed on the temple ground.
After the dust settled, the throng of sympathisers expressed dismay at the poor response of police to their distress call, though a security source revealed that the two divisions, area command and mobile police in Owo do not have operational vehicles despite having a standby squad.
They disclosed that the invaders did not come with vehicles to carry out the operation but reportedly hijacked vehicles from motorists plying the Owo-Akure Road to escape.
The newspaper says that the Federal Government had, at the weekend, explained that the drop in electricity generation was a result of the partial shutdown of the Oben gas plant for the repair of critical processing equipment.
It had also disclosed that the 14 reactivated independent power plants (IPP) across the country would produce off-grid electricity of 1,000 megawatts.
The government explained: “We wish to notify the general public that the current dip in electricity generation is a result of the partial shutdown of the Oben gas plant to address the repair of critical gas processing equipment.
“The incident, unfortunately, occurred at a time when other power plants on other gas sources are undergoing planned maintenance and capacity testing.
“We wish to notify the public that Seplat Energy Plc has mobilised equipment, material, and personnel to the site to expedite the restoration of normal gas supply to the affected power plants.
“We have been assured that the repair would be concluded this weekend and normalcy will be restored. While pleading with electricity consumers with the current state of supply, we wish to assure the general public that efforts are being made for a sustained improvement of supply across the country.”
The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), recently, appealed to the Federal Governments to protect industries from collapse due to the erratic power supply in the country.
The Sun reports that telecommunications firm, Lets Talk I.T & Telecommunications Company is to launch Nigeria’s first instant messaging application, Lets Talk before the end of the third quarter of 2022.
Its Chief Operating Officer, Ms. Folashade Ayeni, made this known while speaking with newsmen, yesterday.
Ayeni said the application was designed by a team of Nigerian software engineers in line with the vision of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) for indigenous companies to come into the social media space.
“Lets Talk was created out of a need that Nigerians and Africans have. If you look at it, sometime last year in October, October 4 to be precise, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram crashed. No one was able to use those applications because of one thing or the other.
“Many people lost money, several people were not able to reach families, friends, relatives and do business normally, because a whole lot of people have taken business and relationship to the social media.
“It crashed for about six hours or so and the reality dawned on us that really, whether it was intentional or not on purpose that we could lose everything. So, we thought about owning our social media platform; where Nigerians can have guaranteed communications, with outmost security, which is Nigerian owned and indigenous to us and for us in Africa.”
GIK/APA