By Gabriel Agbeja

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) says it is ready to enhance awareness toward tackling climate change in Africa.

Dr Agnes Kijazi, WMO Regional Director for Africa, made the assertion on Friday in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

According to her, WMO will continue to enhance its advocacy and awareness to the communities in the region of the extreme weather events through early warning and anticipatory actions.

“You may know that Africa is vulnerable to extreme weather events with attendant socio-economic impacts. We will continue to enhance our advocacy and awareness to our communities of extreme weather events through early warning and anticipatory actions.

“You are probably aware of the mandate from the UN Secretary-General to WMO to ensure that every citizen in the world receives an early warning in the next five years.

“We have started this process with a ministerial meeting held in Maputo, Mozambique, in September 2022, and we intend to escalate this to the rest of the other regional economic communities,“ she said.

She said WMO Regional Office was saddled with responsibility to assist Members in developing National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) to enable them to play their full role in economic and social development of their countries.

She said the regional office was also assisting members to utilize the services of the Regional Offices to develop and strengthen their NMHSs.

The director stated that the office constantly added value to NMHSs in Africa by improving the services they provided to their stakeholders in order to fulfill mandated.

“The office is currently advocating using digital technologies for effective and efficient service delivery to provide early warning services for all in National Meteorological and Hydrological Services.

“ In addition, such technologies are critical for digital data collection, processing and services delivery mechanisms, as well as data validation, data storage and handling.

“ WMO Secretary-General , Prof. Petteri Taalas, wants more proactive Regional Offices in line with Regional Offices Reform to ensure Regional office in Africa is more proactive as per that call,“ she said.

According to her, the regional office currently facilitates more than 10 projects foster on sustainable development by strengthening the climate services value chain at the regional and national levels.

Kijazi said the efforts were to improve adaptive capacity and resilience to current climate variability and change among targeted farmers, agro-pastoralists and pastoralist communities.

“Also, to enhance capacities in NMHSs in the provision and utilisation of weather and climate services in countries, to modernise meteorological services through digital transformation of data management and to enhance climate services among others.“

She said the regional office was in partnership with other regional and international Organizations as part of its core functions in line with the WMO Reforms process on comprehensive review of the WMO Regional Concept and Approaches.

The director said the concept to deliver with sister UN agencies was to strengthen collaboration in the core activities.

According to Kijazi, the regional office recommends capacity development programmes of its staff to the WMO Human Resources through indication from prospective staff as outlined in the training plan or opportunities from external projects and activities.

She said the office also coordinated NMHSs’ training of their staff through various workshops and WMO Education and Training Programmes.

“The main current challenge is in relation to the regional reforms as highlighted in congress resolutions. We are setting strategic priorities to address this challenge through coordination and supporting Members.

`This is to enable them to implement congress and executive council decisions and minimize the existing gap in observations and Multi-hazard Early Warning Systems and service delivery. 

“I have resumed and still assessing activities in the Office to further ascertain what challenges are confronting the Office through the monitoring and evaluation process,“ she said.

Kijazi described her new appointment as the Director of the WMO Regional Office for Africa as new task that really worth it. 

“ I have been involved in many leadership roles previously, and my appointment as the Director of the WMO Regional Office for Africa is a new challenge and opportunity for me.

“You may note that I was the Director General of the Tanzania Meteorological Authority and the Third Vice President of WMO.

“ So, I wish to bring these leadership and management skills to the administration of the Regional Office for Africa,“ she added.

NAN reports that Dr Agnes Kijazi resumed office on Dec.10, 2022 as a new Director for WMO Regional Office for Africa. (NNA)(www.nanews.ng)

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Edited by Isaac Aregbesola

By Kingsley Okoye

Prof. Obiora Okonkwo, Chairman United Nigeria Airlines (UNA), has urged the Federal Government to leave a legacy by providing a window of special funding for aviation sector operators.

Okonkwo made the call in Abuja on Thursday, while speaking at a retreat organised by management of United Nigeria Airlines to mark its two- year operation in the aviation industry.

The retreat, with the theme: “Positioning United Nigeria for Value Creation and Retention”, was organised for management staff of the company.

Okonkwo said the call for provision of special funding for operators in aviation became necessary, given its essential duty nature and its growing contribution to the Nigerian Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“We are just asking for a special funding window that should be of a single digit and that is easily accessible, not necessarily on paper, but it is not accessible.

“We still believe that this government has done a lot for the aviation industry, though, more needs to be done and we think that the bigger legacy that this government will leave for the aviation industry is to ensure that the operators survive.

“No operator should go under, rather let there be new operators in the business of aviation.”

He said the indigenous airline operators had been very patriotic and contributed immensely to growth of the nation’s GDP.

“We are very patriotic Nigerians, who have contributed so much to the GDP of the nation, giving employment; it is a sector that I advise this government and in coming government to take very seriously.

“If properly harnessed, it will be a great source of foreign exchange for the country, especially if the local operators should be empowered; this industry, we believe remains a critical and essential industry that should be treated as such.

“This industry can not survive further at the regular commercial rates; we know that there are privileges’ given to sectors like agriculture and others, aviation should be considered also.”

According to Okonkwo, the airline transportation required a special attention.

“If this is done, I have no doubt that the operators will be stronger and further render better services to the people.”

He emphasised further that there was need for government to consider a special funding for the sector operators, saying that it was a win-win situation for both government and the operators and ultimately for the good of Nigerians.

“I also thought that the government should consider a window of “Special Funds” at a single unit loan for the operators, because it’s a win -win situation for the companies and the government.

“This is one sector that pays the government as they receive their own because every ticket that is issued, all agencies of government have their own.

“It creates high level, high powered employment, high skilled workers that pay good income tax to the government, and so this is one of the sectors that should be taken seriously and the operators are happy to work out all the new arrangement with the government.

“If this capital is provided, the individual airlines will access it as par their needs and then capitalise individually.

“This is because there is a capital you should have as a domestic operator and the required capital, if you are going international or regional routes.

“So you can imagine, a situation where you go to the bank today and access naira loan at the rate of 25 to 30 per cent and then you go back to the foreign exchange window and buy it at the rate of N750, you just basically operate for nothing.”

Okonkwo said that the United Airlines management was committed to further improving on its performance going further in spite of the challenges experienced in the past year.

The Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director of the airline, Mr Osita Okonkwo, said the company’s strategy of going forward was to continue on its growth path.

He said in spite of the challenges, the company survived, saying that it was grateful to God, the traveling public and the regulators, that had kept fate with the company.

He said the company, in 2023 and beyond, would continue to excel and improve its service to the traveling public and customers, focus on its equipment to ensure its fleet was up to date.

According to him, the company has a massive expansion programme in the fleet area in numbers and aircraft.

“We have started already with A 320, which is already flying, more will join the fleet,

“We are expanding our destinations; we have the objective of having a footprint in every airport in Nigeria; we are about to start Jos and Benin and other towns in the North- East and North-West will follow.

“We are going outside Nigeria, we are moving regionally, we are going through the regulatory process now; we have gotten our airline carriers permit.

“We have gotten designations to a number of countries, which will be announced soon,” he said. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

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Edited by Idris Abdulrahman

Presentation of 2023 Seasonal Climate Predictions in Abuja

By Gabriel Agbeja

The Minster of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, says the Federal Government is deepening efforts to implement adaptation measures to reduce impact of climate change on vulnerable Nigerians.

Sirika made this known in Abuja in his keynote address at the presentation of 2023 Seasonal Climate Prediction (SCP) and other Publications.

According to him, Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) is contributing to the adaptation measures by providing timely meteorological information regularly.

“The Seasonal Climate Prediction (SCP) is an essential early warning tool for planning against the effect of climate change and variability in all weather -sensitive sectors of the economy.

“The information also helps in taking advantage of favourable climatic conditions to improve performance, especially in agriculture.

“The SCP provides vital meteorological information on temperature, rainfall pattern, onset of the season, end of season, length of season and their impacts on socio-economic activities in the country,“ he said.

Sirika said experience over the years had proved that the application of the early warning information helped in increasing resilience and reducing vulnerability to extreme weather events

He said that over the years, NiMet had progressively improved on the coverage and quality of data collection and predictions.

According to him, the agency has also incorporated the interpretation of the forecast into three major languages of Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo as well as improved downscaling of the forecast all over the country.

“NiMet with the support of the Federal Ministry of Aviation will continue to demonstrate its capacity and commitment to provide quality and timely services in line with its mandate.

“Nigeria is an active member of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and therefore the agency is also committed to fulfil its international obligations.

“Our stakeholders in all-weather sensitive sectors like agriculture, aviation, maritime, environment, water resources, energy, engineering tourism and the public will find information in SCP very vital in their various operational and decision-making activities, “ he said.

The minister stated that Nigeria was playing its own part in the global effort to combat climate change regarding compliance with the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

“Also by submitting the Updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the United Nations Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) secretariat in July 2021.

“The updated NDC, re-stated the actions the country is committed to taking to limit global warming and climate change,“ the minister said.

The NiMey’s Director- General, Prof. Mansur Matazu said SCP provided a snapshot of some essential climate parameters and their behaviour within the season.

According to him, NiMet produces the publication annually in fulfilment of its mandate to provide accurate, timely and quality weather and climate information to advise the federal, states and local governments in the country.

“So also it provides the public weather and climate-related issues. The information provided in the SCP is tailored mainly to boost economic growth and prevent loses due to severe weather phenomena.

“The production process of the SCP involves scientific use of long-term meteorological data with state-of- the-art prediction models.

“Furthermore, a co-production process involving relevant stakeholders such as agriculture, aviation, construction, water resources, health, trade and tourism among others was implemented to achieve these remarkable user-tailored forecast,“ he said. (NAN) (www.nanenws.ng)

Edited by Grace Yussuf

By Yunus Yusuf

The Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) Nigeria says it has begun investigation into the  Air Peace Boeing 737-300 aircraft that had a burst tyre, while landing on Runway 18R , on Monday, in Lagos.

AIB’s General Manager, Public Affairs, Tunji Oketunbi, disclosed this in a statement issued on Wednesday, in Lagos.

Oketunbi said the incident occurred as the plane was landing on Runway 18R on Monday, carrying 127 passengers and six crew members from Abuja Airport en route Lagos, but landed without causalities.

He said: “The Accident Investigation Bureau, Nigeria has been notified and commenced investigation into a serious incident.

“This incident involves a Boeing 737-300 with Nationality and Registration Marks 5N-BUQ operated by Air Peace Airline, which occurred around 9.31 p.m. (Local Time) on March 8, 2021.

“The aircraft, with 127 passengers and six crew members onboard, was en route Lagos from Abuja.

“The aircraft had a burst tyre on landing on Runway 18R of Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, and taxied to GAT to park. There was no injury or fatality.”

Oketunbi said that AIB required assistance of the public in the course of its investigation into the accident, explaining that it was open to receiving any video clips, relevant evidence, or information on the incident from any member of the public.

“Kindly contact us on our official communication channels: Mobile App: AIB-N, Website: www.aib.gov.ng, Twitter: @aibnigeria, Instagram: @AIB_Nigeria.

“Facebook: AIB Nigeria, Email: commissioner@aib.gov.ng, SMS/WhatsApp: +234807 709 0900, 0807 709 0928,” he said.

He added that the bureau would, however, appreciate respect for the privacy of the people involved, by both the public and the media, and not to assume the cause of the accident, until a formal report was released.

The general manager said, however, that the agency would soon release its preliminary report on the incident. (NAN)

By Yusuf  Yunus

The Nigeria’s leading airline, Air Peace, says it will resume its daily flight operations from the Lagos hub into Accra on March 15.

The airline Spokesperson, Stanley Olisa, in a statement on Tuesday in Lagos, said that Lagos-Accra flight would depart daily at 7.00 a.m, while Accra-Lagos flight would depart at 7.40 a.m.

He said that the resumption of Accra flights was in response to the popular demand, as the flying public have been anticipating it.

“You would recall that we suspended our Accra flights consequent upon the pandemic lockdown last year.

“But, we have some exciting news for our esteemed customers as we are resuming flight operations into the Ghanaian city pretty soon.

“The flying public have been expectant of this,” he said.

Olisa, also expressed the readiness of Air Peace to kick off the scheduled flights into Ilorin from Abuja and Lagos.

According to him, the airline is already finalising plans to commence Ilorin flights soon.

He reiterated the Air Peace’s commitment to providing peaceful connectivity across the domestic, regional and international destinations and satisfying the air travel needs of Nigerians.

NAN reports that Air Peace is an indigenous airline servicing 16 domestic routes, five regional routes and two international destinations including Johannesburg.

It also has a varied fleet of 26 aircraft comprising the ultra-modern Embraer 195-E2 jet, Boeing 777, Embraer 145, Boeing 737 and Dornier 328 jet. (NAN)

By Ifeanyi Olannye

The Delta Chapter of the All Progressive Congress (APC), on Thursday, berated the state government over the concessioning of the Asaba International Airport to a concessionaire.

The party’s reaction was conveyed in a statement signed by its State Publicity Secretary (Caretaker), Mr Sylvester Imonina in Asaba.

Titled “Asaba Airport Concessionaire, another monumental fraud”, Imonina said the party concurred that “the government has no business in business”.

“This will mean that the business of any serious minded government is to provide enabling environment for private businesses to thrive.

“It is on this premise that Delta APC supports any government that is transparent in the concessionaire of public properties.

“Unfortunately, the fraud called concessionaire of Asaba Airport will go down in history as the greatest bleak, shady business and economic coup against the people of Delta State.

“It is an affront to common sense that an airport business, wherein more than N40 billion was invested, was concessioned for N4 billion and to yield N100 million annually because of vested interests,” the party stated.

He added that it was shocking that there was no advertisement nor adequate information on plans by the government to concession the airport.

The party challenged the State Government to put in the public domain all that transpired about the concession of the airport.

“Also, the government should show to the people of the state the corporate bodies that took part in the exercise and how much each of them bidded.

“We call on the good people of Delta State and all men of goodwill to kick against this obvious shenanigans called concessions of Asaba Airport.” (NAN).