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Monday, October 10, 2022

Nigeria To Start Building A New Airport In Lagos State Next Year

The Lagos State Government has announced that the construction of a new airport in the state will begin next year. The airport, given the all-clear from the Federal Government, will handle a minimum of five million travelers annually.

New Lagos Airport gets go-ahead

Construction of a new airport in Lagos State, Nigeria will begin next year, according to the government. The new facility will be built on a 3,500-hectare site situated on the busy Lekki peninsula east of downtown Lagos.

Jubril Gawat, Senior Special Assistant to Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, told Daily Post.

"The project is expected to take off in the year 2023, it will be constructed on 3,500 hectares of land, master plan and aeronautical designs are in place; while studies are ongoing about strategies, funding and other issues, after which the project will be taken to the marketplace. The airport, which is expected to cater to a minimum of five million people yearly, will be constructed in partnership with local and foreign investors."

Nigeria's Federal Government has given its approval for the project. While the airport master plan has been finalized, the project could still face other hurdles, such as financing, so there's no guarantee construction will commence in 2023.

Catering to growing demand

There have long been calls to add air capacity to Lagos, which is Nigeria's largest city and a key economic and cultural hub in Africa. In fact, the wider Lagos area is home to over 20 million people, making it the most populous region on the entire continent.

Nigerian lawyer Kwami Adadevoh told Daily Post.

"It is overdue. Long, long overdue. Lagos doesn’t get enough air traffic for a city of its economic importance and that’s because the present airport is too small."

However, given that Lagos' current airport, Murtala Muhammed International Airport (LOS), significantly expanded its capacity this year with a new terminal, some would argue that Lagos State has enough capacity already.

Nigeria has embarked on a significant infrastructure drive in recent years, including the development of five new international terminals and six cargo terminals as part of an agreement with EXIM Bank of China.

What about Murtala Muhammed International Airport?

Murtala Muhammed International Airport served almost 7.5 million travelers in 2019, dropping to 5.6 million in 2021. The old airport, built in the 1940s, is Nigeria's busiest with separate domestic and international terminals located around 1km apart.

The airport inaugurated a brand-new international terminal in April, but it turns out most airlines aren't using it. The new facility, which has a capacity for up to 14 million passengers annually, does not have sufficient apron space to host larger widebody aircraft like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, Boeing 777, Boeing 747, and Airbus A380, leading international airlines to remain at the older Terminal 1.

By Luke Bodell

Simple Flying

Ethiopian Airlines Announced As Partner For Nigeria Air

Death toll in Nigeria boat capsize tragedy rises to 76

The death toll from a boat accident in Nigeria's southeastern state of Anambra has risen to 76, the president said on Sunday.

The vessel capsized on Friday amid heavy flooding in the Ogbaru area of Anambra, according to officials on Saturday, when they said at least 10 people had died and 60 were missing.

In a statement posted on Twitter on Sunday, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari said that emergency authorities had confirmed the higher death toll.

Authorities are working to rescue or recover any missing passengers, said Buhari, adding that he had directed the relevant agencies to check safety protocols to prevent future accidents.

The head of Anambra State Emergency Management Agency said that 15 people had been rescued as of Saturday night.

Anambra is among 29 of Nigeria's 36 states to have experienced heavy flooding this year. The waters have washed away homes, crops and roads and affected at least half a million people.

A local resident, Afam Ogene, told Reuters that because flooding had destroyed the major road linking eight communities to the rest of the area, some residents had to travel by boat.

Of the vessel that capsized, he said it was locally made and had the capacity to carry more than 100 people. He added that the boat's engine had failed and it was overpowered by waves shortly after it launched.

By Libby George

Reuters

In Nigeria's food basket state, floods wash away homes, crops and hope

Friday, October 7, 2022

Video - Nigerian students take up Chinese to expand opportunities

Language has always served as a strong bridge between cultures. The diplomatic ties between China and Nigeria have been boosted over the years by Chinese language teaching programs. The Chinese Confucius Institute based in Lagos has been educating thousands of Nigerians on the Chinese language and culture.

CGTN

Women, children drown fleeing attack in Nigeria’s north

Several women and children drowned while trying to escape an armed attack in Nigeria’s troubled northern region, residents and a government official said Thursday.

The victims died when their boats capsized while fleeing an hours-long assault by unidentified gunmen Wednesday night on the Birnin Waje community in Zamfara state, said Ibrahim Zauma, a resident.

“The situation is dire because most of the people have run away from their homes. The dead bodies recovered so far is 13,” Zauma said.

It was not clear how many people might have drowned, but many who fled their homes had not returned to the area, which residents said remained volatile more than 24 hours after the violence.

Ibrahim Bello, a Zamfara government spokesman, confirmed the attack, saying that “an unknown number of mostly women and children got drowned” as they sought to escape in two boats.

He did not say whether any arrests had been made.

The attack was the latest in a cycle of violence by armed groups targeting remote communities in Nigeria’s northwest and central regions.

Authorities often blame the attacks on a group of mostly young pastoralists from the Fulani tribe caught up in Nigeria’s conflict between communities and herdsmen over limited access to water and land.

The deadly clashes between local communities and the herdsmen have defied government measures seeking to quell the violence, although security forces have recently announced some arrests and seizure of arms.

Nigeria’s security forces are outnumbered and outgunned in many of the affected communities while authorities also continue to fight a decade-long insurgency launched by Islamist extremist rebels in the northeast.

By Chinedu Asadu

Dozens killed in ‘barbaric, senseless’ violence in Nigeria

Video - Is Nigeria's security crisis out of control?

Thursday, October 6, 2022

In Nigeria's food basket state, floods wash away homes, crops and hope

Victoria Okonkwo sits in a canoe as neighbours paddle her away from her house in Nigeria's food basket, Benue state, which is now under water – along with more than 100,000 hectares (247,100 acres) of farmland.

"It was last week that it started, so I left thinking that the water will not be this much," Okonkwo, 45, told Reuters. "Now I am displaced with my children."

Okonkwo is among at least half a million Nigerians affected by flooding in 29 of Nigeria's 36 states this year. Farmers say the rising waters will push food bills higher in a nation where millions have fallen into food poverty in the past two years.

Farming was constrained by flooding and food shortages and COVID-19 restrictions in 2020. Prices shot higher due to this year's war in Ukraine and nationwide insecurity that has pushed thousands of farmers off their land.

"This is a catastrophe indeed," said Dimieari Von Kemedi, chief executive of Alluvial Agriculture, a farm collective. "All of these wrong things are happening at the same time."

Farmer Tersoo Deei, 39, said 2 hectares (5 acres) of her rice and nearly all her soybeans in Benue were underwater. What she had harvested she has to sell now, before it has dried, because her house washed away.

"I do not have any option but to sell my rice paddy because there is nowhere to keep it," the mother of four told Reuters.

Nigeria-based commodities exchange AFEX estimates flooding and other factors will cut maize output by 12% year on year, and rice by 21%. That is a serious problem for a nation where inflation hit a 17-year high in August, led by food inflation at 23.12%.

"What we are seeing currently is the worst case... at least in the last decade," David Ibidapo, AFEX's head of market data and research, said of the flooding. "This is a very big challenge to food security."

By Abraham Achirga and Libby George

Reuters