The United Nations has commended the Nigerian Armed Forces, particularly those manning the Nigerian Level 2 Hospital in the Frontline in Timbuktu Mali, for the critical work they are doing in a difficult environment.

The Deputy Special Representative of the United Nation’s Secretary General, Joanne Adamson gave the commendation during an online interaction with Defence Correspondents, which had the Nigerian Level 2 Hospital Commander’s also briefing on their experience.

The UN representative said “my message is profound gratitude to the Nigerian contingent in not only the Timbuktu, but elsewhere in Mali mission, your work is critical in being able to operate in this very difficult environment and I have personal experience of meeting with you in Timbuktu and I know you have been on the front line in the battle against Covid, you have face environmental difficulties, heat, sand etc, which makes running the equipments difficult for men and women”.

Joanne Adamson further appreciated the Defence Correspondents from Nigeria for joining the interactive session and said the presence of the military personnel from Nigeria was a message of solidarity to the Malians and also to the international community which is working alongside the Malians.

Also speaking to the reporters during the online interactive session, the Commander of the Nigerian Medical contingent 7, Lieutenant Colonel Akingbemila Ayola Olusola, said their main role and focus as a medical team under the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) is to ensure that the hospital is always position for prompt delivery of medical services, and care to united nation’s peace keepers and other staff of MINUSMA.

“By doing this,we encourage and give confidence to the troops that are carrying out peace keeping operations in various parts of Mali knowing fully well that when injured, the Nigerian level two hospital is able to take care of them, do damage control surgeries, carry out emergency resuscitation, carry out limb and life saving medical interventions to better their chances of survival and by so doing, Nigeria is contributing its quota to the peace and stability of Mali” said the Commander of the contingent, Lieutenant Colonel Akingbemila Olusola.

Fielding questions from the reporters on issues of hostility against the hospital, the Commander said the Nigerian level two hospital was structurally built to protect both the personnel and people attending the hospital and there are other security architecture put in place to protect the facility.

He further said the hospital is located within the integrated super camp that has an all round defence and in terms of vaccination for COVID-19, the UN has made it available to troops contributing countries and the Nigerian level 2 hospital plays a key role in the vaccination with equipments supplied from both Nigeria and United Nations.

Also speaking on what it meant to be working in a US Peace Keeping Mission in Mali, Squadron Leader, Solomon Danji Joshua who is the head of the Medical Evacuation Team said the presence of the Nigerian Level two hospital in Timbuktu MINUSMA was a mission enabler which gives confidence to the troops.

He pointed out that MINUSMA is one of the dangerous missions embarked upon by the United Nations it has been a great pleasure providing service to save lives.

“By virtue of being the next most senior Doctor after the Commander, I also double as the Chief clinician, where I coordinate the activities of all the doctors, we have troops deployed all across Mali, in view of the unprecedented security challenges and difficult terrains, the best way to access medical care usually is by air transport and the presence of this facility in this mission serves as a moral booster for all the troops, bearing in mind that even if they should find themselves in difficult situations in terms of casualty, or sicknesses, they have where to fall back to” said the Squadron Leader, Solomon Danji Joshua.

Timbuktu is a historical City in Mali, Sector west where the United Nation’s Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission is ongoing  and the Nigerian Level 2 Hospital, a Secondary Healthcare Facility in Mali, provides secondary care for all UN peace keepers domiciled in Timbuktu and some from sector centre.

The hospital also provides damage control, surgical capabilities to injured peace keepers, and takes care of united nation’s staff serving in Timbuktu. It was inducted into the UN mission on 20th December 2020, and consist of highly professional staff drawn from the Armed Forces of Nigeria, consisting of Nigerian Army, Navy and Air Force.

The interactive forum which was moderated by Yaye Sene, the Media Relations at MINUSMA in Mali, was aimed at keeping the moral of the troops high, to inform the Nigerian public about the external operation of the Nigerian Armed Forces and to explain in detail their daily life on the ground. Also in attendance was Major Fidelia Akuejinwa Nwankwo who is part of the Nigerian contingent.

Lateefah Ibrahim

President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed sadness over the brutal killing of some citizens, including a vigilante leader and village head of Dabna, a village in Dugwaba, Hong Local Government Area of Adamawa State.

Reacting to the incident which happened on Wednesday, President Buhari said: “this level of savagery, inhumanity and reckless disregard for the sanctity of life cannot go unpunished.’’

The President directed security officials to “redouble their efforts and respond to these security threats promptly and decisively’’.

“We can’t afford to disappoint Nigerians that have entrusted their security in our hands” he said.

The President directed respective agencies under the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development to immediately assess losses in the community and send support.

Meanwhile, President Buhari has raised a high powered delegation to visit the community to convey his sympathies to the families of the victims and the government of Adamawa State.

Emmanuel Ukoh

The Nigerian government says plans are on to establish an aerospace university for the country.

Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika revealed this on Thursday, at the weekly ministerial briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team.

The Minister used the opportunity to highlight the achievements of the aviation sector in the past six years under President Muhammadu Buhari.

He said when the university comes on board, it will boost activities as well as produce the needed manpower in the aviation sector.

According to him: “We have to establish an aerospace university, we started this journey in civil aviation with countries like Brazil. We started our own in Zaria in 1963, with a partnership between Nigerian government and the UNDP and since then, till now, we don’t produce even rivets as a nation but Brazil that we started with is now producing all sorts of aircrafts.

“So we think that we should have a university to go deeply into research and development and create those opportunities within our sector, turn out those young men and women with good brains to go into the venture of aerospace and aviation, make a lot of money and earn income for our country as well as develop our capacity and change the narratives,” he said.

Use of Drones
Sirika said the current administration was taking the step to avoid a situation of the past, when ventures in the aviation sector did not withstand the test of time.

He further noted that the university would be world class and would collaborate with some famous institutions.

“Believe me, civil aviation alone can sustain our economy. Ethiopia is half-Nigeria, there are 85 million people and their major source of income and economy is Ethiopian Airlines. So, civil aviation alone can actually run an economy, it depends on how you do it.

“But we’ve seen that we are not producing anything out of civil aviation and all the aviation ventures in the country keep collapsing and that has compounded the problem. We attribute that to the lack of capacity to manage.

“So we are going to establish the institution in partnership with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), other friendly countries and some universities around the world. So it will be a world class university and there is a small team working on it now. We have submitted our concept notes to the Nigerian Universities Commission and it is being attended to.

“I think this university will come up very soon, before the end of the year. The Minister of the FCT has given us the land. It will be half online and half real time studies.”

The Minister also said the government intended to introduce a policy that would regulate the use of drones in the country.

“We have also seen that there are remotely piloted aircrafts now; unmanned airplanes or drones. They are fast becoming a phenomenon because everybody is flying drones now. Some are for good reasons but very soon we will find our airspaces dotted with such aircrafts

“Managing them alone will become such a huge challenge because they will be operating around or within the air space and somebody needs to regulate them. So we thought that we should create a policy.

“If drones are just being flown around and there is a big airplane, it could hit the airplane, get ingested in the engine and cause disaster. We have seen examples of such happenings in the UK, US and many other places. So we thought that we should develop a policy towards those remotely piloted aircrafts to have them organized and regulated,” he said.

National Carrier
The Aviation Minister also announced that the country’s national carrier would come on board next year.

“Nigerians should trust that we will be able to deliver a very robust carrier that will be for the size of our economy and we are on course.

“We have almost gone past the project development stage, we have completed the development of the Outline Business Case (OBC), we have got a compliance certificate of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) and it is our intention that we will take the OBC back to the Federal Executive Council perhaps by next Wednesday.

“We are on our way. As for the timeline, we will have this airline in 2022 by the grace of God and we will start with the domestic and escalate into international and we are partnering with so many. We are discussing and we will get the best deal for Nigeria and Nigerians because for sure, the market is there,” he said.

Sirika also stated that the country would concession its airports based on provisions of the law and it would not fail.

The Minister assured Nigerians that all is being done to make air transportation more affordable for citizens, through an improvement of facilities and services.

“Nigeria is a country of over 200 million people who are highly mobile. So, what we are doing is first and foremost, to develop the infrastructure that will make civil aviation function.

“And once that is done, it will increase the availability of the service and because there is more supply it will help in bringing down the price,” he said.

He said all the achievements he enumerated were contained in a roadmap developed for the aviation sector, which had since been approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Lateefah Ibrahim