Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has told those canvassing the resignation of President Muhammadu Buhari over seemingly intractable security challenges to perish the thought as the President would serve out his term.
He also said military service chiefs will not be relieved of their posts because “government, which has provided and continues to provide the military and the security agencies with the wherewithal, believes in their ability to tackle insecurity.”
The Minister said Buhari “has an overwhelming mandate of Nigerians to preside over the affairs of the country till the expiration of his tenure in May 2023.”
At a briefing in Abuja on Friday, Mohammed also advised all commentators, especially political and religious leaders, to be very careful not to aggravate the situation with incendiary comments, comments that cash in on our religious, ethnic and political fault lines to further divide us.
“The kind of comments that have been attributed to some leaders, especially religious leaders, are incendiary and reckless.”
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On the $500 million (N153 billion) loan his ministry was seeking, the Minister said it would be used for a multiple of projects beyond modernising NTA stations.
According to him, of the amount, a headquarters complex and transmission network for Integrated Television Services (ITS), an FG-owned signal distributor that is a major component of the country’s Digital Switch Over (DSO) would be constructed; an ultra-modern Media City in Ikorodu that will have the following facilities would be built with many facilities; government will also acquire digital movie production equipment for rental as well as power system.
In addition, the government intends to establish Media City Training Academy that will train Nigerian broadcasters and filmmakers in the production of high-quality media content programmes and make Nigeria a hub for digital movie production in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Also, all NTA stations will be digitised, while part of the loan would also be deployed to upgrading, purchase and installation of relevant digital television broadcasting equipment compatible with DSO products and accessories that are necessary for the production and broadcast of digital programme contents, in addition to the provision of power system and manpower training.
While expressing regrets at the recent diversion of international flights into Lagos being diverted to Ghana due to bad weather, Mohammed explained that it was due to a faulty calibration of top-of-the-class CAT III instrument landing system installed at MMA.
“In its commitment to passenger safety and security, the Federal Government has recently taken the decision to upgrade the navigational facilities at some major airports across the country.
“Consequently, the navigational aids at airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt, Asaba, etc. were all marked for an upgrade from Category II Instrument Landing System (CAT II ILS) to top-of-the-class CAT III ILS.
“In the first phase, the CAT III ILS was procured and installed in Lagos and Abuja. In addition, the government procured a calibration aircraft instead of renting one each time for $500,000. Both Abuja and Lagos airports were calibrated.”
He stated that while CAT III ILS was working perfectly here in Abuja, some incorrect readings were noticed in the CAT III ILS at the MMA.
“Just as it was about to be re-calibrated, the weather situation in Lagos changed for the worse, hence the disruption of international flights into Lagos,” he said.
He expressed happiness that the two runways at the airport in Lagos have now been calibrated for CAT III ILS and NOTAM sent out.
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