Nigeria is spending millions to put a man into space – as Britain hands it more than £1billionin foreign aid.

The oil-rich country, which has accepted £300million this year alone, has set in train ambitious plans to launch its own rockets.

And the first Nigerian astronauts are being trained to join Russian, Chinese or American missions within the next two years.

Space race: A Nigerian engineer at work on one of the country's satellites developed in a British laboratory

Last night critics asked why Britain was, in effect, subsidising a space programme for a nation where 70 per cent of people live below the poverty line.

This latest controversy came just two days after Ukip MEP Godfrey Bloom ignited a fierce debate by saying it was folly to give billions in aid to ‘Bongo Bongo land’.


Big spending: Nigeria has already launched these surveillance rockets from Russia as part of its plans to join the space race

Yesterday David Cameron said the remarks were offensive and accused Mr Bloom of being guilty of a ‘stop the world I want to get off’ approach to foreign aid.

The £1.14billion Nigeria will receive over the five years of the Coalition is double the £500million set aside to prop up struggling accident and emergency departments at our own hospitals.

Backbench Tory MP Philip Davies said it was ‘totally unjustifiable and unaffordable’ for Britain to give this money to Nigeria, given the scale of its ‘grandiose’ space programme.

‘We cannot go around the world saying “don’t worry, we will feed your public for you while you waste your money on all sorts of other projects”,’ he said.

‘We have got to say to these countries “you have got to spend that money on your people where it’s most needed not on some grandiose space programme”. We are against welfare dependency at home but at the same time we are encouraging welfare dependency abroad.’

The row surrounding Mr Bloom flared when he insisted that sending aid to Africa was tantamount to treason.

He added: ‘How we can possibly be giving a billion pounds a month, when we’re in this sort of debt, to Bongo Bongo land is completely beyond me.’

He claimed foreign leaders frittered the money away on ‘Ray-Ban sunglasses, apartments in Paris and Ferraris’

He was widely criticised for using the term ‘Bongo Bongo land’ but many commentators believe he was right about the building resentment over spiralling foreign aid.

The Department for International Development’s budget is rising by 35 per cent in real terms by 2015. But while aid costs are ballooning, spending on the military, the police, border control and care homes is being slashed.

Britain is also spending about £280million a year on aid to India, another country with its own space programme. Despite Nigeria having the second-highest national income of all African countries, most of its people still live in poverty. It is also mired in corruption. The most modest estimates suggest between £2.5 and £5billion is stolen from the state’s coffers every year by corrupt officials and politicians.

Jonathan Isaby from the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘When budgets are tight both for families and the Government alike, people cannot understand why ministers are sending more and more of our hard-earned cash overseas.

‘Taxpayers find it especially unacceptable when their money is sent abroad as aid to developing countries which then somehow find sufficient cash to fund the likes of a space programme.

‘It is totally unacceptable that British taxpayers’ money is effectively subsidising Nigeria’s efforts to send an astronaut into space.’

Nigeria’s space programme started in 2003 but its first satellite lost power and disappeared from orbit.

It now has three in space, NigComSat-1R, NigeriaSat-2 and Nigeria-Sat X, the first to be constructed by Nigerian engineers.

Although it has bought its own satellites and launched on Russian rockets, Nigeria has built laboratories which it hopes will produce its own space craft by 2028.

The National Space Research and Development Agency confirmed Nigerian astronauts should be trained and ready for space travel within two years.

In July this year, NASRDA’s director general, Professor Seidu Onailo Mohammed, declared: ‘By our road map we are supposed to have astronauts prepared by 2015. Before the end of the year, the recruitment of astronauts will begin so that we have them handy and as soon as we get the nod we can pick from that number.’

The Nigerian government has not released detailed figures on how much it is spending onits space programme, but it is thought to be hundreds of millions of pounds a year.

British aid to Nigeria will increase by 116 per cent under the Coalition government, from £141million in 2010/11 to £305million in 2014/15. It amounts to a total of £1.14billion over five years.

Last night a spokesman for the Department for International Development said spending aid money in Nigeria would help cut crime and illegal immigration in Britain.

‘No UK aid money goes through the Nigerian government,’ she said. ‘Our investment goes into specific health, education and poverty reduction programmes. Nigeria is home to a quarter of the poorest people in Africa, and supporting their development will benefit our own trade and security.’


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2387338/As-Cameron-attacks-Bongo-Bongo-MEP--How-1billion-cash-used-help-Nigeria-join-space-race.html

So Nigeria is now called bongo bongo land? naija don suffer.

Arosa: So Nigeria is now called bongo bongo land? naija don suffer.

lolz

Arosa: So Nigeria is now called bongo bongo land? naija don suffer.

Not just Naija, but Africa as a whole.

The row surrounding Mr Bloom flared when he insisted that sending aid to Africa was tantamount to treason.

That man is bad belle we must go to space oh!

Though,being in the space race would enhance our status as one of the countries who have sent rockets to space,I think we have very many things to battle with at home! Ranging from a dilapidated educational and health care systems to mass scale corruption and poverty,we have much to contend with as a nation,and adding a space race ambition to it would merely increase what we already have to contend with!

SPACE RACE CAN WAIT FOR THE MEAN TIME!

Except the government is trying to run bankrupt and make a mockery of us in the eyes of the international community as being a country whose citizens are being fed by another country,then I suggest that the grandiose space ambition be jettisoned!

One of them is lying I can't see the signs that they are giving us money. Where is the evidence ?

The daily fail has just written another bogus article designed to whip up racist sentiments against immigrants...

I'm sure even the Editor that penned this horseshit does not believe that the western and chinese governments give 'financial aid' to any African country without expecting to earn treble or quadruple the amount given in contracts and concessions...

The general British Nazi populace dont understand that their main source of sustenance is international trade exploitation, but their power brokers do...

I dare them to stop giving their 'aid' and watch the last bastions of the empire crumble within a decade...

Danhumprey: Though,being in the space race would enhance our status as one of the countries who have sent rockets to space,I think we have very many things to battle with at home! Ranging from a dilapidated educational and health care systems to mass scale corruption and poverty,we have much to contend with as a nation,and adding a space race ambition to it would merely increase what we already have to contend with!

SPACE RACE CAN WAIT FOR THE MEAN TIME!

Except the government is trying to run bankrupt and make a mockery of us in the eyes of the international community as being a country whose citizens are being fed by another country,then I suggest that the grandiose space ambition be jettisoned!

Sorry dude the space race can't wait, this is one of the few Nigeria projects that can bring pride to Nigerians home and abroad. Plus it will be silly to stall the project now that we have come this far. Like homesteady said;

we must go to space oh

Arosa: So Nigeria is now called bongo bongo land? naija don suffer.

Lmao! It sounded like kuvikiland in the movie called: bones!

On the topic! The 1.5 billion pounds are they sure its aids or loans? If it is aids then its totally stupid of them, it should either be a loan or they channel it to pressing human needs!

I don't support them giving aids to develop space crafts when we need that for other basic pressing needs!

Is this the aid that the PM cameron threatened to withdraw if nigeria does not support gay rights? If it is, then they should gladly tell him to take his yeye aid!

Danhumprey: Though,being in the space race would enhance our status as one of the countries who have sent rockets to space,I think we have very many things to battle with at home! Ranging from a dilapidated educational and health care systems to mass scale corruption and poverty,we have much to contend with as a nation,and adding a space race ambition to it would merely increase what we already have to contend with!

SPACE RACE CAN WAIT FOR THE MEAN TIME!

Except the government is trying to run bankrupt and make a mockery of us in the eyes of the international community as being a country whose citizens are being fed by another country,then I suggest that the grandiose space ambition be jettisoned!

Seriously bro. Are they sharing money on space? Nigeria and her bragging attitude! People never chop finish na space. Very soon we will hear that unemployment hits astronauts. Fast life, slow thinkers.

misplaced priorities

BedLam: Seriously bro. Are they sharing money on space? Nigeria and her bragging attitude! People never chop finish na space. Very soon we will hear that unemployment hits astronauts. Fast life, slow thinkers.

So because una never chop finish naija no go go space? India wen never chop bell full no go space, abi hunger no dey China?

Arosa:

Sorry dude the space race can't wait, this is one of the few Nigeria projects that can bring pride to Nigerians home and abroad. Plus it will be silly to stall the project now that we have come this far. Like homesteady said;

I SAID IT, PRIDE!

ALL NA PACKAGING ABI?

BedLam: I SAID IT, PRIDE!

ALL NA PACKAGING ABI?

Person wen no get pride, which kind life him dey live?

Arosa:

So because una never chop finish naija no go go space? India wen never chop bell full no go space, abi hunger no dey China?

What is the use of the space program? Just tell me. Universities are substandard, hospitals are not well equipped, no better aeronautic school..... Etc. Now let me tell u, you are comparing China and India....... Lol. There are 80 universities in Beijing and India has some of the best medical practitioners...... So tell me bro, what's the use?

Don't expect a racists like Mr. Bloom to be happy Nigeria is competing in the space race. But I trust the broader mind of their Prime Minister to over-rule such a reckless and petty prejudice.
This can be likened to the worries of Gov Fashola of Lagos state, Nigeria who is sending non Lagosians home, obviously for fear that the economy of the former nation's capital is technically being run by outsiders

BedLam: What is the use of the space program? Just tell me. Universities are substandard, hospitals are not well equipped, no better aeronautic school..... Etc. Now let me tell u, you are comparing China and India....... Lol. There are 80 universities in Beijing and India has some of the best medical practitioners...... So tell me bro, what's the use?

You come across as a smart guy to me, but seriously are you asking me about the usefulness of a space program for Nigeria? China has more than a billion people so what is the big deal in them having 80 universities in Beijing. And about India having some of the best medical practitioners, Nigeria also has some of the best medical practitioners, although many have travelled overseas.

Arosa:

You come across as a smart guy to me, but seriously are you asking me about the usefulness of a space program for Nigeria? China has more than a billion people so what is the big deal in them having 80 universities in Beijing. And about India having some of the best medical practitioners, Nigeria also has some of the best medical practitioners, although many have travelled overseas.

Dude Nigerians go to India for medical treatment and education, we import almost everything from China.
We are like a man living under a bridge but trying to buy a Range Rover.

A-ZeD:

Dude Nigerians go to India for medical treatment and education, we import almost everything from China.
We are like a man living under a bridge but trying to buy a Range Rover.

Dude! there are more hungry people in India than the whole of Africa, what is your point?

Nigeria a Bongo Bongo land, cuts the picture of a full grown congnitive adult blessed and so endowed by mother nature yet suffers lack and want. That 70% of its population still lives below the basic universally accepted standard of living is more than enough reason for its citizens to demand justice be done.

It is a display of acute stupidity. Except for individual mechanic shops hiding somewhere in Nigeria, there is no place to wield metals together in Nigeria. I bet you no university in Nigeria has a place metals could be wielded together. Vulcanization can not go beyond roadside bicycle repairer in Nigeria yet the drunk fools are talking about space.

space program ko, quantum program ni. What is the details of the space program and what are its aims and objectives. How is it possible to have a space program when we do not have a power program, an transportation program, an agriculture program, an education program, an industrial program and all other necessary programs. Even the present so called space program rely on the chinese to do build the rockets and launch the satellites, we are told that we only monitor the satellites from a control centre located in Abuja.

We do not have any idea of what happened to the much hyped nigcomsat1 and 2.

If the British love space programs so much, why don't they spend the $1 billion on their own space program. Because as of today, I am not aware the UK has a space program. This sounds like a huge fraud on the british tax payers or a scam on Nigeria by the Uk.