http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=115775

Lagos-bound aircraft were yesterday directed to land in Port Harcourt due to power outage that incapacitated the radar and air traffic control at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos.

THISDAY Checks showed that the radar had been down since Monday.

The Managing Director of the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Capt Ado Sanusi, who spoke to THISDAY in a telephone interview confirmed the incident and explained that the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) cut electricity supply to the agency's facilities at the airport.

A senior air traffic controller also told THISDAY that the radar was not active on Monday but noted that controllers were using procedural system to land aircraft at the Airport. According to an Air Traffic Controller, FAAN cut electricity supply to NAMA and the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) had not supplied electricity to the airport since Monday, as the company said that it was providing service to other areas of Lagos .

The safety implication of the non-functioning of the radar system is that aircraft that do not have enough back-up fuel may not be able to go to Port Harcourt Airport for landing. Procedural system is manual and air traffic controllers use estimation to direct aircraft in the air; its imperfection may give rise to collision of aircraft.

But Sanusi told THISDAY that the agency considered closing the airspace in Lagos due to the power outage but the situation was saved when the agency secured a generating set that was able to power the radar, the control tower and the Area Control Centre (ACC).

Sanusi also explained that the reason why FAAN was unable to supply electricity to NAMA was due to the fact that the agency has bad electric cables.
"FAAN has refused to give us electricity. In fact, we are thinking of closing the airspace. I learnt that FAAN has problem with their electricity cables, but we have been able to put on a generating set which is able to carry our radar, the control tower and the Area Control Centre."

The Director-General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr Harold Demuren, confirmed the report and said that NAMA had moved to resolve the problem by providing a generator

I guess it was 'Aviation OCCULT' that took power?

I guess it was 'Aviation OCCULT' that made OBJ spent $16 billion and no power anywhere?

This country is a waste. Even in Zimbabwe the aiport still function well.

We need nuclear power to counter the occultic powers in Nigeria

abdurrazaq:

We need nuclear power to counter the occult powers in Nigeria

That would be new idea to siphon money away from Nigeria.

Then, like of 'Fani Boy' will blame it on celestia occult

This is so embarrassing to say the least. However,

According to an Air Traffic Controller, FAAN cut electricity supply to NAMA and the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) had not supplied electricity to the airport since Monday, as the company said that it was providing service to other areas of Lagos .

How concerned they are

i support abdurrazaq completely.

That Sanusi that was interviewed was saying that they almos shut down the airspace but thanks to a generating set they were able to provide at the last minute.

Since the availability of fuel to run this generator set is under threat may be they will have to speed up this nuclear power project. At least before directing it's use to counter occultic powers

@ehie007, Please will you nominate me to be the next NIGERIAN NUCLEAR MINISTER. I have a Phd in the study of Nuclear physics. My latest discovery is that radio-active elements can actually be used to cast out evil and demonic spirits.

abdurrazaq:

@ehie007, Please will you nominate me to be the next NIGERIAN NUCLEAR MINISTER. I have a Phd in the study of Nuclear physics. My latest discovery is that radio-active elements can actually be used to cast out evil and demonic spirits.

why nuclear minister? have total control and embezzle more than the predecessors?
fact is everyone aspire to hold political post in nigeria cos of the obvious. make yourself an hero by being the first person to develop a nuclear plant in nigeria. You don't have to be a minister to achieve this i tell ya

@ topic

how sad!! giant of africa for that matter. which way 2 go fatherland?

landis, you no good o. See how you put the "international" in italics?!?!

jay bee:

why nuclear minister? have total control and embezzle more than the predecessors?
fact is everyone aspire to hold political post in nigeria because of the obvious. make yourself an hero by being the first person to develop a nuclear plant in nigeria. You don't have to be a minister to achieve this i tell ya

Would you be generous enough to let me build the nuclear plant very near to your house? Your safety is guaranteed I swear!

near my house?
nuclear plants aren't built near residential homes dude. We have enough jungles in naij that they can reside on.
I have visited numerous plants in the UK (nation that shows the importance of diversifying into alternative energy) so i know what i'm talking about.

@jay bee, just kidding. But seriously can you immagine the PHCN stating that they had been supplying power to the rest of Lagos and, that was the reason they couldn't supply the Airport power. It is annoying because as far as I know, I don't think anybody really living in Lagos will tell you that they have access to electricity during the period claimed by the PHCN. They can't manage Airport, only God knows what will become of Nigeria if we finally get this nuclear plant thing working

abdurrazaq:

Would you be generous enough to let me build the nuclear plant very near to your house? Your safety is guaranteed I swear!

"Your safety is guaranteed I swear!"

I know that nuclear energy is a tested safe/secured optional way forward because a lot of safety procedures gets incorporated into building one. I can educate you on it but since you are a nuclear physicist then i'd advise you to research on AGR power stations.

I was traveling one time, Nepa/Phcn took light and the conveyor i
was on stopped abruptly, flinging i and my sister on the ground with all our stuff spilled
when they finally brought light , it was a terrible sight

@jay bee, I am not a Nuclear Physicist ooo. . I was just kidding then. Please educate me.

abdurrazaq:

@jay bee, just kidding. But seriously can you immagine the PHCN stating that they had been supplying power to the rest of Lagos and, that was the reason they couldn't supply the Airport power. It is annoying because as far as I know, I don't think anybody really living in Lagos will tell you that they have access to electricity during the period claimed by the PHCN. They can't manage Airport, only God knows what will become of Nigeria if we finally get this nuclear plant thing working

Kool. but a burning question is on the airport itself if it's privately owned.
If it is then i'm sure they can generate their own alternative energy and stop the continual blaming of PHCN, over reliance on diesel powered generators.
They can build a small wind farm (obviously not near the run way because of visibility)
Solar panels mounted somewhat near the control panel
Hydro-thermal plants to generate even more power so as to drive the essentials like lighting's and stuffs.

we all know PHCN is a dire state of emergency but what are we doing about it? Innovations need to evolve as only that way will ensure our competitiveness with the western world

Copied from one of my earlier post.

"Nuclear energy is very secure (offcourse no one can guarantee 100%). Only critical disaster in Europe is Chernobyl and their have been further developments in the nuclear industry to make it safe. Enough regulations that the power plants have to adhere to if u ask me (minimal risk of sabotage).

Only problem for now is where to dispose the waste products (again solution for this is not far away)

Now a little insight on how it works
How an AGR (Advanced Gas cooled reactor) power station works

In an advanced gas-cooled (AGR) station a controlled chain reaction generates heat which turns water into steam. The steam then powers turbines which, in turn, drive the electrical generators.

The Reactor
At the heart of the reactor is a graphite core called the moderator. Running vertically through this core are tubes containing uranium called fuel channels. The moderator has a vital role to play as it slows down the neutrons released by the fuel so that they will interact with other uranium atoms and sustain the chain reaction (This is needed to generate excess heat which boils the water and in turn produces enough steam that drives the turbine).
The Pre-stressed Pressure Vessel
Each reactor is encased in a concrete pressure vessel which acts as a barrier against radiation from the reactor and as a container for the carbon dioxide coolant gas. The walls vary in thickness from 3.8 metres to 6 metres and are pre-stressed by heavy steel wires wound from top to bottom and around the reactor (The thickness of the wall will withstand any man made threat so as to keep the threat of likeage of radiation a no contest) .
Each of the fuel channels in the graphite core continues upwards in a steel tube called a standpipe, sealed at the top, which links to the top surface of the pressure vessel, known as the pile cap.


Fuel Transport
An example of how secure it is "There has never been a fuel flask accident involving the release of radioactivity. Their safety was demonstrated in July 1984 at Old Dalby testing track, when a nuclear flask was placed in the path of an on-coming locomotive and three carriages travelling at 100mph. The flask remained wholly intact and pressure tight, sustaining nothing more than a little shallow denting and superficial damage to its cooling fins (saw the flask with my own koro koro eyes and it's still present at heysham power station near morecambe). The locomotive was not so fortunate – it was written off"

@jay bee. Thanks a lot. I will do more research on it myself. I hope this is going to be of very importance to my dream profession - Quantity Surveying.
Thnaks once more

another very important safety measure that wasn't mentioned in my previous post is:
electrical/electronics engineers design/control a control system (they use programmable integrated circuits to control/monitor all sort of parameters for the main purpose of shutting the reaction down (they will automatically drop rods into the reactor which in turn stops the fission))
some of the parameters will be:
If the temperature is above x degrees then check if other parameters are true, if true activate the release button to drop the rod. if not alert the engineers. (d engineers on dis site will get my gist. all d parameters will probably be written in c language)

I know systems cannot be 100 % accurate but they get maintained and tested almost everyday by the physicist/engineers on board 24/7. They will also have the manual intervention button that can trigger a shutdown in-case of malfunctioning.

abdurrazaq:

@jay bee. Thanks a lot. I will do more research on it myself. I hope this is going to be of very importance to my dream profession - Quantity Surveying.
Thnaks once more

Gud luck with your chosen career path. all d best

In the future Port Harcourt airport should hire teams of airport "runway-lightmen", whose job would be to stand at intervals along both edges of the arrival runway holding diesel-soaked rags and cigarette lighters at the ready.

Then, utilizing their "human radar" ears to judge the approximate distance of approaching jets, air-traffic controllers would lean out of the tower window to signal with flashlights for the runway-lightmen to flick their cigarette lighters and ignite their fuel-soaked rags into fires that would illuminate the runway for touchdown.  During the entire process, cell-phone communication would continue between the pilot and the tower, depending on whose handset carried more air-time credit at that moment - an innovative new Nigerian ATC practice that renders conventional aircraft navigation radio equipment obsolete.  

By Aricanizing airport navigation facilities so as to reduce and ultimately discontinue the Nigerian aviation industry's dependence on electricity and costly refurbished equipment from the former Soviet Union, Nigeria will shortly confound its detractors by becoming an inspirational beacon of hope to all who once clung to out-dated notions that mains electricity and airport infrastructure are somehow essential to safe air travel.

Have u ever heard that anything functions well in this country? Why not let this country adopt the use of solar energy to generate power and let's see if some Head of NAMA will come up with"there wasn't enough sunlight to power the solar panel enough to generate adequate electricity, ".

UTTER STUPIDITY AND LACK OF COMPETENCE!!! The PHCN and Murtala Airport should go bury their heads (or lack thereof) in shame. The statement made by the PHCN is the most stupid thing I have ever heard in my life!!! How can u cut power supply to a friggin international airport and the busiest in Nigeria (maybe even West Africa) at that to focus on "other areas". They are just dumb. Who the hell makes these kind of decisions? Next week you'll hear the idiots demanding a payrise. If I were them I would just keep quiet and thank God they haven't reduced my pay (cos I would if I were in charge of Nigeria). Idiots!!!!

Murtala International Airport = The shame of a nation. What kind of impression does this give visitors to the country? Huh? Every airport should have an automatic backup supply of electricity (no need to start mentioning nuclear energy here cos it takes years to plan a plant and about 6 years on average to build a significantly large one). All these guys had to do was have an automatic standby generator like they do in other countries. This isn't the first time the airport has fallen short. In december, I was on a flight to Nigeria from London and when we were about to land in Lagos we couldn't because of the fog and lack of appropriate facilities to guide us to a safe landing. We had to divert all the way to Accra (where the weather was even worse mind you) and wait about two hours for the fog to clear before heading back to Lagos. On getting to Lagos, my flight to Port Harcourt was delayed a further 3 hours which I understand is a normal thing.

Please people, let's not even start talking about nuclear energy. If we can't provide backup electricity or equipment to land an aircraft in a supposedly international airport during bad weather, what makes you think the Nigerian government is going to have the competence to manage a nuclear plant?

Although I cannot be certain of this, I think the PHCN (Please Hold Candle Now) would be the ones responsible for the nuclear plant if it came to be. God Forbid bad thing like that.

DISGUSTING SITUATION!!!!!!!!!!! And then you have a minister blaming juju for plane crashes. In the Abuja- Port Harcourt plane crash of 2005 if there had been water (WATER!!!!) at the airport a lot of my sister's friends and the other victims would have survived that crash.

GOD HELP NIGERIA.
AMEN.

dezy:

Have u ever heard that anything functions well in this country? Why not let this country adopt the use of solar energy to generate power and let's see if some Head of NAMA will come up with"there wasn't enough sunlight to power the solar panel enough to generate adequate electricity, ".

Total agree with ya but need to add/reiterate the need not to over rely on one mode of power generation.
all the modes need to be combined so as to form a good adequate power source for the ever degrading international airport

i dont see anything strange in MMIA having a power outage. this is nigeria, where 2 ships dissappeared under lock and key, where cows strayed on an international airport tarmac, where you can embezzle all the money you like (afterall EFCC will detain you for less than a week then you can get bail), where in short, anything goes. don't be surprised one day aircrafts might want to land and the entire airport might be missing! the black race is cursed! it is the truth.

don't be surprised one day aircrafts might want to land and the entire airport might be missing! the black race is cursed! it is the truth.

that is a good one.

yet we have $60bill stashed away. OBJ spent $16bill to buy us darkness.

It is scary flying to Nigeria airspace now.

this country is a joke.

When/how will we be outraged into doing something, no matter how little to start the change we all so much desire
All these crooks don't we know them
Are they aliens? Non-Nigerians, not our parents, kids, uncles, aunties, cousins, nephews, friends, colleagues, churchmate, ex-schoolmate etc Whose connection we seek seriously and attend their parties or even organise award ceremonies to acknowledge they have arrived and we also want to arrive
Are they not honoured with chieftaincy titles, christian and m'uslim leadership roles in our midst
Do we not know civil servants and private sector workers who live definitely above their legitimate income saying them don cut deal - smart alecs
How many of us actually pay our PHCN bills promptly even when we are not supplied any electricity since we rented their metre and are connected to the national grid on standby for whenever there is electricity
Ok, no be our fault all the above, na good leader wey we no get, no be so Make we dey sleep dey go!

anonimi:

When/how will we be outraged into doing something, no matter how little to start the change we all so much desire
All these crooks don't we know them
Are they aliens? Non-Nigerians, not our parents, kids, uncles, aunties, cousins, nephews, friends, colleagues, churchmate, ex-schoolmate etc Whose connection we seek seriously and attend their parties or even organise award ceremonies to acknowledge they have arrived and we also want to arrive
Are they not honoured with chieftaincy titles, christian and m'uslim leadership roles in our midst
Do we not know civil servants and private sector workers who live definitely above their legitimate income saying them don cut deal - smart alecs
How many of us actually pay our PHCN bills promptly even when we are not supplied any electricity since we rented their metre and are connected to the national grid on standby for whenever there is electricity
Ok, no be our fault all the above, na good leader wey we no get, no be so Make we dey sleep dey go!

I'm compelled to agree with you. For Nigeria to run better it has to start from the ground up. Kids asking their parents to do the right thing, parents pleading with their children to do the right thing. Uncles and aunties telling their nieces and nephew to do the right thing and friends telling their friends not to cheat on that WAEC math paper. Until we start to do this in Nigeria we are doomed to continue this downward spiral. However this is all ideological

Hoping for all this to happen is being extremely optimistic. I have friends in uni already telling of their plans on becoming governor or minister so they can embezzle enough money to buy this and that. Is that the attitude we need? No!!! I do try to talk to these people but they just laugh me off, which is sad really. The current generation in power should not place all their hopes on my generation hoping we would do the right thing. When we see our elders behaving the way they have what hope do we have? How many Nigerians in the public eye can we genuinely say we look up to and are of sound character. There are very few.

As I said hoping for change in Nigeria at this point is ideological and in my opinion not a very realistic dream. I feel what we need is a smart and well educated president with an iron grip. Someone who is willing to send anyone who does something as little as throwing litter on the road into jail or forcing them to pay a significant fine (say 30% of their salary or so). Someone who is willing to jail any government official found guilty of corruption for life (no special treatment).

I know this might seem harsh but let's face it, democracy cannot succeed in Nigeria. We need to instill fear in the citizens in the hope that one day in the future, we are all of a civillised mindset because of those fears of our past and are able to say no to corruption.

Extreme I kow but neccessary.

Nigeria has to be in darkness so that some people can sell generators, petrol and diesel on a continuous basis.

imhotep:

Nigeria has to be in darkness so that some people can sell generators, petrol and diesel on a continuous basis.

with attitude like this even though it's reality then we shouldn't be surprised that it is what it is with naij (free falling decay into oblivion).
Why do y'all keep accepting whatever fate all 'em bastards bestow upon y'all?
Wanna know why der probably wouldn't be any change in naij anytime soon? maybe because the so called leaders have realised that naij's citizen are no hoppers that will sit back and continue to accept whatever suffering they lash out to them.

anonimi:

When/how will we be outraged into doing something, no matter how little to start the change we all so much desire
All these crooks don't we know them
Are they aliens? Non-Nigerians, not our parents, kids, uncles, aunties, cousins, nephews, friends, colleagues, churchmate, ex-schoolmate etc Whose connection we seek seriously and attend their parties or even organise award ceremonies to acknowledge they have arrived and we also want to arrive
Are they not honoured with chieftaincy titles, christian and m'uslim leadership roles in our midst
Do we not know civil servants and private sector workers who live definitely above their legitimate income saying them don cut deal - smart alecs
How many of us actually pay our PHCN bills promptly even when we are not supplied any electricity since we rented their metre and are connected to the national grid on standby for whenever there is electricity
Ok, no be our fault all the above, na good leader wey we no get, no be so Make we dey sleep dey go!

rightly said.
Charity begins at home. unless we begin to ask questions and demand for answers at all levels, until then, Nigeria cannot b d nation of our dreams.

bebure:

As I said hoping for change in Nigeria at this point is ideological and in my opinion not a very realistic dream. I feel what we need is a smart and well educated president with an iron grip. Someone who is willing to send anyone who does something as little as throwing litter on the road into jail or forcing them to pay a significant fine (say 30% of their salary or so). Someone who is willing to jail any government official found guilty of corruption for life (no special treatment).

I know this might seem harsh but let's face it, democracy cannot succeed in Nigeria. We need to instill fear in the citizens in the hope that one day in the future, we are all of a civillised mindset because of those fears of our past and are able to say no to corruption.

Extreme I kow but neccessary.

this leadership u describe here is only attained revolutionarily. This is due to the fact that the system as presently constituted cannot enable us to to position such a leader in power. I am an advocate of an intellectual revolution pioneered by this generation. Which can only be done collectively
By setting standards of practice at all levels, in individual, cooporate and public capabilities.
By living up to these standards and becoming ideal role models for other unborn generations.
By setting an intellectual and welfarist driven frame work on a long term basis to formulate policies and progressive concepts and ideas that reflect on our societal.cultural and religious diversity, to bring out 100m nigerians from the trenches of poverty.
By offering leadership at the political level to orchestrate this revolution
By risking all to gain all. . . . . being able to pay the ultimate price. . . . . . which cld lead to death.

We all just need to stand up to b counted.