The Nigerian Tribune is reporting that the total radar coverage of Nigeria is likely to be delayed indefinitely due to political wrangling and lack of money to clear the equipment from the port, where it has sat since last October
The total radar coverage of Nigeria’s airspace may not become a reality in the nearest future following the politicisation of the clearance of the radar components at the Lagos Apapa Wharf.
The development is coming as the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has written to President Umaru Yar’Adua to grant a waiver to it to enable it to clear the equipment rotting away at the wharf for over seven months.
Nigerian Tribune gathered on Monday that while the radar, which arrived since October was still at the wharf awaiting clearance, the second batch of the equipment had also arrived without any hope of clearance.
According to information, the agency directly responsible for the equipment, NAMA, might not be able to clear it as the clearance would cost close to N1 billion.
Sources told the Nigerian Tribune that while the firm responsible for the installation of the radar, Thales ATM of France, should be responsible for the clearance, NAMA was playing safe to avoid a situation where it would clear the equipment with its own fund since it had not been handed over to it.
Sources in the agency stated that the radar would have been cleared last year when the Federal Government gave it a waiver, but due to lack of money, the waiver expired without the equipment being cleared.
The situation, which is causing headache to NAMA and other relevant aviation agencies, has been compounded with the arrival of the second batch of the equipment.
While the firm responsible for the installation of the equipment is not willing to use its funds to clear the radar, NAMA was said not to have the means to clear it.