President Muhammadu Buhari has given assent to five bills passed and transmitted to him by the National Assembly, his Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly Matters (House of Representatives), Umar El Yakub, on Wednesday said
These bills are Obafemi Awolowo University (transition provisions) Amendment bill 2019, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi Amendment bill 2019, University of Maiduguri (Amendment bill) 2019, National Fertilizer Quality Control bill 2019, and Nigeria Council of Food Science and Technology (establishment bill) 2019.
The University Amendment Bill according to the Presidential Aide, is to ensure that only persons with a minimum of university degrees are appointed as Chairmen of Governing Councils of universities.
He further hinted that the bill expressly provides that aggrieved members of staff or students of such institutions should give a month’s notice before instituting a lawsuit against the authorities.
El Yakub added that the National Fertilizer Quality Control Bill, he said it is intended to ensure that farmers and farm produce are protected by law.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the House Committee on Air Force, Shehu Koko (APC-Kebbi) assured that the Committee would engage its United States counterpart to hasten the delivery of the Tucano jets paid for by the Federal Government.
The Federal Government had in 2018 paid $496,374,470 for the super jets which are to be delivered in 2020.
Koko, while speaking at the inaugural meeting of the Committee in Abuja assured the Air Force of the Committee’s relentless support to uplift the standard of the Air Force.
He commended the Air Force for decorating the first female fighter jet pilot and a female helicopter pilot after over 55 years of its existence, saying it was a thing of pride for the Force, for the Committee and for the country at large
“We contacted the United State Congress Committee on Air Force and I want to assure the Air Force that by January next year, we are going to engage the committee on our Super Tucanos.
We are aware of the engagements and the money pumped into it, we have promised to do something about it,” Koko said.
In his remarks, the Chief of Air Staff, Sadiq Abubakar said the Nigerian Air Force had launched six different operations to tackle insecurity and other forms of criminality in the different parts of the country.
Abubakar noted that security could only be achieved when there is proper communication between those charged with the responsibility of protecting the people and the parliament.
He said in the last five years, the Nigerian Air Force had done everything humanly possible to protect the lives of Nigerians and the territorial integrity of the country.
“In the past five years, the NAF has flown about 65,000 hours in order to ensure that our country remains fairly secure and our people are able to substantially go about their business without hindrance. Out of these number of hours, we flew about 21,912 hours in the North East alone; we have tried to project air power within and outside the country.
“We were in Malawi to deliver Federal Government relief materials; we were in Mozambique during the flood disaster to deliver relief materials. We were in the Gambia to support the democratic process under the ECOWAS mandate and we are the only force that went there with fighter jet; we were in Sierra Leone and then in Cameroon,” Abubakar said.
The Air Chief added that the Nigerian Air Force had been conducting medical outreach for victims of crisis and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) as a way of winning their hearts for the Nigerian troops and commended the National Assembly for passing the bill that seeks to establish the Air Force Institute of Science and Technology.
