Res Communis

Hearings in Nigeria over NigComSat-I

by P.J. Blount with the blog faculty

From the Nigerian newspaper Punch:

Reps make U-turn on $251.6m NigComSat-I project
By John Ameh
Published: Monday, 23 Feb 2009

The House of Representatives may pass a resolution asking the Federal Government to launch more communication satellites into orbit to strengthen Nigeria’s participation in space exploration.

Its Committee on Science and Technology, which is probing the failure of the country’s first commercial satellite – Nigeria Communication Satellite-I – is backing plans by the National Space Research and Development Agency and the Nigeria Communication Satellite Limited to embark on the building of NigComSat-II and NigComSat-III.

NigComSat-I, which was launched into orbit on May 13, 2007, in the twilight of the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, cost the country about $251.6m.

The spacecraft, however, failed and was de-orbited about 18 months later in November 2008.

The committee, headed by Mr. Abiodun Akinlade, conducted a two-day public hearing on the failure of NigComSat-I last week in Abuja.

A former Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Turner Isoun, who testified before the panel, had disclosed that the Federal Government knew that the project could fail but still went on with it because it wanted to prepare Nigeria for a future that would be controlled by space technology. . . .[Full Story]