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Reps Approve Bill To Compensate Airport Neighbours Over Noise, Emission
The House of Representatives has approved a bill seeking to create a special welfare package for people living around airports across Nigeria due to the environmental impact of the flights on their lives.
The Federal Airport Authority Act Amendment Bill 2021, which the House has passed for second reading, is to compensate residents around airports for what they suffer from the noise pollution and emission of the aircraft.
It is titled, ‘A Bill for an Act to Amend the Federal Airports Authority Act, Cap. F5, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 to Empower the Authority to Recognise the Environmental Challenges facing all the Communities Around Nigerian Airports and Therefore Engage and Involve the Communities in their Development Plans; and for Related Matters.’
Sponsor of the bill, Mr Ganiyu Johnson, in the lead debate, yesterday, noted that the proposal is to empower the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria to recognise the “environmental hazard facing the inhabitants of the Nigerian communities around the Nigerian airports due to the noise pollution, air pollution, waste and congestion occasioned by day to day air operation in the airport around their various communities.”
Johnson, who is representing Oshodi/Isolo II Federal Constituency in Lagos State, also noted that noise and emission have always been the major environmental issue in the field of aviation, which is primarily impacting residential communities close to airports.
Quoting the World Health Organisation (WHO), the lawmaker said it can cause several health-related problems both in the short and long-term such as community annoyance, sleep deprivation, cardiovascular diseases, lung cancer, heart disease and mental health issues.
“Even though aircraft are becoming less noisy due to important technological improvements, the expected long-term increase in the number of flights – even after the Covid-19 pandemic – means that more effort from all stakeholders to reduce noise and emission in the airport’s surrounding areas will be crucial,” he added.
Johnson further said, “Usually, people living in residential areas around airports are the ones who get affected the most by aircraft noise and emission and therefore they are also the ones who tend to suffer more often from these environmental hazards and are always hungry for quick solutions. The most common complaints are caused by increases in the number of flights, as well as night-time and low-altitude flights.
“Meanwhile, in addition to the above listed problems facing the people living around our airports is air mishap. It is a most traumatic and tragic one. It is a scientific fact that 80 per cent of all plane crashes happen within the first three minutes of takeoff or in the last eight minutes’ prior to landing. This is because during these phases, the airplane is close to the ground and record has shown that most plane crashes in Nigeria happen not far from an airport.”
Nigerians may experience an increase in the prices of premium energy products diesel and petrol as the Dangote Petroleum Refinery temporarily halts the sale of petroleum products in Naira.
“This decision is necessary to avoid a mismatch between our sales proceeds and our crude oil purchase obligations, which are currently denominated in US dollars,” the company said in a statement yesterday.
The $20billion refinery based in Lagos said the sales of its products in Naira have exceeded the value of Naira-denominated crude it has received from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
“As a result, we must temporarily adjust our sales currency to align with our crude procurement currency,” the company explained.
The refinery said it remained committed to serving the Nigerian market and would resume the sale of its product to the local market in Naira as soon as it received crude cargoes from the NNPCL in Naira.
“As soon as we receive an allocation of Naira-denominated crude cargoes from NNPC, we will promptly resume petroleum product sales in Naira,” it said.
The announcement by the refinery comes amid its price war with the NNPCL.
As part of moves to reduce the strain on the US dollars, and guarantee price stability of petroleum products, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in July 2024, directed the NNPCL to sell crude oil to Dangote Refinery and other local refineries in naira and not in United States’ greenback.
In the beginning of March 2025, the NNPCL said its Naira-denominated crude sales agreement with the Dangote Refinery was structured for six months with March 2025 as the expiration date.
The state company, however, said that talks were on to replace the contract, and that over 48 million barrels of crude oil have been made available to Dangote Refinery since October 2024 under the Naira-denominated arrangement.
The NNPCL also said it had made over 84 million barrels of crude oil available to the private refinery since it commenced operations in 2023.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, faces energy challenges, with all its state-owned refineries non-operational for decades until 2024. The country was heavily reliant on imported refined petroleum products, with the state-run NNPCL being the major importer of the essential commodities.
Fuel queues are commonplace in the country. Prices of petrol more than quadrupled since the removal of subsidy in May 2023 by President Bola Tinubu, from around ¦ 200/litre to about ¦ 1,000/litre, compounding the woes of the citizens who power their vehicles, and generating sets with petrol, no thanks to decades-long epileptic electricity supply.
Last December, the billionaire industrialist commenced operations at the facility situated in Lagos with 350,000 barrels a day. The refinery, which was initially bogged by regulatory battles, hopes to achieve its full capacity of 650,000 barrels per day by the end of the year. The refinery has begun the supply of diesel and aviation fuel to marketers in the country and now petrol.
Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna has overtaken Egypt’s Omar Assar to become Africa’s highest-ranked player in the world, now sitting at 18th in the week 12 ranking released on Tuesday.
Aruna moved up from 19th place in week 11 to 18th in the latest ranking, while Assar dropped from 17th to 19th.
Denmark’s Jonathan Groth took over Assar’s 17th place, moving up from 18th.
Despite finishing as runner-up at the 2025 ITTF Africa Cup, Aruna’s impressive performances at the WTT tournaments this year have boosted his ranking.
Aruna remains the only African male player to have reached the semi-finals of the WTT Contender Doha, repeating his 2023 feat earlier this year in January.
This achievement has propelled him ahead of Assar, who beat him to become the champion of the 2025 ITTF Africa Cup.
Aruna’s next tournament is the WTT Contender Chennai which serves off in India from March 23 to 20.
In the women’s singles, Egypt’s Hana Goda maintained her top spot in Africa, moving up one place to 26th in the week 12 ITTF ranking. Her compatriot, Dina Meshref, remained static at 33rd, holding her position as the second-best-ranked female player in Africa.
China’s Wang Chuqin retained his position as the second-best player globally, behind his compatriot Lin Shidong, who continues to hold the top spot. Japanese superstar Tomokazu Harimoto dethroned China’s Liang Jingkun as the third-best player in the world after his semifinal finish in Chongqing.
In the women’s ranking, the top five remained unchanged, with China’s Sun Yingsha holding onto her top spot after retaining her WTT Champions Chongqing title.