Air Peace, a private Nigerian airline, and the governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, and St Vincent and the Grenadines have concluded plans to revive a longtime regional carrier, Leeward Islands Air Transportation Limited, which is currently in comatose.

Last December, the airline’s administrator, Cleveland Seaforth, announced that the final flight of the airline would be in late January and by February 4, employees of the air transport company would be laid off.

According to an AOI report on Wednesday, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browned announced a newly revamped LIAT 2020 in the wake of LIAT bankruptcy.

Browned added that the airline is expected to start flying soon, with the company’s jets currently undergoing testing.

The inter-Caribbean Airline was founded in 1956. The airline was burdened with debt for almost its entire existence.

Although based in Antigua, at one point, 11 Caribbean islands were shareholders in the company, making for an almost impossible management structure.

This led to a controlled bankruptcy of the airline in 2020 after many years of financial challenges, said to have been occasioned by mismanagement.

Air peace

Air Peace, a fast-rising Nigeria airline with its recent commencement of direct flight operations to London.

The commencement of the service came a month after it announced plans to begin direct flight operations to London on March 30 during a prelaunch forum organised by the airline in February.

In November, Air Peace’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Allen Onyema, announced that the airline had successfully obtained the Foreign Carrier Operator Permit and Third Country Operator Permit.

With this development, Air Peace became the first Nigerian airline to operate direct flights to Europe and the United Kingdom.

Contacted, the Chief Operating Officer of the Airline, Oluwatoyin Olajide, confirmed the development but couldn’t give details as she said she was onboard en route to the United States.

Members of the National Association of Polytechnic Students have kicked against the scrapping of Pharmaceutical Technology from the list of Higher National Diploma programmes in Nigeria.

They faulted the agreement between the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria and the National Board of Technical Education, approved by the Federal Government through a memorandum of understanding to accredit and train only National Diploma Pharmacy Technicians.

NBTE and PCN signed this MOU on April 17, at the headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Education in Kaduna, which was chaired by the Minister of State for Education, Tanko Sununu, and other directors in the ministry, after they resolved the 22-year-old issue on pharmaceutical technologists training.

In a statement released by the Coordinator of the National Association of Polytechnic Students, South West Zone, Monday Obasanya, on Wednesday, the association criticised this action.

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Obasanya expressed concern over the future employment prospects of graduates of this course in the labour market, following its dis-accreditation by relevant bodies. He called for a reversal of this decision.

“The dis-accreditation of the course has not only left thousands of students and graduates in a state of uncertainty but also raised questions about their employability and prospects. We are worried that the graduates of this course, who have invested significant time and resources in their education, may be denied opportunities in the labour market due to the perceived invalidation of their qualifications.

“We fear that this decision will lead to a waste of human resources, as many of these graduates may be forced to abandon their chosen career paths and seek alternative fields, leading to brain drain and loss of expertise in the healthcare sector. This is unacceptable and has far-reaching implications for the country’s development.

“We demand that the Federal Ministry of Education, NBTE, and PCN take immediate action to address the concerns of the affected students and graduates. We call for a reversal of the dis-accreditation decision and validation of the Pharmaceutical Technology course in polytechnics,” Obasanya said.

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He added that prospective employers of labour in the health sector should not undermine the qualifications of graduates from this field, and provide available opportunities to them.

Speaking with our correspondent, a student, Omolola Omon said she was disheartened when she heard the news.

She said, “Segregation has been in existence for a long time, students who want to apply for direct entry are being turned down just because they studied pharmaceutical technology in polytechnic.

“My colleagues are bothered and confused about their fate after graduation. If the medical sector cannot accept them, what is now the essence of going for the program.”

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Sunday Oguntola, a recent graduate of Pharmaceutical Technology said he is displeased with the unjust dis-accreditation by both parties, as he described it as an inconsiderate decision with no weighty reason.

“This is not just unfair but inhumane and we perceive the serious attempt of the government to truly take education out of the reach of the common masses. This issue has also brought concern to the current students on campus that have been offered that course and also students who are graduates of this discipline.

“We want to issue a 48-hour ultimatum to President Bola Tinubu to call to order his Minister of Education, not by any means to render our certificate useless else, we will take to the streets to speak to them in the only language they understand. We would not allow five years of our journey to be wasted,” Oguntola said.

When contacted, the spokesperson for the NBTE, Fatima Abubakar, in a text, promised to get back to our correspondent but no response was gotten at the time of filing this report.

“Please bear with me, I want to get the information from the source. I will get back to you,” Abubakar said.

The Rivers State chapter of the Association of Local Government Areas of Nigeria has accused Governor Siminalayi Fubara of witholding its funds meant for the 23 LGAs in the state.

The state ALGON said the action had denied them of their functions in the administration of the third tier of government.

The LG chairmen said the action of the Governor is tantamount to proscribing local government councils in the state, even as they backed the call by the Caretaker Committee Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Tony Okocha, for the State House of Assembly to commence impeachment procedings against the Governor.

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The State ALGON Chairman and Chairman of Port Harcourt City Local Government Area, Allwell Ihunda, stated this at a news briefing in Port Harcourt on Wednesday.

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Ihunda stated, “It has come to the notice of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, Rivers State chapter, that the Rivers State Government, under the leadership of His Excellency, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, has neglected, failed, and deliberately refused to hold the statutory Joint Account Allocation Committee Meeting which is the prerequisite for the release and disbursement of funds due to the local government in the State Joint Local Government Accounts.

“And has continued to withhold the statutory allocations due to the 23 local government councils of Rivers State since April 2024.

“And in the case of Emuoha LGA since March 2024 till date for no just course, thereby starving the third tier of the government of the funds required to discharge its statutory functions in the administration of the local government areas.”

Details later…