From the online auspices of allAfrica.com news website comes a story bylined by Patrick Ugeh indicating that Nigeria may well assist Venezuela in launching a satellite which they have named Simon Boliva. Seems as though Venezuela made this request of Nigeria last year, with the Chinese apparently going to perform the actual launch next year sometime in China. The Special Assistant to the Nigerian Minister of Information and Communications, Mr. Rotimi Ajayi, signed a statement indicating the Venezuela Minister of Informatics, Power and Telecommunications made this request during a meeting held in Geneva, Switzerland.
Apparently, this Venezuelan official, named Mr. Jesse Chacon, stated his country had almost finished the construction work on the communications satellite, having spent some 200 million dollars since the project’s inception in 2005. Due to some delays, the original launch date of November of this year seems unlikely. Venezuela has requested Nigeria to help them obtain an extension of the date through petition of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which must approve any date change for such an event. Venezuelan officials state the satellite is for public, non-commercial services. Nigeria indicated they would cooperate with Venezuela on how to improve the standard of living of their citizens, but if the Venezuelan satellite is for military purposes, Nigeria would require an additional satellite profile to determine their level of cooperation.
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