- Written by From Saxone Akhaine (Kaduna), Chukwuma Muanya (Lagos), Emeka Anuforo and Kanayo Umeh (Abuja)
• NASRDA moves to ensure accuracy in moon sighting calculationAN eclipse in Nigeria in 2001 provoked anger from some youths, leading to religious riots. The youths perceived the eclipse to mean that God was angry over atrocities in the country and went wild. This is, however, now history.
Sunday, partial darkness descended on some cities in Nigeria. But this time around, Nigerians are wiser, thanks to science and better access to information.
This time, it was excitement as darkness descended on Abuja, Lagos and some other states in Nigeria between 1p.m and 4p.m. The eclipse came true to science prediction.
An Abuja resident, Jerry Uche described, the occurrence as a wonder of nature. His words: “Wow! This is another opportunity to reflect over my life. God again has signed his signature by telling the world that He is all powerful and that He controls nature.”
As if threatening to rain, the weather gradually changed, turning from bright to dull, then to partial darkness in some places. A plane on regular flight flew past, yet another, and another.
With the aid of the social media, which has spread like wild fire among Nigerians, information about the phenomenon spread and speculations were practically not heard.
As if anticipating rainfall, electricity supply in some parts of Abuja was cut off.
“April Fool to NEPA”, shouted an 18-year-old boy who, with his friends, was watching the natural occurrence in a bowl filled with water in a satellite town in Abuja.
By 2.05 pm, Lagos also stood still for the partial solar eclipse. The sun was intense. It was too bright to behold with ordinary eyes. Yet, it was gradually overshadowed by partial darkness as the Moon passed between the Sun and Earth, and partially blocked the Sun. It was partial solar eclipse.
The event was brief. It did not last more than three to five minutes. It was also as if it was going to rain. The unusually intense sun gradually gave way to darkness.
People in Kaduna waited patiently for the eclipse of the moon yesterday, as several people hurriedly returned from the Sunday church services to their homes.
The change of climatic condition in Kaduna metropolis was noticed around 1.30 pm when the harmattan haze appeared strong and sudden darkness occurred, but this only lasted for about five minutes.
Some people were noticed in Romi, a suburb of Kaduna town, to have run into their homes when the short period of the eclipse was noticed.
A resident of the area, Mr. Patrick Luka, told The Guardian “the change in weather today cannot be explained. We just saw that even in the daytime, the sun disappeared as if we were in the late evening. I had to rush my kids inside”.
Nigeria had witnessed eclipses in 1898, 1947, 1959 and 2001 and 2006.
At an observatory set up at the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) situated along the Airport Road, school children gathered in their numbers from schools in Abuja.
Officials of NARSDA and a number of other observers gathered to behold nature and interpret the phenomenon in scientific language and jargons.
The agency had provided some eclipse glasses with which people could look at the sky directly without harming their eyes.
“Round the world, solar eclipses have inspired many scientists to study science. Teachers can use eclipses to show how the laws of motion and dynamics of orbital motions can predict the occurrences of eclipses,” Director at the Centre for Basic Space Science, Nsukka, Prof. Fidelis Opara, told The Guardian.
Director General of the National Space Research and Development Agency, Prof. Seidu Mohammed, said the partial eclipse happened true to prediction.
He told The Guardian: “Today, we have the solar eclipse. We did predict that by three minutes after one O’clock that a partial eclipse would begin. We are happy that has been observed accurately. Eclipse from all over the world is a big thing, particularly in a traditional society like ours.”
He described the eclipse as an opportunity for Nigeria to deepen its research efforts in various areas of astronomy.
“We are currently working on our space environment. We need to predict what is happening in our space environment because of the huge investment like communication satellites and also the need for the dynamic nature of the space environment. Weather changes can occur suddenly within one hour from 50 degrees to 100 degrees and because of enormous investment, we need to accurately predict what happens there so that we can protect our investments and also be able to see the impact of such dynamism in space environment on Earth particularly on power supply and other activities. All these thing are already going on at the space agency.”
Director General of the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), Umar B. Bindir, tasked Nigeria to enhance research in space technology and effects on various areas of agriculture and environment.
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