United Nations
Twitter pushes back on ban by Nigerian government
Micro blogging social platform, Twitter, has pushed back on ban by the Federal Government. It described it as brazen affront on citizens fundamental human rights and advised its users and other social media platforms in the country to download virtual private networks (VPNs) to enable them continue to use the platforms for their economic survival and social and political engagements while the “push back on this draconian order by the Nigerian government.” In a statement, Twitter said: “Today, the 4th of June 2021, the Federal Government of Nigeria announced its suspension of Twitter operations, that the application can be used as a platform for activities capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence. “Many Nigerians read the announcement of the ban on Twitter as a reflection of the...
Mass grave reopens wounds among indigenous survivors of colonial Canadian school system
The discovery of the remains of 215 children at a former residential school in Canada has reopened wounds for survivors of the system, they said, as the government pledged to spend previously promised money to search for more unmarked graves. The Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc indigenous nation in British Columbia announced last week it had found the remains of 215 children, some as young as three, buried at the site of the Kamloops Indian Residential School, once Canada’s largest such school. Between 1831 and 1996, Canada’s residential school system forcibly separated about 150,000 children from their homes and subjected them to abuse, rape and malnutrition at schools across the country in what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015 called “cultural genocide”. Run by the government and c...
President Buhari seeks international support for peaceful transition in Chad
President Muhammadu Buhari Tuesday called on the international community to support a peaceful transition from military to democratic government in Chad. He made this known at a summit put together to discuss recent developments in Chad after the death of President Idris Deby last April. At the summit, Mr Buhari called on: “development partners and countries particularly France, the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, and Russia; the United Nations, the African Union and the European Union, as well as other friendly and partner nations to support the transition framework put in place by Chad’s Transition Military Council led by General Mahamat Idris Deby.” ‘‘The need to support the Chadian government to effectively carry out its planned 18-month transition is sacrosanc...
Nigeria, France, others condemn Mali coup
As world leaders condemn the latest coup in Mali, the military has said that both interim President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane have been stripped of their positions. The junta accused both of “sabotage” in the transition quest of the country. It added that it would “proceed as normally, and the scheduled elections will be held in 2022.” This came a day after the military seized both men alongside defence minister Souleymane Doucouré in an apparent coup in the unstable West African nation. This is Mali’s second coup in nine months. Ndaw and Ouane had been tasked with overseeing an 18-month transition back to civilian rule which was billed to end with an election next year March. But the leader of the latest coup, Assimi Goïta, a colonel, in a televised statement on Tuesday, ac...
UN secretary-general calls for release of civilian leaders in Mali
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called for civilian leaders in Mali to be released, after military officers upset with a government reshuffle detained the president and prime minister at an army camp. “I am deeply concerned by news of detention of civilian leaders of the Malian transition,” Guterres said on Twitter. He continued: “I call for calm & their unconditional release.” President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane lead an interim government, installed under the threat of regional sanctions following a putsch in August, and the detentions on Monday raised fears of a second coup. Two senior officials, who declined to be named, told AFP that soldiers had taken Ndaw and Ouane to the Kati military camp on the outskirts of Bamako. Their detentions fo...
Minister charges diplomats to change the narratives about Nigeria
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, yesterday, charged officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to change the narratives about the country. Onyeama stated this during the opening of a three-day induction programme for over 350 officers posted to Nigerian missions abroad in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Onyeama told the officers that it had been a rocky and bumpy road to get to the point in which they were set to depart the country, adding that he was however glad that the day had arrived. “I am here to rejoice and to express my love for you all and to say that we have to keep hope alive, we have to maintain solidarity. We are in this thing together and by God’s grace, we will all be an asset for our country, Nigeria. That is what it is really all about, about Nigeria,...
UNESCO exhibit in Venice focuses on rebuilding Mosul sites
The United Nations’ cultural agency has opened an exhibit detailing plans to restore multicultural landmarks in the Iraqi city of Mosul, underlining the role of architecture in helping heal wounds. The exhibit, “Revive the Spirit of Mosul,” will be featured on the sidelines of the 17th International Architecture Exhibition, which opened Saturday after a one-year pandemic delay under the title: “How will we live together?” The Venice Biennale’s central question resonates in particular in Iraq, which is experiencing turbulent change, and the old city of Mosul, where 80% of the city’s monuments were destroyed by extremists during the city’s 36-month occupation by the Islamic State group. Iraq is one of three countries participating for the first time at the Biennale, with an exhibit by Rashad...
Nigeria’s chief of army staff dies in plane crash
General Ibrahim Attahiru, the Chief of Army Staff, has died in a plane crash. Details of the incident are still sketchy but a military source told newsmen that it happened in Kaduna on Friday. In a statement, the Nigerian Air Force confirmed that there was an accident involving one of its aircraft in Kaduna but did not go into details. “An air crash involving a @NigAirForce aircraft occurred this evening near the Kaduna International Airport. The immediate cause of the crash is still being ascertained. More details to follow soon,” read the statement signed by Edward Gabkwet, the force’s Director of Public Relations and Information. A source said there were eight persons on board the aircraft. Attahiru was appointed Chief of Army Staff on January 26, 2021. Born on 10th August 1966 in Doka,...
U.S. envoy wants pope to attend climate conference, sway debate
Pope Francis has the moral authority to sway public opinion over global warming and might attend the United Nations’ Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Scotland, U.S. President Joe Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry said on Saturday. COP26 is being held in Glasgow in November and could accelerate measures by the world’s biggest polluters to tackle climate change, a challenge which activists, scientists and world leaders say could ultimately endanger the planet. “I think that his voice will be a very important voice leading up to and through the Glasgow conference, which I believe he intends to attend,” Kerry told the official Vatican News outlet after meeting the pope. There was no immediate confirmation of this from the Vatican. “Because he is above politics and outside of the hurly-burly...
VP Osinbajo to represent Nigeria at Ugandan presidential inauguration
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will represent Nigeria at the sixth inauguration of President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda. Laolu Akande, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Office of the Vice President, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja. Osinbajo will be joining several other heads of state and government at the swearing-in ceremony scheduled for May 12, at Kololo Independence Grounds in Kampala, Uganda. Nigeria and Uganda share historical antecedents and enjoy good diplomatic relationships, including working together as member-states of the Commonwealth, the African Union, and the United Nations among others. Both countries have signed Bilateral Agreements on Technical Aid Corps, Trade, and on Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation. The vic...
NAS: Presidency’s defence of Isa Pantami irresponsible
File Photo The National Association of Seadogs (Pyrates Confraternity) has berated the Presidency over its defence of the embattled Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami. NAS in a statement signed by the NAS Capoon, Mr Abiola Owoaje, titled ‘Isa Pantami Must Go’ stated that that the Presidency’s defence was “an ill-judged action that provides a safe haven for a self-confessed sympathiser of terrorism.” Owoaje who described the Presidency’s defence as hollow pointed out that “it suggests that the Buhari administration is so deeply infected with bigotry that the defence of a Minister is informed by factors more primordial than the integrity of governance.” According to him “President Buhari’s decision to retain Pantami as Minister despite documented evidence of him bein...
Three UN peacekeepers wounded in Mali attack
Three United Nations peacekeepers were on Sunday seriously injured in a rocket attack on a military base in the north of the conflict-ridden Sahel state, UN and local officials said. Olivier Salgado, the spokesman for the UN’s MINUSMA mission in Mali, said the attack took place on a base in Tessalit – in the north – which houses Malian soldiers, UN peacekeepers and French troops. Three peacekeepers were “gravely wounded” in the attack, he added. A Tessalit tribal leader, who declined to be named, said that the camp had come under rocket fire, hitting the barracks of peacekeepers from Chad. “The situation is currently calm and under control,” he added. Mali has been battling a brutal jihadist insurgency since 2012, when Islamist fighters first emerged during a rebellion by ethnic Tuareg sep...
