West African
ECOWAS likely to decide on lifting Mali sanctions Friday
The West African bloc ECOWAS will likely decide on Friday whether to lift potentially crippling sanctions imposed on Mali after last month’s coup, its mediator said. The mediator, Nigerian former president Goodluck Jonathan, called the 15-nation bloc’s sanctions “unfortunate” during a visit to Mali’s capital Bamako on Wednesday. West African leaders have heaped pressure on the ruling military junta to return power to civilians since the coup toppled president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on August 18. ECOWAS has used the sanctions, which include closing borders and restricting trade, as leverage in negotiations with the junta. Sticking points in those negotiations have included whether civilians or soldiers will run a transition government until fresh elections. The junta asked for the sanctions...
PDP: Nigerians can’t survive hike in fuel, electricity prices
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has told President Muhammadu Buhari that there is no way citizens can survive, what it described as the obnoxious hike in the cost of fuel and electricity, given the level of poverty his administration had allegedly already foisted on our nation. In a statement issued by Kola Ologbondiyan, National Publicity Secretary in Abuja on Tuesday, it observed that “the brazen attempt” by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, to justify the excessive hike in the cost of fuel from N87 per litre under the PDP to N162 as well as electricity from N30.23 per kWh to over N66kw/h, “as yet another daring and intolerable affront to the Nigerian citizenry, who have summarily rejected the increases.” The PDP said it stands with Nigerians in insisting t...
Mali: Military opens talks on transition to civilian rule
Mali’s military junta will hold meetings on Saturday to discuss its promised transition to civilian rule after mounting pressure from neighbours to yield power in the weeks since it overthrew the nation’s leader. The West African country has long been plagued by chronic instability, a simmering jihadist revolt, ethnic violence and endemic corruption, prompting a clique of rebel colonels to detain elderly President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita last month. They pledged to step down after an undefined transition period, but the putsch has prompted Mali’s neighbours and former colonial ruler France to demand a swift transfer of power, with fears the crisis could impact neighbouring states. The 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional bloc has imposed sanctions and closed...
Mali protest movement proposes two-year transition to civilian rule
The protest coalition that campaigned against former Mali president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has proposed that the military junta that ousted him organise a transition to civilian rule within 24 months, one of its leaders said Sunday. Military rulers received representatives of the June 5 Movement at the Kati barracks near Bamako late Saturday, after announcing they would postpone a meeting with civic groups, political organisations and former rebels on the transfer of power due to “organisational reasons”. The protest movement has demanded that the military junta give it a role in the transition, in keeping with its role in spearheading Keita’s ouster. It has proposed “a transition of 18 to 24 months” with civilians heading a transitional presidency, government and assembly, one of the move...
Mali junta postpones transfer of powers meeting as cracks emerge
Mali’s military junta on Saturday postponed the first meeting on the transfer of power after rising tensions with the group that sparked the August 18 coup. The junta had invited civic groups, political organisations and former rebels to consultations on Saturday, but said in a statement that the meeting was postponed at the last minute to a later date due to “organisational reasons”. A protest coalition that had campaigned against former president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, the June 5 Movement, was not invited to the meeting and accused the new military rulers of trying to hijack the coup. The group has demanded that the military junta give it a role in the transition to civilian rule, in keeping with its role in spearheading Keita’s ouster. The military has promised to do so, though without...
Ovie Ejaria completes Reading move away from Liverpool
Liverpool forward Ovie Ejaria has left the club to join joined Championship club Reading on a permanent basis. The England born Nigerian youngster sealed signed four-year contract with Reading to bring an end to his Liverpool adventure. Ejaria joined Liverpool at the age of 16, he then struggled to break into the first team and therefore spent most of his career away from Anfield. Ejaria, first signed for Reading on loan back in January 2019, however, the club has now triggered their right to sign him on a permanent deal. “Reading Football Club are very pleased to announce that midfielder Ovie Ejaria has put pen to paper on a permanent move to the Madejski which will secure his future as a Royal until the summer of 2024.” Reading wrote on their official website. The FIFA Under-20 World Cup...
West African delegation ‘very hopeful’ after meeting Mali junta
A West African delegation visiting Mali to push for a speedy return to civilian rule following a coup said it was “very hopeful” on Saturday after meeting with the country’s military junta and the president it ousted. The head of the delegation from the regional Ecowas bloc, former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan, said that detained Malian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was doing relatively well. “We saw him, he’s very fine,” said Jonathan, who had earlier met for half an hour with the soldiers who seized power on Tuesday, including new strongman Colonel Assimi Goita. Jonathan told AFP that negotiations were going well and he was “very hopeful”. Rebel soldiers seized Keita and other leaders after a mutiny on Tuesday, dealing another deep blow to a country already struggling with a b...
ECOWAS calls for restoration of ousted Malian president, sanctions against putschists
West African leaders under the regional bloc ECOWAS have said they would dispatch envoys to Mali to help secure “the return of constitutional order”. In a video conference on Thursday, they called for the ousted Malian president to be restored to office. “We have decided to immediately send a high-level delegation in order to ensure the immediate return of constitutional order,” the regional bloc ECOWAS said at the end of a video summit. “We call for the restoration of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita as president,” it said in a closing statement read by the president of Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou, who chairs the group. “Mali is in a critical situation, with serious risks that a collapse of the state and institutions leads to reversals in the fight against terrorism and organised crime, wit...
Biodiversity: Nigeria restates support for ECOWAS states
The Federal Government has pledged support to ECOWAS member states to develop mechanisms for enforcement of biodiversity law and mobilise implementation for the developed biodiversity action plans. The post Biodiversity: Nigeria restates support for ECOWAS states appeared first on TODAY. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share of Internet revenue.
Cross River council boss urges CFTZ management to tap Bakassi’s aquatic resources
The Chairman, Bakassi Local Government Area, Mr Iyadim Amboni Iyadim, says the Bakassi aquatic littoral resources have economic values to boost manufacturing and export at the Calabar Free Trade Zone (CFTZ). The post Cross River council boss urges CFTZ management to tap Bakassi’s aquatic resources appeared first on TODAY. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share of Internet revenue.
ICC allows Ivory Coast ex-president Laurent Gbagbo to leave Belgium
Ivory Coast’s former president Laurent Gbagbo can leave Belgium under certain conditions, the International Criminal Court said on Thursday, following his acquittal last year over post-election violence that killed 3 000 people. Gbagbo, the first head of state to stand trial in The Hague, and his deputy Charles Ble Goude were cleared in early 2019 of crimes against humanity – eight years after the former West African strongman’s arrest and transfer to the court. Belgium had agreed to host Gbagbo after he was released under strict conditions, including his return to court for a prosecution appeal against his acquittal. An ICC spokesperson said Gbagbo could travel provided the country he was going to agreed to receive him. It therefore remains uncertain if Gbagbo can return to Ivory Coast, w...
Nigeria’s president urges farmers to increase food production
President Muhammadu Buhari has advised Nigerian farmers to increase their food production as Nigeria has ‘no money’ for food importation. Even before the coronavirus pandemic, Nigeria has restricted food importation as the country strived to produce a lot of the food it consumes. The country also shut its borders with neighbouring countries, largely to prevent the importation and smuggling of items such as rice, poultry and petrol. The borders are still shut but were also closed to human traffic following the coronavirus pandemic, although smuggling and other illegal activities still go on with the connivance of corrupt security officials. Buhari gave his advice to the farmers while addressing journalists after observing this year’s ‘Eid’ prayer at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, on Sunda...
