Former Military Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd), said on Wednesday that an Igbo president would help heal the civil war wounds, maintaining that he supports the idea of rotational presidency
Gowon said this while delivering a lecture entitled “No Victor, No Vanquished: Healing the Nigerian Nation” to mark the 6th Convocation ceremony of the Chukwumeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (COOU), Igbariam, in Anambra.
He explained that the civil war was not out of hatred for the late Igbo leader Odumegwu Ojukwu or the Igbos, but was based on the principle of a commitment to a robust Nigeria.
“It is wrong to conclude that the civil war broke out following the failure of the Aburi Accord but was the direct result of a unilateral decision of independence for Eastern Nigeria.
“If there was no seccession, there would have been no war.
“It was a reluctant war waged to unite the country,” Gowon explained.
He acknowledged that many people died of hunger and diseases during the period but maintained that the Federal Government ensured that starvation was not used as a weapon of war.
Gowon said that Nigerians should be proud of the gains of the war through the healing balm of “no victor, no vanquished.”
According to him, the three Rs of reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction were adopted to enhance national unity.
He also argued that the abandonment of the development plan drafted immediately after the war by successive governments, resulted in the infrastructural decay in the country.
The former head of state, however, lauded Ojukwu for his courage in defending his people during the war, saying: “if Ojukwu were in my shoes, he would have equally waged the war.”
He also commended the Anambra government and management of the university for honouring Ojukwu with the change in name of the institution from Anambra State University to COOU.
We have reached the point where we must make a point. History beckons. We must answer it well or not all. To respond wisely is to open ourselves to a better future.
Elections are set for March 28. They will determine the fate of the nation for years to come. There can be no more fence-sitting because that fence has been torn down by the vast disparity between our current reality and our desired future.
We have a decision to make. We must decide whether wisdom is better than cunning, if bravery is sounder than bribe, if compassion speaks more than corruption, if patriotism is a more worthy vocation than pillage and if love of the nation and its people can overcome the love of power and stolen privilege.
These fundamental questions will be asked of us this Saturday at the polls. Do not try to avoid them. This is the time to believe in something more profound and nobler than the governance we now see.
This is the time to have faith in yourselves and your fellow Nigerians that we can actually realize our hope for change.
Let us believe that we can call forth a better destiny. A new day must stand and the bleak night of injustice must fade into the recesses of the past.
I am filled with the expectation of a more just and rightful future. My conviction has always been this day would come. Almost a year ago, last April, we held the final Action Congress of Nigeria convention. At that convention, we decided to merge into the APC. At that convention, I told you:
“History is upon us, asking something bold. Those who hear must respond to its call because history is impatient when it has set itself in motion. If we tarry, history will not. If we fail to act as the situation requires, history will still move forward and post its unanswerable verdict against us.
A storm is brewing. Be not afraid. It is a positive storm carried by a positive wind. Those things that have no roots and offer no solution to the plight of the people shall be swept away. This storm shall change the political terrain forever. I am not afraid of this storm. In fact, I welcome it because this storm is us.”
At that time, I said that the convention must be the ACN ‘s final one. It was. At that time, I said we must join the APC not for ourselves but for the good of Nigeria. We did and were right to do so.
For today, we approach the eve of a moment where, if allowed the freedom to express their sovereign will, the people will cast off the yoke of misgovernance. They will vote for a change that will usher in a new day for a new Nigeria – right before our very eyes.
I already see it. If you have compassion for this nation that gave birth to you, you surely see it too.
Not all Nigerians want a change for the collective good. A powerful, small few benefit from the unjust ways of today.
They profit so much from present inequities. Hence, they view as a personal curse the change most of us would count as a national blessing.
They scoffed at the formation of the APC. They said it would never come to pass. They were wrong. Then dread came upon them. They tried to defraud the public by forming other parties with similar names. They only fooled themselves. We continue building our democratic edifice on a solid foundation of fairness, transparency and merit.
They attacked General Buhari, saying he would not subject himself to a primary. He did and won it as our party held the most open and transparently honest convention ever held in Nigeria.
They said I connived and conspired my way into the VP seat. They lied so easily that it was the price I extracted from General Buhari to support his bid. If not, I would destroy the party on the altar of my ambitions.
They were wrong. I pulled myself out of contention. The very brilliant and capable professor Yemi Osinbajo became our VP candidate. A man of integrity and impeccable character.
Alas, this sent Jonathan’s henchmen into disarray. In the quiet of their private closet, even they could see clearly enough through the darkness of their own hearts to recognize that our ticket was so much better than theirs.
They could see that our progressive vision for the nation was so much better than their blind one.
They also could see what they did not want to see and dared not admit: That whatever good they might have done had a long ago vanished.
They hold office yet have abandoned governance. They hold power but have no good idea about the use of it. They lost over 200 of our daughters to Boko Haram. They lost part of our territory also. While they lay a heavy hand on the opposition the Chibok girls remain lost and Boko Haram continues to terrorize our people.
They are lost because they are blind and blind because they have already lost. Instead of allowing the nation to choose a leadership that would rescue them and us all, they would rather that all become as lost as they are.
Thus, on the eve of elections last month February, they postponed the exercise. They claimed security as their excuse. We know better. For Jonathan, an election held on February 14 would have been an election lost.
He would have made history he did not intend: Our first incumbent president defeated in an election. He would join the club of wealthy leaders who left no legacy for their people.
I say here and now that the postponement merely gave him a six-week stay of electoral defeat. That is all he accomplished.
During the six week interval, his cohorts had hoped to turn public opinion his way. But the way they have acted, should only sour the people all the more. He has exposed himself as a man who would rather wreck democracy than to live by it.
He is like the shoeless boy given a complex toy. The more he plays with it, the less he understands the precious thing.
In his desperate drive to hold to power, there is not one national institution Jonathan has left unmolested or untarnished.
To save his post, Jonathan and his team would eagerly corrupt every national institution within reach. Everything is for sale and nothing is left sacred.
Although the nation suffers an economic downswing that will require astute policy to overcome, Jonathan has raided the national coffers as if money were as plentiful as sand. There is no dollar in this nation that his hand has not tried to grab. No naira that his underlings have not tried to pinch.
Their tactic is one of the most cynical that can be done by a leader to his people. They have decided to squeeze and starve the economy dry. With people desperate for money, they let go a droplet here, a droplet there.
So relieved shall you be of your fear of poverty, that you will think they favoured you by returning a small portion of what they took. The man steals your home that you may act grateful when he returns to you a door knob and a broken window.
That is their game. It is a dark, ancient deception in use since the first moment that man began to oppress his fellow man.
They have thrown money at Christian and Muslim clerics, attempting to buy two great faiths as if they were two cheap commodities. As such, they have attempted to turn our houses of worship into open dens of corruption.
They have dangled money in the face of our traditional fathers believing their conscience is for sale. Many have been brave enough to cohere to the nobility of their office more than worry about the expansion of their bank accounts.
They have corrupted some civil society groups and organizations to engage in violent protest against the electoral process and the use of the card readers. They oppose the card reading machine because the instruments foil their customary avenues of vote rigging.
Jonathan‘s team has already read the writing on the wall should these machines be used. They would be handed a defeat so resounding that they would begin to fight among themselves believing that each betrayed the other.
The reality is that they all have betrayed the nation and now it is time that the electorate merely pays them back in kind.
Thus, they will fight the use of the card reader to the last minute.
As in the Ekiti election, they have also tried to influence and corrupt the security agencies that they may do their bidding. Credible reports show they are ready to arrest APC leaders.
No one wants to be arrested but neither am I afraid. The threat of arrest will not silence me. I cannot keep silent when I see those who are supposed to lead the nation trying to purchase it on the cheap. The people’s exclusive right to elect the leaders of their own choosing cannot be negotiated away.
You may arrest me and others but you cannot arrest an idea whose time has come. The time for a common sense revolution has come to Nigeria. In calling for a common sense revolution, I do not advocate violence. I abhor it. That is not the type of revolution we seek.
This revolution is strong but peaceful. It is a revolution to use our votes to throw out ineffective leaders. It is a demand for a true electoral democracy and the responsive leadership associated with it. It is a revolution to rescue us from violence, injustice and poverty.
This revolution is not a violent one to tear things down. It is a positive one to rescue, repair and restructure the nation and its institutions in ways that further collective prosperity and well-being.
The only violence that is to be done is to violence, injustice and poverty themselves.
At its essence, a common sense revolution is a call to return to a level of decency in the relationship between government and the governed, between each one of us and his neighbour.
This implies that the society in which we live is a far distance from the society that should exist. A revolution in mind, spirit and action is needed to close this gap between what is today and what ought to be.
Commonsense Revolution speaks to the need to elect patriotic leaders that can give hope to our best aspirations as a nation and people. It speaks to how we must elect thinkers and doers to work together to bring about a beautiful revival of the national spirit and the good fortune of the people.
It takes us to a place where luck, good or otherwise, is insufficient. We must move forward with conviction, courage and creativity to mould a better nation out of the clay we now hold in our hands.
We must bring forth relief to the hard-pressed among us. For example, we have to finally end the sad chapter that Boko Haram has written in our history.
We must fight them boldly yet wisely. We must rebuild the afflicted area in a way that extremism may never take root again. If this requires revamping our fighting forces, so be it. A few “BuhariBattalions” and “Osinbajo Brigades” will do in months what the whole of Jonathan’s army could not do in six years.
Some say we need a Marshall Plan to rebuild the region. They are correct in approach but mistaken in name. We shall establish a “Buhari/Osinbajo Plan” and it will work.
There is too much poverty in the land. We need a government that will improve the social safety net to help those who, through no fault of their own, cannot help themselves.
Pay the pensioner! Feed the hungry and care for the sickly! And improve the nutritional values of our school children. We will domesticate this economy to bring about recovery.
We must bring recovery to our economy. The austerity this government imposes will visit upon our economy a depression that similar measures brought to Greece.
Our APC Government will use its fiscal and monetary space to jumpstart the economy. Economic history tells us that countercyclical policy is the best remedy to what we face. To the present government, such talk is revolutionary. To me, it is common sense.
Last, we must reform governance. Opaque budgets must be made transparent. NNPC, which today makes more money than we are told and other revenue-making bodies will not maintain two sets of books, one for public consumption and a secret one to show where the money really went. 20 billion dollars — enough to fund government for a year – shall no longer disappear as if by magic!
Briefly, these are the tenets of a common sense revolution. We need this bold approach because too much has gone wrong for too long.
You can help co-author this return to decency by voting wisely on March 28.
We fight no one and hate no one. We are all Nigerians. However, some things we do to each other must stop. We are better than how we seem and how the nation now performs. We must commit ourselves to our better nature that we may enjoy a better nation. This does not require any special genius. All it requires is the common sense to recognize we share a common fate and destiny. In your hands and actions lies so much of my future and in my hands, lies much of yours.
Now is the appointed time to rise up and work together to build a new country. A new day for a better Nigeria is possible.
I thank you all for listening.
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu
March 25th, 2015
The world's most widely-used weed killer can "probably" cause cancer, the World Health Organization said on Friday.
The WHO's cancer arm, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), said glyphosate, the active ingredient in the Monsanto Co herbicide Roundup, was "classified as probably carcinogenic to humans".
It also said there was "limited evidence" that glyphosate was carcinogenic in humans for non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, said scientific data do not support the conclusions and called on the WHO to hold an urgent meeting to explain the findings.
"We don't know how IARC could reach a conclusion that is such a dramatic departure from the conclusion reached by all regulatory agencies around the globe," Philip Miller, Monsanto's vice-president of global regulatory affairs, said in a statement.
Concerns about glyphosate on food have been a hot topic of debate in the United States recently, and contributed to the passage in Vermont last year of the country's first mandatory labeling law for foods that are genetically modified.
The U.S. government says the herbicide is considered safe. In 2013, Monsanto requested and received approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for increased tolerance levels for glyphosate.
Glyphosate is mainly used on crops such as corn and soybeans that are genetically modified to survive it.
The weed killer has been detected in food, water and in the air after it has been sprayed, according to the report from the WHO agency. However, glyphosate use is generally low in and near homes where the general public would face the greatest risk of exposure, the report said.
The evidence for the WHO's conclusion was from studies of exposure, mostly agricultural, in the United States, Canada, and Sweden that were published since 2001.
Carcinogens are substances that can lead to cancer under certain levels of exposure.
Monsanto's stock price rose 0.3 percent on Friday to $115.75 after setting a four-month low on Thursday.
In USA, Canada, Europe and other developed countries in the world, immigrants face a lot of challenges. Insurance is one of the major challenges they face. Whenever the immigrants are advised to take Insurance Policies they quote the Bible and say “It is not my portion” But when death knocks on their doors, they start running helter-skelter looking for money for the burial because the cost of flying a dead body back home is more than the cost of taking care of the victim when alive. It is that time they remember that a Community is in existence, a church is around the corner, family friends are over there etc. In Canada immigrants are now becoming wiser taking insurance so that their family members will have the opportunity to take care of the burial expenses to avoid disgrace as it happens daily. Immigrants always beg for money to bury relatives, friends, etc. and it is becoming a common thing here in Toronto that when immigrants who have no residence permit or citizenship papers die they resort to begging for money for the burial. In this interview Charles Oyelowo of Sun Life Financial talks to OASES NEWS why Insurance is really important and how immigrants would gain from insurance.
OASES NEWS:
Please share your insurance experience with us, particularly the immigrants without residence and work permit and without citizenship certificate.
CHARLES:
Thank you for permitting me to express my observation, from my own ethnic group as a proud Nigerian. A recent article by a seasoned Nigerian Insurance Practitioner, Mr. Oke Olabanji, confirms my observation that "Ignorance is the main reason for Insurance apathy among our "brothers and sisters". Nigerians tend to live in a somewhat "fantasy" life and believing that the "odds of something bad happening to them is nil i.e. "it is NOT their portion".
Considering the enormous benefits of Insurance benefits, Nigerians still have apathy for insurance products and of the believe that it is a "rip off". However, and unfortunately, I have noticed and experienced cases of people dying due to critical illness and people dying with a short life span, without having any protection Insurance policy to protect their spouses and young children from the hardship of the loss of income from the "bread winner". The intense pressure of the death, is enough to bear, and God forbid, you don't want to add the maintenance, financial hardship, funeral cost, probate fees and final taxes. It is sad to say that in few cases of death, their friends and family had to ask Associations for financial donations for the burial cost and financial maintenance of the "poor spouse and children".
It should be specified that Insurance policies are intangible protection products and Nigerians don't believe the intangible, which is a life saver in time of distress, but always living in the "dream land" of the tangible.
OASES NEWS:
Why do you think it is important to have life insurance especially for the
Immigrants?
CHARLES:
1) Insurance is to protect one's life, business, properties and any eventualities.
2) Agents use the tools available to help, Educate and Empower clients
3) Agents show clients how to leverage their money for life and enable them to
retire with confidence
4) The agent helps clients to get Tax Free Money in difficult times
5) In situation of loss of income due to disability (Illness, disability), we
provide for funds to take care of the family and children financially.
6) In situation of short or long term death, we provide the money to take
good care of the Family, Children, Probate fees, Taxes and ALL Final
expenses.
7) In summation, on the above topic, some Nigerians, including a few well learned ones, think that Insurance is a fraud because they fail to read their Insurance policy and understand its content.
OASES NEWS:
What type of medical/health insurance or drug insurance is good for those whose organizations don't have insurance coverage?
CHARLES:
1) Individual Personal Health Insurance to cover expenses -( Dental /
Medication / Eye Care)
2) Group Benefit Plan if you have 3 employees in any small business
organization
OASES NEWS;
Tell us one of your experiences in Insurance business.
CHARLES:
1) It is "who you know business" ( i.e. connection)
2) Develop good relationships with your "Centre of Influence"
3) Honesty, accessibility and Loyalty to ALL clients and potential clients is very important.
OASES NEWS
Tell us how to shop for good premium and how do we know the best?
CHARLES:
1) Deal with a Reputable Insurance Company (Sun Life Financial is 150
years in the Industry)
2) Deal with an Experienced and Honest Agent, who knows the product VERY
WELL.
3) DON'T let a couple of dollar differences in premium influence your POLICY
PRODUCT selection decision.
4) Let the Agent explain the "pros and cons" of the particular product, you
are interested to buy. (Read the fine print)
OASES NEWS:
As a Nigerian-Canadian what is your advice to Nigerians who still shy away from Insurance here and back home in Nigeria?
CHARLES:
Insurance products could be applied to protect our loved ones (family), business interest, wealth and health, therefore, in this modern generation it should be considered as an important asset. A small insurance protection policy is better than a ‘zero’ insurance policy.
OASES NEWS:
What advice/type of insurance would you give visiting parents or
Families.
CHARLES:
1) This is very difficult to suggest without knowing the situation of the visiting
Parents.
2) Knowing the past family health and financial background, is a good place
to start
3) You have to know the client's main priority.
4) In short, I will suggest having a good foundation with protection with
Life and Health products.
OASES NEWS:
Is it possible to switch from one policy of insurance to another.
CHARLES:
1) You could switch by conversion or replacement, within same insurance
company
2) With another company, you have to cancel one policy from one company
because they are not related. You could apply for a new policy with another
company and still keep the old policy, if it is affordable. However, it is
good to change insurance companies if the new policy is better than the old
policy.
3) Insurance product premiums are based on Age and Health of the client,
therefore, the younger the client, the lower the premium, if the client is in
good health
CHARLES OYELOWO, B.A. Econ. Advisor
SUN LIFE FINANCIAL
www.sunlife.ca/charles.oyelowo
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Government forces in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) carried out their first attack against rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) on 24 February 2015, almost a month after this operation was first announced. The attack against the FDLR comes in the wake of a serious disagreement between the DRC government and the United Nations (UN) over the forced disarmament of the FDLR.
Military action against the FDLR has been on the cards since the expiry of the 2 January 2015 deadline set by the Intergovernmental Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) for the FDLR to voluntarily disarm.
The disarmament of all rebel forces in the eastern DRC forms part of the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the DRC and the Region (Framework Agreement) signed in February 2013.
The attack against the FDLR comes in the wake of a serious disagreement between the DRC government and the United Nations
Meanwhile, the Peace and Security Council (PSC) has been concerned about the continued instability in the eastern DRC for some time and has followed closely the implementation of the Framework Agreement. The progress made in this regard was discussed by the PSC on 23 February 2015.
In its decisions, the African Union (AU) Assembly, meeting in January 2015 for its 24th summit, also expressed support for the implementation of the Framework Agreement and emphasised the importance of the neutralisation of all armed forces in the eastern DRC.
Disagreement with UN over allegations of war crimes
Initially, the offensive against the FDLR was set to be a joint effort by the Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo (FARDC) and the United Nations (UN). The UN Force Intervention Brigade (FIB), consisting mainly of South African and Tanzanian troops and with a Chapter VII mandate, was expected to be mobilised in this offensive. The FIB successfully defeated the M23 rebel group in mid-2013.
However, on Sunday 15 February President Joseph Kabila told ambassadors in Kinshasa, including Martin Kobler, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in the DRC, that the Congolese government would forego any help from the UN in this operation. ‘The head of state officially announced to its partners that the DRC renounces any cooperation with MONUSCO [the UN Stabilisation Mission in the DRC] in the operation of disarmament against the FDLR,’ government spokesperson Lambert Mende said after the meeting. According to Mende, Kabila also told the DRC’s partners and ambassadors to refrain from making statements that do not ‘respect the state’. ‘We want to say to the various actors, the DRC is not under guardianship of the UN or anyone else.’
Abuses by the FARDC in the eastern part of the country have been well documented by Human Rights Watch and others
The conflict between the DRC and the UN started with the UN’s request that the Congolese government replace two generals appointed to head the military operation against the FDLR. This was due to allegations of human rights abuses against generals Bruno Mandevu and Fall Sikabwe, who have been on the UN’s red list for years. In terms of its mandate, the UN could not be seen to go ahead with a joint operation led by these officers. Abuses by the FARDC in the eastern part of the country have been well documented by Human Rights Watch and others.
Impact on future DRC–UN relations
The disagreement over the FDLR operation raises several questions about the future of relations between the DRC and the UN. The UN’s withdrawal from the operation against the FDLR also provides a useful argument to those critics of the UN and of Kabila’s government, notably neighbouring Rwanda, that maintain that the actors involved did not want to attack the FDLR in the first place.
Following Kabila’s rejection of MONUSCO’s help, the DRC government tempered its stance by stating that nothing was stopping MONUSCO from ‘carrying out its own operations against the FDLR’. Mende told Radio Okapi that the tension in the relationship ‘doesn’t concern other missions that MONUSCO has been charged with’. He said a UN Security Council resolution ‘gives a mandate to the mission to find and disarm the armed groups with or without the FARDC’. MONUSCO has 22 000 troops stationed in the country.
In the short term, the DRC will have to do without the food, fuel and logistical support the UN provided to FARDC operations in the past.
The UN’s withdrawal from the operation also provides a useful argument to those critics of the UN and of Kabila’s government
This is, however, not the first strong statement by the Congolese head of state against the UN presence in the DRC. In fact, the name change of the mission from MONUC (UN Organisation Mission in the DRC) to MONUSCO (UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the DRC) in 2010 came after just such a spat, when Kabila said a peacekeeping mission was no longer needed in his country.
Concerns over civilian casualties
South Africa and Tanzania are both said to have expressed reservations about the possible collateral damage, especially to civilians, during an operation against the FDLR. The FDLR has been in the region for close to 20 years and is largely embedded in communities in the eastern DRC.
The issue of civilian casualties was widely discussed in the corridors of the 24th AU summit, since the deadline for the FDLR to disarm had expired on 2 January and a joint MONUSCO–FARDC operation was expected. In the run-up to the Assembly meeting on 30 and 31 January, South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane told journalists in Addis Ababa that an attack could happen ‘as we are sitting here’. She told the media that South Africa trusted the military hierarchy to make sure there were no civilian casualties.
Asked at the summit about the possible withdrawal of UN troops from the FDLR operation due to fears of civilian casualties, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete brusquely answered that the FIB was part of the UN and that it was up to the latter to decide.
Meanwhile, neighbouring Rwanda, which maintains that the FDLR is a serious security threat, accused both the DRC government and MONUSCO of finding excuses not to attack the FDLR. Rwandan media slammed the UN for its reticence to participate in the joint operation against the FDLR, which is largely made up of Hutus who fled after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Commentators on social media also accused the DRC government of not really wanting to carry out its threats of forcibly disarming the FDLR.
It has become clear that, apart from the disagreement with the DRC government, the FIB’s operation against the FDLR is also seriously hampered by the absence of the firm regional consensus that had been behind the military campaign against the M23. Tanzania and South Africa, two of the three troop contributors to the FIB, have not shown as much enthusiasm to go after the FDLR as against the M23.
FDLR a threat to peace
However, experts agree it would be a blow to peace in the DRC if the FDLR were not eventually disarmed. Rwanda has for the past 20 years used the FDLR’s presence in the eastern DRC to justify its intervening in the country.
In addition, the DRC has a legal obligation in terms of the Framework Agreement, which commits all the parties to end their support for rebels in the eastern DRC. The AU, SADC and the ICGLR are all guarantors of this agreement.
Other anti-rebel operations to continue
Despite the UN’s withdrawal from the FDLR operation, indications are that the FIB will remain mobilised in the eastern DRC. The Ugandan rebel group Allied Democratic Forces–National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (ADF-NALU) has been particularly active over the last several months, gaining terrain and attacking civilians. There is also a plethora of smaller armed militia groups in the eastern DRC that have yet to be neutralised by the UN and the FARDC.
Despite the UN’s withdrawal from the FDLR operation, indications are that the Force Intervention Brigade will remain mobilised in the eastern DRC
Major issues for the PSC
For the PSC, the disagreement over the military operation against the FDLR and the continuing violence and threat of violence by armed groups against civilians in the eastern DRC are major concerns.
Another area of concern for the PSC is the challenges that the lack of firm regional consensus and the disagreement between MONUSCO and the DRC government present for the implementation of the Framework Agreement.
Options for the PSC
The PSC could initiate the convening at the AU of a joint meeting of the ICGLR and SADC to deliberate on and address the various issues inhibiting the implementation of the ICGLR–SADC decision on the FDLR and of the Framework Agreement.
The PSC could request the AU Commission to work with the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General for the Great Lakes Region to initiate a broader regional dialogue. This could be part of the PSC Framework for addressing the regional root causes of the conflict, including the issues of refugees and the disarmament of all armed groups.
The PSC could also request the AU Commission chairperson to engage the DRC government with a view to resolve the on-going lack of cooperation between the DRC government and MONUSCO.
credit: http://www.issafrica.org/pscreport/situation-analysis
The article was first published by The Institute for Security Studies ( http://www.issafrica.org) and is republished with permission granted to www.oasesnews.com
Despite President Jonathan's plea for the release of Agbaje Salami, the Nigerian we reported on death row in Indonesia, the Nigerian will still be executed.
President Jonathan met with Harry Purwanto, the new ambassador to Nigeria for Indonesia and he discussed the impending execution of three Nigerians - Salami inclusive - for drug-related crimes.
An Indonesian court has dismissed Mr. Salami's legal challenge over the rejection of his clemency plea by Indonesia's president, Joko Widodo.
“The court could not test the authority, consideration and substance, so the challenge could not be accepted,” Hendro Puspito, the presiding judge said.
President Widodo has a zero tolerance on drug trafficking, and he says his country has suffered immensely from the activities of drug runners.
The federal government reached out to Purwanto, saying: “We, in this context, are very aware of the consequences of drug trafficking in your country, but we still want to put it on record and we still want to appeal to you and to your president to tamper justice with mercy
"We understand that the three condemned Nigerians have gone through the judicial processes and their appeals to the President have been turned down.
“We also understand, particularly, that one of them, Mr Salami, had been moved to an Island and that any moment from now, he may be executed.
“We want to appeal to you and through you to your government that this death sentence that may be carried out on Mr Salami any moment from now should be converted to life imprisonment.”
Purwanto acknowledged the relationship between Indonesia and Nigeria, but added that the trial of the Nigerians was done transparently and that foreigners coming into Indonesia were briefed in advance about the death penalty that comes with drug trafficking. He said all legal processes relevant to the Nigerian's trial had been exhausted, but he would relay the FG's government to Indonesia.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Friday said that the country’s power supply would drop by 1500MW due to Monday’s destruction of gas pipeline in Gbaramatu, Warri in Delta.
The Managing Director, Nigerian Gas Company, Mr Dafe Sejebor made this known to newsmen after a tour of the vadalised facilities in Inikorogha, Ubefan and Balan in Gbaramotu Delta.
The managing director who was represented by the Executive Director Services, Mr Joseph Olisa, said the nation would lose N2.5 billion within 21 days that the gas supply would be restored.
He explained that whenever there was destruction on pipelines it affected production and stopped supply of gas thereby leading to loss of revenue.
``When these pipelines are tampered with the gas volumes that are supposed to be sent to the power plants are lost.
``Whenever it happens we lose up to 1.5 gigawatts to the national grid.
``That is colossal in terms of cost volume of almost 200 million standard cubic feet of gas being lost per day,” he said.
While expressing regrets over the spate of vandalism on gas pipelines in the recent times, the managing director described the act as economic sabotage.
According to him, the recent vandalism which is on the Escravos Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS) is core to the nation’s power supply.
He said the pipeline was the heart beat or the core of pipelines that took gas to the western part of the country.
Mo Ibrahim and his panel of judges must have realised that Africa would lose interest in his award if more time went by without a winner being announced.
After two barren years, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation finally announced on Monday that Namibia’s outgoing president, Hifikepunye Pohamba, won the US$5 million prize for leadership – the biggest award of its kind in the world. He will also receive a lifelong ‘allowance’ of US$200 000 per year. At the press conference in Nairobi, Kenya, where the winner was announced, the prize committee said Pohamba is rewarded for the important socio-economic gains made in his country; for assuring ‘national cohesion and reconciliation’; and for stepping down after two terms.
Salim Ahmed Salim, the former secretary general Organisation of African Unity and chairperson of the prize committee, described Pohamba’s leadership as ‘exemplary’. ‘He also respected the rule of law, especially when it came to term limits,’ Salim added.
Under Pohamba’s watch, Namibia has made huge progress in tackling poverty, promoting gender equality and improving health and education systems. ‘Namibia’s reputation has been cemented as a well-governed and stable democracy,’ Salim said. Still, ‘the prize committee is conscious that this young nation still faces many challenges, including widening social and economic inequality.’
Rewarding good leaders who respect democracy has never come at a better time
The 79-year-old Pohamba is certainly not one of Africa’s most recognisable leaders – perhaps to his credit. He has been a member of Namibia’s former liberation movement, the South West African People’s Organisation (SWAPO) since the 1960s and has won two elections, in 2004 and 2009. He is stepping down later this month after his successor, Prime Minister Hage Geingob, won the November 2014 elections.
The merits of Pohamba being awarded the prize are debatable: for example, Namibia is a small country, with only 2.3 million inhabitants. And since the Mo Ibrahim Foundation previously awarded the prize to the presidents of Cape Verde (Pedro Pires in 2011) and Botswana (Festus Mogae in 2008) – neither of which has a population of more than two million people – one should ask whether it is easier to govern a small country than those with huge, diverse and unequal societies. The only exception in the history of the Mo Ibrahim prize so far is Mozambique, which has 25.8 million inhabitants. Former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano was the first laureate of the prize in 2005.
Those countries that make it to the top of the Mo Ibrahim index for good governance, released annually, are also mostly small countries like Mauritius, Botswana, Cape Verde and Seychelles. The only country in the top five with a sizeable population is South Africa, which is fourth on the list. Clearly, such measurements and frameworks do favour smaller countries. Namibia came sixth in the 2014 index.
Nevertheless, the Mo Ibrahim prize, and particularly the index, has become a valuable benchmark for excellence on the continent. And the picture is not all negative. Speaking at a conference in Johannesburg on Tuesday this week, Ibrahim Mayaki, Chief Executive Officer of The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), said it is clear from the Mo Ibrahim index that Africa has ‘reached a level of democratic intensity.’
Mayaki said that by generalising somewhat, Africa could roughly be divided into four parts. Firstly, there is ‘the Africa that does not have mineral resources, but through structured transformational leadership has succeeded to develop their economies and are moving towards industrialisation.’ Secondly, there are the big mineral and oil producers that are trying to transform ‘but are still facing huge challenges in terms of inequalities’.
The third category is the least developed countries that are still largely dependent on aid, but ‘trying to get to the door of development’. Finally, conflict-ridden countries like Somalia and the Central African Republic ‘are not thinking about development but just peace and security,’ said Mayaki.
Shifting up or down the Mo Ibrahim index can give civil society and leaders a good idea of where they are, compared to their peers. This is something the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) is also supposed to be doing. Regrettably, the APRM is often mired in bureaucracy and stifled by the fact that it is essentially government driven.
Rewarding good leaders who respect democracy has never come at a better time. Across the continent, opposition is growing against the attempts by leaders to serve a third term. In Burundi and Togo, for example, elections are going ahead this year with the incumbent standing for a third mandate, albeit apparently sanctioned by their constitutions.
Whether it is helpful to give a cash prize, and such a big prize at that, is open to question, however. The Nobel peace prize, for example, is only worth around US$1.5 million. Does that mean African presidents do not earn enough, or that they need so much more encouragement to do the right thing? Surely most former presidents receive a sizeable pension? On the other hand, US$5 million may be too little to encourage long-time strongmen to step down.
Presidents who have served their countries well ‘deserve to retire with dignity'
One cannot imagine Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe or Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema, both who’ve been in power for several decades, deciding to retire because Mo Ibrahim would reward them. Burkina Faso’s former president Blaise Compaoré was reportedly promised the job as head of the Francophonie Organisation if he accepted not to run for a third term, but he didn’t seem interested at all. Power is too attractive.
Graça Machel, widow of former South African president Nelson Mandela and a member of the prize committee, said that presidents who have served their countries well ‘deserve to retire with dignity’. Machel added: ‘All the laureates are humble people. They distinguished themselves in terms of service’. She said that besides a comfortable retirement, it also ‘allows the head of state to continue to do the work of his choice’. ‘It can be philanthropy; it can be initiatives for rural or urban development. It allows this head of state who has done well and has retired with dignity, to continue to play a role in the development of his country,’ she said.
Mo Ibrahim tried to support Machel’s point by citing a number of ‘wonderful leaders in Africa’ who apparently struggle to make ends meet. He made former laureate Pires stand up. ‘I’ve been to his house, I know how they live, he is a very modest man,’ Ibrahim said. Former Botswana president Quett Masire apparently flew economy class when he was president, said Ibrahim. Though not everyone would be convinced by this argument, the iconic Thomas Sankara would certainly have been happy to hear this. The former president of Burkina Faso, again in vogue following Compaoré’s ousting, made his ministers drive small cars while he sometimes rode a bicycle through the streets of Ouagadougou.
Mo Ibrahim took quite a big step when deciding on this prize for good governance in Africa, and it certainly isn’t above criticism. Yet it does make a point about role models and what kind of leadership is needed on the continent. One just hopes the Sudanese cellphone mogul has enough spare cash to also ‘retire with dignity’ and sustain his prize over time.
Liesl Louw-Vaudran, ISS Consultant
Credit: http://www.issafrica.org/iss-today/mo-ibrahim-prize-finally-a-winner
The article was first published by The Institute for Security Studies (http://www.issafrica.org) and is republished with permission granted to www.oasesnews.com
Islamic State released a video on Sunday that appeared to show the beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians in Libya and President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned that his country would respond to the deaths as it saw fit.
Speaking on national television hours after the release of the video, Sisi said Cairo would choose the "necessary means and timing to avenge the criminal killings".
Egypt's state news agency MENA quoted the spokesman for the Coptic Church as confirming that 21 Egyptian Christians believed to be held by Islamic State were dead.
The beheadings could stiffen Sisi's resolve in dealing with security threats from militants thriving in neighboring Libya's chaos who want to topple his U.S.-backed government.
Egypt has denied reports in the past that it had taken part, along with its close ally the United Arab Emirates, in air strikes against militants based in Libya.
The footage showing the deaths of the Egyptians appeared on the Twitter feed of a website that supports Islamic State, which has seized parts of Iraq and Syria and has also beheaded Western hostages.
In the video, militants in black marched the captives, dressed in orange jump suits, to a beach the group said was near Tripoli. They were forced down onto their knees, then beheaded.
A caption on the five-minute video read: "The people of the cross, followers of the hostile Egyptian church." Before the killings, one of the militants stood with a knife in his hand and said: "Safety for you crusaders is something you can only wish for."
Thousands of Egyptians desperate for work have traveled to Libya since an uprising at home in 2011, despite advice from their government not to go to a country sliding into lawlessness.
Sisi, who met with the country's top military commanders to discuss the killings, called for a seven-day mourning period, state television reported.
The Coptic Church said it was confident the government would seek justice. Al Azhar, the center of Islamic learning in Egypt, said no religion would accept such "barbaric" acts.
The families of the kidnapped workers had urged Cairo to help secure their release. In the mostly impoverished southerly Minya Governorate, relatives screamed and fainted upon hearing news of the deaths.
CONCERNS ABOUT LIBYA
Egypt, the most populous Arab state, has not taken part directly in the U.S.-led air strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria, focusing instead on the increasingly complex insurgency within its own borders.
Militants based in Libya have made contact with Sinai Province, a group operating from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula that has changed its name from Ansar Beyt al-Maqdis and pledged allegiance to Islamic State.
The group has killed hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police since the army toppled Islamist president Mohamed Mursi in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.
With Libya caught in a chaotic power struggle between two rival factions operating their own governments, Western officials worry that Islamist militants are taking advantage of the turmoil to strengthen their presence.
A number of Islamist militant groups have been active since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 left Libya without a strong central government. A few have declared ties to the radical Islamic State and claimed high-profile attacks over recent weeks in what appears to be an intensifying campaign.
Fears that the crisis in neighboring Libya could spill across the border have prompted Egypt to upgrade its military hardware. French President Francois Hollande has said Egypt will order 24 Rafale fighter jets, a naval frigate and related military equipment in a deal to be signed in Cairo on Monday worth more than 5 billion euros ($5.7 billion).
Credit: Reuters
At least 12,000 members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kware and Gwadabawa local government areas of Sokoto State.
The decampees, who included 2,800 members from Kware and 9,200 members from Gwadabawa local government councils, were received by the state acting Chairman of the APC, Alhaji Usman Danmadamin-Isa.
Speaking during a campaign rally in Gwadabawa council yesterday, the spokesman for the defectors from the area, Alhaji Nasiru Yusuf, said they joined the APC due to the giant strides recorded by Governor Aliyu Wamakko in the state.
He pledged to work hard to ensure APC’s victory in the forthcoming governorship elections in the state.
“We will work assiduously to ensure the success of APC candidates at all levels and across Nigeria,” he stressed.
In his remark, Governor Aliyu Wamakko said the party’s candidates in the forthcoming polls were chosen based on merit, adding that the APC would now commence a door to door campaign in the state with the extension of the dates of the polls.
“An APC-led government in Sokoto state will sustain the even transformation of the state if elected,” the governor, promised.
Also speaking, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and APC governorship candidate, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, pledged to sustain the laudable legacies of the Wamakko administration, if elected.
Tambuwal further promised to exploit the abundant mineral and natural resources in the state, if elected.
“Various feasibility studies had been conducted by the state government in this direction and we will do this to boost our revenue base as well as curb unemployment and poverty,” he said.
Tambuwal also pledged to construct the Gwadabawa-Sakamaro-Gigane-Illela road, if given the mandate.
