If the world’s farmers are to produce the 50 percent more food needed for a global population predicted to reach 10 billion by 2050, they must have access to seeds for more productive, nutritious and climate-resilient crop varieties, so says Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). “There are no good crops without good seeds. Seeds are the foundation of agri-food systems. We rely on seeds to produce food, feed, fibre, fuel, and they contribute to a friendly environment”, said Director-General QU Dongyu as he opened an FAO-hosted Global Conference on Green Development of Seed Industries. Raising the quality of seeds “which…
Author: Akanimo Sampson
United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, is currently insisting that the Libyan government ‘’must’’ immediately address the dire situation of asylum-seekers and refugees, in a humane manner, consistent with international human rights law. Very early this October, a Human Rights Council-appointed probe said that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in Libya by all parties to the conflict since 2016 including by external actors. From arbitrary detention to torture, the recruitment of child soldiers and mass killings, the Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya listed numerous grave rights violations which had impacted the country’s people and which gave them “reasonable grounds” for…
Senior Research Consultant on Migration, Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Pretoria, South Africa, Aimée-Noël Mbiyozo, says rural productivity across the African continent is being crippled by climate change. According to the researcher, climate change is driving Africa’s rural populations to the city, pointing out, ‘’changing weather patterns and environmental shocks hamper rural productivity, so people relying on agriculture or its value chain are moving to urban areas to seek alternative livelihoods.’’ Writing on ISS Today, a newsletter of the Institute, Mbiyozo said while urbanisation has development benefits, most of Africa’s city dwellers already live in poverty – and this is likely to…
Except for those who are deeply gifted spiritually, Nigeria’s politics cannot be easily predicted. For instance, since former Vice President Atiku Abubakar missed a golden era of becoming Nigeria’s President in 2003, he has not been able to muster such massive support of sitting governors and political foot soldiers across the country. Atiku’s mercy that guaranteed President Olusegun Obasanjo an easy ticket for his re-election has been a setback for him. Similarly, in the buildup to the 2007 presidential battle, Port Harcourt, the capital city of Rivers State, became a political Mecca of sorts for all manners of leaders who…
More than 28 years after Nigeria’s inglorious political crisis, the country under President Muhammadu Buhari’s watch appears to be racing back to that era. Former President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, John Nwodo, has said that the delay in restructuring the country is likely to lead to a mass boycott or disruption of the 2023 elections. Speaking at the 14th Anthony Cardinal Okogie Foundation (ACOF) annual lecture with the theme, Whither Nigeria: Restructuring, Secession or Status Quo, organised by Knights of St. John International and Ladies Auxiliary (KSJI), Nwodo said restructuring is needed for the unity and development of the country. The disruption…
United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, is currently taking up the issue of women’s inclusion very strongly. Already, he has told the Security Council, ‘’we can no longer exclude half of humanity from international peace and security matters’’, emphasizing the need to fully address the challenges and gaps that continue to prevent women from having an equal say. In October 2019, it was boldly declared then that The Women Peace and Security agenda must continue to be “one of the top priorities of the UN”, Guterres, told the Security Council in an open debate on how best to accelerate change. He spoke of…
The emerging development in Europe is likely to be an added boost to environmental activism in Nigeria, where the renowned Ogoni leader, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and others died fighting for environmental justice. Since the execution of The Ogoni Nine by the Abacha military dictatorship, Environmental Rights Action (ERA), under the leadership of Nnimmo Bassey, made a safe environment, a human rights affair. Though still in the Governing Board of ERA, Bassey has since moved to galvanise the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF). However, a 46-strong group of countries across the wider European region has agreed to establish a new legally…
The previous Thursday night at a celebratory concert in New York, USA, marking the anniversary of the foundational United Nations Charter entering into force, Secretary-General, António Guterres, said the “spirit of solidarity and action” that marks United Nations Day itself, is “wonderfully expressed in the power of music”. In 1945, representatives of 50 countries met in San Francisco at the United Nations Conference on International Organisation to draw up the United Nations Charter. The United Nations officially came into existence on October 24, 1945, when the Charter had been ratified by a majority of signatories. Watch history in the making with this footage from the UN archives. The San Francisco…
Going by United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) latest assessment, plastic pollution in oceans and other bodies of water continues to grow sharply and could more than double by 2030. Plastics are however, the largest, most harmful and most persistent fraction of marine litter, accounting for at least 85 per cent of total marine waste. The assessment examines the magnitude and severity of marine litter and plastic pollution and reviews existing solutions and actions. The assessment demonstrates that there is a growing threat from marine litter and plastic pollution in all ecosystems from source to sea. It provides a comprehensive update on current research (and knowledge gaps)…
Chairman of Rivers State wing of Nigeria Economic Society(NES), Professor Godly Otto, says the hot row on who should collect Value Added Tax (VAT) in Nigeria is uncalled for, pointing out that the whole hot air is political. Not only that. For him, the battle also has economic ,social and legal dimensions, maintaining that in term of the legal dimension, it is clear VAT is not in theExclusive list ,and also not in the Concurrent list. While asserting that if VAT is in the Residual list, he then submits that state can actually collect VAT since it is a consumption…
Madagascar is currently racing to become the first famine caused by climate change. World Food Programme (WFP) says more than one million people in southern axis of the troubled African country, are struggling to get enough to eat, due to the environmental disaster. Last November 27, WFP reported that hunger was on the rise in southern Madagascar due to consecutive years of drought, affecting half the region’s population, or 1.5 million people, and forcing most families to eat insects. The figure then was three times the number projected mid-year, with women and children comprising most of those experiencing “crisis” or “emergency” hunger conditions. The UN agency pointed out that…
Nigeria is on the verge of another potential mass protest on the scale of the EndSARS eruption, going by the latest prediction of Primate Elijah Ayodele, Leader of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church. The outspoken prophet is warning President Muhammadu Buhari ahead of the uprising, pointing out that the current economic crisis in Nigeria has led to an increase in prices of essential commodities. But, President Buhari is of the view that the significant spike in the prices of food in Nigeria is caused by middlemen who have been buying and holding essential commodities. The president stated this during a televised…
Nigeria’s finance industry and all the others around the world are in the soup over the alleged negative impact of their activities on human rights. A panel of the United Nations is frowning seriously at such a negative impact. A group of UN-appointed independent rights experts says the finance industry’s demand for new sources of capital globally, to satisfy investors, is having a serious negative impact on the enjoyment of human rights. Among the rights at risk from increasing speculation in the financial markets by hedge funds and other investment funds, are the right to safe drinking water and sanitation,…
Energy prices will still remain at high levels next year, going by the latest Commodity Markets Outlook forecasts of the World Bank. In the third quarter of 2021, prices soared and are expected to remain elevated in 2022. Expectedly, that will be adding to global inflationary pressures and potentially shifting economic growth to energy-exporting countries like Nigeria, from energy-importing ones like the US. According to the World Bank’s Commodity Markets Outlook forecasts, energy prices are expected to average more than 80 percent higher in 2021 compared to last year, and will remain at high levels in 2022. But, it will start to…
Frontline Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) player, Emmanuel Nkala, is currently calling on the Buhari administration to resist the temptation of a military raid on Ogoni with the hope of killing civil rights protestors seeking justice for the Ogoni people of Rivers State. But, President Muhammadu Buhari is urging Ogoni leaders to sensitise their people on the value of protecting national assets like pipelines and other oil installations, saying wilful damages usually create more havoc on their environment and hamper development in the area. President Buhari’s Media Aide Lead, Femi Adesina, in a statement said his…
Twenty-five civil society groups including Friends of the Earth Europe – Belgium, Armenian Women For Health &Healthy Environment NGO (AWHHE)- Armenia, and Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance – Australia, are at war with over 450 Public Development Banks (PDBs) around the world. Some of the groups are: Oil Workers’ Rights Protection Organization Public Union – Azerbaijan, Initiative for Right View – Bangladesh, Right to Food South Asia – Bangladesh, IRV – Bangladesh, Bangladesh Agricultural Farm Labour Federation (BAFLF) – Bangladesh, NGO “Ecohome” – Belarus, and Eclosio – Belgium The others are AEFJN – Belgium, FIAN Belgium – Belgium, Entraide et Fraternité…
Based on the 3.5 million coronavirus-related deaths reported globally to the United Nations health agency, World Health Organisation (WHO), up to May this year; between 80,000 and 180,000 health and care workers may have died from the virus. Precisely, that is between January, 2020 and May of this year. That grim estimate features in a new WHO working paper a figure that WHO says may well be at least 60 per cent lower than the actual number of victims. Between January 2020 and May 2021, surveillance data reported to WHO showed 3.45 million deaths due to COVID-19. Of these, only 6643 deaths were identified as…
Countries of Africa’s Great Lakes region are currently standing “at a crossroads”. UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy, Huang Xia, told diplomats so while speaking at a Security Council meeting on the situation in the region. For Xia, the main threat to peace and stability in this region around the Great Rift Valley remains the persistence of non-state armed groups. He pointed to “an upsurge in attacks”, whether by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), or those launched by the RED-Tabara against Bujumbura airport, in Burundi, last September. Since the beginning of this year, in DRC…
Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State holds the key to the future of Lake Chad Basin’s economy. It has always played a key part in the economy of the region. For years, the city has been a Boko Haram hot spot. But, this is subsiding. A Researcher of the Institute for Security Studies’ Lake Chad Basin Programme, Teniola Tayo, says relative peace provides an opportunity to rebuild the economy, triggering growth in other areas affected by the insurgency. Writing on ISS Today, a newsletter of the Institute, the researcher argues that economic recovery can also enable communities to build resilience against…
United Nations-appointed independent human rights experts have hammered the security forces in South Sudan for allegedly stoking the fire in the troubled African country. According to the rights experts, state security forces are responsible for imposing new and potentially arbitrary restrictions against the country’s most prominent civil society leaders, issuing “credible” death threats that have undermined peace efforts. In a recent alert, the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan is alleging that “overzealous” security forces have prevented dissent so dramatically, that civic space is now eroding “at an accelerating pace”, forcing rights defenders to flee and discouraging others from taking their place. Commissioner Andrew Clapham, says “the state’s targeting of high-profile human rights defenders will have a chilling effect on civil…
An independent United Nations human rights expert, Olivier De Shutter, has informed the General Assembly that it is possible to break the vicious chain of poverty and shift the paradigm. This is because poverty and privilege “continue to reproduce themselves in vicious cycles.” In his message marking International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, on October 17 UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, disclosed that for the first time in two decades, extreme poverty is on the rise. Describing current levels of poverty as “a moral indictment of our times”, Guterres said that the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on economies and societies around the world, with some 120 million more people falling into poverty last year.…
Apparently scared of being publicly embarrassed like former Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah, who is also a chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Niger Delta Affairs Minister, Godswill Akpabio, has started to beat a retreat from his secret 2023 presidential ambition. One of the reasons Akpabio dumped Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to APC more than three years ago was because he got his hands soiled with the finances of Akwa Ibom State while holding sway as governor for eight years. Some information available to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) tends to show that Akpabio will answer for a messy…
Apparently envious of the oil-bearing states of the federation and those of the North-East, some federal legislators in the House of Representatives are making efforts to cut some large chunk of the dwindling national cake to their regions. To this end, they are pushing to get their own regional development commission. Respectively, four bills to establish South East, South West, North Central and North West Development Commissions have sailed through third reading in the Green Chamber of the bicameral federal Legislature. But, there is no consideration for the six states – Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, and Rivers…
More than 1.5 billion people across countries who are trying to grow their own food are currently facing a serious setback. This is because between 20 to 50 per cent of irrigated soils in all continents have grown too salty to be fully fertile. The information is part of the Global Map of Salt-Affected Soils, a new tool launched by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). These soils are less fertile and less productive, creating a threat to the global fight against hunger and poverty. They also reduce water quality and soil biodiversity and increase soil erosion. With the new map, a joint project involving 118…
Igbo traditional rulers have offered President Muhammadu Buhari the antidote for the venomous security plague ravaging the eastern axis of the vast country just as Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has joined others in urging the Buhari administration to declare bandits in the North-West geo-political zone as “insurgents” or “terrorists”. Worried by the worsening security situation in Eastern Nigeria, the hotbed of the undying agitation for Biafra, traditional rulers of the region are now of the view only de-proscribing Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and releasing its leader, Nnamdi Kanu from detention can stabilise the area. Disturbingly, Abuja has…
Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), a civic group, wants President Muhammadu Buhari to take ‘’necessary steps’’ to implement provisions of the new Police legislation in the country. The new Police Act 2020 aims for an efficient and effective police service driven by principles of transparency and accountability, protection of human rights and partnership with other security agencies. PLAC and some concerned Nigerians are insisting that nothing has really changed as the injustice that was the main reason for the EndSARS protest still existed in the society. ‘’It is pertinent that moving forward, the Nigerian government takes necessary steps to…
Akwa Ibom State legislator representing Itu State Constituency, Kufre Edidem, has explained why the state House of Assembly is docile and under performing. He was speaking as the Village Head of Ikot Obio Atai, in his constituency has been sacked from his home by flood that has taken over more than three kilometre radius of the village. Local sources say the village head has fled his palace situated at 85 Urua Ekpa Road. He has relocated to Udo Usanga Street, where he now holds court as the merciless flood affected many adjoining streets in the area, including Afaha Oku, Imo, Udo…
Ahead of the trial of the Leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, on Thursday, the governorship candidate of Young Progressives Party (YPP) in the November 6 Anambra State poll, Ifeanyi Ubah, a senator representing Anambra South Senatorial District, sought an order of a Federal High Court in Abuja to visit the detained IPOB chief. Kanu is in the custody of the Department of State Service (DSS). This is happening as Abuja amends the seven-count charges against the IPOB leader. Count 1: That you Nnamdi Kanu, male adult of Afaraukwu lbeku Umahia North Local Government Area of Abia…
Handlers of the oil and gas sector of the Buhari administration do not appear to be working on the same page for the overall interest of the citizenry. Most times, they do not speak out based on the facts on the ground or offer tangible reasons for some delayed actions. For instance, Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NPRA), Farouk Ahmed, is attributing the rising cost of cooking gas to poor investment into the gas sector over the years. Just a little over five weeks ago, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Dr Nasir Sani-Gwarzo,…
President Muhammadu Buhari hosted his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was on a two-day official visit to Nigeria starting from October 19. Contrary to official claims, National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) was reading a different meaning to the visit. The pro-democracy group is urging Nigerians to be more vigilant, alleging that President Erdogan, President of Turkey’s trip was another step to further the Islamisation agenda of the Buhari administration. While describing Erdogan as an Islamist whose leadership has led to the persecution of Christians, including the conversion of churches into mosques, NADECO USA is worried that the entire visit was…
