After two back-to-back rainy seasons failed in Kenya, 2.5 million people in communities being ravaged by drought are already experiencing deep food insecurity. United Nation’s humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, says immediate action is needed to respond to the severe drought situation that is being categorised as Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL). As the UN Resident Coordinator for Kenya, Stephen Jackson, launched the humanitarian Flash Appeal for the Kenya Drought response, he said that by November, it will have nearly tripled since the same time last year. OCHA warns, “people in the ASAL region are facing a dire situation.” Speaking from Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, Jackson said people in Wajir,…
Author: Akanimo Sampson
The reason why over 113 climate justice, farm and food justice, human rights and environmental organisations are at war against “false climate solutions” from Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA) has filtered further into the open. TIAA which offers educators, arts workers, scholars and others financial security at retirement is a $1.3 trillion financial giant that manages retirement accounts for about 5 million clients and pension funds around the world. But, they do it through investing in companies fueling environmental destruction. In a time where fossil fuel investments are rapidly becoming stranded assets, and renewable energy solutions are recognized as our…
A merciless gully erosion in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State, has shattered the economic survival line of a widow and mother of six children. Except the Udom administration and public-spirited individuals and organisations rise to their rescue, Mrs Margaret Ubong Udofia and her children might join their hitherto bread winner in the world beyond. Mrs Ubong, who lost her husband in 2019 and has been taking care of her six children with the proceeds from selling borehole water in front of her residence along Ikpa Road, at Afaha Oku in the state capital. Afaha Oku shares boundaries with the Akwa…
South-South Governors have reopened their fight for equity and justice in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) President Muhammadu Buhari is seeking to amend barely weeks after he signed the legislation. They have also decided to join the suit currently before the Supreme Court of Nigeria over collection of Value Added Tax (VAT) between Federal Inland Service (FIRS) and Rivers State. These are part of the six-point communique that was read out by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, who presided over a meeting of the South-South Governors Forum at the Government House, Port Harcourt on Monday. While the governors declared that…
Current bloodletting in Eastern Nigeria, the hotbed of Biafra agitation, is allegedly being masterminded by political forces seeking to pocket the region. Going by some of the worrisome allegations, the killing is aimed at entrenching the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the area. It is equally being alleged that the chaos is targeted at political foes of some ambitious power-seekers. IPOB is already canvassing this claim. For the Biafra mass movement, they have found out the identities of those allegedly spilling blood in the East particularly in Imo, Anambra states. IPOB is alleging that Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State…
African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has sealed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the United Kingdom (UK) government to formalise the shared commitment to the success of the agreement. The UK High Commission in Accra, the capital city of Ghana said James Duddridge, the UK Minister for Africa, joined WamkeleMene, Secretary-General of the AfCFTA Secretariat, to sign the MoU at the Secretariat’s headquarters in Accra. “We are pleased to sign this MoU as it ushers us into a partnership for strengthening cooperation related to trade facilitation in Africa”, says Mene. AfCFTA is a continent-wide integration project that is built on…
Concerns have started growing around the humanitarian circles in the United Nations on what will be the fate of the hundreds of thousands of victims of the festering in the northern axis of Ethiopia. This is because of the decision to expel UN workers from the troubled country could affect aid distribution in the war-torn Tigray region where needs and displacement are rising virtually on a daily basis. Engagement between the UN and the government continues after the Ethiopian authorities on Thursday declared seven of the organization’s staff personae non grata and ordered them to leave the country within 72…
Over the last 20 years, trade between China and Africa has reportedly increased twenty-fold, and almost doubling between 2020 and 2021. Disturbingly, challenges, such as the continent’s over-dependence on natural resources and vast lack of essential infrastructure, is yet to be seriously addressed, though African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is gearing up to provide a further boost for all of Africa’s major trading partners. China’s Ministry of Commerce says trade between its country and Africa increased by 40.5 percent year-on-year in the first seven months of 2021 and was valued at a record high of $139.1 billion. The Ministry…
United Nations General Assembly President, Abdulla Shahid, says multilateralism still remains “the only way to address common challenges”. He said so in his first press conference since the conclusion of the annual High-Level Week. COVID-19 remains a major challenge that “will not be over until we achieve universal vaccination”, he said, announcing a plan to convene a High-Level meeting in January to take stock of the global inoculation effort. Noting that “humanity saw a tremendous amount of ingenuity and solidarity with the vaccines in record time”, the Assembly President said he was convinced that “we have the capacity to immunize…
In the next 29 years, the world will require $10 trillion, a colossal amount that can not be easily measured with the current state of the naira, Nigeria’s currency, to feed an additional two billion people. So says the World Bank’s Vice President for Sustainable Development, Dr. Juergen Voegele, a position he assumed on April 1, 2020. In this role, he oversees the work of Global Practices and thematic groups that bring together the best expertise from across the World Bank Group and from partners, to help countries tackle their most complex challenges in the area of sustainable development. The…
Commandant General of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Ahmed Audi, has outlined the way out of Nigeria’s multiple ethnic, religious, political and economic crises. He is suing for continued tolerance. For the civil defence chief, continued tolerance of one another’s differences and mutual co-existence as a people who are united in diversity and resilient in the face of daunting challenges, is the way forward for the troubled country’s survival as a unified entity. He is advocating for a renewed mindset and provision of actionable intelligence to keep Nigeria safe and peaceful for all to live and thrive, noting…
Officials in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city are currently joining the dots between deteriorating social conditions and young people taking up arms, a damning report on the country says. In its latest monthly intelligence report on Nigeria, Nigeria Focus, Menas Associates, a political risk consultancy says as conflict and insecurity grow across the country – whether caused by communal clashes over land rights, jihadism, political crusades, or outright criminality, the authorities are battling with it. According to the report, theFederal Government is almost six months in arrears in allocations to the 36 state governments which means that obligations such as wages and…
Amid the Horn of Africa’s worsening security situation, Institute for Security Studies (ISS) says the prioritisation of the region’s stability is timely. In Somalia, a political crisis has been unfolding since the country missed two election deadlines. Al-Shabaab attacks continue. In Ethiopia, the political transition that started in 2018 has resulted in civil conflict. Sudan faces an uncertain political transition characterised by competition between military and civilian political actors following the coup that toppled former president Omar al-Bashir in 2019. Instability within South Sudan’s unity government, exacerbated by recent infighting in Vice-President Riek Machar’s party and sporadic violence, threatens to…
Ongoing rising food prices is presenting governments in Africa with two clear options. It is either they act fast to ensure their people are fed or risk a fresh round of unrest and instability. Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Consultant, Ronak Gopaldas, and a political risk analyst, Menzi Ndhlowu, are warning that racing food prices could ignite unrest and instability if governments fail to do something in a bid to avoid conflict the continent cannot afford. Writing on ISS Today, a newsletter of the Institute, these two experts are arguing that since the onset of COVID-19, global food prices have rocketed,…
Ahead of the 2023 general elections in Nigeria, International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), a global, nonpartisan nonprofit organisation says it is providing national-level capacity building to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). IFES adds that it is incorporating lessons learned from the 2019 election process in electoral management, inclusion of traditionally marginalised groups, voter education, electoral conflict monitoring and alternative dispute resolution processes, among many others. The US-based global group is boasting of advancing democracy for a better future on its website, pointing out, ‘’we collaborate with civil society, public institutions and the private sector to build resilient democracies that deliver…
Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is currently wooing other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria seeking self-determination to join in its lockdown scheduled for October 1, the 61st year anniversary of the country’s independence. IPOB’s Spokesman, Emma Powerful, says the Biafra agitating mass movement will also bring down Nigerian flags in the eastern axis of the country, stressing that the group is taking these actions in solidarity with Ambazonia, a secessionist group in Cameroon, whose purported independence anniversary is on October 1. “IPOB has declared October 1, 2021 total shutdown in Biafra land as a sign of our rejection of the construct called Nigeria…
By Akanimo Sampson Many more Nigerians across the country are likely to die in the days ahead as health workers begin their indefinite strike this Thursday, September 30. Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) and the Assembly of Healthcare Professional Associations (AHPA), have directed their members to commence an indefinite strike this Thursday,. The strike is coming in spite of the fact that in September 2017, Chief Medical Director of University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH), Thomas Agan, attributed over 90 per cent of deaths recorded in Nigerian hospitals to poor attitude of health workers. While also attributing incessant strikes in…
Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, is currently pushing for arenewed social contract as a veritable tool for speedier recovery from the havoc of the rampaging COVID-19 pandemic now in its second year. “Global solidarity so far has been completely inadequate”, Guterres said as investment in jobs, social protection and a just transition to a net-zero emissions future, particularly in low and middle-income countries are being adversely affected, warning that all these could prevent a further deepening of inequalities. In a new policy brief on jobs and poverty eradication, outlined by the UN chief, it is now clear that two years into the COVID-19 crisis, a…
Many employers are having difficulties in finding workers with the skills that they need to expand their business and innovate successfully, a Senior Statistician in International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Department of Statistics, Valentina Stoevska, reports. Many people, according to his finding, are working in jobs that do not match their level of education.1 At the same time, This phenomenon points to a significant disconnect between the world of education and the world of work. Drawing on labour force survey data on the level of education and occupations of all employed workers in over 130 countries, the ILO estimates that only about…
National patron of Peoples Democratic Party National Youth Movement, Dr. Collins Osuagwu, is pushing for a radical shift in the 2023 cycle of recruiting public functionaries in Nigeria. He wants the electorate to retire all old brigades at the polls this time around. Osuagwu who was among those shopping for the Imo State governorship in 2019 is calling on the Nigerian people to vote for young and competent leaders, in all segments of the 2023 elections. He is also calling on all cadres of leaders in Eastern Nigeria, to speak up for the Leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra…
All Progressives Congress’ (APC) Caretaker Extra-Ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) will this Wednesday meet to consider the schedule of activities for the party’s forthcoming National Convention just as Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) announces that it has not officially declared ‘no election’ in Anambra State. IPOB says its pre-occupation remains restoration of Biafra Republic, pointing out that it has no plans to attack Easterners and Southerners. Its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, in a statement said IPOB is maintaining that violence is not part of its philosophy, and wonders how its members will be accused of attacking same people…
Sterling Bank Plc Board of Directors Chairman, Asue Ighodalo, has given Nigeria’s agricultural productivity currently growing at 1.3 percent a hard knock, pointing out that the sector’s growth rate is insufficient to meet food and raw materials demands of the country. Ighodalo was speaking at the 4th Agriculture Summit Africa (ASA) 2021 organised by the Bank in Lagos, the commercial capital of the country as the Presidency was busy rolling out some agricultural projects in the country that will be financed with the proposed $4 billion loan upon approval. The Presidency says the huge credit will be sourced from…
Apparently gingered by the impressive N817.35billion recorded In agric trade in the second quarter of this year, the Edo State wing of Federation of Agricultural Commodity Associations of Nigeria (FACAN), has distributed 150,000 free cashew seedlings to farmers in the state. Over 3000 hectares worth of sesame seeds were also distributed to farmers across the three Senatorial District of the State. National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its Foreign Trade Statistics – Q2 2021 says the Buhari administration recorded a total of N817.35 billion worth of trade in agricultural goods in the second quarter of this year. According to the report, N165.27…
Some aggrieved Igbo youths on the platform of Ohanaeze Youth Council (OYC), a socio-cultural organisation of Ndigbo, are currently adding a new twist to Nigeria’s plural challenges. They are claiming that the country might not exist beyond 2023. While warning against imminent collapse of the country if appropriate steps are not taken to address the myriads of problems bedeviling it, the Igbo youths also insisted that Nigeria may not exist beyond 2023 if appropriate steps are relegated to the background by the authorities. OYC says it is envisioning what it described as ‘’imminent conspiracy’’ against Ndigbo, pointing out that…
Another frontier for heightened security activities is currently opening in Western Nigeria, the hotbed of the agitation for Oodua Republic with the emergence of a budding yet-to-be named militant group. Its emergence is likely to further overstretch the security forces fighting insecurity in all fronts across the country. In the North-East axis of the country, the Boko Haram insurgency has lasted for over a decade with dire humanitarian challenges. In the North-West flank, bandits that were allegedly recruited as part of the controversial 2015 election game plan, are still busy wrecking havoc and depleting the number of the security…
Immediate past Rivers State Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Felix Obuah, has thrown his weight behind Governor Nyesom Wike’s seeming merciless verbal missiles attack on Nigeria at 61. Speaking at an Interdenominational Church Service on Sunday in Port Harcourt, the state capital to commemorate Nigeria’s 61st independence anniversaryat St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Governor Wike took on the three arms of government, and left them with severe bruises. According to the outspoken PDP governor, it is regrettable that 61 years after independence, Nigeria is still grappling with leadership challenge, pointing out that because of such leadership failure, the…
Apparently worried by the failure of the Buhari administration as well as previous failed attempts to restructure Nigeria, Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG), a welfarist socio-political group, is currently charging elected public officials of Western Nigeria, to be aligning strongly with the wishes of the electorate, and subjugate their personal interest to that of the people. The group is also calling on President Muhammadu Buhari “to acknowledge that he is not the only one in love with Nigeria’s continued existence, Yorùbá self determination activists do, just that there must be justice and equity for all Nigerian citizens.’’ In a three-page communique…
Fuel black marketers are bracing to harvest huge fortune from fuel consumers again as the Petroleum Tanker Drivers wing of National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) gears up to resume its suspended strike action soon. For weeks now, kerosine has disappeared in most filling stations in Abuja. Around Karu and Nyanya areas of the Federal Capital Territory, this essential commodity is selling at N370 a litre in the booming black market. Tanker drivers strike action is capable of driving up the price of petrol to as much as N500 a litre, thus igniting a spike in transport fares and…
A seeming nasty rivalry among the plural security agencies in the country is impeding the battle against the insecurity challenge. A strong pointer to this is coming from the Commandant General of Nigeria security and CIvil Defence Corps, Ahmed Audi. According to him, “to overcome the recent quagmire confronting the nation’s security architecture, there is need for all security agencies to come together and work assiduously to achieve a common goal.” Spokesman for the Civil Defence, Olusola Odumosu, says this is the charge his principal has given to all security chiefs in the country. Audi, according to Odumosu, was speaking…
At the closing segment of the UN Food Systems Summit, Director-General of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), QU Dongyu, pledged that the UN agency is committed to take a leadership role in ensuring the success of ambitious and urgent efforts designed to make the world’s agri-food systems more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable. According to him, “now is the time to roll up our sleeves because, you know, children can’t eat empty promises. It’s up to us to deliver and make food security and nutrition a reality”, and also promised carrying forward the vision and momentum for 2030, where he delivered…
