Prospects for a credible 2023 elections and the menacing security easing out in Nigeria, are currently not appearing very positive. The heartless assassination of the Provost Marshall of the Nigerian Army, Maj Gen Hassan Ahmed, by unknown gunmen is a clear indication the security crisis is more severe than previously thought. Director Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu in a statement on Friday morning said, ‘’with a heavy heart, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Faruk Yahaya, and Soldiers of the Nigerian Army regret to announce the passing on of Maj Gen Hassan Ahmed, a former Provost Marshall…
Author: Akanimo Sampson
Menas Associates, a political risk consultancy in its Algeria Politics and Security, a weekly intelligence report on the North African country says extremely dangerous signals are emerging from the country. According to its report, ‘’deadly forest fires, especially in the eastern Khenchela region, and the growing water shortage crisis are fuelling a growing sense of anger which is becoming increasingly prevalent throughout most of Algeria. ‘’There is immense anger amongst the predominantly Chaouia people in the Khenchela region where forest fires in the Aures mountains are out of control. ‘’In Algiers, and elsewhere, critical water shortage has already led to demonstrations…
The Nigerian state is currently making a seeming frantic effort to contain the uprising of Boko Haram in the North-East, banditry in the North-West, the herders bloodletting in the Middle-Belt, the hot Oodua Republic agitation in Western Nigeria, and that of Biafra in Eastern Nigeria. Before now, the oil-bearing creeks of the Niger Delta have been excessively garrisoned to ensure steady flow of oil. Garrisoning the oil and gas region has never prevented the ‘freedom fighters’ from striking when necessary. Now, Abuja has opened another window for a fresh unease in the oil region. This is even as the leadership…
The world’s longest heated oil pipeline right through the heart of Africa, an initiative of French oil major, Total and majority state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), is currently suffering a major blow. In response to an NGO letter sent to the world’s biggest global insurers and brokers to ask them to steer clear from Total’s highly destructive and controversial East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline project, AXA has confirmed that it will not be involved. It says the “project is not compatible with [their] risk appetite and, more broadly, with [their] climate commitments.” Seven banks have already committed not…
Within the first half of this year, not less than 1,146 people died attempting to reach Europe by sea, according to the latest briefing released by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). Deaths along these routes more than doubled so far this year compared to the same period in 2020, when 513 migrants are known to have drowned. The brief sheds light on the ongoing situation along some of the most dangerous maritime migration routes worldwide. While the number of people attempting to cross to Europe via the Mediterranean increased by 58 per cent between January and June this year…
Internally Displaced Persons in Afghanistan have shot up to more than 3.5 million. The figure is growing as close to 300,000 have fled their homes since January this year. United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR is attributing the development to the worsening security situation across Afghanistan in the wake of foreign troop withdrawal, and Taliban advances. The agency says families are fleeing extortion by non-State armed groups and the dangers posed by improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, along major roads. Many also reported a breakdown in welfare support and a loss of income, owing to the rising insecurity. To help those…
Despite the assurance of the Buhari administration that the arrested leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, will be given a fair hearing, the separatist group is currently bracing for a new phase of the agitation. New Director of Radio Biafra, Simon Ekpa, is already calling on all the members of IPOB worldwide to get ready for a total change in the face of the struggle to restore Biafra. The call is coming even as the Buhari administration has promised to go after Kanu’s collaborators, no matter their standing in the society assuring that they will face…
United Nations health agency, World Health Organisation (WHO) has provided the first global recommendations for DNA-altering technology, known as human genome editing, to be used as a safe, effective and ethical public health tool to benefit everyone. WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, says “human genome editing has the potential to advance our ability to treat and cure disease, but the full impact will only be realized if we deploy it for the benefit of all people, instead of fuelling more health inequity between and within countries.” The total complement of genes in any organism or cell, is known as its genome. In a…
A tragic new data is indicating that the world is “tremendously off track” to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, says between 720 and 811 million people in the world faced hunger in 2020, some 161 million more than for 2019. According to the UN chief, ‘’high costs, coupled with persistently high levels of poverty and income inequality, continue to keep healthy diets out of reach for around three billion people, in every region of the world.’’ He was speaking in a statement highlighting the importance of the global Food Systems Summit, due…
The value of New Zealand’s blueberry exports has continued to grow every year, according to the latest data reports. For the year ending June 2020, the value was NZ$44 million, up from $38.9 million in 2019. It has progressively been climbing and was only $6 million in 2000 and $23.4 million in 2015. Australia was the main destination for blueberry exports last year, accounting for $39 million of the value. The report also showed that there were 80 growers nationwide, producing 3,640 tonnes, with domestic sales of the fruit at $35.3 million. In Australia, the Northern NSW season got underway…
The government of Senegal is set to receive a $119 million credit facility from the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) to finance three transport infrastructure projects following the signing of a loan agreement between the country’s Minister of Economy, Planning, and Cooperation, Amadou Hott, and the Vice-President of the EBID, Mabouba Diagne. The projects in question concern both road and rail transport infrastructure, particularly the upgrading of the corridor connecting Mali and Senegal, the construction of a bridge at the railway terminus of the Blaise Diagne International Airport (AIBD). The loan will also be used to finance the…
United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has reiterated that the world is running out of time to limit global temperature rise to below two degrees Celsius, a matter of life or death for climate-vulnerable countries on the front line of the crisis. Speaking to the first Climate Vulnerable Finance Summit of 48 nations systemically exposed to climate-related disasters, Guterres said they needed reassurance that financial and technical support will be forthcoming. “To rebuild trust, developed countries must clarify now, how they will effectively deliver $100 billion dollars in climate finance annually to the developing world, as was promised over a decade…
All does not seem to be well with Nigeria’s plans for the 2023 general elections. Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, and a civic group, Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) have to raise serious doubts about the elections. What they are saying implies that the integrity of Nigeria’s next cycle of general elections is currently under threat. Disturbingly, the simmering situation is capable of throwing up a dire humanitarian crisis in the country if the authorities failed to allay the potentially dangerous fears about the uncertain 2023 polls. Outspoken Governor Wike is alleging that only compromised academics who are…
For the first time in 12 months, global food commodity prices fell in June, according to a benchmark United Nations report. This is coming as the World Food Programme (WFP) on Thursday warned that high food prices, driven by conflict, economic fragility and the impacts of La Niña, are making nutritious food unaffordable for millions of families already struggling to cope with income losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The FAO Food Price Index averaged 124.6 points in June 2021, down 2.5 percent from May, but still 33.9 percent higher than its level in the same period last year. The…
World Health Organisation (WHO) chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has shockingly warned that COVID-19 variants like Delta are currently winning the race against vaccines. Tedros is pinning the blame squarely on a lack of equitable vaccine production and distribution. During his biweekly conference in Geneva, he added that passing the four millionth recorded death worldwide from COVID-19 was a “tragic milestone” which “likely underestimates the overall toll” of the deadly virus. He is warning that far too many countries are seeing “sharp spikes in cases and hospitalisation”, while rich nations with high inoculation rates, were dropping public health measures “as though the…
Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation says the volume of agric exports increased to more than four million tons from January 1 to June 29. According to a report issued by the Central Plant Quarantine Administration on total agricultural exports, these exports amounted to 4.0179 million tons, rising by 15 percent over the same period of last year. The most important agricultural exports for this period included citrus, potatoes, onions, strawberries, pomegranates, sweet potatoes, beans, beets, guavas, peppers, mangoes, garlic, grapes, peaches, and watermelons. This is coming as part of a plan to fill state coffers through produce exports,…
In Katsina State, President Muhammadu Buhari’s home state, Abuja has distributed engagement letters and tablets to 108 trained National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) Independent Monitors to ensure effective implementation of the programme in the state. Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development Minister, Mrs Sadiya Umar Farouk, distributed the letters and working tools to the beneficiaries. She said the independent monitors will effectively monitor the NSIP activities in their respective local governments. Farouk, represented by the ministry’s Assistant Director Information and Communications Technology, Dr. Aminu Tukur Ingawa, said NSIP was created by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2016 with the mandate…
After fighting halted the emergency response, United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has resumed its operations in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. However serious challenges are threatening the entire humanitarian response in the region. On Thursday, WFP reached 10,000 people displaced by conflict with emergency food assistance in the Adi Nebried area and gave nutritionally fortified food to 3,000 women and children, many suffering from malnutrition, in Endabaguna. WFP continues distributions today, hoping to reach 30,000 people in Northwest Tigray by the weekend. “We have the teams on ground, trucks loaded and ready to go to meet the catastrophic food…
A devastating hurricane in Nigeria will soon shake All Progressives Congress (APC), and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the two biggest political parties and rivals in the country, going by a disturbing forecast by a key actor. The political Tsanami in Nigeria will however, be triggered by politicians who are said to be realigning for the largely uncertain 2023 power struggle. Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, an astute power broker and the giant killer of Rivers politics, who dropped this bombshell says mass defection will rock APC and PDP between now and December. 2023 power seekers, according to him, are…
Since a seeming strange era was foisted on Nigeria in 2015, life has become increasingly meaningless in the country. Rebel groups operating by whatever name that fits their fancy, snuff out the life of citizens at will. And, the authorities appear to be helpless. In Kaduna State, Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU) wants Governor Nasir el-Rufai to take responsibility for the cold-blooded murder of three students of the College of Education, Gidan Waya that were involved in a peaceful demonstration against school fees hike by the el-Rufai administration. Perhaps, there is the need at this point to ask, what is…
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has challenged President Muhammadu Buhari on bandits and Miyetti Allah militias terrorising Nigeria. Wike is arguing that since President Buhari has demonstrated his administration’s resolve to address insecurity crisis facing the country, the same dragnet deployed to arrest Nnamdi Kanu ”must as a matter of urgency be extended to bandits and Miyetti Allah militias terrorising the country”. He has also advised the Buhari administration to ensure that rule of law and due process is followed in the prosecution of leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). Wike said conscientious effort must be made by Abuja…
Tanzania has become Africa’s third largest exporter of foodstuffs to the rest of the world. This East African country is leading the EAC region. Its food crop production reached 9.3 million tons in 2018/19, compared to 9.7 million tons 2014/15 (-4 per cent). Among the country’s main staple crops are cassava, potatoes and bananas. This is coming as growers in Nigeria are hoping to drastically increase the annual revenues from the export of mushrooms to the international market, National President of the Mushroom Growers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria, Michael Awunor has said. Awunor stated that Nigeria is determined…
At a major sustainable development symposium over the weekend, the world noted that the global climate crisis is exacerbating and intensifying water-related disasters. As a direct consequence, it is jeopardising lives and livelihoods. UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, told the 5th UN Special Thematic Session on Water and Disaster that for decades, natural disasters, which have been one of the major causes of worsening poverty, is forcing some 26 million people into poverty every year. According to the UN chief, it is also reversing developmental gains…always connected to water, whether through floods, storms, droughts, tsunamis or landslides. Dangerous trends Over the past…
Indigenous people living on the front line of climate change are capable of offering potentially ground-breaking insight into biodiversity protection and sustainability, But, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), they urgently need help to withstand a growing number of threats to their way of life. ”From the Arctic to the Amazon, the Himalayas to the Sahel, the 11 indigenous communities featured in a new FAO study are revealed as “self-reliant and resilient, living sustainably and in harmony with their ecosystems, even when inhabiting harsh environments”. ”They generate hundreds of food items from the environment without depleting natural resources and achieve high levels of self-sufficiency”, said the UN agency, which explored ancestral knowledge in the Solomon Islands among the Melanesians who combine agroforestry, wild food gathering and fishing…
The imminent closure of the last cross-border aid lifeline to northwest Syria this coming July 10 is causing serious concern in the United Nationa. UN humanitarians on Friday even pointed out that no cross-line supplies has reached Idlib from Damascus, in 11 months. World Food Programme (WFP) spokesperson Tomson Phiri said that the renewal of the UN resolution allowing cross-border operation was critical, since “millions of lives are at stake”. Lifeline for 2.4 million Speaking in Geneva during a regular briefing, Phiri explained that 2.4 million people “depend entirely on cross-border assistance for their basic needs including food. The majority…
Nine years on since United Nations experts warned that victims of torture are facing reprisals for complaining or cooperating with the global body, the situation is still as the pre-2012 era.. According to them, since then, the trend of reported reprisals and severity against individuals and groups specifically for engaging with the UN has increased. The top rights experts are therefore, appealing for all governments to ensure that victims of torture receive the rehabilitation services they need, along with guarantees that those who help them do not suffer reprisals. In a statement to mark the International Day in Support of…
There are growing global concerns about the situation in the Gaza Strip. While briefing the Security Council, the UN envoy there pointed out that the situation is still ”very fragile”. According to the diplomat, the cessation of hostilities negotiated last month between Israel and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, remains “very fragile”. ”The UN is working closely with all concerned parties and partners to solidify a ceasefire, allow the entry of urgent humanitarian assistance and stabilise the situation in Gaza”, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennestand, said, referring to the conflict that erupted between Israel…
President Muhammadu Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) is allegedly locked in a backstage scheme to ignite political crisis in Delta State, one of the core big oil and gas states of the Niger Delta. In its monthly intelligence report, Nigeria Focus, a political risk consultancy, Menas Associates is unraveling moves by APC to take-over Delta. According to the report, ”to flip it (Delta State) to the APC would require the extraordinary defection of both Ibori and Tompolo in order to impact voter behaviour so significantly. ”The defection of only one of them would almost certainly lead to greater insecurity which…
Menas Associates, a political risk consultancy, says Algeria’s electoral authorities have more or less confirmed that, like previous ones, the June 12 election was rigged, as they argued over a credible voter participation rate, which was progressively reduced from: 30.2% to 25.07%, to 23.03%, and to 19.01% if spoiled ballots are excluded. This comes close to the actual turnout of 11%-15%. The surprise winners were the old Front de libération nationale (FLN) which gave its traditional alliance with the fellow regime supporting Rassemblement national démocratique (RND) a strong block in the new parliament. The importance of these elections for the…
The impact of climate change is threatening to cause pandemic-scale disruption to small businesses around the world. Small businesses make up more than half of the global workforce and are 2.5 times more likely to go under than larger firms. International Trade Centre (ITC) has started warning the COVID-19 shocks for small businesses. Executive Director of ITC, Pamela Coke-Hamilton, says the pandemic has shown that the resilience of businesses matter, adding that, ”going green is a survival imperative; the longer firms take to act, the higher the costs become.” ”Although small businesses account for more than 50 per cent of…
