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Okonjo-Iweala set to be confirmed as WTO boss Monday

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Okonjo-Iweala set to be confirmed as WTO boss Monday

All is now set for Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to be confirmed as the first woman and first African leader of the beleaguered World Trade Organization, a near-paralysed institution desperately needing a kick-start.

The WTO has called a special general council meeting at which the former Nigerian finance minister and World Bank veteran is expected to be formally selected as the global trade body’s new director-general.

US President Joe Biden strongly swung behind her candidacy shortly after the only other remaining contender, South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee, pulled out.

“I look forward to finalising the process,” Okonjo-Iweala said on February 6 after securing the Biden administration’s support.

The organisation is also eager to conclude the drawn-out process, having been leaderless since Brazilian career diplomat Roberto Azevedo stepped down last August, a year ahead of schedule.

The process of picking one of eight candidates to succeed him had been expected to wrap up by November, but the administration of former US president Donald Trump blocked the consensus to appoint Okonjo-Iweala.

‘Reform candidate’

The 66-year-old will not be at the WTO’s Geneva headquarters for Monday’s virtual session and it is not known when she would take up her duties.

The 164-member organisation’s special session gets under way at 1400 GMT and Okonjo-Iweala is scheduled to hold an online press conference two hours later.

The WTO picks its leaders through consensus-finding, so even though she is the only candidate still in the race — boasting US, EU and African backing — there is always the chance of a spanner being thrown in the works.

She will take over an organisation mired in multiple crises and struggling to help member states navigate the severe global economic slump triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.

Okonjo-Iweala argued during the race that she was best placed out of the eight candidates for the post to steer the WTO through the crises.

“I am a reform candidate,” she insisted.

She has among other things warned that growing protectionism and nationalism have been spurred on by the pandemic and insists barriers need to be lowered to help the world recover.

Even before Covid-19 battered the global economy, the WTO was weighed down by stalled trade talks and struggled to curb trade tensions between the United States and China.

The WTO also faced relentless attacks from Washington under Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump. Among other things, Trump brought the WTO’s dispute settlement appeal system to a grinding halt in late 2019.

‘Boldness, courage’

Okonjo-Iweala has said her priorities include getting long-blocked trade talks on fishery subsidies across the finish line and breathing life back into WTO’s Appellate Body.

Twice Nigeria’s finance minister (2003-2006 and 2011-2015) and its first female foreign minister in a two-month stint in 2006, Okonjo-Iweala is seen as a trailblazer in her west African homeland.

She has brushed off claims she lacks experience as a trade minister or negotiator, insisting that what is needed to lead the WTO is not technical skills but “boldness, courage”.

She has portrayed herself as a champion against Nigeria’s rampant corruption — saying her own mother was even kidnapped over her attempts to tackle the scourge.

But her critics argue she should have done more to tackle it while in power.

A development economist by training with degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, Okonjo-Iweala has also had a 25-year career as a development economist at the World Bank, eventually becoming its number two.

She is on the Twitter board of directors and chaired Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

Amnesty International under fire for inciting insurrection in Nigeria.

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Amnesty International under fire for inciting insurrection in Nigeria.

 

Nigerians have been calling out Amnesty International over it’s role in promoting violent insurrections, carnage and wanton destruction of properties in the country following the #EndSARS protests which crippled Lagos and other states leading to the killings of scores of security agents and burning of businesses in various locations across the country.

Nigerians from across the divides have become furious following sustained tweets from the rights group, urging youths to take over the Lekki Toll Plaza in protest of its reopening after the Lagos panel dismissed allegations of any massacre at the plaza since those alleging failed to produce any evidence.

Amnesty International had consistently tweeted its call for a violent occupation of the toll plaza while maintaining silence over the Oyo crisis which saw scores of northerners killed and properties worth billions destroyed.

Below are some of the tweets calling out Amnesty International over its complicity.

Many Nigerians have therefore expressed their desires to see the group kicked out of the country.

Southwest crisis: Osinbajo condemns Shasha killings, sues for peace

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Southwest crisis: Osinbajo condemns Shasha killings, sues for peace

Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo has condemned the violence that led to the loss of lives at the Shasha Market, in Oyo State, calling for peace between the northern traders and those in the southwest.

Professor Osinbajo made the appeal while addressing journalists after he paid a condolence visit to the family of the late Chief Lateef Jakande in Lagos State, describing the incident as unfortunate and tragic.

The Vice President said the market has been a melting pot for traders bringing foodstuff from the north to the southwest for decades and they have lived in peace and even inter-married.

He believes that when a disagreement arises between individuals or a criminal act is committed by one against the other, Nigerians must ensure that they see it for what it is, (a criminal act) which must be punished according to law and not as an ethnic conflict.

The Vice President also believes that every Nigerian has a constitutional right to live, work and enjoy their lives in safety, peace under the law.

He, therefore, maintained that it is the duty of government through the police and other law enforcement agencies to arrest and prosecute any person who commits a crime against a citizen and it is also the role of the citizen to assist the police to identify the criminals.

“We must never take the law into our own hands, if we do we will be promoting chaos, and a breakdown of law and order, and all of us especially the most vulnerable amongst us, will be at risk.  I urge all community leaders to work together to preserve the brotherly co-existence that our people from different parts of the country have enjoyed in Shasha market for several decades,” Osinbajo said.

Southwest crisis: Hoodlums set ablaze trucks conveying food from northern Nigeria

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Southwest crisis: Hoodlums set ablaze trucks conveying food from northern Nigeria

Two trucks loaded with food stuff worth millions of Naira that were set ablaze by hoodlums on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway after clashes between Hausa and Yoruba residents on Friday.

State of the Nation: PDP is pot calling kettle black – Coalition

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State of the Nation: PDP is pot calling kettle black – Coalition

 

The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been likened to a pot calling a kettle black following its criticism of the current administration.

The Coalition of Buhari Friends and Supporters (CBFS) described the PDP’s claim of collapse under the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the height of insanity and an indication that the opposition and all that they represent wants to take Nigerians for a ride in their typical manner.

The group made these known in a statement signed by its Secretary-General, Anthony Agada, on Sunday.

The CBFS said the PDP is attempting to force Nigerians to forget their despicable performance while they held sway.

According to the group, the opposition is economical with the truth over claims that the APC-led government has not done enough to address the security challenges in the country.

The Buhari coalition further hailed the present administration for being outstanding in clearing the mess left behind by the PDP in the past five years, so much so that the country has witnessed tangible gains in critical sectors of the economy.

The group, however, called on the PDP to tender an unreserved apology to Nigerians over its puerile attempt at castigating the efforts of the Buhari-led administration in setting Nigeria on the path of greatness.

The CBFS also warned the opposition to desist from this despicable attempt at insulting the sensibilities of Nigerians still healing from the locust years brought upon the country by successive PDP administrations.

Read the full statement below:

The Coalition of Buhari Friends and Supporters is alarmed that the People’s Democratic Party ( PDP) is in the news for the wrong reason in a most bizarre attempt to further insult the sensibilities of Nigerians in their latest diatribe against the Muhammadu Buhari led administration in Nigeria.

The suggestion that the country is fast collapsing due to the failure of the APC-led federal government to effectively manage the economy, administer the complex political and sectional nuances of the nation as well as lack of capacity to confront terrorists, bandits, and kidnappers ravaging our country is the height of insanity and an indication that the PDP and all that they represent wants to take Nigerians for a ride in their typical manner.

The Coalition of Buhari Friends and Supporters is constrained to lend a voice to this postulations because it smacks of derision, mischief, and gross insensitivity to Nigeria and Nigerians given the fact that our memory is still fresh with the 16 years of PDP misrule that indeed set the country back hundreds of years.

It is our considered opinion that the PDP is indeed attempting to force Nigerians to forget in a hurry their despicable performance while they held sway that saw to the destruction of institutions of governance that led to a collapsed economy and the entrenchment of ethnoreligious suspicion amongst the various religious and ethnic groups in Nigeria.

The PDP is indeed economical with the truth in their assertion that the APC led federal government hasn’t done enough to address the security challenges in the country which were largely a result of their rudderless leadership in Nigeria from 1999 to 2015 when the people decided to take their destinies in their hands by voting overwhelmingly for President Muhammadu Buhari to rescue Nigeria from drifting further to the bottomless pit of despair.

Nigerians must be aware that it is indeed a statement of the fact that the PDP had the golden opportunity of fixing the country yet failed in the areas of the economy, security, and infrastructure at a time that the nation witnessed an oil boom.

If this remains the case, then one wonders why the PDP would have the temerity to insult the sensibilities of Nigerians through outright falsehood and insinuations that defeats commonsense. Unless the PDP has forgotten that under watch, the Boko Haram insurgent group began a violent campaign against Nigeria that led to an uncountable loss of lives and wanton destruction of properties in North-East Nigeria, as well as other parts of the country.

We wish to remind the PDP that under watch, large swathes of Nigerian territory were under the control of Boko Haram insurgents (over 16 local government areas). Also, major cities across Nigeria were under constant attack so much so that key government infrastructures were attacked including the headquarters of the Nigerian Police Force, as well as the headquarters of the United Nations in Nigeria.

That no local government area in Nigeria is under the control of Boko Haram insurgents if not for anything should remind the PDP that the Muhammadu Buhari administration has displayed an unalloyed commitment to addressing the security challenges in the country.

The Coalition of Buhari Friends and Supporters frowns at the intentional forgetfulness of the PDP, and thus failing to realize that the Muhammadu Buhari administration has been outstanding in clearing the mess left behind by the PDP in the past five years, so much so that the country has witnessed tangible gains in critical sectors of the economy, including the volatile security sector.

We must learn to call a spade a spade as the PDP has no moral right to judge the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari even as it is evident that it left behind a country on the brink of annihilation in 2015.

We also wish to remind the PDP that under its watch, corruption was entrenched so much so that humongous amount of monies meant for the prosecution of the war against insurgency ended in private pockets as we were regaled with tales of how billions of Naira was siphoned and the nation bleed profusely until the APC government came to the rescue through the various revelations that came to the public space.

The state of the economy under the 16 years of PDP misrule was abysmal so much that it necessitated the international community calling for caution in the management of the economy of Nigeria at the risk of Nigeria deteriorating into a failed state.

The Coalition of Buhari Friends and Supporters consequently views the PDP invective as a case of a pot calling kettle black because the various allusions were the hallmark of the 16 years of acute misrule while they held sway of governance in Nigeria.

We are consequently using this medium for development.

FG: Third Mainland Bridge will no longer be opened on the 15th of February 2021

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FG: Third Mainland Bridge will no longer be opened on the 15th of February 2021

The Federal Controller of Works in Lagos, Mr Olukayode Popoola, on Sunday, said the Third Mainland Bridge will no longer be opened on Monday (tomorrow) but at the end of February.

The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, had said the Third Mainland Bridge would be reopened by February 15 during the inspection of construction work on major roads and bridges in Lagos State in January.

The minister explained that the EndSARS protest caused the initial extension of the completion date.

Read also: Third Mainland Bridge opened to vehicular movement by 12 midnight Sunday, January 31

Popoola told the News Agency of Nigeria on the telephone that the bridge would experience one more total closure from February 19 to 21 before completion of the project for the final re-opening by the end of February.

“Third Mainland Bridge will no longer be opened on the 15th of February 2021 as announced earlier on.

“In order not to create untold hardship for the motoring public using the Third Mainland Bridge for their daily activities, the contractor is not allowed to close the Third Mainland Bridge during the week to cast concrete.

“Lane markings on the completed section must be completed,’’ he said.

“The Federal Ministry of Works and Housing regrets the inconveniences the extra days may have caused the Lagosians,’’ he said.

Popoola explained that the bridge would be totally shut down from midnight on February 19 to 21 to cast concrete on the last expansion joint.

He said that the concrete would require between three to four days to set before the final preparations to finally re-open the entire bridge to traffic.

These processes, he said, could drag to the end of February when the highway would eventually be opened up.

“We are looking at the end of the month for the reopening of the bridge. That is the end of this February,” he added.

Read also: FG to close Third Mainland Bridge Friday

He said that work was soon to begin on the casting of the last expansion joint on the bridge before the bridge finally reopens to traffic.

“They will cast concrete on the last expansion joint next weekend. We are not allowed to cast during the week so that the traffic will not be too much for people going to work.

“They will cast next weekend and after casting, we need about three or four days to do post-tensioning. That is why we are looking at end of February completion.

“Casting will be done next weekend for the last expansion joint, it will require total closure of the bridge next weekend just to prevent vibration.

“So if we close the bridge Friday night, then we cast on Saturday by Sunday we will open it. That will be the last total closure to fix the last expansion joint,’’ he said.

The Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos, which was going through series of repairs, had to be partially shut on July 24 for another round of rehabilitation works.

Traffic was partially diverted on a stretch of 3.5km where construction is ongoing between Adeniji Adeniji Ramp and Ebute Meta, while different time belts were allotted for traffic diversions on the bridge.

The 11.8km bridge is the longest of the three bridges connecting Lagos Island to the Mainland.

Read also: LAGOS TO SHUT THIRD MAINLAND BRIDGE FROM WEDNESDAY TO SUNDAY

The bridge starts from Oworonshoki, which is linked to the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway and the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, and ends at the Adeniji Adele Interchange on Lagos Island.

Constructed in 1990, the bridge was adjudged as the longest in Africa until 1996 when the October 6 Bridge in Cairo, Egypt was completed.

Breaking: Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Edward Ajogun, has been redeployed

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Breaking: Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Edward Ajogun, has been redeployed

The Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Edward Ajogun, has been redeployed.

Ajogun’s redeployment was contained in a police wireless message dated 12/02/2021, with reference number, TH.5361/FS/FHQ/ABJ/SUB.4/576.

The Ogun CP is among nine other Commissioners of Police, whose postings were ordered by the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu.

Read also: Suspected armed robber arrested with stolen car in Ogun

According to the police signal, Ajogun has been posted to the Police Staff College (PSC) Jos.

The posting, according to the wireless message, is with immediate effect.

It was reported that no replacement has been named for Ajogun as of the time of filing this report,

It will be recalled that Ajogun was deployed to Ogun State in June 2020.

Ajogun took over from Kenneth Ebrimson, who retired from the police service at the time.

Troops Kill Two Boko Haram Top Factional Commanders in Borno

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Troops Kill Two Boko Haram Top Factional Commanders in Borno

Two notorious Commanders of the Boko Haram extremist group, Abul-Bas and Ibn Habib, have been killed in an ambush by troops of 121 and 151 Battalions at Boko Haram’s crossing point between Vuria and Guja settlements along road Banki Junction – Pulka axis.

Both Abul-Bas and Ibn Habib were among the top Commanders of the Shekau faction of Boko Haram, operating in Sambisa forest and its environs.

In a statement, the Director Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Mohammed Yerima said, the operation is part of a renewed, and highly-intensified offensive operations by troops of Operation Tura Takai Bango, targeted at ending the activities of terrorists in the North East.

According to him, troops recovered one GPMG, several AK-47 rifles, belt of ammunition containing heavy rounds of 7.62mm, motorcycles and mobile phone, after neutralizing Abul-Bas and Ibn Habib, together with their fighters.

“Psychologically, the death of Abul-Bas and Ibn Habib has inflicted a big and unprecedented blow on the operations of the terrorists, while the achievements in its entirety has further boosted the overall fighting spirit and morale of troops in the ongoing operation Tura Takai Bango,”

He said they were eliminated by the troops of Sector 1 area of operation. “The team comprises of a compact ambush team from 121 Battalion and elements of 151 Battalion known as the “Gaddafi Squad”,” he added.

General Officer Commanding (GOC) of 7 Division, Maj. Gen. Abdul Khalifa, while addressing Army Commanders in the Theatre on behalf of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, charged them to intensify their aggressive clearance operation, so as to clear Sambisa forest and its environs of remnants of the terrorists and their collaborators.

Nigerian Army open to constructive engagements and criticism – Army Spokesman

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Nigerian Army open to constructive engagements and criticism – Army Spokesman

New Director of Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Mohammed Yerima has called for a mutual and cordial relationship between the media and the Nigerian military in the fight against insurgency in the country.

Yerima, who replaces Sagir Musa, was appointed on Tuesday by Ibrahim Attahiru, the Chief of Army Staff.

At the handover ceremony, which held on Wednesday at the Army Headquarters in Abuja, Yerima said he looks forward to a better relationship with the media.

“The COAS, who was once in this position, is ever so determined to sustain the enduring relationship with the media through trust, respect and mutual understanding,” he said.

He said that the fight against terrorism and banditry in the country is a collective responsibilities and needs a patriotic discharge of our different constitutional obligations as Nigerians.

General Yerima assured that the Army under the current Chief of Army Staff, General Ibrahim Attahiru will be open to constructive engagements and criticism that will support all military operations against enemies of the country.

“On my own part, as the spokesman of the Nigerian army, I assure you that my doors will be open at all times in order to respond to your enquiries.

“The better part of my career in the military has been devoted to this very important relationship with the media, and I have always cherished the idea of working with you to give our people the right information about the military and its operations.

“As you all know, nothing boosts the morale of our fighting troops more than the solidarity of all Nigerians, especially media reports that ginger their zeal and fighting spirit and sacrifice to the nation.

“So, I urge you to be very mindful of that and to always remember that their victory is the victory of all Nigerians. We shall be open to constructive engagements and criticism that will support the military operations against the enemies of the country.

“We did it together in my previous assignments, but more nostalgic was my warm and cordial relationship with you during my time as the director of defence information at the defence headquarters. I still recall how helpful and friendly you were with me during those times, and I have also not forgotten a few lessons I learned in the course of that relationship.”

Yerima added that he has no doubt that the Nigerian media is very patriotic, and urged journalists to contribute their quota to ensure that the enemies of the Nigeria are defeated. Brigadier General Mohammed Yerima is one time Director of Defence Information at the Defence Headquarters.

Breaking: Police arrest 19 protesters at Lekki Toll Gate

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Breaking: Police arrest 19 protesters at Lekki Toll Gate

Men of the Nigeria Police Force, on Saturday morning, arrested 19 protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate as a fulfilment of the promise of security agencies to stop protesters at the area.

Our correspondent at the scene of the incident reported that the 19 youths were arrested while trying to alight from a van that conveyed them to the Toll Gate.

One of the youths, Damilare Adenola, who described the attitude of the policemen as ‘tyranical’, said he is a student and was at the Toll Gate for the protest.

Another youth arrested, who simply identified himself as Comrade Kehinde, said they were at the Toll Gate to perform their right to protest as enshrined in the constitution.

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