Africa

Nigeria selected to host Sahel Climate Fund Secretariat

Nigeria selected to host Sahel Climate Fund Secretariat

Nigeria has been chosen by the Heads of State and Government of the Sahel Region Climate Commission (SRCC) to host the Secretariat of the Sahel Climate Fund. Malam Garba Shehu, the President’s spokesman, confirmed this in a statement on Monday in Abuja. He added that communiqué was issued at the end of the second conference of Heads of State and Government of SRCC, held on the margins of 36th AU Summit. Shehu said that the SRCC also approved the appointment of Issifi Boureim of Niger Republic as the Executive Secretary of the Commission. Boureim, until his appointment, was the Coordinator of…
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MRA Condemns Arrest and Detention of Broadcast Journalist by Police in Ilorin

MRA Condemns Arrest and Detention of Broadcast Journalist by Police in Ilorin

By Daniel Adaji Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has condemned the arrest and detention of Ilorin-based broadcast journalist, Mr. Dare Akogun, by the Kwara State Command of the Nigeria Police Force in an effort to coerce him to retract an allegation of corruption he reportedly made against an official of the State Government. Mr. Akogun was invited by the Police by a letter dated October 7, 2022 In a statement issued in Lagos by its Director of Programmes, Mr. Ayode Longe, MRA called on the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Usman Alkali Baba, to put an end to the incessant practice whereby…
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How Africa’s free trade area can succeed – President Buhari

How Africa’s free trade area can succeed – President Buhari

By Daniel Adaji President Muhammadu Buhari says the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will succeed if African governments demonstrate a higher level of commitment to tackle the slow pace of physical integration, political cooperation and tariff barriers that inhibit business integration.   Addressing the second African Sub-Sovereign Governments Network (AFSNET) Conference on Friday in Abuja, organised by the Afreximbank in collaboration with the secretariat of AfCFTA and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, the President decried the low-level trade among African countries.   ''As leaders, we must all be concerned that we are not trading enough amongst ourselves. It is a…
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Seventy years of Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah

Seventy years of Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah

By Theophilus Abbah   In the years and seasons that I farmed and cultivated sources under torrential rains and harsh sunshine for seductive headlines that would turn the heads of newspaper adherents and squeeze few hundreds of Naira from the pockets of those who could part with money for stories, I hunted for Father Mathew Hassan Kukah, now Bishop of the Sokoto Diocese of the Catholic Church. As authoritative as iroko tree,  as credible as truth, and as deep as the bowel of the Atlantic Ocean, Bishop Kukah did not just thrill me; half a story sprinkled with few comments…
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Cash shortage hits Kogi East after Ankpa Bank Robbery

Cash shortage hits Kogi East after Ankpa Bank Robbery

By  Daniel Adaji The robbery of First Bank Plc and Zenith Bank Plc branches in Ankpa, Kogi East last Tuesday, September 6, 2022, has caused severe cash shortage in the geopolitical zone. An eye witness, Julius Adukwu, who is a resident of Ankpa,  told The Insight that “The robbers invaded Ankpa at about 1pm on Tuesday and robbed for close to two hours, shooting sporadically. They first attacked a police station, about 100 metres away from First Bank Plc.  They  then proceeded to rob the banks and some Point of Service (PoS) operators.” There used to be naval officers stationed…
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Family Planning: FG fails to complete 2019 counterpart fund

Family Planning: FG fails to complete 2019 counterpart fund

The Federal Government has failed to complete the payment of its counterpart fund for Family Planning activities in the 2019 health budget, investigations have revealed. Family planning is a component of health strategies to encourage child spacing, promote the health of women of child-bearing age, and to reduce financial pressures on households in Nigeria. Since the Family Planning policy was introduced, it has been supported by international donors [UNFPA, USAID, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, CIDA, and DFID] with Nigerian government committing $3 million out of the $50 million required for the implementation of policy in 2011.  Every year, the…
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COVID-19: “Can Africa Afford Lockdowns?” by Chukwuma Charles Soludo CFR

COVID-19: “Can Africa Afford Lockdowns?” by Chukwuma Charles Soludo CFR

This piece summarizes my contribution to an African debate. From Johannesburg to Lagos, Cairo to Dakar, Kinshasa to Kigali, Nairobi to Accra, etc the debate on how Africa should respond to the global coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic is raging. At an African regional policy platform, I had expressed some of these (personal) views some weeks ago but have been encouraged by most members to circulate them in Africa beyond the platform. This year 2020 begins a new decade that promises to be one of dreadful disruptions, with Africa holding the weakest end of the stick. In 2008/09, the global “great recession”…
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Coronavirus: myths, facts and issues in Africa

Coronavirus: myths, facts and issues in Africa

Some African countries do not have testing capacity for the COVID-19. Out of 54 countries in Africa, only 37 of these countries have testing capacities for the virus. Seventeen other countries have no capacity to conduct tests for coronavirus, according to New Scientist. The publication said further that most of the reported and confirmed cases in Africa were not from China but from Europe. New Scientist said further that scientists were yet to know why there are few cases of the new coronavirus being reported in Africa, while in Europe, Asia and America there are multiple infections and even deaths.…
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Now, every Nigerian owes China over N15,000

Now, every Nigerian owes China over N15,000

Every Nigerian owes China about N15,000 at the moment in goodwill and in debt, considering the quantum of Chinese aid for development, welfare and loans in the last few years. As at 2014, Nigeria was the sixth country on the list of third world countries that had received aid from China. It received the sum of $3.1 billion. This amounts to N1.1 trillion. In the last three years, the country had received $6 billion for infrastructure, which amounts to N2 trillion. The combined figures is put at about N3 trillion, and when divided by 198 million, considered to be the…
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Shocking things Ghana’s Auditor-General said about oil and gas

Shocking things Ghana’s Auditor-General said about oil and gas

In the last decade I’ve been haunted by an opaque expression: ‘the oil and gas sector is opaque.’ What is opaque? What is oil and gas? The simple definition of opaque is “not transparent,” and it has synonyms like “cloudy,” “blurred,” “dirty,” “muddy,” “hazy,” etc. Is the word, opaque, not a synonym of the phrase ‘oil and gas?’ Oil and gas are hidden deep below the surface of the earth such that we wonder how ‘the white man’ knew that such wealth was in that closed world. And when they are extracted, are they not muddy, hazy, blurred, cloudy and…
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