Category: Foreign

All Progressives Congress (APC), South Africa Chairman, Oyekanmi Oluwatoyin, has advocated for stronger ties amongst African nations to promote social and economic progress.

He made this appeal in a bilateral session between APC and the South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC), at the BRICS Political Parties Plus Dialogue held at the OR Tambo Conference Centre, Gauteng, South Africa.

Oyekanmi expressed the APC sincere gratitude to the ANC leadership for including the party in the annual BRICS political party plus debate, which included political parties from over 45 nations.

The event had in attendance former President Olusegun Obasanjo; Nigeria High Commissioner to South Africa, Ambassador Haruna Manta; African National Congress (ANC) Secretary General, Fikile Mbalula; APC Advisory Council Member, South Africa, Ogboro Oscar Omoreigbe and Minister Counsellor (Trade and Investment), Nigeria High Commission to South Africa, Mike Okwudili.

According to Oyekanmi, for Africa to be acknowledged and reclaim its position among the other continents, African nations must unconditionally appreciate and love themselves.

The Diaspora Chairman added that the following issues were agreed to be taken into consideration and offered solutions to if African nations must improve: “Business Visa regime to improve investment, trans boarder crime prevention strategy, improve community policy and safety of Nigerians in the communities, drug prevention enlightenment community campaign, lengthy court case and unbiased justice regime in South Africa courts, review of migration policies that promote fairness and Pan-Africanism and Putting of Nigerian flag in the South African communities.”

Read Also; Stop patronising drug hawkers, NAFDAC warns Nigerians

He emphasised on the rising level of global inequalities, the persistence of under-development and spiraling increases in the cost-of-living are pushing more people back into poverty and creating social instability, as well as reversing gains made since the Millennium Development Goals.

“The escalating intensity and frequency of climate disasters are displacing millions of people, while the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted economies and peoples’ lives pushing them into precarity.

“There is a renewed push from progressive forces, including political parties, civil society and governments in the Global South that the only sustainable approach to deal decisively with all existential threats and global risks facing humanity is to strengthen multilateralism, international solidarity, social justice and dialogue to guarantee peace, security and prosperity of all nations.

 “We must cooperate, open up to ourselves, trust each other and channel common progressive path, where dignity and betterment of lives will be given to the citizens.

“By promoting trade and commerce within the continent across borders to boost local economies and stabilising the continent socio-economic. We need strong progressive and moral voices in both the Global South and in the Global North about a new, more equitable and just world order,” he said.

In order to exchange progressive ideas, both political parties also agreed to build up a structure for party-to-party dialogue.

In recognition of their roles in promoting peaceful co-existence on the continent, Africa’s 100 most notable peace icons will be honoured on August 30.

The award ceremony is being spearheaded by the Peace Ambassador Agency Global of the African Transformer Institute (ATI) in partnership with World Peace Ambassadors, American Management University, and the International Peace Commission.

It seeks to appreciate these individuals who will be crowned “Peace Icons and Grand Commander of Peace in Africa” across countries in the African continent.

“This list is a tribute to the remarkable achievements of these individuals and a testament to the enduring human,” the organisers said in a statement.

Proceeds will be deployed to offer scholarships to over 20,000 students selected from across the countries on the continent, the organisers said.

Also, massive pipe-borne water projects will be embarked upon to enhance the living standard of under-served communities where water, sanitation, and hygiene pose a threat to people’s health.

Read Also: IPOB sit-at-home: Go about your normal businesses, Enugu Govt. urges residents

Highlighting the importance of peace and why these icons are being honoured, the organisers said: “Over the last three decades, our society has been tethering at the brink of global conflict.

“The pursuit of peace has given rise to some of the most remarkable individuals of our time – people who have dedicated their lives to promoting peace and justice in their communities, countries, and the world at large.”

Among those expected to be honoured are political leaders who worked tirelessly to resolve conflicts and promote diplomacy,  business executives, activists who fought against injustice and inequality, humanitarians who have provided aid and relief to those in need as well as religious figures who preach nonviolence and compassion.

The event organisers said though those to be honoured share different paths, they all shared a deep commitment to global peace.

“Achieving global peace is not an easy task, but these individuals and organizations did whatever it took to make it a reality; their efforts have not gone unnoticed,” the organisers added.

The 100 most notable peace icons in Africa come from diverse backgrounds and have different life experiences, but they all share a deep commitment to peace and nonviolence.

They have been applauded for making a difference in the dream of building an achievable society and that each person can make a difference in building a better world.

Through their leadership, activism, and humanitarian work, they have inspired millions of people around the world to join their movement and work towards a more just and peaceful future, the organisers stated.

The organisers reminded Africans of the importance of their work and the impact it has had on the world.

“We hope that their example will continue to inspire individuals and organizations around the world to work towards a more peaceful and just world for all.”

The date for the award will be fixed in the coming weeks.

The preparation is already at an advanced stage as the country directors from Malawi, Cameroon, Liberia, Angola, Rwanda, Mali, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa are working around the clock to ensure successful nominations and event.

President Joe Biden has chosen Adm. Lisa Franchetti to lead the Navy, an unprecedented choice that, if she is confirmed, will make her the first woman to be a Pentagon service chief and the first female member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Biden’s decision goes against the recommendation of his Pentagon chief. But Franchetti, the current vice chief of operations for the Navy, has broad command and executive experience and was considered by insiders to be the top choice for the job.

In a statement Friday, Biden noted the historical significance of her selection and said “throughout her career, Admiral Franchetti has demonstrated extensive expertise in both the operational and policy arenas.” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recommended that Biden select Adm. Samuel Paparo, the current commander of the Navy’s Pacific Fleet, several U.S. officials said last month. But instead, Biden is nominating Paparo to lead U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.

A senior administration official said Biden chose Franchetti based on the broad scope of her experience at sea and ashore, including a number of high-level policy and administrative jobs that give her deep knowledge in budgeting and running the department.

By Olukorede Yishau, United States Bureau Chief

United States President Joe Biden has said Artificial Intelligence (AI) poses threats to the security, society and economy.

He spoke on Friday at a parley in Washington DC with leaders of Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI, which are the seven American companies driving innovation in AI. 

Biden added that AI also offers incredible opportunities. 

“Just two months ago, Kamala and I met with these leaders — most of them are here again — to underscore the responsibility of making sure that products that they are producing are safe and — and making them public — what they are and what they aren’t. Since then, I’ve met with some of America’s top minds in technology to hear the range of perspectives and possibilities and risk of AI,” he said.

 Biden said his administration has taken action to guide responsible innovation, including the introduction of the first-of-its-kind AI Bill of Rights and an executive order to direct agencies to protect the public from algorithms that discriminate.

Read Also: Don’t disrespect my wife, family, Adekunle Gold warns Brymo

 He said: “And today, I’m pleased to announce that these seven companies have agreed to voluntary commitments for responsible innovation.  These commitments, which the companies will implement immediately, underscore three fundamental principles: safety, security, and trust.

 “First, the companies have an obligation to make sure their technology is safe before releasing it to the public.  That means testing the capabilities of their systems, assessing their potential risk, and making the results of these assessments public.

“Second, companies must prioritise the security of their systems by safeguarding their models against cyber threats and managing the risks to our national security and sharing the best practices and industry standards that are — that are necessary.

 “Third, the companies have a duty to earn the people’s trust and empower users to make informed decisions — labeling content that has been altered or AI-generated, rooting out bias and discrimination, strengthening privacy protections, and shielding children from harm.

 “And finally, companies have agreed to find ways for AI to help meet society’s greatest challenges — from cancer to climate change — and invest in education and new jobs to help students and workers prosper from the opportunities, and there are enormous opportunities of AI.”  

 Americans, he said, are seeing how advanced artificial intelligence and the pace of innovation have the power to disrupt jobs and industries.

He added that in the weeks ahead he would take executive action to help America lead the way towards responsible innovation. 

A factsheet released by the White House shows that the seven companies committed themselves to  ensuring their products are safe before introducing them to the public, building systems that put security first and earning the public’s trust.

Speaker of the House of Representatives Tajudeen Abbas said yesterday that the burden of armed conflcit, rising population and climate change has aggravated issues of food insecurity within the  African continent.

The Speaker, who spoke at the 18th Commonwealth Speakers’ and Presiding Officers’ Conference (CSCOP) in Yaoundé, Cameroon identified impact of COVID 19 pandemic; rising population; subsistence farming and crude agricultural practices; lack of access to credit, poor infrastructure, and lack of investment in agri-business as other factors causing food crisis on the African continent.

He gave example of the actitivites of Boko Haram and herdsmen/farmers clash in Nigeria to butress his point, saying: “Suffice it to say that these factors reinforce themselves. For example, armed conflicts disrupt agricultural activities by destroying crops, livestock and preventing farmers from access to the farms.

“The Nigerian case demonstrates this much. The activities of Boko Haram terrorists in the North Eastern part of the country greatly contributed to Nigeria’s rising food insecurity as farmers could not have access to their farms following the sacking of several villages in the wake of the attacks, which lasted for several years. “

“The terrorist attacks equally impacted negatively on the activities of commercial fishermen within the Lake Chad region.”

He added that the recurring conflicts between herders and farmers in Nigeria is a “fallout from the impact of climate change, which brought in its wake, drought and extreme weather conditions in the Northern part of the country.

This, he said, necessitated the need for herders to move their flock to other parts of the country for grazing.

Abbas said the movement of the herds “often destroys farmlands and crops, which triggers retaliatory action from farmers who in turn, slaughter the livestock of the herders”.

“These two actions further worsen the food crisis as both livestock and crops are destroyed,” he said.

He said extreme weather conditions occasioned by climate change and global warming pose severe threats to agricultural production and increases food insecurity within the continent.

He said: “Our food insecurity is equally exacerbated by poor infrastructure within the continent which ensures that farmers are unable to preserve produce, transform them as well as move their produce to urban centres for better pricing.

“Related to the foregoing is the lack of investment in agribusiness, which is as a result of a number of factors, including poor infrastructure, ill-conceived policies, lack of access to land, high cost of doing business and many others.”

He called on parliaments on the continent to address some of the issues causing food crisis.

Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives Benjamin Kalu has called for the removal of barriers militating against free trade and movement among African countries.

Kalu also called for greater economic partnerships and co-operation amongst Africa countries, stressing that the artificial boundaries that impede free movement of people and goods should be removed.

Speaking when he received the Speaker of East Africa Legislative Assembly, Joseph Ntakirutimana, at the National Assembly, Kalu also said Nigeria will support the candidacy of Dr. Tulia Ackson for the President of Inter-parliamentary Union (IPU).

Kalu said parliaments across the continent must review aspect of their laws impeding economic growth and free movement of people across the continent.

He condemned the xenophobic attacks in some parts of Africa, saying that it stalls unity and progress.

He said: “If you’re part of African Union, why the boundaries, and why the restrictions? The restrictions have underdeveloped the continent more than it has lifted it to measure shoulder to shoulder among the comity of continents.

“These, we must take seriously and this message we must take to all our countries’ parliaments for a review of our various positions on this issue.

“I’m happy to announce that the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has been made chairman of ECOWAS. We will give all the support that’s expected to make him succeed in his tenure as the Chairman of ECOWAS and that includes the parliament.

“The Speaker of ECOWAS expressed in his speech the need to retool the ECOWAS parliament. We need to review the mechanism used so far by our nations interest in the parliament.

“We need to revisit that so that we can stimulate more interest and more motivation that will no longer stall the speed of ECOWAS parliament, towards realising the continental objective of setting up the ECOWAS parliament.

“We are all one people and we must take steps to reinforce that unity. With unity, we can deal with present challenges which manifest in transnational violence, coup threats in some sub-Saharan African countries, slowing economic growth, climate change, and human trafficking especially in Sahelian Africa. We must not allow this to fester in the near future.

“After the Berlin Conference that started in 1884 and ended in 1885, Africa has never been the same especially due to the artificial boundaries and the negative consequences of colonialism meted on the continent.

“We in Africa are at a precarious time to correct these defects and consequences of that conference. The artificial boundaries created have become impediments to the needed pan-African cooperation, trade and growth for Africa’s development.”

Suspected underground gas explosion ripped open roads and flipped vehicles in the heart of South Africa’s biggest city, killing one man and injuring at least 41 people, authorities and emergency services said yesterday.

The cause of the blast, which happened during Wednesday’s evening rush hour in downtown Johannesburg, remained unclear.

The company that supplies gas to that part of the city said it did not believe its underground pipelines were responsible, as authorities first thought.

The body of the deceased was found during a nighttime search of the blast area, Johannesburg’s Emergency Management Services spokesperson Robert Mulaudzi said on Twitter.

An investigation was under way as city authorities brought in specialists to determine whether other underground pipes or cables were in the area and if there was a threat of another explosion or gas leak.

“We are still searching for the source,” said Panyaza Lesufi, the premier of the Gauteng province where Johannesburg is located.

Lesufi said 12 people remained in several Johannesburg hospitals for medical treatment. The other 36 people who were hurt had been discharged, he said.

Some people were evacuated from the area on Wednesday night due to fears of a second explosion or that multi-storey buildings in a downtown section of the city might collapse. Lesufi said the damage was “extensive”.

However, people returned to the busy area in Johannesburg’s central business district yesterday morning, either to return to their homes or get to work.

Authorities estimated that an area covering five city blocks was damaged and at least six roads were affected. At least 34 vehicles were damaged, with some flipped on their sides or lying on top of other vehicles. Others had tumbled into gaping crevices that appeared in the middle of roads as the damage resembled a scene from an apocalyptic movie.

Most of the damaged vehicles were minibus taxis, one of South Africa’s most popular commuting methods. Witnesses said some people were sitting in the minibuses when the explosion threw them into the air.

Hundreds of protesters have stormed the Swedish embassy in the Iraq capital of Baghdad over a reported plan to burn another Quran, the Muslim holy book, in Stockholm, Sweden’s capital.

The protesters scaled the building’s walls early yesterday morning and set it on fire while chanting “Yes, yes to the Quaran,” videos showed.

The protests come weeks after Salwan Momika, a 37-year-old Iraqi who fled to Sweden several years ago, tore up and set pages of the Islamic holy book on fire as Muslims celebrated the Eid al-Adha holiday in June.

Momika’s actions drew widespread condemnations from many countries, with Muqtada Sadr, an influential Shi’ite cleric in Iraq, calling for protests against Sweden and the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador.

Two major protests took place outside the Swedish embassy in Baghdad in the aftermath of that Quran burning, with protesters breaching the embassy grounds on one occasion.

On Wednesday, the Swedish police granted an application for a “public meeting” to two people outside the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm yesterday.

Although the police did not disclose what the protesters were planning, Swedish media reported that both persons, including Momika, planned to burn the Quran and the Iraqi flag at the public meeting.

Reacting to the latest protest, the Swedish foreign ministry said all Baghdad embassy staff were safe, and condemned the attack.

Iraq’s foreign ministry also frowned on the Swedish embassy attack, promising to bring the perpetrators to justice.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has alerted Nigeria and other countries on contaminated ‘Naturcold Syrup’ discovered in Cameroon.

The organisation gave the notification in a Medical Product Alert posted on its website.

It said that the substandard product was unsafe and their use, especially in children, may result in serious injury or death.

According to WHO, the toxic effects can include abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, inability to pass urine, headache, altered mental state and acute kidney injury which may lead to death.

It said that the substandard Naturcold Syrup identified in Cameroon was first reported to WHO on March 13, 2023.

The health agency noted that the active ingredients of Naturcold syrup were listed as paracetamol, phenylephrine hydrochloride and chlorpheniramine maleate.

It said that the combination of these three ingredients are used to relieve symptoms associated with the common cold, flu, and allergic rhinitis.

 “Samples of the Naturcold syrup from Cameroon were made available to WHO on 27 June 2023 and analysed in a WHO contracted and pre-qualified laboratory.

“The analysis found that the product contained unacceptable amounts of diethylene glycol as contaminants.

“Diethylene glycol was detected in samples of Naturcold as much as 28.6 per cent.

“The acceptable limit for Diethylene Glycol is no more than 0.10 per cent,” it said.

WHO said that diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol are toxic to humans when consumed and can prove fatal.

It said that the stated manufacturer of the affected product was listed on the product packaging as ‘Fraken International (England)’.

“The United Kingdom national regulatory authority, the MHRA, has confirmed that no such company exists in the UK,” it said.

It said that enquiries were still underway to determine the origin of the product.

The House of Representatives is seeking a reform of the United Nations Security Council to include at least two seats for Africa.

It called for efforts to establish a systematic framework as a matter of justice and human rights, and galvanise the African Union to reach a collective decision and come up with reform proposals that include at least two seats for Africa on the United Nations Security Council.

It also urged the formation of an international coalition to be charged with high-level engagements required to embark on a global diplomatic tour to solicit the political support needed for the agreed reform proposals.

The House said there was a need to form an international coalition to initiate the steps at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to introduce a resolution to amend the UN Charter to reflect the proposed changes of the reform of the United Nations Security Council.

The House of Representatives has mandated its committees on Foreign Affairs, Co-operation and Integration in Africa, Treaties, Protocols and Agreements and Legislative Compliance (when constituted) to ensure compliance. 

This followed the adoption of the resolutions of a motion titled, “Need for United Nations Security Council Reform” sponsored by Ahmed Munir yesterday.

The House noted that the United Nations Security Council is responsible for maintaining international peace and security, with the authority to make decisions obligated to member states under the United Nations Charter.

It also noted that of the 15 members, five permanent members known as the P5, with veto power including China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

The House said the other 10 non-permanent members are elected for a two-year term by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

The motion reads, “The House is aware that only four independent African countries represented the continent when 50 representatives of different countries met in San Francisco, California, in 1945 to complete the Charter of the United Nations, with the current 54 African member countries of the United Nations it is unattainable that only four African states, namely Egypt, Liberia, Ethiopia, and South Africa were part of the founding members of the UN and, therefore, the majority of African countries were not in San Francisco in 1945 to represent their own interests in the creation of the United Nations Security Council due to colonialism.

 “The House is also aware that after the demise of colonialism across Africa in the 1960s, the newly independent countries not only became active members of the United Nations, but also contributed significantly to the UN, particularly in peacekeeping missions around the world; Concerned that Africa remains unrepresented in the permanent category of the United Nation Security Council (UNSC) , hence the urgent need to reform the body to maintain its relevance in the 21 century to address the current global challenges.”