Category: Foreign

Dr Akinwumi Adesina, the President of African Development Bank (AfDB), has continued to receive condolence letters on the death of his mother, Mrs Eunice Adesina.

Copies of the condolence letters were made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja by the bank.

NAN reports that Mrs Adesina died on Dec. 22, 2022.

The African Heads of State, who sympathised with Adesina are the presidents of Zambia, Mr Hakainde Hichilema, Gambia, Abiy Ali (PhD), Tanzania, Dr Samia Hassan, and Gambia, Adama Barrow.

Others who also sympathised with Adesina are, the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, and the former President of Ghana, John Mahama.

The rest are the Former Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Jan Balkenende, the African Union Chairperson, Moussa Mahamat and the Chief Executive Officer of the Global Centre on Adaptation,  Prof. Dr Patrick Verkooijen.

The dignitaries said no doubt she would be remembered for the pivotal role she played in her son’s life and Ogun where she hailed from.

“Mama Eunice was an example of a life well lived in service to others through her various endeavours to educate, uplift and inspire her community to greater heights.

“May her industrious and entrepreneurial spirit she imparted on so many young women across Nigeria be a guiding light to our youths,” they said.

The African Heads of State as well as other dignitaries pray God to comfort Adesina’s family and grant mama eternal rest.

City Power, an electricity distribution company in South Africa, has cut off power supply to the Nigerian consulate in Johannesburg over “unpaid bills”.

On Wednesday, the DisCo said the consulate was owing at least R600,000 (about $35,000).

“We are on our 2nd day of revenue collection drive around Alexandra Service Delivery Centre(SDC). Here we started with the Nigerian Consulate General in Illovo who owe @CityofJoburgZA minimum of R600 000, and they were cut off,” City Power tweeted.

Isaac Mangena, City Power’s spokesperson, said the Nigerian consulate shut its gates and refused City Power entry into the building.

He added that the consulate’s electricity was cut off when it was clear that no officials were going to meet with the DisCo.

‘ILLGAL VIOLATION’

In a statement on Wednesday, the consulate faulted City Power’s actions, saying it was a violation of international treaties.

The consulate said an investigation would be launched to address the “illegal violation”, saying the electricity company arrived “without prior notice and disrupted services”.

“The consulate general of Nigeria in Johannesburg hereby condemns the invasion of its premises on Wednesday, 18 January 2023, by officials of Johannesburg City Council purportedly on a debt-recovery exercise,” the statement reads.

“The invasion squad, which comprised officials of Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD), and City Power, as well as members of the press, arrived at the consulate without prior notice or appointment and

disrupted normal consular services.

“The consulate maintains that the action of the officials, no matter the justification, was in complete violation of extant international treaties and conventions, especially the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 1963, which guarantees the inviolability of consular premises.

“Consequently, the consulate general has, through diplomatic channels, conveyed the displeasure of the Federal Government of Nigeria to the South African Government, with a demand for thorough investigation to be conducted into the illegal violation of the premises of the consulate general and appropriate remedial measures taken to forestall recurrence.

“Furthermore, the consulate wishes to express its regrets to members of the public for the disruption to services caused by the invasion and hereby assures that normal consular services have been restored at the mission.”

The United States plans to spend $68 million to fight malaria in Nigeria.

A document released in Washington DC on Wednesday said the money would be spent under the Presidential Malaria Initiative (PMI).

The funding will support monitoring activities which include insecticide resistance testing in all 11 PMI focus states and five non-PMI focus States.

The beneficiary States include Enugu and Kaduna, Abia, Ekiti, Kogi, Kebbi and Sokoto.

“In addition, PMI will continue to support the procurement and distribution of ITNs through mass campaigns, providing technical support to the country’s CY 2024 mass distributions through participation and supporting social and behavior change (SBC) to improve the use and care of ITNs.

PMI will also maintain the support of streamlined durability monitoring of Interceptor G2 nets (Interceptor G2) in Kebbi State,” the statement said.  PMI plans to procure 5.6 million Interceptor G2 for mass campaigns in Oyo State.

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The statement added: “PMI Nigeria will continue to support activities to strengthen malaria in pregnancy (MIP) services and improve uptake of intermittent preventive treatment for pregnant women

(IPTp), including: strengthening national and state level MIP coordination structures in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MoH) Reproductive Health (RH) Division; supporting the revision of MIP guidelines, standard operating procedures (SOPs),

training manuals, and job aids to address barriers to uptake of IPTp; and expanding the introduction of the revised guidelines to medical training institutions and other relevant professional associations. PMI will continue to support facility antenatal care (ANC)

provider training and mentoring on MIP, fund facility ANC HWs supervision and clinical meetings in targeted health facilities (HF) to strengthen MIP implementation, and intensify advocacy to federal and state health authorities to procure sulfadoxine-

pyrimethamine (SP) for IPTp in the ANC facilities through the various existing platforms (Drug Management Agencies (DMAs)/Drug Revolving Fund (DRF), Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF)). PMI will also support the uptake of IPTp through the ANC platform, leveraging maternal child health (MCH) funds that support ANC promotion efforts (mainly social behavior change) through Integrated Health Program in the three states that utilise an integrated health mechanism.”

Also,  PMI Nigeria will support seasonal malaria chemoprevention in Benue and Zamfara, covering more than 2.2 million children aged 3-59 months.

“PMI Nigeria will continue to support key case management activities through technical assistance at the federal and state levels, commodity procurement, and facility and community level activities. Activities will include providing updated guidelines for malaria case management, conducting therapeutic efficacy studies, and continuing efforts to establish a national malaria slide bank. With FY 2023 funds, PMI Nigeria will procure 17 million rapid diagnostic test (RDTs), 15 million artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs), 350,000 vials of injectable artesunate (IAS), and assorted microscopy supplies, to be distributed to over 5,000 health facilities in the 11 PMI focus states. At the facility level, PMI will continue to support the training of health workers in primary health care (PHC) and secondary health facilities and conduct clinical meetings to increase the quality of malaria case management. At the community level, PMI will expand integrated community case management (iCCM) to four states through the Community Health Influencers, Promoters and Services (CHIPS) Program, including the payment of CHIPS agents,” said the statement.

Ukrainian officials said 18 people, including its Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi, other senior ministry officials and three children, died yesterday when a helicopter crashed near a nursery outside Kyiv.

 The regional governor said 29 people were also hurt, including 15 children, when the helicopter came down in a residential area in Brovary, on the capital’s northeastern outskirts.

Reports said several dead bodies draped in foil blankets lay in a courtyard near the damaged nursery. Emergency workers were on the scene. Debris was scattered over a playground.

National Police Chief Ihor Klymenko said Monastyrskyi was killed alongside his first deputy, Yevheniy Yenin, and other officials in a helicopter belonging to the state emergency service.

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 Kyiv region’s Governor Oleksiy Kuleba wrote on Telegram that “there were children and staff in the nursery at the time of this tragedy”.

 Officials did not give an immediate explanation of the cause of the helicopter crash.

 There was no immediate comment from Russia, whose troops invaded Ukraine last February, and Ukrainian officials made no reference to any Russian attack in the area at the time.

Monastyrskyi, responsible for the police and security inside Ukraine, would be the most senior Ukrainian official to die since the war began.

 Separately, Ukraine reported intense fighting overnight in the east of the country, where both sides have taken huge losses for little gain in intense trench warfare over the last two months.