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Tag: AU

  • Buhari departs for AU summit

    Buhari departs for AU summit

    President Muhammadu Buhari has departed Abuja for South Africa on Saturday to attend the 25th African Union Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.

    The President is scheduled to undertake his first continental assignment since resuming office by chairing a meeting of the Peace and Security Committee of the African Union during the summit.

    In a press statement signed by Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President: Buhari is expected to hold bilateral talks with other African leaders on the sidelines of the summit to consolidate his ongoing drive to secure Nigeria and Neighbouring Countries from Boko Haram.

    “President Buhari is due back in Abuja on Tuesday at the conclusion of the summit which will focus mainly on continental peace and security,” Adesina noted.

  • AFRIMA boss in S/A for AU congress

    AFRIMA boss in S/A for AU congress

    The Executive Producer of the All Africa Music Award (AFRIMA), Mike Dada will today,  speak to the community of musicians and enthusiasts, at the 4th Pan Africa Cultural Congress (PACC4) holding at the popular Sandton International Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa.

    The three-day event, which will be addressing the ‘Unity in Cultural Diversity for Africa’s Development’ as its theme, will have several speakers across Africa.

    Mr. Dada will be presenting a paper on the AFRIMA Project, titled, ‘Creative Economy: From Policy to Practice’.

    For AFRIMA, the congress is coming at the right time, as Dada and his team are preparing for its second edition of the award scheme, slated for November.

    Having opened the 2015 edition to music entry submissions which will close on July 20, AFRIMA began a familiarisation tour of African musician communities around Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, last month, where it also unveiled the agenda for this year’s programmes of event, in conjunction with the AUC. The South African congress platform is coming after the second leg of that familiarisation tour which held last week in Kampala, Uganda.

    The purpose of the PACC4, according to the AUC, is to provide a platform for cultural experts, policy makers, private sector, civil society organizations working in the art, tourism and culture sector to take stock of the challenges and record good practices on harnessing cultural diversity to enhance policy development on the theme.

    Expected at the event are Heads Of State and Ministers of Culture, Youth and Tourism as well as cultural enthusiasts.

    The 4th Pan-Africa Cultural Congress is being organised in collaboration with the Department of Arts and Culture of the Republic of South Africa as part of the Africa Month Celebrations, which is aimed to foster the African Renaissance vision as encapsulated in the charter for African Cultural Renaissance and the African Union agenda for 2063.

    The vision is similar, as AFRIMA, on the other hand, is driven by its mission of producing an international platform to celebrate the cultural heritage and values of Africa by rewarding up and coming as well as established talent and creating sustainable growth of the African music industry as a contributor to national and continental economies.

    Excited by the invitation, Dada said: “I feel honoured by this opportunity to share with and address the Pan African Cultural Congress on the mission of AFRIMA of achieving a desired Africa where poverty is reduced and a new positive narrative is built through the instrumentality of music and creativity. This will only go a long way to spur us work harder in taking the AFRIMA project beyond Africa.”

    He added that “AFRIMA is a continental music awards project that is conceptualised to reward music talents of Africa and also stimulate conversations on how the African music industry can contribute to the economies of African countries and create jobs towards reducing poverty on the continent.”

  • AU, council laud Nigeria’s polls

    AU, council laud Nigeria’s polls

    THE African Union (AU) and its affiliate, Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC), have hailed the Federal Government and the citizenry on the peaceful manner they conducted themselves during and after the general elections.

    Chairperson and Nigerian representative at AU ECOSOCC Dr. Tunji Asaolu said this in Abuja at the weekend.

    He said the success recorded was made purpose as a result of efforts and roles played by the citizens and the CSO.

    Asaolu said he was ready to work with the nation’s CSO to achieve and come up with laudable ideas that would reshape the country and the continent.

    But, the Presiding Officer of AU ECOSOCC Joseph Chelingi condemned the xenophobic attacks in South Africa and the killing of four Nigerians in Indonesia.

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • AU commends Nigeria on peaceful 2015 polls

    The African Union (AU) and its affiliate, Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) on Monday commended Nigeria on the peaceful conduct of the 2015 general election in the country.

    The Chairperson, Social Affairs, Health and Nigerian representative at the Council, Dr. Tunji Asaolu, said this in Abuja over the weekend

    He said, “Let me sincerely thank Nigerians and Nigerian Civil Society Organisation (CSO) for the successful conduct of the 2015 general election, a development that led to relative peace in Nigeria different from what the world envisaged.”

    Asaolu said the position he was elected in the AU ECOSOCC is to work and team up with all Nigerian CSO to come up with laudable ideas that will reshape the country and Africa as a whole.

    “The unique character of the African Union ECOSOCC is that it is an opportunity for African civil society to play an active role in charting the future of the continent, organizing itself in partnership with African governments to contribute to the principles, policies and programmes of the Union. Nigeria is now a role model to the international community when it comes to elections,” he stated.

    The Presiding Officer of AU ECOSOCC, Hon. Joseph Chelingi, in his remarks condemned the xenophobic attacks in South Africa and the killing of four Nigerians in Indonesia, adding that the AU condemn the act of impunity that is taking place in South Africa where other Africans were been killed.

     

  • Jonathan meets Commonwealth, AU, ECOWAS polls’ monitors

    Jonathan meets Commonwealth, AU, ECOWAS polls’ monitors

    President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday met briefly behind closed-doors with elections monitoring groups from the Commonwealth, the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

    Among those in the team were ex-Ghanaian President John Kuffour; former Liberian President Amos Sawyer as well as ex-Malawian President and Head of Commonwealth Election Observer Dr. Bakili Muluzi.

    Addressing State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, Kuffour said the group came to give an interim report to the President.

    Stressing that the elections were peaceful, he urged the electorate to continue to remain calm after the results are announced.

    He said: “President Muluzi, former president of Malawi, led the Commonwealth team; President Sawyer, former President of Liberia, led the African Union team; and myself, former president of Ghana, led the ECOWAS team.

    “We have been in the country with our groups. I’m sure you heard from some of us yesterday (Sunday) that the elections have been peaceful, transparent and credible up to yesterday.

    “We appreciate the processes not yet done till the results are declared; then of course, the aftermath of the declaration. But we have come this far and we wanted to give an interim report to the authorities that mandated us to come and to the world and to Nigerians in particular; to let everybody know that Nigeria has been at peace with the process.

    “And so, we appeal to Nigeria to continue in this mood throughout the process. So that at the end of the day, the people of Nigeria will be satisfied with themselves that they use the process to get the government they want and they deserve.”

    He went on: “Nigeria succeeding will be not only in favour of Nigeria, but to West Africa and to the continent. We will all be made proud of the success here achieved by Nigerians for themselves and for all of us.

    “Well, at this point, some of us will go back to our homes and we couldn’t go without coming to the State House, to the President and the Vice President for the good work they have done. Because it is under their watch that these peaceful, transparent and credible elections have been happening and it is natural they are congratulated for the work done so far.

    “So, that is why we came to pay respect to the President, his deputy; more or less to ask leave to go. Of course, leaving the rest of our observer team behind to see through the process, hoping it will reach successful conclusions so they can make final reports to the world.”

  • AU seeks investors for infrastructure repairs

    AU seeks investors for infrastructure repairs

    African nations plan to target more private investment in key regional projects to help address a lack of infrastructure that  is slowing growth and regional integration, a unit of the African Union (AU) said.

    Priority projects under the Programme for Infrastructure Development, which began in 2012, need $68 billion by 2020 and an additional $300 billion for those planned to 2040. The initiative, known as PIDA, has assisted in developing 16 priority trans-national projects so that they are now “bankable,” New Partnership for Africa’s Development Chief Executive Officer Ibrahim Mayaki said in an interview  in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

    “Fundamentally we need to attract the private sector,” said Mayaki, a former prime minister of Niger. “They were not interested in Africa 10 years ago, but even if the risk is a bit higher the returns can be much higher than what they’re getting.”

    The investment drive seeks to address deficiencies that leave 62 percent of Africans without access to electricity, less than 10 percent able to use the Internet and only a quarter of the road network paved. The result is “expensive infrastructure services, constrained industrial productivity, limited participation in global trade and holding back the competitiveness of production,” according to Nepad, a technical body of the AU leading efforts to improve transport, power and communications.

    The union will be encouraged to focus on infrastructure and PIDA during Zimbabwe’s one-year chairmanship that began Friday, President Robert Mugabe said in an acceptance speech. “We need to continue and perhaps redouble our current collective efforts in this sector,” he said in Addis Ababa at the AU. “The road and power projects that we’re developing are a positive step in our quest to improve the African infrastructure.”

    The African Development Bank will conduct feasibility studies for the 16 projects African leaders agreed in June. The Abidjan-based lender plans to attract an initial $3 billion in equity capital for the programme using a fund known as Africa50. Well-prepared African infrastructure deals may be attractive to investors including U.S. pension’s funds looking for high returns, Mayaki said.

    The top five projects outlined by Nepad are the Ruzizi III hydropower plant between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda; expansion of the port in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; construction of the Serenje to Nakonde road in Zambia; a gas pipeline from Nigeria to Algeria; and an upgrade of the railway from Senegal’s capital, Dakar, to Bamako, the capital of Mali.

    During its annual summit at its headquarters in Ethiopia last week, the African Union signed an accord with China for it to support efforts to improve transport links and industry as part of the organisation’s 50-year strategy to transform Africa by 2063.

    “This is a very grand and ambitious project but it’s also a feasible project,” Zhang Ming, China’s vice foreign minister, said at the Jan. 27 signing in Addis Ababa.

    The deal to improve rail, roads and aviation will enable China to access the resources it needs from Africa over the next decades, said Christie Viljoen, senior economist at NKC Independent Economists in Paarl, South Africa.

    “Any efforts to stimulate regional integration is surely aimed at enabling landlocked countries to export their commodities more easily,” she said in an e-mailed response to questions on Wednesday.

    State-funded Chinese rail projects in Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti are current examples of the type of work it’s pledged  to do with the AU, Zhang said. There are opportunities for all African nations and the continent, and other “international partners” can contribute, he said.

    A reliable indicator of China’s future commitment to Africa’s infrastructure development will come at next year’s meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, said Deborah Brautigam, the Director of the China Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University.

    “For quite some time the Chinese banks have been interested in financing cross-regional infrastructure projects, but these are difficult to coordinate,” she said in an e-mailed response to questions last week. “The AU can’t take out loans obviously, but it can provide a venue for discussions of interested stakeholders, who might be able to work out a cross-regional project and apply for funds.”

  • Mugabe is new AU chairman

    Mugabe is new AU chairman

    90- year-old Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, one of Africa’s most divisive figures, ascended to the rotating chairmanship of the African Union on Friday, casting a shadow over the continental body’s relations with the West.

    Mugabe, the only leader Zimbabwe has known since independence from Britain in 1980, assumed the largely ceremonial role at an AU summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, Reuters says.

  • AU okays regional task force to fight Boko Haram

    The African Union has endorsed a West African plan to set up a regional task force of 7,500 to fight the Boko Haram militants, a senior official said on Thursday, a vital step towards securing United Nations Security Council backing.

    Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, Chad and Benin agreed earlier this month to call on the AU to seek UN Security Council support for their plan to take on insurgents who are fighting to create an Islamic state in northern Nigeria.

    Boko Haram has made incursions into neighbouring Cameroon and threatens the stability of a region that includes Niger and Chad. Benin lies on Nigeria’s western border, Reuters says.

    “We are thinking of a force of 7,500 women and men. The next step is to submit (approval) to the UN Security Council,” Reuters quoted Smail Chergui, the commissioner of the AU’s Peace and Security Council, as saying to reporters on the sidelines of an AU summit in Addis Ababa.

    Tackling Boko Haram was top of the agenda at the meeting of African leaders and officials.

    “Hopefully now with this concept, this force will be better organised and we can achieve the goal that we are looking for, that is to really stop the killing and these barbaric acts of Boko Haram,” Chergui said.

    A UN mandate could help draw international assistance for the African regional force.

    The African group plans to meet next week in Cameroon to draw up a “concept of operations” to cover strategy, rules of engagement, command and control, and related issues, Chergui said.

    Senior officials have told Reuters that each of the five nations would contribute a battalion and each contingent would be based within its national borders with operations coordinated from Chad’s capital N’Djamena.

     

  • African states to seek UN mandate on Boko Haram

    African nations threatened by the Boko Haram sect will seek the United Nations’ Security Council authorisation for a multinational force to take on the militants, Niger’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

    Mohamed Bazoum said the countries of the Lake Chad region had agreed during a meeting in Niger’s capital Niamey on Tuesday that the resolution would be presented to the UN by the African Union.

    He did not specify when this would be done.

    Boko Haram, which is fighting to create an Islamic emirate in northern Nigeria, has increasingly made incursions into neighbouring Cameroon and is also threatening the stability of the region that includes Niger and Chad, Reuters says.

    Mistrust and disagreements between the states has however hampered attempts to pool military resources. The countries had agreed to create a multinational force to tackle the insurgents by last November but failed to contribute the troops.

    “Contrary to what happened in the past, we agreed with our partners that a resolution should passed by the Security Council that will allow the establishment of the Joint Multinational Force,” Reuters quoted Bazoum as saying to a television channel in Niamey.

    The countries also agreed to move the headquarters of the proposed multinational force from the Nigerian town of Baga to the Chadian capital N’Djamena after Baga was seized and ransacked by Boko Haram fighters, he said.

     

  • Ebola: AU seeks fund from African billionaires

    Ebola: AU seeks fund from African billionaires

    The African Union (AU) has said it is seeking funding from some of the continent’s richest people, including Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote, to pay volunteer doctors and nurses fighting the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in West Africa.

    The continental bloc is seeking to raise $35 million in the first round and, eventually, as much as $100 million for the Business-to-Rescue Fund, said George Sibotshiwe, Executive Director, African Democratic Institution, which is coordinating a November 8 meeting in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, to encourage business people to donate.

    “A campaign to ask for contributions from “citizens” will follow,” he said.

    Dangote, the chairman of Dangote Group in Nigeria, and Patrice Motsepe, chairman of Johannesburg-based African Rainbow Minerals Ltd. (ARI) are expected to attend the meeting, the  AU said in an e-mail statement.

    According to AU, Strive  Masiyiwa, chairman of Econet Wireless International, Safaricom Ltd. of Kenya Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bob Collymore, South Africa’s MTN Group CEO Sifiso Dabengwa and CEO of Standard Bank Group Ltd. Sim Tshabalala also plan to join.

    Among wealthy businessmen already committing money to curb Ebola are Microsoft co-founders Paul Allen and Bill Gates and Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

    The world’s largest Ebola outbreak has killed almost 5,000 people in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone since December. AU member states have pledged to send at least 2,000 health workers to the three West African nations.

    The World Bank estimated that about 5,000 international medical, training and support personnel are needed in the coming months to respond to the outbreak, including as many as 1,000 foreign-health workers to treat patients. More than 200 local doctors and nurses have died since December from the virus, leaving the already-crippled health systems even weaker.