The Nation Newspaper

Tag: BONI YAYI

  • Buhari commends Yayi on plans to relinquish power

    Buhari commends Yayi on plans to relinquish power

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday commended the President of Benin Republic, Boni Yayi, over his decision to relinquish power at the end of his tenure in March.

    Buhari made the commendation during a joint media briefing with the visiting Benin Republic leader at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    He thanked Yayi for being a good neighbour and for his consistency in identifying with the challenges facing Nigeria.

    He said: “He is saying goodbye to us because he has agreed to abide with his country’s constitution. It is his second term, ending in March and he has made an undertaking with his country that he is going to respect the constitution of the country. He is preparing his party to produce a candidate that he will back in the elections.

    “He has been very large-hearted. He has done so many things for his country in terms of security and economy.

    “And I thanked him very much for his consistency in identifying with us and for being such a good neighbour and I assure him that Nigeria is very interested, necessarily, because good neighbourhood is good for our security and for our economy.”

    President Buhari assured that Nigeria will continue to be good to its neighbours as a deliberate policy to enhance internal security and economic prosperity in the country.

    He expressed appreciation to Benin Republic for voluntarily contributing troops to check the menace of insurgency across member countries of the Lake Chad Basin Commission.

     

  • Buhari, ECOWAS leaders meet on Burkina Faso‎

    Buhari, ECOWAS leaders meet on Burkina Faso‎

    President Muhammadu Buhar and eight other ECOWAS leaders are locked in a closed- door meeting over the political logjam in Burkina-Faso.

    The extra-ordinary meeting which is ongoing is expected discuss the ongoing political crisis in Burkina Faso and the way out of the imbroglio.

    ECOWAS has since placed Burkina-Faso on suspension, following a military coup which toppled the interim government headed by Michel Kafando.

    ECOWAS leaders attending the meeting which is taking place at the Presidential wing of the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport are – John Mahama (Ghana), Thomas Boni Yayi (Benin Republic), Macky Sall (Senegal) and Alassane Ouattara (Côte d’Ivoire).

    The leaders of Guinea, Niger Republic and Mali are also in attendance.

    Buhari in his welcome remark said the development in Burkina-Faso runs contrary to the expectations of ECOWAS‎.

    He stressed that the extraordinary summit therefore provides the opportunity to review the development.

    ‎He also commended the process of engagement by the regional body, which according to him, has resulted in some measure of understanding towards the resolution of the crisis.

     

  • Nigeria, Benin to strengthen ties

    Nigeria, Benin to strengthen ties

    Nigeria and Benin Republic on Tuesday agreed to strengthen the economic and security cooperation between them.

    President Muhammadu Buhari and his Benin Republic counterpart, Boni Yayi, addressed a joint press briefing after a closed door meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    The two leaders agreed to promote efforts towards regional integration as they pledged to continue to put in place necessary mechanisms to further strengthen regional integration under the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) and the Co-Prosperity Alliance Zone (COPAZ).

    President Buhari expressed satisfactions with Benin Republic for identifying with current efforts at fighting terrorism under the auspices of the Lake Chad Basin Commission.

    He said: “We are happy to inform you that we have identified our problems, the correct priorities for Nigeria firstly is the security of the country and then the economy.

    “Nigeria being the main battle ground for Boko Haram and under the auspices of  Lake Chad Basin Commission we have agreed on what contributions the countries will make, that is of Benin, Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria.

    “I have to thank most sincerely, the President of Benin for identifying himself with the immediate Lake Chad Basin Commission group to make their contribution. We are doing our best under the circumstances in Nigeria.”

    In his remarks, President Boni Yayi commended the leadership role of President Buhari in the ongoing war against terrorism, especially the Boko Haram insurgency.

    He harped on the need for the two countries to galvanize other ECOWAS member States to put in place necessary mechanism to strengthen regional integration within the sub-region.

     

     

  • Boko Haram: Nigerian summit to be decisive – Benin president

    Boko Haram: Nigerian summit to be decisive – Benin president

    Countries waging a regional fight against the Boko Haram sect will take significant steps towards establishing a joint task force when they meet on Thursday in Abuja, Benin’s president said.

    Boko Haram has killed thousands and displaced around 1.5 million people during a six-year insurgency, seeking to establish an Islamic emirate and extending its reach into neighbouring Chad and Cameroon, Reuters says.

    At start of the year, it controlled territory about the size of Belgium in northeast Nigeria, but a loosely coordinated offensive by Nigeria’s army and troops from Chad, Cameroon and Niger has pushed it out of most of those areas.

    Nigeria’s neighbours have been urging closer coordination and the deployment of a joint task force, headquartered in the Chadian capital N’Djamena.

    But diplomats said the process has been slowed down by Nigeria’s reservations about foreign troops operating on its soil and by its presidential election in March.

    Benin’s Thomas Boni Yayi said the new president, Muhammadu Buhari, was “very determined.”

    “The discussions we have had with him reassure us,” he told reporters after talks with French President Francois Hollande in Paris. “We are going to put an end to this odious phenomenon. This summit will be decisive.”

    The defence chiefs of Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Benin were meeting in Abuja to lay the groundwork for the task force.

    Benin has not deployed any troops against Boko Haram yet, but has agreed in principle to join the force.

    Yayi said this could begin once the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution, which has been in discussion for several months, endorsing the mission.

     

  • Benin president Yayi pardons alleged plotters

    Benin president Yayi pardons alleged plotters

    Benin’s President Boni Yayi has publicly pardoned those accused of trying to poison him in an alleged 2012 coup attempt after the mediation of international figures, including the president of France.

    The intrigue had fomented tensions in the tiny West African state, a cotton grower that has otherwise enjoyed relative political stability since multi-party democracy was introduced in the 1990s.

    “I have decided to pardon them,” Reuters quoted Yayi as saying on state television on Wednesday night.

    Those accused of the plot, which never got off the ground, included millionaire cotton magnate Patrice Talon and Yayi’s personal doctor.

    France refused to extradite Talon late last year saying it was not clear he would get a fair trial.

    Yayi said French President Francois Hollande and Abdou Diouf, the former Senegalese president who now heads the International Organisation of La Francophonie, had played key roles in the clemency.

    In his statement, Yayi said that Talon, who backed Yayi during his 2006 presidential campaign before falling out with him in 2011, had apologised for being politically active and pledged to end all such activities.

    It was not immediately clear when the co-accused would be freed.

  • Jonathan, OBJ at a church service in Aso rock

    Jonathan, OBJ at a church service in Aso rock