The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Cuba

  • UK regrets U.S. withdrawal from UN Human Rights Council

    The United Kingdom has expressed regret over the decision of the U.S. to withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council.

    UK Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, in a statement by the United Kingdom Mission to the UN, said Britain wants to see a reformed council but would work for it from within.

    “The United States’ decision to withdraw from the Human Rights Council is regrettable.

    “We’ve made no secret of the fact that the UK wants to see reform of the Human Rights Council, but we are committed to working to strengthen the Council from within,’’ Johnson said.

    The U.S., while announcing its withdrawal, said the “Council has become an exercise in shameless hypocrisy – with many of the world’s worst human rights abuses going ignored and some of the world’s most serious offenders sitting on the council itself’’.

    It also said the council’s membership includes authoritarian governments with unambiguous and abhorrent human rights records, such as China, Cuba, and Venezuela.

    Read Also: Boko Haram: UN tasks Nigeria on stigmatisation of girls

    “And the council’s continued and well-documented bias against Israel is unconscionable.

    “Since its creation, the council has adopted more resolutions condemning Israel than against the rest of the world combined,’’ the U.S. said.

    The UK said, however, that the council was the best tool for the international community to address global impunity.

    “Britain’s support for the Human Rights Council remains steadfast.

    “It is the best tool the international community has to address impunity in an imperfect world and to advance many of our international goals.

    “That’s why we will continue to support and champion it,’’ Johnson said.

  • Cuba to strengthen economic relations with Nigeria

    Cuba to strengthen economic relations with Nigeria

    Cuban Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Carlos Saso, said his country would strengthen economic relations with Nigeria to boost trade between both countries.

    Saso said this when he visited Mr Adetokunbo Kayode, the President of Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry, on Monday in Abuja.

    Media and Protocol Officer of the chamber, Mr Gena Lubem, said in a statement that the ambassador stressed the need to galvanize resources for more joint economic activities between the countries.

    Read also: Cuba to partner Nigeria in medicine, biotechnology

    He said that Cuba would explore more relations with Nigeria in the health industry, agriculture and sports.

    According to him, Cuba is interested in manufacturing critical vaccines in Nigeria to tackle endemic ailments like Hepatitis B and C, Meningitis, Lassa fever and Diabetes.

    He added that the country was also interested in the establishment of Cuban-Nigerian joint venture hospitals in Abuja.

    Saso expressed interest in developing a strategic relationship with the Abuja Chamber in these areas to improve commercial activities and enhance the balance of trade between the two countries.

    Receiving the envoy, Kayode commended him for demonstrating genuine interest in improving the economic ties between Nigeria and Cuba.

    “This is in line with the strategic plan of the chamber to forge strong ties with the international business community to develop joint ventures and enhance foreign direct investment,” he said.

    He urged the international community to work with Nigeria in all areas of business, especially now that the business environment was getting better.

    “The chamber is also encouraging Public-Private-Partnerships ( PPP ).

    “The government now realises that the Organized Private Sector ( OPS ) and the public sector exist to advance the economy and the general good of the country.

    “The bodies will also advance the renewed and on-going efforts at ease of doing business programme which is improving the business environment in Nigeria,” Kayode said.

    NAN

  • Trump questions taking of immigrants from ‘shithole countries’

    Trump questions taking of immigrants from ‘shithole countries’

    President Donald Trump has questioned why the U.S. would want to have immigrants from Haiti and African nations, referring to some as “shithole countries,” according to two sources familiar with the comments.

    Trump’s remarks, made in the White House, came as Democratic Senator Dick Durbin and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham briefed the president on a newly drafted immigration bill being touted by a bipartisan group of senators, according to the sources, who asked not to be identified.

    Sources said government officials were present during the conversation.

    The lawmakers were describing how certain immigration programs operate, including one to give safe haven in the United States to people from countries suffering from natural disasters or civil strife.

    One of the sources who was briefed on the conversation said that Trump said, “Why do we want all these people from Africa here?

    “They’re shithole countries … We should have more people from Norway.”

    The second source familiar with the conversation, said Trump, who has vowed to clamp down on illegal immigration, also questioned the need for Haitians in the United States.

    Many Democrats and some Republican lawmakers slammed the president for his remarks.

    Republican U.S. Representative Mia Love, a daughter of Haitian immigrants, said the comments were “unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation’s values”.

    Love called on Trump to apologise to the American people and to the countries he denigrated.

    Another Republican Representative, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who was born in Cuba and whose south Florida district includes many Haitian immigrants, said: “Language like that shouldn’t be heard in locker rooms and it shouldn’t be heard in the White House.”

    Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, a frequent Trump critic, said the president’s comment “smacks of blatant racism, the most odious and insidious racism masquerading poorly as immigration policy.”

    Read Also: “Obama sold the finest embassy for Peanuts,” Trump cancels UK visit

    In an apparent response to his critics, Trump took to Twitter late on Thursday night.

    Trump tweeted: “The Democrats seem intent on having people and drugs pour into our country from the Southern Border, risking thousands of lives in the process.

    “It is my duty to protect the lives and safety of all Americans. We must build a Great Wall, think Merit and end Lottery & Chain. USA!”

    The programme that was being discussed at the White House is called Temporary Protected Status.

    In November, the Trump administration decided to end the status for immigrants from Haiti and Nicaragua.

    It gave the approximately 59,000 Haitian immigrants who had been granted the status until July 2019 to return home or legalise their presence in the U.S.

    Nicaraguans were given until January 2019.

    On Monday, Trump moved to end the status for immigrants from El Salvador, which could result in 200,000 Salvadorans legally in the United States being deported, beginning in September of 2019.

    Reuters/NAN

  • Cuba to partner Nigeria in medicine, biotechnology

    Cuba to partner Nigeria in medicine, biotechnology

    Cuba’s  Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Carlos Sosa said his country would collaborate with Nigerian government on research in medicine, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.

    Sosa made this known when he paid courtesy visit to the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu on Wednesday in Abuja.

    He said that the two countries would share ideas in many areas of science and technology.

    “Cuba will collaborate with Nigeria in the areas of training and exchange of innovations through technology and education and create systems for both countries to share models with their counterparts in Cuba,” he said.

    Responding, Onu said the meeting was to strengthen existing cordial relationships with Cuba toward diversifying national economy by utilizing science and technology.

    “This is in line with the present administration’s strategic plan, which is to add value on human resources through research and training, thereby gaining knowledge and be on the frontline of leading economies of the world.

    “Redirecting economy from resource-based to knowledge-based by getting Nigerians to become more productive on issues that will add value to the exploitation of the nation’s natural resources,” he said.

    According to him, ministry’s mandate is to ensure that Nigeria becomes a leading economy through value addition to human capital development in the area of science and technology.

    Onu said that completion of Memoranda of Understanding between Cuba and Nigeria would help Nigeria to be able to acquire technology and innovation in key sectors of the economy.

    “This will enable us add value in revenue generation, provide job opportunities, create wealth and reduce poverty to the barest minimum in Nigeria,” he added.

  • Cuba: U.S. ends preferential immigration policy

    Cuba: U.S. ends preferential immigration policy

    The U.S. has ended a preferential policy toward Cubans who arrived in the country illegally.

    A report on Friday in Washington said that under most circumstances they would henceforth be sent home rather than allowed to apply for residency.

    The White House said in a statement that the change means people who flee the communist country, would be treated the same way migrants from other countries are treated.

    “Effective immediately, Cuban nationals who attempt to enter the U.S. illegally and do not qualify for humanitarian relief will be subject to removal, consistent with U.S. law and enforcement priorities.

    “The U.S. is also ending a programme that gave preferential treatment to Cuban medical personnel seeking entry to the US.

    The statement recalled that the so-called “wet-foot/dry-foot” policy was put in place more than 20 years ago and was designed for a different era.

    It said the policy allowed anyone who fled Cuba and made it to U.S. soil to stay and pursue a residency, while people stopped at sea were sent back.

    The White House called the move an important step forward in President Barack Obama’s effort to normalise relations with Cuba.

    News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalled that Obama re-established diplomatic relations with Havana last year, ending more than five decades of isolation with its Cold War foe.

    The Cuban government has agreed to accept the return of Cuban nationals who are sent back, just as it has been accepting the return of migrants intercepted at sea.

  • The fear of padding

    Never before was a budget so embroiled in controversy like that of 2016. For sure, what happened during the processing of the budget must have happened before. The only difference is that whatever it was, it was kept away from us. Unknown to us, a cabal had always been at work in the preparation of the budget. In the days of the military, those in the Ministry of Finance, the Budget Office and the National Planning Commission (NPC) just gave us figures which we lapped up.

    The bureaucrats in the civil service know how to doctor (read as pad) a budget. Ministers who do not know their onions do not stand a chance with them. The more they looked the less they saw whenever these bureaucrats came with their abracadabra when computing the figures. Any minister of finance must be a step ahead of them in order to beat them in their own game. But they know how to win those ministers to their side.

    They tell them stories of how things were done in the past with everybody smiling home at the end of the day. ’’Oga, abi you come count bridge for here’’, they will tell a gullible minister. In no time, he will join them and become a pawn in their hands. They will commit all sorts of atrocities in his name and he will not be able to call them to order. The preparation of the budget was and may still be a means of stealing public funds. If we did not know in the past, we now know that budgets were never prepared with the best of intentions, at least going by the 2016 standard

    All those involved in the process had their own agenda and that was what is in it for them. What happened during the preparation of this year’s budget during this time last year was an eye opener. Being the first budget of the Buhari administration, the government did all it could to come out with a budget that will pass the integrity test, but the cabal still had its way. Even before the estimates were sent to the National Assembly, we had started hearing about padding here and there. The various ministries which were to forward their proposals to the Ministry of Budget, which is the clearing house, had doctored the figures to suit their own  needs.

    They put in irrelevances and allocated money to them, which they expected to cash once the National Assembly approved the budget. The assembly too has since become wiser to the ways of civil servants. Its members know how to handle such matters and can even beat the civil servants at their own game. They know what the civil servants had done in compiling the budget. So, they wait for them at the budget defence stage. By the time they ask one or two questions, the ministers and their coterie of aides will be looking askance. Then, they will be told to go back and take another look at the estimates, which is euphemism for them to go and add the lawmakers’ cut, if they have not done so. This thing has been on for ages and those involved have been doing it to the detriment of our collective will, while they have been smiling to the banks.

    The harm done to the budget by these padders is enormous because the money allegedly allocated to some projects is not eventually seen. The projects just appear on paper while the money ends up in the pockets of individuals. The most painful is that of the lawmakers, who are expected to protect the people’s interest. They too are on the take having been brought on the groovy train by unscrupulous bureaucrats. The lawmakers have perfected the act of making money with the budget. Since, according to them, they did not come to Abuja to look at the Eagle Square, they have found it profitable to pad the budget than to make appropriate funds for the people’s needs.

    We have heard from former House of Representatives Appropriations Committee Chairman Abdulmumin Jibrin how the lawmakers padded this year’s budget for their own gain. Jibrin was not saying anything new. It had for long been in the public domain that our lawmakers are corrupt. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo said so many times while in office, but we did not listen to him. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to see the end of Jibrin’s allegations as his colleagues hurriedly suspended him before he could release more details about budget padding and corruption generally in the House. But the nation has learnt a big lesson from it all. Once beaten, they say, twice shy. With the benefit of hindsight, President Muhammadu Buhari has warned that he would not allow next year’s budget to be padded. Apparently still smarting from what happened to this year’s budget, he said in Abuja last weekend that he would prevent the padding of the 2017 Budget.

    ‘’I am waiting for the 2017 Budget to be brought to us in Council. Any sign of padding anywhere, I will remove it. I have been in government since 1975, variously as governor, oil minister, head of state and chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF). Never did I hear the word ‘padding’ till the 2016 Budget’’, he said, adding that such would never happen again under his watch. Well said sir, but what did we do to those who padded this year’s budget beyond relieving them of their jobs? They should be brought to book to deter others who may wish to toe the same path.  If we do not do that, it will amount to paying lip service to the anti-corruption crusade.

     

    Cuba after Castro

    Cuba’s strongman, the irrepressible Fidel Castro, died last weekend at the age of 90. His death marked the end of an era in that island nation. Castro was a communist to the core. Even when communism was dying worldwide, he remained committed. He ruled his country with iron hand and called the bluff of many world powers, including the United States (US), which he railed against for years.   The Bay of Pigs episode will forever define his sour relations with the US. Cuba gave the US a bloody nose in that bitter enterprise following the failure of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to topple him between April 17 and 19, 1961. Since then, Cuba and the US have been fighting a cold war. There is no doubt that Castro loved his country, but he loved power more. This is why he did not allow democracy to thrive. He ran a one-man government and when he became ill few years ago, he handed the reins to his younger brother, Raul. The younger Castro, who was his elder brother’s defence minister and head of the armed forces, has been running the show for eight years now. At 85, age is not on his side. With his brother gone, he should be thinking of what Cuba will look like when he too eventually goes the way of every mortal.  The Castros have done their best for Cuba, but their best legacy for their country will be to leave it in the hands of capable people after they are gone. This is now the task of Raul Castro. Will he let go and allow the country to rediscover itself and chart a new course before the end comes?

  • Fidel Castro’s funeral set for Dec. 4

    Fidel Castro’s funeral set for Dec. 4

    The state funeral for Fidel Castro who died at the age of 90, has been fixed for Sunday December 4, in Santiago de Cuba, according to state media report.

    But the cremation of the remains of Castro will be carried out according to his wishes, and  has been fixed for Saturday, Cuba President  Raul Castro, announced early Saturday.

    According official states media, the government has also declared nine days of mourning  in honour of the fallen hero.

    The death of Cuba strongman, Castro, has triggered both celebration and mourning, as critics welcomed his demise while supporters grieved for the polarising strongman who dominated Cuba for decades.

    In Maimi, celebrations spilled out over the death of Castro and the state government decrees a nine days of mourning. During the period, all activities and public performances will be halted, and Cuba’s flag will be flown at half-mast in public and at military establishments.

    According to reports , the country’s radio and television channels will broadcast informative, patriotic and historical programming.

    Castro reigned in Havana for nearly five decades with an iron hand, defying a U.S. economic embargo intended to dislodge his regime.

    But he lived long enough to see a historic reunion Between Cuba and the U.S.  The two nations re-established diplomatic relations in July 2015.

    Meanwhile messages by world leaders have been pouring in celebration of Castro who ruled Cuba for 47 years.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin, praised  him, describing Castro as a “symbol of an era”, while former Russian leader Gorbachev according reports from Kremlin hailed him for ”strengthening” Cuba.

    Narenda Modi, India prime minister said Fidel Castro was one of the most iconic personalities of the 20th century , says India mourns the loss of a great friend.

    Mexico’s President, Enrique Pene Nieto called Castro a friend of Mexico, who had promoted bilateral relaionships based on respect, dialogue and solidatity.

    Also, Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuela’s president has sent a solidarity and love message to Cuban people on the loss of the country’s longtime leader.

    Maduro has remained a close ally of Cuba, in his twitter message, he called on all the revolutionaries of the world to continue his legacy  under the flag of independence , socialism and homeland.

    In his message, China’s president Xi Jinping says, Castro “will live for ever” especially in the minds of those who loved and cherished him. (NAN)

  • Cuba’s former President, Fidel Castro dies at 90

    Cuba’s former President, Fidel Castro dies at 90

    Former Cuban president and leader of the communist revolution, Fidel Castro is dead.

    He died at 90 on Friday according to a statement by his brother, President Raul Castro.

    Reports say he had for years suffered an unspecified intestinal illness which already forced him to hand over power to his brother in July 2006.

    The exact nature of the illness was never confirmed by either Castro or the Cuban government, although media reports mentioned diverticulosis.

    “I was dead,” Castro said of the 2006 bout of the illness in an interview four years later. “I no longer aspired to living.”

    In the years that followed, he appeared to have recovered and was seen in public several times, visibly frail but in good spirits. However, in the months before his death he had gone more and more silent and he was last seen in public in late March, after more than a year away from public life.

    The secrecy surrounding Castro’s health forever prompted speculation.

    Castro was only known to have suffered two previous incidents of physical problems, and both happened in public. In June 2001 he had a

    fainting spell as he addressed a mass audience in Havana.

    On October 2004 he slipped at the end of a rally in the Cuban town of Santa Clara, injuring his arm and leg. He subsequently was seen in

    public in a wheelchair for the first time ever.

    The news of Castro’s 2006 health trouble was divulged in late July that year through a document that was handwritten and allegedly

    signed by Fidel Castro himself.

    The Cuban leader claimed that his health problems had arisen from stress from his visit to Argentina barely two weeks earlier, where he

    delivered a three-hour speech to a crowd of 50,000, and subsequent commitments in his own country.

    “This caused me an acute intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding which forced me to undergo complicated surgery,” the Cuban president

    allegedly wrote. He added that after the operation he would need “several weeks of rest.”

    However, weeks gave way to months and years. Castro’s temporary exit from the Cuban Presidency became permanent in February 2008,

    while he formally stepped down from the leadership of the Cuban Communist Party in April 2011.

    Over the years, the fit, ever-active revolutionary gave way to an elderly man in good spirits but frail health, as one might expect for a late octogenarian, but Cuban authorities never kept the public up to date with his physical troubles. (dpa/NAN)

  • Kerry presides over raising of flag at U.S. embassy in Cuba

    Havana – Watched over by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, U.S. Marines raised the American flag at the embassy in Cuba for the first time in 54 years  yesterday , symbolically ushering in an era of renewed diplomatic relations between the two Cold War-era foes.

    Three retired Marines who last lowered the flag in 1961 participated in the ceremony, handing a new flag to the Marine Colour Guard, which raised it on the grounds outside the embassy building on the Havana seafront.

    Kerry, the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Cuba in 70 years, said at the event that  it was obvious that “the road of mutual isolation and estrangement that the United States and Cuba have been travelling is not the right one and that the time has come for us to move in a more promising direction.”

    The symbolic event took place eight months after Havana and Washington agreed to restore ties and nearly four weeks after the United States and Cuba formally renewed diplomatic relations and upgraded their diplomatic missions to embassies.

    While the Cubans celebrated with a flag-raising in Washington on July 20, the Americans waited until Kerry could travel to Havana.

    Kerry made declared  that despite the historic opening, Washington has not set aside criticism of Communist-run Cuba’s human rights record.

    “We remain convinced the people of Cuba would be best served by a genuine democracy, where people are free to choose their leaders,” he said.

    Kerry was billed to  meet Cuban dissidents opposed to the island’s one-party political system at the U.S. embassy residence in Havana last night.

    But dissidents were not invited to the  morning flag-raising in deference to the Cuban government, generating criticism from opponents of U.S. President Barack Obama’s opening to Cuba.

    Critics of Obama’s move, which seeks to end decades of U.S. isolation and was announced last December in a landmark agreement with Cuban President Raul Castro, complain the Cuban government has made no concessions in exchange for diplomatic ties.

    “It is shameful that on the grounds of our embassy in Havana, the Cuban regime can dictate to the United States government who may or may not attend this ceremony,” Bob Menendez, a Cuban-American senator from New Jersey, said in a statement.

    Overnight, workers attached a sign reading “Embassy of the United States of America” above the entrance of the building, accompanied by a U.S. seal.

    Three classic American cars like those that still ply the streets of Havana were parked on the street behind the podium where Kerry spoke: a 1955 and a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air and a 1959 Chevrolet Impala, from the year of the revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power.

  • U.S removes Cuba from sponsors of terror list

    U.S removes Cuba from sponsors of terror list

    The United States has formally removed Cuba from its state sponsors of terrorism list.

    U.S Secretary of State, John Kerry, signed the order on Friday, effectively dropping the old Cold War foe from the terror blacklist, Sky News reports.

    The move comes as both countries continue to work toward closer relations.

    Cuba’s removal from the terror list had been a key demand, and President Barack Obama notified Congress in April that he intended to do so.

    U.S politicians had 45 days to block the move but did not.

    But some Republicans were critical of the move.

    House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement on Friday that the Obama administration had “handed the Castro regime a significant political win in return for nothing.”

    “The communist dictatorship has offered no assurances it will address its long record of repression and human rights at home,” he added.

    Former Florida Governor, Jeb Bush, considered the front-runner among potential Republican candidates for the White House, called it “a mistake” and “further evidence that President Obama seems more interested in capitulating to our adversaries than in confronting them.”