The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Egypt

  • Court to rule on Morsi death sentence on June 16

    Court to rule on Morsi death sentence on June 16

    An Egyptian court postponed on Tuesday issuing a final ruling over a death sentence recommendation for former Islamist President, Mohamed Morsi, and other top Muslim Brotherhood leaders.

    The judge said the case, which was related to a 2011 jail break, was postponed to June 16.

    The court last month sought the death penalty for Morsi after he and his fellow defendants, including top Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie, were convicted for killing and kidnapping policemen.

    They were also convicted for attacking police facilities and breaking out of jail during the uprising against then-president Hosni Mubarak.

    The ruling was referred at the time to Egypt’s top religious authority, the Grand Mufti, for a non-binding opinion.

    Judge Shaaban el-Shami said the court received the mufti’s opinion on Tuesday morning and needed time to discuss it.

    The court also postponed to June 16 issuing a final ruling in a separate case for Brotherhood leader Khairat el-Shater and 15 others for conspiring with foreign militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah against Egypt.

    Prior to the court announcement, Morsi was seen entering the cage wearing a blue suit and waving to the court.

    Morsi can appeal the verdict.

    He has said the court is not legitimate, describing legal proceedings against him as part of a coup by former army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in 2013.

    Sisi, now president, says the Brotherhood poses a grave threat to national security. The group maintains it is committed to peaceful activism.

    Security forces have killed about 1,000 Brotherhood supporters on the streets and jailed thousands of others in the past two years, according to rights groups.

    Late on Monday Egyptian security services arrested two Muslim Brotherhood leaders hours after the government’s announcement that security forces had disrupted a Brotherhood cell.

    The authorities said the cell was gathering intelligence about state institutions and sending it abroad to foreign parties

  • Aviation: NAHCO, Egypt to improve business ties

    Aviation: NAHCO, Egypt to improve business ties

    The Nigeria Aviation Handling Company (nahco aviance) Plc and Egypt are to improve  their business relationship to the mutual benefit of both parties.

    The fresh move to grow the relationship was at the heart of the visit of the NAHCO’s chairman, Mallam Suleiman Yahyah to the Egyptian Ambassador in Nigeria, Ashraf Salama in Abuja last week.

    During the visit, Yahyah said there was an urgent need to upgrade the business ties between Nigerian investors and those from Egypt, while making reference to the current effort between Nigeria and Kenya.

    He said NAHCO is desirous of facilitating a round table for investors from both countries, expressing optimism that such talks may lead to fresh bilateral agreements.

    Replying, Egyptian Ambassador, Salama, praised NAHCO for its efforts at reviving business relations between the two countries.

    He said such efforts would help them grow their business relationship, adding that currently Egypt Air does a minimum of 16 flights per week to Nigeria.

    Ambassador Salama added that he would also want the relationship to consider the agriculture and the health sectors.

    Speaking at the meeting, Managing Director of NAHCO Nobert Bielderman said the aviation company is a member of the British-Nigerian Chamber of Commerce and does a lot of exports based on that relationship and would it  to be extended to Egypt.

    NAHCO provides a comprehensive handling of the ground operations for Egypt Air in Nigeria.

     

     

  • ‘The Drum festival in Egypt was good’

    ‘The Drum festival in Egypt was good’

    The Artistic Director of the National Troupe of Nigeria, Mr. Akin Adejuwon who has just returned from cultural trips to Egypt and Brazil with the National Troupe of Nigeria, tells Edozie Udeze, in this encounter, why Nigeria has to do more to reposition all aspects of the nation’s culture and arts for the good of all

    Since the last time we met, which is at the beginning of my assuming office as Artistic Director, we have been designing and implementing programmes aimed at getting our local audience; the mass populace of Nigeria informed about the role of the performing arts in national development by bringing to their awareness what national Troupe represents. We have also been engaging ourselves with the other parts of our role, which is being Nigeria’s face; cultural face to foreign nations, particularly foreign nations that are friendly to Nigeria. One of such opportunities for us to play our role as Nigeria’s cultural ambassadors came through our parent ministry- the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation when they asked us to go and represent Nigeria at the Cairo International Festival of Drums and Music in Egypt.

    The festival was organised by some privately run cultural institutions and the government of Egypt. I was informed that it will be the third time we will be attending the festival as a Troupe but it is the first time I will be leading the Troupe to the festival as Artistic Director.  We were almost not going to be able to honour the invitation because of the obvious issue of lack of funds. We have zero funding for such engagements and we are battling with irregular release of even overhead expenses. But I read the literature on the festival and I saw that the theme, which is Drums and World Peace, is in line with my vision for using the vehicle of the performing arts for conflict resolution. So I met with my management and we agreed that even if it was to go on credit, we must go for the festival.   I didn’t think we should just sit down and not make any effort to attend because as far as I was concerned, the National Troupe was the most appropriate organisation to represent Nigeria.

    So, I thought whatever it takes, I have to go and represent Nigeria. So, we did all kinds of gymnastics, financial and otherwise and got ourselves to Egypt. We got to Egypt and discovered that it would really have been a big miss for us if we hadn’t attended. Thanks to the organisers of the conference of the drums, they were quite forthcoming by giving us accommodation and we had to move ourselves there and took care of the rest. A greater part of that was done like I said by all kinds of arrangements part of which we are still struggling to defray but I felt proud that Nigeria was so well represented and in fact we turned out the only sub-Sahara African representatives because most participants were from Europe, the Americas, México and all over.  They were at least 21 nations represented. As usual, our performance was so energetic, so African and powerful. We were even drafted in to be part of the festival anthem at the open because of the pulsating rhythm of our drums.

    The anthem involved beating of very heavy drums and most of the other countries didn’t have the kind of heavy drums we travelled with.  Of course you know that most of the participants had that were ballet oriented and all that. But we travelled large. Our cargo was huge because we took a lot of drums and a lot of costumes. I must report that we stole the show. The organisers were even asking for us to extend our stay and to do some extra performances even outside Cairo, which was not included in our itinerary. They even got us to perform in three other locations outside Cairo and by the second to the last day, I had gone over to Brazil, but it was not possible for us to extend our stay because we had to return to Nigeria to begin to work on our package for the May 29th handover. There was even an offer for us to perform for the President of Egypt on the closing day but the closing day happened to be the day we were booked to return.

    But It was really a wonderful, exhilarating stay in Egypt and they are looking forward to having us back and sincerely, I am looking forward to going back to Egypt because as you would know, Egypt is a very historical country and in things of arts and artefacts, visual and the performative art, we share a lot of similarities and I discovered that in sub-Sahara Africa, after you have taken Egypt, you take Nigeria and Ife and Benin in particular, when it comes to arts and artefacts. So, that’s that about Egypt.

    On Brazil

    The next was my trip to Brazil. The invitation came through Associação dos Maracatus Nações de Pernambuco – AMANPE (Association of Traditional Maracatu Groups of the State of Pernambuco), founded since 2009 with the objective of preserving the rich Maracatu tradition popular all over Brazil as one of the oldest expressions of African cultural heritage in Brazil, specifically, the Yoruba and Congo/Angola traditions.

    Recall that the Brazilian Government Agency for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage (IPHAN) recently declared Maracatu as a Brazilian Cultural Patrimony, a development that has further increased our responsibility for the preservation of this ancestral tradition. So as part of the projects towards the expansion and preservation of the tradition, the Maracatu Nação Raízes de Pai Adão, a member of the AMANPE, under the leadership of the historian João Amaro Monteiro took the Maracatu group to participate in the international conference titled “Afro-Identity at the Crossroads” organized by the Faculty of Arts of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife in conjunction with the Osun State Government and held at the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding (CBCIU) in Osogbo, Osun State from 26-30 August 2013 at which solid foundations were successfully laid for the cooperation between Brazilian and Nigerian  cultural agencies.

    So considering the fact that the intensification of such a cooperation is in consonance with the full implementation the Brazilian Federal Law 10.639/2003 which is the legal framework within which AMANPE and other Afro-Brazilian cultural agencies and groups are empowered to function, I was invited to lead a delegation of Nigerian cultural actors under the auspices of the National Troupe of Nigeria to initiate an intensive exchange of cultural and technical ideas on Nigerian and Afro-Brazilian cultural and dance performances. The visit was to pave the way for the performance of the Nigerian National Troupe in different states of Brazil to showcase the rich Nigerian cultural heritage in this country under the Existing Nigeria-Brazil MoU signed in Abuja in 2010.

  • Nigeria, Egypt partner against corruption

    Nigeria, Egypt partner against corruption

    The Egyptian government has offered to support  Nigeria’s war  against corruption.

    Egyptian Ambassador to Nigeria Ashraf Abdel Kader Salama spoke in Abuja yesterday when he visited the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC),Mr Ekpo Nta at the commission’s headquarters.

    The envoy said Egypt had long years of experience in fighting corruption.

    The Ambassador said  Nigeria and Egypt had enjoyed long years of diplomatic ties, recalling how Egypt stood by Nigeria during the civil war.

    He said Nigeria and Egypt shared  many things in common, adding that while Nigeria is the largest country in the black continent, Egypt ranks second.

    According to the ambassador, the two countries should capitalise on the similarities between them to forge a synergy on trade and commerce as well as fight against corruption.

    He said: “Nigerians should be proud of their country, not in terms of wealth, but in terms of human resources. Nigeria is a rich country and that should be maintained.

    “Egypt and Nigeria have gone a long way in history. Egypt is the only country that stood by Nigeria during the civil war. The two countries have since been sharing many things in common. Many Nigerians live in Egypt and Egyptians have descendants in Nigeria.

    “In terms of population, Nigeria is the biggest country in Africa, while Egypt is the second. There is need for the two countries to start discussing while striking a balance in relationship and to be a good example for other African countries.”

    Nta expressed delight at the offer by the Egyptian government, adding that the ICPC was willing to collaborate with Egypt to fight corruption.

    He said the ICPC under his leadership has been blazing the trail in the fight against corruption, alluding to the setting up of the Anti-Corruption Academy as part of efforts by the commission to raise the bar on war against corruption.

    He said to further strengthen the war against corruption in Nigeria, ICPC extended its outreach to the universities and other tertiary institutions and also launched ethics and civics studies into the primary schools’curricula.

    He said ICPC in 2012  produced a “Teachers Guide” for teaching anti-corruption precepts in schools with a view to inculcating the spirit of anti-corruption in Nigerian students.

    He told the Egyptian Ambassador also that ICPC had extended its war on corruption to visa racketeers as a means of preventing the forging of traveling documents in Nigeria.

    He urged the Embassy of Egypt in Nigeria to always “request for the intervention of ICPC each time you get forged traveling documents from Nigerians.”

    He promised to assist the embassy in fishing out Nigerians using forged to  procure visa.

     

  • Wither Egypt, Tanzania, Chad?

    Nigeria has been drawn in Group G at the Africa Cup of Nations draws held in Cairo, Egypt on Wednesday. The presence of Egypt and Tanzania is the impetus that the Super Eagles need to qualify.

    The two-legged ties against Egypt hold a lot for the Eagles, who get better when the odds are against them – like now. Egypt is a struggling team now although the Eagles aren’t better in the way our big stars respond to Nigeria’s matches.

    But if the NFF keep to their plans to rejuvenate the team, Egypt could be a walk in the park for the Eagles. Nigeria has players to make most tournaments a default for us to win. If the chief coach works with his members and allows his list to be discussed with experts in the game, the team would be more formidable.

    Such scrutiny by technocrats in the game will eliminate the presence of injured players in the team. This group will question the inclusion of bench warmers in the squad. They will also help the coaches to do the spy job on our group opponents (Egypt, Chad and Tanzania). The coaches must work with the documents sent to them instead of tearing them or ignoring their observations. Where they are in doubt, it is only fair that the coaches call the experts to educate them on the contentious part of the documents.

    The suggestion by the NFF to reduce the number of foreign-based players picked for our international matches is good. It amounts to sheer waste of public cash if coaches invite 29 foreign-based players for a game when indeed only 13 players can play any game. Our coaches can prune the list to 13 at the most and fill the others with home-grown talents from the domestic leagues. The domestic league is the barometer which can be sued to evaluate the growth of the game here. There cannot be a better place to gauge it than with the number of local leagues boys in the Super Eagles. This is the right way forward. Are the coaches reading this?

  • ITTF: Egypt suffers defeat in Nigeria’s absence

    ITTF: Egypt suffers defeat in Nigeria’s absence

    In spite of the absence of Nigeria at the ongoing International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Junior Circuit tagged Mauritius Open, Egypt were made to kiss the dust by unknown and unseeded players.

    Nigeria has always been known to be Egypt’s fierce rival in the game of Tennis.

    Although the North African claimed two of the four titles at stake in the team events despite making to the final in the four categories, but they met their Waterloo in the cadet boys and junior girls’ events, while they were untouched in the junior boys and cadet girls.

    Late on Sunday, the unthinkable befell the Egyptians as two of their top players seeded in the junior boys’ singles – Karim Elhakem and Omar Elhamady were dazed in the group matches.

    Elhakem and Elhamady were seeded number three and four respectively in the junior boys’ singles but their rating was rubbished by unseeded players who played their heart out to punish and humiliat the Egyptians to the admiration of the fans at the Beau Basin Gymnasium.

    When it became obvious that Nigeria will not be taking part in the championship, Egypt was on top of the world thinking that they will run over all other teams in the competition.

    But it was Sweden that first jolted Egypt in the cadet boys’ team final while the pairing of Algeria and Norway also dealt a big blow to the North Africans in the junior girls’ team event.

    However, the biggest shock for the Egyptians came in the junior boys’ singles with unseeded Sebastian Morel from the Reunion Island in France battering Egypt’s Elhakem 3-1 in the group match.

    Meanwhile, some minutes after this defeat Egypt again suffered another heartache when 13 year-old unseeded Abdelbasset Chaichi stunned 17 year-old Egypt’s Elhamady 3-2 in an entertaining encounter which got a loud cheering from the fans.

    From the way things are going, it is now clear that Egypt may not dominate proceedings in all the events considering the presence of world’s number 36 female player; 15 year-old Miu Hirano, who is competing in girls’ cadet and junior events.

    Also, the Swedish team is not pushover in the boys’ event as the Scandinavian team is also a force to reckon with in Mauritius.

  • Sand Eagles to play Seychelles, Egypt, CIV

    Sand Eagles to play Seychelles, Egypt, CIV

    Nigeria’s Supersand Eagles will play host nation Seychelles, Egypt and Cote d’Ivoire in Group A of the 2015 African Beach Soccer Championship in Seychelles this month. The competition takes place April 14-19.

    At the Draw Ceremony inside the CAF headquarters, 6th October City, Egypt on Sunday, CAF General Secretary Hicham El Amrani was assisted by Member of CAF Executive Committee and chairman of the Organising Committee for the African Beach Soccer Championship, Ahmad, from Madagascar. Ghana, Morocco, Senegal and Madagascar, will play in Group B.

    It means that Nigeria will play the host nation in the opening match of the tournament – as happened to the U-17 team at the African U-17 Championship in Niger Republic and the U-20 team at the African Youth Championship in Senegal earlier this year.

    The Audu Adamu Ejo wards will be to glad to avoid bogey team Senegal in the group phase, but Cote d’Ivoire have improved tremendously over the years and Egypt qualified after a 16-6 aggregate hammering of Tanzania in the only qualifying round. The Ivorians turned back Mauritius 18-6 on aggregate.

    Supersand Eagles finished third at the Power Horse Invitational Tournament in Durban last month, beating Ghana and South Africa but losing to Senegal, and then reached the African finals after Libya withdrew from the race.

    Ghana reached the finals with a 22-8 aggregate trouncing of Uganda; Morocco bombed Djibouti 16-1 in an only leg played in Casablanca; Madagascar steam-rolled South Africa 9-3 in two matches in Durban and; Senegal sailed into the finals after Mali withdrew.

    The Nigerian team is presently at a training camp in Badagry and will depart for Seychelles on Friday.

  • Scotia bank pulls out of Egypt

    The Bank of Nova Scotia has sold its loan and deposit portfolio in Egypt to the Arab African International Bank (AAIB), as Canadian banks continue to assess and reorganise their global operations.

    Scotia had been in Egypt since 1976, with a branch in Cairo.

    The director of Scotia’s international banking communications Marcelo Gomez-Wiuckstern, said the decision to pull out “is purely strategic” as the bank seeks to deploy resources in line with a set of “focused priorities.”

    As part of the agreement, AAIB will become Scotia’s “preferred correspondent bank” in Egypt to serve the customers of Canada’s third-largest bank who do business in the country, said Mr. Gomez-Wiuckstern.

    RBC restructures Caribbean wealth management operations

    How RBC’s acquisition of U.S. wealth manager City National is changing its operations abroad

    “Our focus in this transition was to find a partner who shares our values and commitment to providing great service to our customers,” he said.

    In addition to acquiring Scotia’s portfolio of deposits and loans in Egypt, AAIB picks up a trade finance portfolio.

    Intense global regulation, and domestic growth that is poised to slow, are among the trends causing Canadian banks to re-assess the costs and benefits of their international operations.

    In November, Royal Bank of Canada said a “strategic review” led to the decision to exit the bank’s international client wealth-management business in the Caribbean. Officials at RBC, Canada’s largest bank by market capitalization, said at the time the restructuring was part of a plan to pursue “sustainable, controlled growth and profitable scale” in priority markets.

  • Offiong allays fears over Egypt, Portugal

    Offiong allays fears over Egypt, Portugal

    Although she is rated as the most talented Nigerian female tennis player, Edem Offiong is yet to live up to expectations at the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Tour, Lagos Open, having failed twice to lift the title with her best being a runner’s up at the 2013 edition.

    At the last ITTF Africa Senior Championship in Cairo, Offiong was expected to inspire the Nigerian team, but when it mattered most, she was unable to excel. However, when the Lagos Open serves off on March 10 at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of Teslim Balogun Stadium, Offiong believes she will ensure that the title remains in Nigeria.

    “I am well prepared for this tournament because I have it in mind that I must do better this year. After the disappointing outing in Cairo, I returned to Nigeria and I rested for a week and since then I have been training hard to ensure that I make it to the podium this year. I am in good shape and I hope the home support will help me this year, especially against the Egyptians and Portuguese Chinese-born player,” Offiong said.

    The player, who plies her trade in the Portuguese league, said: “I know a lot of people have been talking about the quality of the Egyptian player but I want to let them know that the Chinese-born Portuguese is indeed a serious threat because she is the number one female player in the Portuguese league and she is a very strong player.”

    Offiong, who made it to the round of 16 at the 2014 Spanish Open in Almeria, said she hopes to use the Lagos Open title to prepare herself for this year’s German and Spanish Opens.

    “I admit that it is not going to be easy because for anybody to clinch the title this year, such player must be at her best. Any player that is coming to Nigeria must understand that the atmosphere is always different from anywhere in the world because the fans are always there to cheer the host players and visitors must be ready to face this as well. I am sure this will work in my favour,” she added.

    From being a runner’s up in 2013, Offiong was edged out in the quarter-final of the women’s singles by Egypt’s Dina Meshref, nevertheless, the Nigerian believes this will not repeat itself as she is ready to halt the dominance of the Egyptians in Lagos.

  • Adamu battles for honour at Luxor Taekwondo Open in Egypt

    After his not-too-impressive performance at the maiden AFTU Taekwondo Open, Nigeria’s Abubakar Isah Adamu will today take to the ring at the second Luxor Taekwondo Opens in Egypt.

    The Luxor Open is a World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) G-2 ranking tournament which begins today and ends on March 1 at Luxor, Egypt.

    Being his first international tournament in the adult -58kg category, Adamu fell 6 – 18 in the first round to the more experienced France’s Kyliann Bonnet amid a strew of defensive errors at the AFTU Open last weekend.

    Also, Adamu’s compatriot, Jamilu Mohammed came back from a 10 – 0 deficit to dramatically defeat homeboy, Egypt’s Omar Ghonim 18 – 14 to progress to the last eight of the tournament of the AFTU championship.

    However, in the quarterfinals, in a mirrored repeat of Nigeria against France, Mohammed came up against Dylan Chellamootoo, who raced quickly to a 8 – 0 score line. A late surge in the 3rd round saw Mohammed close the deficit to 14 – 12, but could not complete the turn-around as he did in his first fight.

    At the Luxor Open, the Commonwealth gold medallists weighed-in yesterday in readiness for the draw conducted also yesterday while they will compete in the -58kg men’s category with the hope of doing well against the world’s best.

    On Adamu’s performance at the AFTU Open, three-time Olympian, Chika Chukwumerije who tutored the athlete at the event was unfazed by the results and content with the experience gained.

    “Adamu just turned 18 years old eight days ago. This is the first time he is competing in the adult category.

    Despite his enormous talent, he has to pass through the fire. I am extremely pleased he had a tough draw – it will only hasten his learning process.