The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Gordon Brown

  • ‘World is sleepwalking toward another financial crisis’

    Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned that the world is on the verge of sleepwalking into another financial crisis because governments have failed to tackle the causes of the last major financial crash a decade ago.

    Britain’s leader when the collapse of the U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers triggered the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression said the world is leaderless and was now entering a period of vulnerability.

    “We are in danger of sleepwalking into a future crisis,” Brown told The Guardian.

    “There is going to have to be a severe awakening to the escalation of risks, but we are in a leaderless world.”

    Brown said the global economy had failed to introduce an early warning system and a system for monitoring financial flows so that it was possible to tell where money had been lent and on what terms.

    “We have dealt with the small things but not the big things,” Brown, who was British prime minister from 2007 to 2010, said.

    Brown said action against financial wrongdoing had not been tough enough and many banks would expect to be bailed out again in the event of a future crisis.

    “The penalties for wrong-doing have not been increased sufficiently,” he said.

    “The fear that bankers will be imprisoned for bad behavior is not there. There has not been a strong enough message sent out that government won’t rescue institutions that haven’t put their houses in order.”

    Brown said the international cooperation that helped tackle the global financial crisis ten years ago may not exist today because countries have become more protectionist.

    “The cooperation that was seen in 2008 would not be possible in a post-2018 crisis both in terms of central banks and governments working together.

    “We would have a blame-sharing exercise rather than solving the problem,” he said.

  • 11m out-of-school children in North-East Nigeria – Brown

    11m out-of-school children in North-East Nigeria – Brown

    The UN Special Envoy for Global Education, Mr Gordon Brown, says there are about 11 million out-of-school children in northeast Nigeria due to the destructive activities of the Boko Haram terrorists.

    Brown, former British Prime Minister and chair of the Commission on Financing Education Opportunity, told the Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in New York that the commission was already intervening in the situation.

    The UN envoy explained that the commission was giving more funds to help the Nigerian education system move forward.

    According to him, the commission and Acting President Yemi Osinbajo are already discussing ways to secure global funds to address the education challenges confronting the northeast.

    “We think there are probably around 11 million children that are not in school. We know that the Boko Haram attacks remained a huge problem and the terrain too.

    “These have prevented girls, particularly, from going to school and we know that there have been many abductions.

    “And they are still tragically many of the girls that were kidnapped from Chibok that have not returned,” Brown said.

    The former British premier, however, said his commission wanted every child to be safe at school, adding there is a new proposal to attract resources to fund the project.

    The UN education envoy lauded the 30 million dollars Nigeria’s Safe Schools Initiative launched in April 2014, describing it as a novel idea.

    “We want every girl to be safe and boys also to be safe when they go to school but particularly girls.

    “The Safe Schools Initiative is designed to help fortify the schools and also help the telecommunications between the schools and prevent the attacks.

    “This is so people can get advanced warnings and to give people the security that there might be some better protection in case there was an attack.

    “So the Safe School Initiative has been something that other countries adopted since Nigeria led the way.

    “The Safe Schools Initiative is being implemented in different parts of the world but obviously we need more resources into the Nigerian system and that’s what this new proposal is about.”

    Brown said ground-breaking International Finance Facility for Education could make it possible to fully finance universal education by 2020 and unlock Sustainable Development Goals.

    The UN former British premier commended the UN and the international donors and partners for efforts to raise multilateral education aid to low-income countries from current 1.6 billion dollars to over four billion dollars a year by 2020.

    “This up-front investment in education, modeled on the proposals of Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, to convert billions into trillions.

    “It can ensure the delivery of our Sustainable Development Goal promises. Indeed, an International Finance Facility for Education will not only create more educational opportunity than ever before.

    “It will multiply job prospects, slow population growth, reduce infant and maternal mortality and hasten a 70 per cent increase in GDP per head by 2050.

    “And for the millions of children presently locked out of an education, it will be a jolt of hope,” Brown said.

  • Gordon Brown to Nigeria: don’t give up until others are rescued

    Gordon Brown to Nigeria: don’t give up until others are rescued

    Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday urged the Federal Government and negotiators not to give up until all the abducted Chibok schoolgirls are freed from captivity.

     The United Nations’ Special Envoy for Global Education made this call in his reaction to the release of the abducted girls.

    He said while the release of the 21 girls “is a huge relief,” the development puts the spotlight on the other girls still being held.

    He also expressed concern about how the freed girls would be reintegrated into the society.

     The former UK prime minister, who has campaigned for the release of the girls, said in a statement that, “The release of 21 kidnapped Chibok girls is a huge relief but still raises the question: Where are the other 200 girls and what has happened to them?

     ”This Friday marks exactly two and a half years since the girls were abducted from their school dormitory. Most were studying to go on to college or university and to be nurses, doctors, care workers, teachers, lecturers and engineers.

     ”For those girls rescued today – a rescue for which we should thank the International Red Cross – we do not know how they will readjust but one thing is for certain, their lives have changed forever.

     ”Now we must urge authorities and negotiators not to give up until every girl is safely back with their families.”

  • Gordon Brown renews plea for Chibok girls’ release

    Gordon Brown renews plea for Chibok girls’ release

    United Nations envoy, Gordon Brown, urged the Boko Haram sect on Friday to free the more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls it has held for 10 months.

    His appeal came after the reported release this week of women and girls kidnapped by the group in December.

    “Now they have released some hostages, they should release them all,” Reuters quoted Brown, a former British prime minister, as saying in a statement.

    He referred to 158 women and girls who local media said were released by the militants on Thursday after being taken during a raid on the village of Katarko.

    The abduction of scores of schoolgirls from a government secondary school in the town of Chibok,  Borno State, on April 14, 2014 sparked global outrage and offers of international assistance and a worldwide social media campaign with the Twitter hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.

    But the location of the schoolgirls, most of whom are believed to be between the ages of 16 and 18, remains unknown.

    “Boko Haram is piling cruelty upon cruelty by failing to free the girls,” said Brown, who is the UN Special Envoy for Global Education.

    He said there would be no let up in the campaign to find and free the girls. If they are not released by the first anniversary of their captivity a vigil will be held at the UN in New York on April 14.

     

  • Activists to mark 100 days of Chibok girls’ abduction

    Activists to mark 100 days of Chibok girls’ abduction

    A number of activities have been lined-up locally and internationally to mark the 100 days of the abduction of the Chibok pupils today.

    In Lagos, there will be a service at the Wall of missing girls at Falomo roundabout at 4pm, a special sit-out ceremony at the Unity Foundation in Abuja and a news conference at the BRECAN Centre around 10am.

    There will be a candlelight vigil at the Nigerian Consulate in New York. There will also be a similar event in India, Pakistan, the UK and most world capital cities where there are teachers, organisations in partnership with the UN Special Envoy’s office of Gordon Brown, according to a statement by the #BringBackOurGirls protesters.

    The #BringBackOurGirls campaign team  said “as days become weeks and months, the girls were separated from their parents and their community, our singular focus remains on their safe return in the shortest possible time.”

  • Events listed to mark 100 days of Chibok girls’ abduction

    Events listed to mark 100 days of Chibok girls’ abduction

    A number of activities have been lined-up locally and internationally to mark the 100 days of the abduction of the Chibok pupils today.

    In Lagos, there will be a service at the Wall of missing girls at Falomo roundabout at 4pm, a special sit-out ceremony at the Unity Foundation in Abuja and a news conference at the BRECAN Centre around 10am.

    There will be a candlelight vigil at the Nigerian Consulate in New York. There will also be a similar event in India, Pakistan, the UK and most world capital cities where there are teachers, organisations in partnership with the UN Special Envoy’s office of Gordon Brown, according to a statement by the #BringBackOurGirls protesters.

    The #BringBackOurGirls campaign team  said as days become weeks and months, the girls were separated from their parents and their community, “our singular focus remains on their safe return in the shortest possible time.”

  • Gordon Brown calls for focus on abducted girls

    Gordon Brown calls for focus on abducted girls

    The United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown, on Monday urged the world to remember the kidnapped schoolgirls of Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State.

    Boko Brown, in a message to mark the Day of the African Child at the UN headquarters in New York, also praised the youth around the world as they mobilised to demand education for all.

    The theme for this year is: “A child friendly, quality, free and compulsory education for all children in Africa.”

    “Thousands of people have come together united with one cause: Safe schools for every girl and boy.

    “While the global community has failed to deliver safe schooling, young people are demanding safe, quality schools for all children everywhere, and they are standing in solidarity with the northern Nigerian girls of Chibok, and all those around the world who face these struggles,” Brown said.

    The UN has repeatedly called for concerted efforts to tackle the insurgency in North-East, and reiterated its support for ongoing efforts by the Nigerian government to secure the schoolgirls’ safe release.

    The Day of the African Child is marked on June 16 every year to honour the memory of school children killed in 1976 during a demonstration in Soweto, South Africa.

    The News Agency of Nigeria recalled that the students were protesting inferior education by the apartheid administration and demanding lessons in their own language.

    The African Union (AU) designated the Day in 1991, encouraging events to be organised around the world promoting children’s rights.

    In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where the AU is headquartered, an assembly of young people also converged on Monday at the organisation to deliver a call of action about education to world leaders.

  • Chibok: Business community votes $10mn for Nigeria

    Following the abduction of hundreds of school girls in Chibok, Borno State, almost four weeks ago, the Nigerian business community has voted $10 million to make schools safe in the country.
    Addressing journalists at the ongoing World Economic Forum on Africa in Abuja Wednesday, the former British Prime Minister and current United Nations envoy on Education, Mr. Gordon Brown, also disclosed two teams from the United States and the United Kingdom will be coming to Nigeria in the next two days to help find the kidnapped girls.
    Brown stated that “there is a desperate need to assure Nigerians that children are safe to go to school and as a result the Nigerian business community has earmarked $10 million with a pilot scheme of 500 schools. The initiative wants parents and teachers to come up with what safety measures that should involve the government too.
    He added that the British and US governments have assured him they will provide teams to locate the abducted students.
    The Publisher of ThisDay Newspaper, Mr. Nduka Obaigbena, said the Nigerian business community was stunned by the abduction which he described as a reflection of the current situation in the country.

  • Malala and Ojonwa: Girls demanding education

    Malala and Ojonwa: Girls demanding education

    Ahead of the visit to Nigeria by Gordon Brown, former British Prime Minister and the UN Special Envoy for Education, the Malala Movement of Girl Education campaign  continues to spread with the signing of the petition demanding for education for all children.

    Last Thursday Gordon Brown, former British Prime Minister and the UN Special Envoy for Education brought two young women together in an online video exchange – Ojonwa Deborah Miachi has a BSc in Economics from Bingham University in Karu, and is Nigeria’s  National Youth Advocate for universal education and the Millennium Development Goals – and  MalalaYousafzai the sixteen-year-old Pakistani girl shot by the Taliban and who has also had to leave her country to be safe.

    Both are demanding what 57 million girls and boys like them cannot have – the right to go to school even in times of conflict and, as a result, both see themselves at the centre of a 21st-century civil rights struggle.

    This freedom fight – as Malala and Ojonwa show – is now being led not by familiar adult voices but by young people themselves.  For Ojonwa and Malalaare part of a worldwide movement of girls demanding education.

    From the Common Forum for KalmalHari Freedom in Nepal, to the Child Marriage Free Zones across Bangladesh, and including the Ugandan Child Protection Clubs, the Upper ManyaKrobo Rights of the Child Club, Indonesia’s Grobogan Child Empowerment Group, India’s Bachao Bachpan Andolan and the Global March Against Child Labour.

    As Malala says: “innocent girls only want to empower themselves through education. Obtaining education is every man and woman’s birth right and no one is allowed to take away this right from them.”

    Ojonwa and Malala’s missions- to get girls to school – are the inspiration behind Monday’s  Abuja  summit led by President Goodluck Jonathan and Nigeria’s state governors. This landmark event, which will be attended by Gordon Brown and addressed as UN Special Envoy for Global Education, will bring together cabinet ministers, state governors and state education commissioners together with global development partners to get Nigeria’s ten million out-of-school children into education.

    On Monday they will discuss how we can allocate new financial support for school building, teacher recruitment, teacher training and for new technology with tablets, phones and online school courses; this is part of a global initiative to get every boy and girl to school by the end of 2015.  The movement will build a world where for the first time no boy or girl is denied their right to education.

    Leaders will assemble from  USAID, Qatar’s  Educate a Child, led brilliantly by SheikhaMoza, from the Global Partnership for Education whose head is Alice Albright, and  from the global business community led by the Global Business Coalition for Education.  Each will pledge additional support. The UK is also ready to boosting its help this year with a visit from the Permanent head of DFID coming soon.   All want to applaud the President’s initiative and give practical support to the Nigerian government and states in their renewed drive to expand education opportunity for all children.

    Ojonwa, who spoke to Malala on the video link about her fight for education for girls in Nigeria, emphasises the scale of the uphill struggle the country has to face. This is to move from the country with the world’s largest population of out-of-school children in the world to universal education. 10 million children are yet to go to school because there is a teacher shortage of nearly 1.3 million, and we are missing 1.2 million classrooms.  Child labour, child marriage and child trafficking prevent thousands getting to school.

    And for those that do find ways to get their children into school, there is doubt as to the effectiveness of the courses.  Approximately 52 percent of young women who complete primary education remain illiterate. Indeed the large amount of illiteracy is now an economic problem as well as a social disaster, with the number of adults who cannot read or write up to 35 million.  Illiteracy is standing between Nigeria and its deserved success as an economic powerhouse of the world.

    But in the midst of the education crisis, President Jonathan is prepared to take unprecedented action.  He realises that getting every child into school and learning is feasible and achievable, and the key to Nigerian prosperity. Learning from what works best, financial incentives must be fine-tuned to help state governments deliver; teacher training and professional development must be effectively taken to scale by leveraging technology.

    The curriculum of all schools must be strengthened to develop literacy and numeracy skills and families must be supported in their demand for education through conditional cash transfers.  These transfers – now being pioneered in some states – can be taken up in all states and encourage enrollment and attendance particularly of girls.

    The delegation of business, educational and political leaders is working to present financing options and concrete proposals to support the implementation of state plans for education.  We will look at what more can be done to incentivize the education, and leveraging up resources, including the use of the Universal Basic Education Fund to provide central ministry incentives alongside investments from UK, US, Educate a Child, the Global Partnership for Education, and specific offers from the business community through the Global Business Coalition for Education.

    Nigeria itself is calling for the education it needs for the future.  Despite the violence and attacks on education from extremist groups, in addition to the peaceful civil society movements that have occurred over the past few months, Nigerians are signing the petition to support President Jonathan’s commitment to education, and are calling for safe schools for all of Nigeria’s children and for state level implementation of plans for universal education.

    But the greatest hope for the future is the demand of young people yearning for their right to be educated. Nigeria will succeed not just because of the commitment of the Federal government, the organisation of the state governors, and the support of the international community, but because Nigeria’s young like Ojonwa will not take ‘No’ to her education for an answer. The surest sign we will succeed is that boys and girls are demanding it.  You can sign the petition on www.aworldatschool.org/petitionnigeria