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Tag: Mahamadou Issoufou

  • Buhari urges establishment of single market in Africa to create jobs.

    Buhari urges establishment of single market in Africa to create jobs.

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday canvassed for the speedy establishment of a single, unified market in Africa to increase trade, create more jobs and reduce poverty.

    The President made the call while presenting Nigeria’s position in favour of the Report on the establishment of a Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) and related issues presented by President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger Republic.

    Malam Garba Shehu, the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, said the president made the presentation during the 30th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

    President Buhari said: “It is Nigeria’s position that as African leaders and principal architects of our Union, we must now speed up action to conclude the negotiations and establish the CFTA.”

    He noted that the continent had missed the timeline set by the African Union (AU) in Jan. 2012 to establish the CFTA in 2017.

    The President, however, stated that African leaders still had the opportunity to set it up by March 2018.

    While justifying Nigeria’s vote for the CFTA, the President said: “In a rapidly changing global economy, with much uncertainty, we believe that the establishment of a CFTA would provide Africa with tremendous opportunity to achieve significant growth driven by intra-African trade.”

    Read Also: 2019: Senate to confront Buhari on order of polls

    According to him, while the stakes in setting up CFTA are no doubt very high, the benefits are wide-ranging and significant.

    “The primary objective is economic namely, for trade in goods and services on the continent.

    “A single, unified market would lead to a comprehensive and mutually beneficial trade agreement amongst African Union Member States.

    “If we integrate Africa’s market for trade in goods and services, we will not only double intra-African trade, but also negotiate with other regions or continents on trade matters,’’ he said.

    President Buhari argued further that, “If we increase our trade, we grow faster, create more jobs and reduce poverty. Thus, with CFTA, our continent will be more integrated, united and prosperous.”

    According to him, the CFTA will carry significant welfare gains associated with increased production, consumption and revenue.

    He said it would also generate more economic growth, enhance efficiency and support enterprise and innovation.

    The Nigerian leader urged his African colleagues to also look beyond the economic benefits of the CFTA, stressing that it would be another step in uniting Africa and consolidating the architecture of the African Union.

    He said: “The establishment of the CFTA is also the first step for the African Union in the implementation of “Agenda 2063” for the socio-economic transformation of the continent as well as being a building block in the achievement of the goals of the 1991 Abuja Treaty on the African Economic Community.”

    Buhari commended President Issoufou on his role as the “AU Champion for the CFTA”, whose work “has significantly advanced our goal to conclude and launch the CFTA.’’

    He also lauded the technical support provided by the AU Commission, with Nigeria serving as the Chair of the Negotiating Forum and Chairperson of the AU Ministers of Trade.

    While considering the huge benefits of the CFTA, the President said Nigeria welcomed the idea and called on AU Member States to lend their strategic support without delay.

    NAN

  • Niger updates death toll from militant attack to 7

    Niger updates death toll from militant attack to 7

    Four Nigerien troops and three U.S. soldiers were killed in an attack earlier this week in southwest Niger near the border with Mali, the Defense Ministry said on Friday.

    The ministry updated the casualty figures from the ambush on Thursday, adding the death toll of their own forces to the three soldiers already named by the U.S. side.

    Eight other Nigeriens were wounded, as were two members of the U.S. forces who are providing training to the Nigerien Army on combating extremists in the region.

    The joint patrol was ambushed by terrorist elements in a dozen vehicles and on 20 motorbikes,” Niger’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.

    Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou said in an earlier address that the terrorist attack had claimed “a significant number of victims.”

    “Our country has once again been the victim of an attack by terrorist groups,’’ Issoufou said in a speech on Thursday at the opening of an economic forum in the capital Naimey.

    The U.S. Africa Command has said their two injured servicemen have been evacuated to Germany for medical treatment.

    The attack took place around 200 kilometres north of Niamey, near the border with Mali, where the terrorist group al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is active.

    NAN

  • President Buhari didn’t snub Ganduje in Daura – Presidency

    President Buhari didn’t snub Ganduje in Daura – Presidency

    The Presidency has described as false the social media report that President Muhammadu Buhari refused to grant audience to Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State during the recent Eid-el-Kabir holidays.

    Mr Femi Adesina, the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, in a statement issued in Abuja on Monday, said the report was the antics of mischief makers, who wished to score cheap political points against the governor.

    The presidential aide observed that the President had received Gov. Ganduje, along with others, a few weeks ago in London, and governor had also welcomed the President, alongside many others, on his return to the country on Aug. 19.

    He said: “Why would such a person then be snubbed, as being reported, particularly on social media?

    “Gov. Ganduje had visited Daura during the Sallah holidays to commiserate with the Emir of Daura, His Royal Highness Faruk Umar Faruk, who had recently lost his younger brother, Barden Daura.

    “The governor then used the opportunity to be part of the Eid-el-Kabir celebration.

    “There is absolutely no reason for President Buhari to have snubbed Gov. Ganduje, or anybody else for that matter. It is not in the character of our President.’’

    President Buhari, on Sept. 6, returned to Abuja after spending the Sallah break at his country home Daura, Katsina State.

    While in Daura, the President, apart from performing the Eid prayers along with thousands of Muslims at the Daura Eid ground, received various dignitaries including the Nigerien President, Mahamadou Issoufou.

  • Niger court sentences opposition leader for inciting coup

    Niger court sentences opposition leader for inciting coup

    A court in Niger on Tuesday handed an opposition leader a three-month suspended sentence for agitating for the overthrow of government, a move his lawyer said was aimed at silencing its critics.

    Amadou Djibo, the head of a coalition of opposition parties, was arrested in May after calling on his allies to remain united against President Mahamadou Issoufou and force him from power by all legal means available.

    “This is a way of silencing the opposition,” Djibo’s lawyer, Douleur Oumarou, told reporters after the verdict.

    “We are going to appeal.”

    Djibo was expected to be released from prison later on Tuesday.

    In March, a court freed 15 civilians accused of complicity in an alleged December 2015 putsch against Issoufou.
    Nine military officers, including the alleged ringleader General Salou Souleymane, are still behind bars awaiting trial.

    Issoufou has led Niger, a major uranium producer and Western ally against Islamists in the Sahara, since 2011.
    He won re-election in February 2016 in a run-off boycotted by the opposition, whose candidate had been jailed shortly before the first round.

  • Niger politician jailed for child trafficking

    Niger’s appeals court has sentenced an exiled former presidential candidate to one year in prison for child trafficking, the final ruling in a long-running case that his lawyers have dismissed as politically motivated.

    Hama Amadou, the main challenger to President Mahamadou Issoufou in the 2016 presidential election, has been living in France since last year when he left Niger for health reasons just days before a run-off.

    He has repeatedly denied charges that he and his wife were part of a plot, including several others, to falsely claim the parenthood of around 30 children from neighbouring Nigeria who were to be sold on to wealthy couples in Niger.

    The verdict was read in the absence of Amadou’s lawyers, who had boycotted the trial in protest.

    The case was initially dropped by a Niger court in 2015, but was reinstated by the appeals court later in the year.

    Issoufou took power in April 2011, and has worked closely with Western nations to boost security in the vast, arid Sahel region where Islamist militants are intensifying their insurgency.

     

  • Niger President lauds Buhari for curtailing Boko Haram menace

    Niger Republic President, Mahamadou Issoufou, on Monday commended the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration for fighting the Boko Haram insurgents to a standstill.

    Issoufou made the commendation at the public presentation of a book written in honour of President Buhari in Abuja, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

    The book, in three parts and 24 chapters titled: “Muhammadu Buhari – The challenges of leadership in Nigeria,’’ was written by Prof. John Paden.

    The Nigerien President, who spoke in French, saluted Buhari’s leadership qualities, saying Nigerians and Nigeriens had a lot to learn from the Nigerian leader.

    He acknowledged Buhari’s achievements in the areas of security, good governance and the fight against corruption.

    According to Issoufou, Niger Republic will continue to partner with Nigeria and other countries in the Lake Chad Basin in checking the menace of Boko Haram in Nigeria and beyond.

  • Niger to hand over Boko Haram fighters to ICC

    Niger to hand over Boko Haram fighters to ICC

    The Niger Government has arrested scores of Boko Haram militants and would hand them over to the International Criminal Court (ICC), President Mahamadou Issoufou, has said.

    This is contained in a document from the World Humanitarian Summit, ongoing in Istanbul, Turkey, made available to reporters in New York.

    It indicated that Issoufou spoke on Tuesday during a high-level leaders’ round table titled: “Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity.”

    He said the Nigerien government would ensure the militants are tried by the ICC.

    “This is something that all countries should do,” he said.

    The best way to protect civilians, he added, was to ratify humanitarian conventions.

    “Political, military and administrative authorities must be aware of pledges made by Governments and of the sanctions provided for under those conventions, ” he added.

    Issoufou added that all countries must take on commitments to strengthen respect for international humanitarian law and human rights instruments, as well as guarantee that populations in need received humanitarian aid.

    He said that Niger faced multiple humanitarian issues, including population displacement due to terrorists’ attacks.

    The president, according to the News Agency of Nigeria ((NAN) said Niger had ratified the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

    Also speaking, the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Ján Eliasson said: “International humanitarian law and human rights are under assault around the world.”

    Eliasson said civilians were being indiscriminately killed, while summary executions, arbitrary detention, forced disappearances and torture were daily realities.

    “Lives are being shattered by sexual violence.

    “Indeed, more than 150 years of achievements to protect the most vulnerable during conflict were unravelling.

    “The Geneva Conventions seem to have been forgotten,” he said.

  • Buhari congratulates President Issoufou on re-election

    Buhari congratulates President Issoufou on re-election

    President Muhammadu Buhari has written to congratulate President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger Republic on his recent re-election.

    Buhari, in a statement by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, extended his best wishes to President Issoufou and the people of Niger Republic after the peaceful elections, saying that it bodes well for the progress of the country.

    He acknowledged an invitation to attend President Issoufou’s swearing-in for a new term in office, but regretted that he will be unable to attend due to his ongoing participation in the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington DC.

    Wishing President Issoufou a successful new term in office, President Buhari expressed the hope that peace and progress will continue to prevail in Nigeria and Niger Republic.

  • No clear winner in Niger’s election

    President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger fell short of an outright majority in the February 21 election, according to provisional results on Friday, meaning he now faces a run-off against jailed opposition leader, Hama Amadou.

    Issoufou will bid for a second term on March 20 on a promise to clamp down on Islamist militants in what is one of the poorest countries in the world, Reuters reported.

    His opponent is a former prime minister who came second to Issoufou’s 48.4 percent with 17.8 percent.

    Amadou has been in prison since November on charges relating to baby-trafficking.

    The ex-prime minister said he is innocent and a victim of political repression.

    Critics said Amadou’s imprisonment is part of a crackdown by the government over the election season.

    The government said it respects the law and such criticisms are politically motivated.

    Following the results, Issoufou congratulated the people of Niger for the peaceful election.

    “I also salute my adversaries in the first round and congratulate them for the quality of the debate,” he told journalists.

    A coalition of four parties agreed before the election to back the candidate that came second in a bid to defeat Issoufou.

    Those parties gained a cumulative vote of about 38 percent, though it was unclear which side had an advantage ahead of the second round or how Amadou would campaign from prison.

    Turnout was nearly 67 percent, the National Electoral Commission said.

  • Military will defeat Boko Haram – Buhari

    Military will defeat Boko Haram – Buhari

    … President holds talks with Nigerien leader

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday expressed confidence in the ability of the Nigerian military to overcome the Boko Haram sect.

    Speaking at an interactive session with journalists after holding talks with Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou in Niamey, Buhari said the Nigerian Army which has earned a good reputation across the world remains a virile fighting force.

    The President, in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, said: “I am four days in office today and we have already started the process of ending the insurgency.”

    He said the ongoing operations against Boko Haram were reviewed for better results in over five hours meeting with heads of Nigeria’s Armed Forces and security agencies on Tuesday.

    President Buhari said because of the peculiarities of terrorism, the movement of terrorists across borders and the unconventional nature of the war against terror, Nigeria will continue to seek the support of neighbouring countries in its bid to overcome Boko Haram.

    Buhari said his visit to Niger was to seek more support from the country in bringing a quick end to the atrocities of Boko Haram.

    The President said he would hold similar meetings on security and the war against terrorism with the Chadian authorities after leaving Niamey on Thursday.

    Nigeria, he said, would also require the assistance of other nations and multi-lateral institutions to rebuild areas that have been adversely affected by Boko Haram insurgency and rehabilitate displaced persons.

    In his remarks, the Nigerien leader commended President Buhari for making Niger the first country he will visit after his inauguration.

    He said: “Your decision to move the Nigerian military command to the Northeast has further strengthened our conviction that the war against terrorism will soon come to an end.”

    Issoufou assured that Niger will continue to support Nigeria in the fight against Boko Haram.