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Tag: Obama

  • Chibok girls… Obama, Jonathan rekindle hope

    Chibok girls… Obama, Jonathan rekindle hope

    he April 15 abduction of the Government Girls Secondary School Chibok, Borno State girls yesterday got the attention of United States President Barack Obama and President Goodluck Jonathan.

    There were 219 girls taken captive by the Boko Haram sect, although yet to be confirmed reports said four of the girls might escaped. There has been no word on the others.

    President Obama, according to a statement by White House National Security Adviser Susan Rice,  has directed that the U.S. government should do everything it can to help the Nigerian government free the abducted girls and, more broadly, to combat Boko Haram in partnership with Nigeria, its neighbours and other allies.

    “This support takes many forms but the goal is singular: to dismantle this murderous group,” the White House added.

    “The United States is assisting the Nigerian government to undertake more concerted, effective and responsible actions to ensure the safe return of those kidnapped by Boko Haram, including through on-the-ground technical assistance and expanded intelligence sharing.”

    Rice added: “The United States has made clear our commitment to supporting Nigeria’s efforts to bring the girls home safely. Since then, we have aided in the investigations, including by deploying personnel on the ground, facilitated strategic communications and provided assistance to the families.

    “These efforts are part of our broader support to Nigeria’s pursuit of a holistic counterterrorism strategy, which includes the rule of law and strengthened security institutions.

    “The United States will continue to work toward the release of all the girls who remain in captivity,” Rice said, adding, “even as we celebrate the freedom of the few who have managed to escape Boko Haram’s clutches. “And we will stand with girls everywhere who seek to achieve their full potential through education and to claim the universal rights and fundamental freedoms that are their birthright.”

    President Jonathan said in Abuja yesterday that there were no “ neat or easy answers” to bringing back the girls, but he said, nonetheless, it will take his priority attention.

    Jonathan spoke at a one-day National Conference on Environmental Security, Awareness and Enforcement in Nigeria, organised by the Uche Ekwunife- headed House Committee on Environment.

    He was represented by Minister of the Environment Mrs. Lawrencia Laraba-Mallam.

    He said: “As an elected official, I want to solve the problem of the Chibok girls. It’s priority on my to-do list as President. I refuse to pass it on to somebody else. It is my responsibility to solve the problem. Our security interests will not permit us to withhold legitimate actions that will bring back the girls. Our institutions won’t allow it either. And neither should our conscience. I seize this opportunity to call on the opposition to quit politicisation of the abducted saga and join me to solve the problem together,”

    Jonathan warned that getting the girls back may not be as easy as many think. “I agree with the Bring back our Girls campaigners, especially, for piling up pressure on us on the issue. But let me be blunt; there are no neat or easy answers to bringing back the girls. I wish there were. But I can tell you that that the wrong answer is to pretend like this problem will go away if we maintain an unsustainable staus quo and silence,” he said.

    While acknowledging the efforts of the Armed Forces in the fight against terrorism, he said the country was “indeed in a major war against Boko Haram and their Al-Queda affiliates”. “We also face a range of other challenges that will define the way Nigerians live out the rest of the 21st century.

    “We need to update and equip our security forces. We have made and are still making necessary investments in this regard. So far, we have fought the war with abiding confidence in the rule of law, due process, checks and balances and accountability, and we are beginning to see progress. This is my responsibility as President.”

    Jonathan expressed the need for the insurgents to ensure unconditional release of the girls and urged the “insurgents and their collaborators to lay down their arms and embrace peace as no threat can defeat a united and determined Nigeria”.

    He, however, knocked the National Assembly over the lawmakers’ failure to pass the Petroleum Industry Bill ( PIB).

    He said “the Committee chairman in her speech, lamented the activities of the oil companies who abuse our environment. I want to assure this gathering that there is no contradiction between sound environment and strong economy.

    “With less than nine months to the lapse of this seventh National Assembly, a more worthy goal to pursue will be the immediate passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill and to put appropriate sanctions in place through legislation so that those that pollute will know there are consequences that follow.

    “I do not pretend, for a second, that the PIB will resolve all the environmental issues as they affect oil exploration but I have no stomach for those that are no allowing us to begin serious action from somewhere. Sticking up your head in the sand might make you feel safer, but it is not going to protect you from impeding storm. Ultimately, we shall be judged as a people and as a society and as a country on where we go from here.”

    Also yesterday, the Federal Government said former President Olusegun Obasanjo is entitled to his opinion on the girls.

    Obasanjo last week said many of the girls may never be reunited with their families.

    He said the insurgents might have separated the girls, pointing out that even though he had a way of communicating with the insurgents, the government had not given him permission to intervene.

    But the coordinator of the National Information Centre, Mr Mike Omeri, told reporters in Abuja yesterday that  “ Obasanjo is a respected man and  a former president, but I must say that he is entitled  to his opinion, comments  and views.”

    “The Government of Nigeria remains undistracted, focused and committed to rescuing the girls safe and alive”

    Omeri said in the last 180 days, over 2,000 persons, including military and security personnel as well as innocent civilians and foreigners, have lost their lives to the activities of insurgents

    “The efforts at inciting the populace against the government and her agencies is, to say the least, very unfortunate. It is necessary to caution those involved that there is a clear difference between credible civil agitation and subversive preoccupation” he said

    The Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, who also spoke at the briefing, reiterated the government’s commitment towards rescuing the girls, saying part of the mission is the effort so far to degrade the capability of the insurgents.

    He said: “People are counting days; we are not counting days. People are saying that the girls are abused; it is better to have an abused child than a dead child. Many great people were abused as children but today they are great people.”

    Okupe noted that it is the effort of the government that has led to the surrendering of weapons by the Boko Haram group, which the Federal Government believes will eventually lead to the safe recovery of the girls.

     

  • Congress approves Obama’s mission against ISIS

    Congress approves Obama’s mission against ISIS

    Turkey has the second-largest European army in NATO, and its military participation in the anti-ISIS coalition could tip the balance in the battle against the militants. But while Turkey’s parliament adopted a resolution authorizing military action against ISIS, the country has not yet offered any assets to the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS nor is it participating in any significant way.

    “Turkey is deeply ambivalent about choosing sides in this fight,” Phillips said. “Turkey’s primary interest is to overthrow the regime of Bashar al Assad and to undermine the emergence of an autonomous Kurdish entity in Syria. It will only send troops if the deployment of those troops advances Turkey’s core goals.”

    The current siege on the Syrian border town of Kobani is a perfect example of the limited effect of airstrikes. While Kurdish forces have been battling to defend the town, ISIS militants have pounded Kobani with heavy artillery and besieged the town from multiple sides.

    On Monday, ISIS fighters appeared to be making headway toward seizing full control of the city, raising their black flag over a building on Kobani’s eastern outskirts, according to Reuters.

    The U.S. must intensify airstrikes — particularly on the hills on the south side of Kobani — in order to avert a “slaughter” in the border city, Phillips said.

    “If Kobani falls there will be a genocide of huge proportions — tens of thousands of people will be beheaded,” Phillips warned. “And ISIS will be emboldened into thinking that they can do whatever they want, no matter what Obama says.”

  • U.S working on new Ebola screenings

    U.S working on new Ebola screenings

    …Rules out travel ban

    United States’ President, Barack Obama, said on Monday that the government would develop expanded screening of airline passengers for Ebola, both in the West African countries hit by the disease and the U.S.

    The first patient diagnosed with the disease on U.S soil, Thomas Eric Duncan, remained in critical condition in a Dallas hospital, as Obama was briefed by agencies involved in fighting the spread of the deadly virus.

    The president said it was important to follow existing protocols strictly.

    “But we’re also going to be working on protocols to do additional passenger screening, both at the source and here in the United States,” Obama said.

    However, the White House said that a ban on travel from West African countries, which some U.S. officials have called for, would slow the fight against Ebola, Reuters reports.

    White House spokesman, Josh Earnest, said officials did not want to impede transport systems used to send supplies and personnel to the hardest-hit countries in West Africa, so a travel ban was not being considered.

    Airlines for America, a Washington-based trade group, separately said it would meet health and safety officials on Monday to discuss whether additional screening procedures anywhere in the world might help improve on those already in place.

     

  • U.S underestimated IS threat – Obama

    U.S underestimated IS threat – Obama

    United States President, Barack Obama, has acknowledged that U.S agencies underestimated the threat posed by the Islamist insurgency in Syria.

    In a frank TV interview, he said that al-Qaeda had been beaten in Iraq by U.S forces working with Sunni tribes.

    But they took advantage of the power vacuum in neighbouring Syria to emerge as ISIS, later called Islamic State.

    Meanwhile, there has been fierce fighting to the west of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

    Air strikes helped Iraqi fighters repel an attack at Ameriyat al-Fallujah, a strategic town 40km (25 miles) outside Baghdad.

    In a separate development, the BBC gathered that in some areas around Baghdad, insurgents were less than 10km (six miles) from the city.

    In an interview with the CBS TV programme 60 Minutes, Mr. Obama said Syria had become a “ground zero” for militants who had been able to take advantage of the chaos in that country.

     

  • Obama: Syria strikes involve all

    Obama: Syria strikes involve all

    The coalition that attacked ISIS in Syria overnight “makes it clear to the world that this is not America’s fight alone,” U.S. President Barack Obama said Tuesday.

    At the same time, the United States took action — on its own — against another terrorist organization, the Khorasan Group. Obama described its members as “seasoned al Qaeda operatives in Syria.”

    U.S. officials said the group was plotting attacks against the United States and other Western targets.

    The plots against the United States were discovered by the intelligence community in the past week, an intelligence source with knowledge of the matter told CNN. The source did not say what the target may have been, but said the plot involved a bomb made of a nonmetallic device, toothpaste container, and clothes dipped in explosive material.

    Noting that he had “made clear that America would act as part of a broad coalition,” the President said: “That’s exactly what we’ve done.”

    “The strength of this coalition makes it clear to the world that this is not America’s fight alone,” Obama said at the White House. “Above all, the people and governments in the Middle East are rejecting ISIL and standing up for the peace and security that the people of the region and the world deserve.” ISIL is another acronym referring to the terrorist group, which calls itself the Islamic State.

    The attacks were “very successful,” Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said Tuesday.

    While the military can’t comment in detail about future plans, the strikes “were only the beginning,” Kirby added.

    The airstrikes came in three waves, with coalition partners participating in the latter two, Army Lt. Gen. William Mayville Jr. said Tuesday. The first wave, which mostly targeted the Khorasan Group, started at 3:30 a.m. (8:30 p.m. ET Monday) and involved U.S. ships firing missiles into eastern and northern Syria.

  • Jonathan, Obama, Ki Moon, Cameron to meet at UN General Assembly

    Jonathan, Obama, Ki Moon, Cameron to meet at UN General Assembly

    President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday left Abuja en route to New York for the 69th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.

    According to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, while in New York, the President would attend receptions hosted by President Barack Obama of the United States and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki Moon.

    He will address the United Nations Security Council High-Level Session on Threats to International Peace and Security Caused by Terrorist Acts and present Nigeria’s statement to the General Assembly on Wednesday.

    Jonathan is also scheduled to hold bilateral talks with Ki Moon and the British Prime Minister, David Cameron.

    The President will stop over in London for a brief private visit before proceeding to New York.

    He is expected back in Abuja on Thursday.

  • Ebola, a global security threat – Obama

    Ebola, a global security threat – Obama

    United States’ President, Barack Obama, has called the Ebola outbreak in West Africa “a threat to global security,” as he announced a larger U.S role in fighting the virus.

    The world was looking to the U.S, Mr. Obama said, but added that the outbreak required a “global response.”

    The measures announced included ordering 3,000 U.S troops to the region and building new healthcare facilities, the BBC reports.

    Ebola has killed 2,461 people this year, about half of those infected, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

    The announcement came as United Nations’ officials called the outbreak a health crisis “unparalleled in modern times.”

    The funds needed to fight the outbreak have increased 10-fold in the past month and $1billion (£614million) was needed to fight the outbreak, the UN’s Ebola co-ordinator said.

    Mr. Obama said that among other measures, the U.S would:

    Build 17 healthcare facilities, each with 100 beds and isolation spaces, in Liberia

    Train as many as 500 health care workers a week

    Develop an air bridge to get supplies into affected countries faster

    Provide home health care kits to hundreds of thousands of households, including 50,000 that the U.S Agency for International Development (USAID) will deliver to Liberia this week.

    He called on other countries to step up their response, as a worsening outbreak would lead to “profound political, economic and security implications for all of us.”

     

  • Obama details Ebola plans Tuesday

    Obama details Ebola plans Tuesday

    United States President, Barack Obama, is expected to detail on Tuesday a plan to boost his country’s involvement in mitigating the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the Wall Street Journal has reported

    The plan would involve a greater involvement of the U.S military in tackling the worst recorded outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the proposal.

    The outbreak has now killed upwards of 2,400 people, mostly in Liberia, neighbouring Guinea and Sierra Leone as poorly resourced West African healthcare systems have been overrun.

    The U.S government has already committed around $100 million to tackle the outbreak by providing protective equipment for healthcare workers, food, water, medical and hygiene equipment, Reuters says.

    According to reports, Obama could ask Congress for an additional $88 million to fund his proposal. Plan details are expected during Obama’s visit Tuesday to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

    The move would come just days after Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf appealed to Obama for urgent aid, saying that without it her country would lose the fight against the disease.

    The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the epidemic is spreading exponentially in Liberia, where more than half of the deaths have been recorded.

    The U.S military said recently it would build a 25-bed field hospital in Liberia to care for infected health workers but it would hand it to Liberians to run.

    On Friday, the U.S Ambassador to Liberia, Deborah Malac, said Washington would train security forces in isolation operations, after a boy was shot dead last month when Liberian soldiers opened fire on a crowd protesting at a quarantine in a Monrovia neighbourhood.

     

  • Beheading of journalists won’t intimidate U.S – Obama

    Beheading of journalists won’t intimidate U.S – Obama

    President Barack Obama has vowed the United States will not be intimidated, after Islamic State militants released a video showing the beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff.

    Obama warned: “Our reach is long and justice will be served.”

    Another U.S journalist, James Foley, was similarly killed last month.

    Separately, the United Kingdom held a meeting of its emergency Cobra committee after threats to kill a British hostage who was also shown in the latest video, the BBC reports.

    Islamic State has seized large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria in recent months, declaring a new caliphate, or Islamic state, under leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

    The U.S has launched more than 120 air strikes in the past month to try to help Kurdish forces curb the IS advance.

    After the latest video emerged, Obama ordered the deployment of another 350 troops to Baghdad to protect U.S diplomatic facilities.

    U.S National Security Council spokesperson, Caitlin Hayden, said America intelligence agents had “analysed the recently released video showing Sotloff and has reached the judgment that it is authentic.”

    Speaking in Estonia, Obama said the beheading was a “horrific act of violence and we cannot begin to imagine the agony everyone who loves Steven is feeling right now. Our country grieves with them.”

  • Obama and African Leaders Summit

    Obama and African Leaders Summit

    The United States recently invited African leaders for a summit in Washington with the theme: Investing in the Next Generation. The summit was to provide an opportunity to discuss ways of stimulating growth, unlocking opportunities, and creating an enabling environment for the next generation and to chart a way forward in Africa- American relations in the area of doing business in Africa, counter terrorism, health, electricity governance, peace and security amongst others. Beyond President Obama’s rhetoric of partnership, the summit has brought to fore the new American foreign policy towards Africa which is hinged essentially on neo-liberal economic diplomacy and the subtle attempts by the White House to curtail the growing tensions over China trade relations with Africa which stood at about US$210 billion in 2013 as against US trade with Africa which dwindled to US$85 billion.

    One of the paradoxes of underdevelopment in Africa is that the continent is the richest in resources and but it is home to the poorest people in the world. Yet, our African leaders are inept and corrupt and often parade themselves in Washington, Paris, Beijing and London looking for solutions to our self-inflicted problem of poverty and corruption.

    Indeed, Obama’s passionate desire to create institutions and not strongmen in Africa may also have informed his decision to school our leaders in Washington with a view to increasing trade relations and to a very large extent checkmate the growing China’s strategic influence in Africa. What is more, President Obama in his charismatic manner has expressed hope in Africa leaders to leapfrog the untapped potential of the continent to the benefits of its teeming young population. His words: I do not see the countries and peoples of Africa as a world apart; I see Africa as a fundamental part of our interconnected world – partners with America on behalf of the future we want for all of our children. That partnership must be grounded in mutual responsibility and mutual respect.”

    One cannot help but acknowledge the fact that, there are very few African leaders who can deliver on their promises of development because of corruption and the age – long dependency on the West as always having unfounded answers and solutions to our development agenda. In my view, leadership creativity and inspiration in governance are not exclusive preserve of Washington. African leaders must see some of these partnerships paradigms as the imperialistic West wearing new clothes of globalisation to recapture Africa resources through the backdoors of foreign direct investment and unwholesome economic and trade relations that are not beneficial to the future of our children and the overall progress of the  continent of Africa.

    The rules of economic partnerships and engagements remained skewed in favour of America and China over the years and this is not good for Africa’s development. It should also be noted that neo-liberalism is a metaphor expressed in the name western market democracies and globalisation to expand uneven trade and investment to us in Africa and by extension a form of recolonisation of Africa through the international financial institutions and the so called development partners to maintain the hegemonic influence of the rich countries over the poor. This unwholesome scenario has kept Africa and its people down for a very long time in the global development equation and until we make efforts to challenge the status quo, Africa’s development will be a mirage. Indeed it is time that our leaders do reality checks. The journey of development has no rehearsals; therefore it is expedient for the continental leadership – African Union and the various regional blocs to work together for the emancipation of Africa from the clutches western imperialism and the global buccaneers that has been bleeding us to death in the name of partnerships and aids.

    Our leaders should come to terms that international politics and indeed summit diplomacy being engaged by the US is a game of selective morality and double standards and for Africans to win we must continuously recognise our interests and protect them with an uncommon courage.

    Sadly, the chains of economic slavery driven by neo-liberal might are often replaced by the cuffs of direct foreign investment and the US continues to set tariffs against fair trade with Africa while they attract the brightest and the best from Africa to drive their economy and development interest. Interestingly, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) midwifed by the Clinton administration in May 2000 granted the preferential access with a view to deepening the U.S. trading relationship with Africa. However, AGOA has not realized its full potential for a mutually beneficial trade and investment from Africa to the US because of limitation to a strict trade-preference arrangements and restrictions in favour of America.

    The question now is will these partnerships and new economic diplomacy favour Africa?

    In the never-ending search for solutions to Africa’s social and economic challenges, one viewpoint is advocating for hard choices among our leaders is to tackle the issue of corruption head on and to invest on young talents to unleash growth in the small and medium enterprises sector. The China example is worthy of emulation by our leaders. China development policy has always been tied to its peoples. China with 1.3 billion people has lifted over 400 million Chinese from poverty in the last 30 years with loanable funds that is more than three times of the World Bank and given to their people at the lower rate of two percent which increased investment and development in China.

    Interestingly, China has also efficiently redirected its resources including Diaspora remittances into education, science and technology most especially its rail system with 10,000 Chinese nationals involved in its research and development efforts. This indeed is a reflection of the kind of inspirational and transformational leadership that Africa requires to move to the next generation rather turning to Washington for roundtable and quick-fix answers. Pointedly, our progress as continent lies within us as a people and we must renew our belief to reverse the trend of development rather the politics of tyranny and myopia syndrome of corruption and it is time to rethink the massive and primitive wealth accumulation by a few at the expense of the greater and common good.

    The price of corruption and the manifest inefficiencies of leadership in Africa are overtly huge and painfully so and we must be reminded that no country or indeed the continent of Africa can successfully develop its people and economy through uneven trade partnerships and foreign direct investment portfolio that are often canvassed by the West.

    Lastly, international diplomacy of summits are not charitable as they appear to  our African leaders but subtle psychological warfare for power relations to capture our minds with the ultimate purpose of wealth redirection in the name of partnerships that do not benefit the majority of Africans. African leadership must restore the sense of destiny, which should translate into high self-esteem and self– confidence. Indeed self confidence has lifted the vision and aspirations of the world powers to current enviable position and for us as Africans, all we need to do now and most urgently is to put our house in order to make our future greater than past.

    • Orovwuje is founder Humanitarian Care for Displaced Persons, Lagos