The Nation Newspaper

Tag: President Donald Trump

  • Trump suggests using military against ‘enemy from within’ on Election Day

    Trump suggests using military against ‘enemy from within’ on Election Day

    Former President Donald Trump suggested using the military to handle what he called “the enemy from within” on Election Day, saying that he isn’t worried about chaos from his supporters or foreign actors, but instead from “radical left lunatics.”

    Trump told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo in an interview yesterday on“Sunday Morning Futures.” that  “I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people. Radical left lunatics.

    “I think it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen,” he added.

    The former president, whose supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an attempt to thwart Congress’ certification of his 2020 election loss, downplayed any threat from his voters.

    Read Also: 2m needy Nigerians to benefit from N500m fund to tackle hunger, hardship

    “No, I don’t think — not from the side that votes for Trump,” the former president said when Bartiromo asked whether he was expecting chaos on Election Day. When she alluded to the Justice Department arresting and charging an Afghan national for allegedly plotting a terrorist attack in the US on Election Day and cited the threat of “outside agitators” and undocumented immigrants, Trump pivoted to talking about political opponents on the left.

    “I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within, not even the people that have come in and destroying our country, by the way, totally destroying our country, the towns, the villages, they’re being inundated,” he said, referring to immigrants whom Trump has repeatedly attacked with dehumanizing rhetoric.

    Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign seized on Trump’s comments, arguing that they should “alarm every American.”

  • Myth of ‘debt trap’ in China-Africa cooperation

    Former U.S Secretary of State, Mr. Rex Tillerson sacked mid-air, by his principal, U.S President Donald Trump while returning from a visit to Africa last year orchestrated the hype, on a visit to the Africa Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia that “Chinese investment does have the potential to address Africa’s infrastructure gap,” but added a spurious claim of “an approach that has led to mounting debt and, a few, if any job in most countries.”

    Last December, Mr. John Bolton, US National Security Adviser made more outlandish claims that “China uses bribes, opaque agreements and the strategic use of debt to hold states in Africa captive to Beijing’s wishes and demands.” To drive home the scare at the alleged China’s debt trap, Bolton claimed “the nation of Zambia for example, is currently in debt to China to the tune of $6 to $10 billion. China is now poised to take over Zambia’s national power and utility company in order to collect on Zambia’s financial obligation.”

    A few days later, the Zambia government announced that the claim of the U.S national security adviser was false and that, of its total sovereign debt of about  $9 billion, China’s share is only about $3 billion and none of its national assets is under any form of threat of seizure.

    China’s broad cooperation with Africa which have provided huge support for the continent to overcome the existential bottlenecks of funding shortage, infrastructure deficit and inadequate manpower and which has currently restored a critical takeoff of sustainable and inclusive economic growth is the object of vicious attack, from quarters that were unwilling to touch Africa with a long spoon in regards to investments, trade, loans and other such activities that could boast the aggregate growth of the economies in the region.

    China herself is not a stranger to the use of concessional loans as a funding mechanism for her own economic modernization.

    At the outset of her modernization programme in March 1978, China announced an ambitious 10-year plan that focused on 120 key modernization projects, including 30 electric power stations, six trunk railroads, eight coal mines, 10 new steel plans, five habours, nine non-ferrous metal complexes and 10 new oil and gas fields. According to the account of Professor Deborah Brautigan, a sober and keen China watcher, “by the end of 1978, Chinese officials have signed 74 contracts with Japan to finance turn-key projects that would form the backbone of China’s modernization. All would be repaid in oil and coal.”

    China herself was a recipient of Japan’s generous loans though, Beijing viewed it as a mandatory reparations that Tokyo must make for its atrocious war crime against the Chinese, in the same manner, that post-war Germany was obligated to make reparations to the state of Israel on account of the Nazi violence that targeted the Jews.

    With the signing of the treaty of friendship between China and Japan in 1978, Japan agreed to provide large five-year loan packages to China. The first yen loan package (1978-1983) totaled 330 billion yen. The second tranche of the yen loan package between 1984 and 1989 amounted to 470 billion yen, with the third loan package between 1990 to 1995 totaling 800 billion yen. Yet for all Japan’s loan assistance, the Chinese leadership maintained unassailable prerogative on its major policy decisions both domestic, foreign and even defense policies.

    For example in 1995, long after China has ended the nuclear monopoly of the former Soviet Union and Americans by blasting its first nuclear test in 1964, Beijing went ahead with its 42nd nuclear test, despite evident  misgivings by the Japanese Prime Minister, Mr. Marayama Tomichi, who during a visit to Beijing asked Premier Li Peng for a moratorium on nuclear test. Beijing, however, during her first blast of the nuclear bomb made a commitment never to be first to use a nuclear bomb but would maintain the facility for deterrence.

    Apart from loans, trade and investments also between Beijing and Tokyo flourished in the period which coincided with the time of China’s intense modernization drive that has borne the fruits of country’s contemporary national aggregates and global preeminence.

    Infact despite tension over domestic politics, security policy and history, economic interdependence between China and Japan remained a powerful force. Total trade between the two countries grew from $18.2 billion in 1990 to $66.2 billion in 1999 while Japanese foreign direct investment into China rose from $438 million in 1989 to $4.5 billion in 1995.

    Against the foregoing, the hype about Chinese loans, investments and trade morphing to debt trap or surrender of sovereignty of African countries is a hogwash concocted and designed by its peddlers to starve countries in the continent, the veritable and indispensable financial oxygen that is necessary to generate sustainable economic growth and the wider socio-economic development and even political stability.

    What the leadership of the various countries in Africa needs to do, is to harness loan and investment flows to critical and strategic national priority, build integrated national economic structures and work it up to the global value chains. The strategy of scare-mongering African countries with the hype of “Chinese debt trap” is essentially to prevent the rise of Africa, as  such efforts, though, of different type was desperately deployed to prevent the rise of China. From the earlier insinuations from the same quarter that China is a “hollow” power that has nothing tangible to offer to Africa except rhetoric, the tune has changed that China wants to compromise the sovereignty of Africa countries through debt trap.

    But if China was not entrapped by Tokyo despite generous loans, investments and trade, how is Africa destined to become a vassal of Beijing because of loans, investment and trade, except only on the assumptions that Africa, her people and leadership are incapable of securing her own interests? This, in itself, reflects the unreformed bigotry of how Africa is viewed from the West.

    In many instances, the reference of the Hambantota port in Sri Lanka leased to Chinese company, China Merchants Port Holdings for 99 years have been cited as typical of the “debt trap” and compromise of national sovereignty allegedly embedded in Beijing’s strategy. But a Sri Lankan senior official explained to the media few months ago that “due to poor management, the port did not generate sufficient income to pay the loan back. To make it a viable business to generate income instead of asking the public taxpayers to pay it back, the Sri Lankan government made the decision to set joint company with a Chinese company to operate the port together.” Continuing the official said that “on behalf of the government of Sri  Lanka, the ports authority owns 30% and China Merchants Port Holdings owns 70% of the joint venture to manage the port for 99 years,” and added “if Sri Lanka wants to buy out China’s share, we can negotiate with China Merchants Port Holdings.”

    Despite the sustained hoopla about Chinese loans and the alleged debt trap, the London based Economist magazine said that these “investments funded by Chinese are not in China” and that the best Beijing can do in respect of government defaults on its loans is to reduce the amount of money that debtors have to pay, adding that “countries with longer records of lending to poor countries often do the same,” citing the example of the “Paris Club of creditors formed in 1956 to devise ways of reducing defaulters debt loans.”

    If the media high priest of western liberal order has the above to say about the “myth of China’s debt trap” there is little to add except for Africa “to shine her eyes,” as it is used in local parlance to commend someone to a sober reflection.  

    • Onunaiju is director, Centre for China Studies, (CCS) Abuja.

  • U.S. grounds 737 MAX jets, Boeing shares fall again

    U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday issued an emergency order to ground Boeing 737 MAX 8 and MAX 9 aircraft after a crash in Ethiopia that killed 157 people.

    “We are going to be issuing an emergency order of prohibition to ground all flights of the 737 MAX 8 and the 737 MAX 9 and planes associated with that line,” Trump told newsmen at the White House.

    According to him, the FAA is prepared to make an announcement very shortly regarding the new information and physical evidence received from the site, and from other locations and through a couple of other complaints.

    Boeing shares, which were up earlier in the session, fell 2 per cent to 367.70 dollars.

    The shares have fallen about 13 per cent since the crash, losing more than 25 billion dollars of market value.

    Meanwhile, Germany’s federal agency responsible for investigating air accidents will not analyse the black box from the Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed on Sunday, casting uncertainty over the process of finding out what may have caused the disaster.

    “This is a new type of aircraft with a new black box, with new software. We can’t do it,” said Germout Freitag, a spokesman for Germany’s Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation (BFU).

    The move leaves unclear the destination of the black box, which may yield vital details of what caused the Boeing Co 737 MAX 8 to plunge to the ground, killing 157 people.

    A spokesman for Ethiopian Airlines had said earlier that the black boxes recovered from the crashed plane would be sent to Germany for analysis.

    Canada also grounded 737 MAX jets, saying satellite data suggested similarities to a previous crash involving the same plane model.

    Countries around the world have grounded the 737 MAX jets or banned them from flying over their airspace since the Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed soon after taking off from Addis Ababa on Sunday.

    The still unexplained crash followed another involving a Boeing 737 MAX in Indonesia five months ago that killed 189 people.

    Although there is no proof of any link, the twin disasters have spooked passengers, led to the grounding of most of Boeing’s 737 MAX fleet and hammered shares in the U.S. planemaker, the world’s largest.

  • Trump tweets complicating oil volatility, says OPEC scribe

    The  Secretary-General, Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)  Mohammed Barkindo, yesterday said President Donald Trump’s tweets, highly critical when crude oil prices rise, have complicated oil markets.

    Trump has occasionally blasted OPEC when members discuss curbing production to prop up crude oil prices. But he has also praised de facto OPEC leader Saudi Arabia for taking steps to ease crude oil prices.

    The social media comments are among the various factors OPEC has been trying to juggle as it looks to stabilise markets in the face of the U.S. shale boom.

    “The tweets are one of the new additions to these uncertainties. The president doesn’t give notice before he tweets. (This) Makes our job more difficult in focusing on the fundamentals,”” Barkindo said at a news conference yesterday at CERAWeek by IHS Markit.

    Still, even though Trump’s tweets can make crude oil prices wobble, he added that he welcomes the president’s engagement.

    “It’s understandable that any president in the U.S. would take more than a passing interest in what happens to the energy and oil markets. Since we are in a digital age of course tweets have become one medium of communication. We welcome this rising interest in Washington on what’s happening. We welcome a president during this dialogue,” Barkindo said.

    OPEC will meet in April to decide if it should extend or scale back its deal with top nonproducers to curb production by 1.2 billion barrels per day to prop up crude oil prices.

    West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark for crude oil prices, was up 0.2 per cent at $56.93 a barrel. Brent crude oil prices rose 0.2 per cent to $66.73.

    Shares of oil giants Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Chevron (CVX) were up 0.4 per cent and 0.5 per cent, respectively, on the stock market today.

     

    But Trump’s tweeting isn’t alone in causing instability in crude oil prices.

    Barkindo said the Trump administration’s waivers to U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil have added to uncertainty.

    China and India, the top two importers of Iranian oil, are among eight countries that received temporary waivers on Iran sanctions. The waivers will expire in May and it’s unclear which, if any country, will get an extension.

    Meanwhile, pending legislation in the U.S. Congress is another X factor. The House Judiciary Committee passed the No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels (NOPEC) Act last month, paving the way for a vote in the full House.

    The NOPEC bill would change U.S. antitrust regulations to allow the U.S. attorney general to sue OPEC members for collusion.

    But Barkindo warned that the NOPEC legislation as it stands “would not serve the interest of the United States.”

    “It would also usurp the interests of the oil and gas industry that has seen such a remarkable rebound,” he said.

  • India rejects Trump’s ‘sermons’ on Afghanistan

    India’s ruling and opposition parties condemned U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments this week mocking New Delhi’s role in Afghanistan, where the South Asian country has invested billions of dollars in economic projects and military training.

    The U.S. and India have drawn closer in recent years as they seek ways to counter-balance China’s spreading influence across Asia.

    But Trump’s apparent bid to undermine India’s developmental work in Afghanistan has annoyed not just politicians but also many ordinary Indians.

    Trump said on Wednesday he got along very well with Indian Prime Minister, Narenda Modi but that Modi was “constantly telling me he built a library in Afghanistan.”

    “You know what that is? That’s like five hours of what we spend in the White House.

    “And we are supposed to say, ‘oh, thank you for the library.’ I don’t know, who is using it in Afghanistan?” Trump queried.

    It was not immediately clear which library Trump was referring to, but both Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the main opposition Congress were united in their criticism of the U.S. president.

    India has centuries-old ties with Afghanistan and both accuse common neighbour Pakistan of not doing enough to stop Islamist militants operating on their territory. Pakistan denies the charges.

    “May be Trump should know that while he is decrying every other help in Afghanistan, India has been building not only libraries, but roads, dams, schools and even parliament building.

    “We are building lives, for which the Afghan people thank us, no matter what others do or don’t,” Ram Madhav, a BJP General Secretary, said on Twitter.

    Congress said India did not “need sermons from the U.S on Afghanistan.”

    The U.S. has 14,000 troops in Afghanistan, with reports it may be set to withdraw more than 5,000, a sign Trump’s patience is thinning with America’s longest war.
Trump has already decided to pull all U.S. troops out of Syria.

    Read Also: Obama debuts on BillBoard Hot R&B Songs Chart

    Modi’s office did not respond to an email seeking comment. Reuters could not reach the White House outside regular business hours in the U.S.

    India is the biggest South Asian donor to Afghanistan, spending around 2 billion dollars on reconstruction and rehabilitation, according to the Indian embassy in Kabul.

    Over the past few years India has helped Afghanistan build roads, erect power transmission lines and construct a parliament building.
    Kabul has not yet responded to Trump’s comments.

    Afghanistan’s national security advisor, Hamdullah Mohib, is meeting his Indian counterpart, Ajit Doval and other officials in New Delhi on Friday.

    “Trump mocked India, a key U.S. non-NATO partner that’s done major development work in Afghanistan, for building a library there,” Michael Kugelman, South Asia senior associate at the Washington-based Wilson Centre think-tank, said on Twitter.

  • Cohen Trump’s lawyer jailed

    Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison for an array of crimes that included arranging the payment of hush money to two women that he said was done at the direction of Trump.

    The New York lawyer notably once vowed he would “take a bullet” for Trump.

    Before being sentenced today, Michael Cohen delivered a blistering attack on his former boss.

    Cohen told the judge just that it was his loyalty to Trump that led him astray.

    “It was my blind loyalty to this man that led me to take a path of darkness instead of light,” he said.

    “I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds,” he added as he pleaded for leniency before US District Judge William H. Pauley III.

    The AP reported that Cohen’s lawyers had argued for leniency, saying he decided to cooperate with investigators rather than hold out for a possible pardon.

    “He came forward to offer evidence against the most powerful person in our country,” Cohen’s lawyer, Guy Petrillo, told the judge during the hearing.

    Cohen, 52, pleaded guilty in August to evading $1.4 million in taxes related to his personal businesses. In the part of the case with greater political repercussions, he also admitted breaking campaign finance laws in arranging payments in the waning days of the 2016 election to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, both of whom said they had sexual encounters with Trump.

    Cohen became the first — and so far, only —member of Trump’s circle during two years of investigations to go into open court and implicate the president in a crime, though whether a president can be prosecuted is a matter of legal dispute.

    Read also: Trump defends alleged hush money payments as ‘simple private transaction’

    Last month, Cohen also pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about Trump’s business dealings in Russia. He admitted hiding the fact that he was negotiating a proposal to build a Trump skyscraper in Moscow well into the presidential campaign. He said he lied out of devotion to Trump, who had insisted during the campaign that he had no business ties whatsoever to Russia.

    The sentence was the culmination of a spectacular rise and fast fall of a lawyer who attached himself to the fortunes of his biggest client, helped him get elected president, then turned on him, cooperating with two interconnected investigations: one run by federal prosecutors in New York, the other by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is looking into Russian efforts to influence the race for the White House.

    At the sentencing hearing, a prosecutor in Mueller’s office, Jeannie Rhee, said Cohen has “sought to tell us the truth and that is of the utmost value to us.”

    “He has provided consistent and credible information about core Russia-related issues under investigation,” she said without elaborating.

    It remains to be seen how much damage Cohen’s cooperation will do to Trump. Legal experts said Cohen could get his sentence reduced if he strikes a deal with prosecutors to tell them more.

    The defense team said Cohen’s tax crimes were unsophisticated, and his campaign violations and lies to lawmakers were motivated by over enthusiasm for Trump, rather than any nefarious intent.

  • Oil prices drop on Trump’s message to OPEC

    Oil prices slipped yesterday following President Donald Trump tweet urging the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to keep crude prices lower because of the military protection the United Statesprovides for the region.

    “The OPEC monopoly must get prices down now,” Trump insisted in the message.

    Futures prices for West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, dipped slightly following the tweet before recovering and then retreating once again to trade roughly flat. On Wednesday, WTI climbed back above $70 a barrel. The price of oil is up seven per cent in the last month and nearly 18 percent for 2018.

    OPEC members will meet this weekend with non-OPEC producers such as Russia to discuss production levels. That will be the last meeting before the November U.S. midterm elections.

    The rebound gained steam earlier this year after production problems in countries like Venezuela and Libya caused the group to cut more deeply than they intended. The Trump administration also boosted prices by restoring sanctions on Iran, OPEC’s third biggest producer, and saying it aims to cut the nation’s exports to zero by November.

  • U.S. will not stop Iran oil exports

    U.S. plan to reduce Iran’s oil exports to zero will not succeed, Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Zarif was cited as saying by an Iranian newspaper on Wednesday.

    U.S. officials have said in recent weeks that they aim to pressure countries to stop buying oil from Iran in a bid to force Tehran to halt its nuclear and missile programmes and involvement in regional conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

    “If the Americans want to keep this simplistic and impossible idea in their minds they should also know its consequences,” Zarif told the Iran newspaper.

    Read Also: PDP to APC: You can’t woo our members

    “They can’t think that Iran won’t export oil and others will export.”

    President Hassan Rouhani hinted in July that Iran could block the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping route, if the U.S. attempted to stop the Islamic Republic’s oil exports.
    U.S. President Donald Trump responded by noting that Iran could face serious consequences if it threatened the U.S.
    “The Americans have assembled a war room against Iran,” Zarif said.

    “We can’t get drawn into a confrontation with America by falling into this war room trap and playing on a battlefield.”

    Iran sanctions are ‘the most biting ever imposed’: Trump

    In July, Trump offered to meet with Iran’s leaders. Zarif said that Oman and Switzerland have acted as mediators in talks with America in the past but that there are currently no direct or indirect talks being held with the U.S.

  • NANS lauds Buhari’s commitment to human rights

    The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has applauded President Muhammadu Buhari’s commitment to human rights and investigation of human rights abuses in the country.

    NANS National Public Relations Officer (PRO), Bestman Okereafor, gave the commendation in a statement on Tuesday in Enugu.

    Our reporter recalls that the commendation was a fall out of Buhari’s strong comment against human rights abuses and explanation on how far his administration had embarked on investigation of human rights abuses during his interaction with President Donald Trump of U.S.

    NANS implored  the presidency and security agencies to ensure freedom from oppression, equity and social justice for all Nigerians regardless of religion and tribe.

    “NANS appreciates President Muhammadu Buhari’s commitment to the principles of human rights as well as the promotion and protection of people’s freedom, even in the process of fighting terror, as stated recently during a meeting with US President Donald Trump in the White House.

    “President Buhari’s commitment to ensuring that all documented cases of human rights abuses are investigated and those responsible for violations held accountable for their actions is laudable,’’ he said.

    The PRO, however, call on security agents to intensify efforts aimed at tackling insurgency and armed herdsmen, who had been terrorising and wreaking havoc in some parts of the country.

    NAN

  • Women rise against Trump’s two-face policy

    When a woman has access to Family Planning methods, she can plan her life better and provide for her family. As the world observes this year’s Universal Health Coverage, with the theme: “everyone, everywhere”, OYEYEMI GBENGA-MUSTAPHA looks at women’s fear over the inavailability of family planning because of President Donald Trump’s re-imposition of the Mexico City Policy, also called the Global Gag Rule.

    Nigeria is a priority country for USAID family planning and the United States has invested in a number of integrated health programs—not only to improve women’s health, but also to support local stakeholders in advocating for increased family planning funding from the Nigerian government. These U.S.-supported health initiatives and their implementing partner organisations have been essential to improvements in health outcomes and efforts to strengthen Nigeria’s overall health system. However, these advances are at risk because of the magnitude of U.S. support and potential impacts of the expanded Global Gag Rule.

    Nigeria is the single largest recipient of U.S. international development aid and relies heavily on global health assistance to meet the needs of its large and growing population. The Trump-Pence administration policy, “Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance,” according to a non governmental organisation, Population Action International (PAI), risks overburdening the underfunded public health sector and undermining the reproductive and overall health goals in Nigeria. The policy—commonly referred to as the Global Gag Rule by opponents—effectively prohibits organisations from using their private, non-U.S. funds to provide comprehensive, safe abortion services; offer information or referrals for abortion; or to advocate for the legalisation or liberalisation of safe abortion services.

     

    Provider experience

    Underpinning this, an Health Assistant on family planning with 15 years experience, working in a public health facility who does not want her name in print, said the impact of the Mexico City Policy is not making her happy and efficient because it is counterproductive.

    Citing an instance, she said: “I have handled a woman right from my employment day which is now fifteen years. Now, due to menopausal reasons, she has opted out of the treatment which is quite understandable. Assuming there was no free access to the particular FP commodity of her choice, fifteen years ago the experience of fifteen years would have been affected.  She would have had unplanned for pregnancy, as some women do, and when we advise them to go to antenatal, for enrolment, that is the last time we would see them here. They end up getting rid of such elsewhere. That has fuelled an increase in abortions and maternal deaths because abortion is illegal in Nigeria.

    “With uninterrupted supply of commodities from the Federal government, uptake has been picking up, leading to reduction in maternal deaths. But, with the GGR, we are already experiencing shortages in commodities. As of today, in this facility there are no condoms. I am not happy with this development. This is because couples who settled for condoms along with other methods are being affected. And if they cannot get free ones here, and cannot also sustain purchase due to economical reasons, unplanned for pregnancies will come up, with a resort to termination, which our country is not in support of, that will fuel maternal deaths. Clients come here to access family planning services because it is basically free. If these are not readily available, homes will be broken.”

    As a Family Planning provider, she said Family planning commodities in Nigeria- either in a public or private sector- especially non governmental organisations (NGOs) are from foreign aids.

    As she explained: “This global gag rule forces health care providers to chose between U.S. family planning assistance and the ability to counsel and provide clients with an accurate and full range of safe and legal reproductive health options. The global gag rule seriously impedes countries’ efforts to improve women’s health, and undermines free participation. We all know as providers that the best method is the method chosen by an individual only after due consultation with a trained and certified family planning service provider. With non availability of commodities, more unplanned for pregnancies will occur with its attendant problems.”

     

    Users experience

    One of her clients, a 32-year-old trader, Mrs Kehinde Solomon said she decided to come for family planning so as to be ‘free’ with her husband, “with three children ages eight, four, and six-months, as a couple we decided to stop further children. We have settled for oral pills method. We cannot afford to buy it even if it is being sold. So, the News on possible non availability is really disturbing me.”

    Another of her client, a 39-year-old Mrs Sola Kudaisi who settled for the use of implant five years ago said  she made a choice for the implant method so as to space her children and equally have time to build her career, thereby, getting money, and supporting her husband to train the children.

    Mrs Kudaisi who married in 2002, with three kids- the first child is 16 years, second 12 years and third one six years, recalled that after the first child she settled for injection method, “and because my menses was affected I changed to the implant. This implant has never failed me. I and my husband came here, we are counseled and we both agreed on the implant. On the consequences of the expanded Mexico City Policy, Mrs Kudaisi said, “Poor family planning impacts all of us, putting our future at risk, and hurting our kids who deserve more from us parents.  Family Planning helps us as couple to have the number of children we desire, and train our children. But now, if the commodities are not available or they are interrupted, the home front will be affected. Family planning is a vital way to avoid unwanted pregnancies and to prevent exponential population growth.”

    A source,  a non governmental organisation, EngenderHealth affirmed that though the Global Gag Rule was meant to target abortion providers, it had terrible consequences for the health and lives of poor women and their families in ways that had nothing to do with abortion. “From 2001 to 2009, 20 developing countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East lost U.S.-donated contraceptives, and many organisations and clinics were forced to reduce services, lay off staff, or shut down entirely.”

    Nigeria maybe part of the emerging statistics as another NGO, Population Action International (PAI) has documented that Nigeria provides a clear example of how the interaction of U.S. policies and funding decisions can have outsized ramifications for sexual and reproductive health and rights in a country.

    It stated that the Global Gag Rule does not apply to multilaterals like the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). However, as foreign NGOs lose access to U.S. funding and U.S.-donated contraceptive supplies due to the policy, they have scaled back services, pushing more clients to public sector facilities and increasing demand for commodities procured by UNFPA.

    “Unfortunately, the agency is already experiencing a significant funding shortfall. U.S. government funding has historically supported UNFPA’s core and humanitarian work. The defunding of UNFPA places a strain on the agency and UNFPA Supplies, and has raised alarms among advocates and providers in Nigeria given the agency’s central role in contraceptive security. Any further reductions in UNFPA’s capacity will cascade down, hitting hardest the organisations working with the most vulnerable populations and severely disrupting health supplies. Additionally, despite the fact that the Global Gag Rule does not impact humanitarian funding, there are questions about how organisations who serve displaced populations will continue their work if they no longer receive U.S. funding,” PAI stated.

    Giving a broader view the vice-president of Marie Stopes International, Marjorie Newman-Williams said in a statement, “Evidence shows that by blocking funding to the world’s largest NGO providers of modern contraception, unintended pregnancies and abortions go up.  As a result, women and girls are less likely to complete their education, have a career, or pursue their dreams for the future.”

    According to the National Population Commission and ICF International’s Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (2013) family planning and counselling are accessed through private and public health facilities; however, commodities are mainly sourced from public government facilities, where they are free. The private sector is the main source for male condoms and pills, which are the most popular methods after injectable contraceptives. Subsidised condoms are the most popular public-sector method, implying that price may be a major factor impacting uptake, lending support to the fear of these women.