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Tag: Thabo Mbeki

  • Thabo Mbeki in good health – Foundation

    Thabo Mbeki in good health – Foundation

    Thabo Mbeki Foundation has refuted reports that former South Africa’s president Thabo Mbeki is dead.

    Reports were circulating on social media on Wednesday, January 3, regarding the former president’s health, with some claiming he had died.

    Read Also: Thabo Mbeki shines at Awolowo Prize for Leadership

    Thabo Mbeki is alive and well, he is in good health, says his Foundation in a statement on Wednesday.

    The foundation said: “We categorically deny these reports and wish to assure the public that former president Mbeki is in good health.

    “We urge caution and responsible engagement with online information, particularly during a time when misinformation can spread rapidly.”

  • Fighting corruption in Nigeria non-negotiable, Buhari tells Mbeki

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday told the former South African President, Thabo Mbeki, that for his administration, fighting corruption is non-negotiable.

    Buhari said that fighting corruption is a must.

    Mbeki, who heads the African Union High Level Panel on Illicit Flows from Africa, was at the Villa to give the President, who is the current Champion of AU Anti-Corruption Campaign, critical updates.

    In a statement by the Special Adviser on Media and publicity, Femi Adesina, the President said “We must fight corruption frontally, because it’s one of the reasons we got elected.

    “We campaigned on three fundamental issues; security, reviving the economy, and fight against corruption. It’s the reason we got elected, and we can’t afford to let our people down.”

    Read Also: Buhari, Mbeki meet in Aso Rock

    Noting that the government was making progress on the anti-corruption war, “and not just talking,” the President said he was very pleased with the assignment the former South African President was carrying out for the African continent.

    He said that when Africa is vigorous with the war against corruption, “we will eventually appeal to the conscience of the rest of the world.”

    In his remarks, former President Mbeki said corruption was an African challenge that must be responded to, “as development challenges can only be met through the check of illicit financial flows.”

    He said he was delighted that President Buhari touches on the issue in most of his speeches, with the most recent being at the United Nations General Assembly last week.

    “We are pleased with the way you take up the matter. Countries need political will to stop the illicit flow. Nigeria has shown good example. The more we are showing that we are acting as Africans, the easier to get the rest of the world to cooperate,” Mbeki said.

  • Buhari, Mbeki meet in Aso Rock 

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday met behind closed doors with the former South African President, Thabo Mbeki at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    Mbeki arrived the forecourt of the State House around 2.30pm.

    Read Also:Buhari, nine APC governors meet in Aso Rock

    He was led straight to the President’s office.

    The meeting was still in progress at the time of filing this report.

     

    Details Later…

  • Secret corporate ownership a global problem – Osinbajo

    Secret corporate ownership a global problem – Osinbajo

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has described secret corporate ownership as a global problem and bane of development in resource-rich countries like Nigeria.

    Osinbajo said this at the Beneficial Ownership Conference of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative ( EITI ) in Jakarta, Indonesia on Monday.

    The vice president’s speech was made available to newsmen in Abuja.

    He cited a 2014 report by the One Campaign entitled, “One Trillion Dollar Scandal’’, which showed that developing countries loose one trillion dollars annually to corporate transgressions.

    According to the vice president, most of the funds are traceable to the activities of companies with secret ownership.

    “Another report that may enjoy mention here is the 2015 report of the High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa chaired by former South African President Thabo Mbeki.

    “The panel stated in its report that Africa had lost more than one trillion dollars over a 50-year period, and that Africa loses more than 50 billion dollars annually to illicit financial flows.

    “Most of these illicit flows are perpetrated in the extractive sector and through companies with hidden ownerships.’’

    Osinbajo said Nigeria was still struggling with the negative impact of the use of corporate ownership secrecy by senior government officials and their cronies to corner juicy contracts in the extractive industry.

    He specifically mentioned the celebrated Malabu scandal of the 1990s, which he said remained the subject of criminal and civil proceedings in many parts of the world.

    According to him, the court cases involved huge legal costs, while the full benefit of the natural resource remains unexploited for the benefit of the people of Nigeria to which it belongs.

    “So, for us in the developing world and especially in Africa, breaking the wall of secret corporate ownership is an existential matter.

    “It is for us literarily a matter of life and death. Masked or Hidden corporate ownership is deeply implicated in the sad story of our underdevelopment.

    “Yes, we know that anonymous companies are not always illegal or are not always designed to harm.

    “But we also know that secrecy provides a convenient cover for the criminal and the corrupt. And we are not just operating from the theoretical or hypothetical standpoint,’’ he said.

    The vice president said that the problem was a global one driven by an inter-connected world where the foothold of anonymous companies does not respect the developed/developing divide.

    He said although the degree of exposure may differ, everyone in today’s world was at risk of the dangers posed by anonymous corporate ownership.

    “If nothing else, the Panama Papers clearly illustrated the global scale and spread of this problem.

    “So, this is a global challenge and nothing less than a truly global approach will be needed to tackle it.’’

    Osinbajo commended the United Kingdom, Norway, Netherlands and Denmark for setting the pace in the establishment of public registers of the real, human owners of companies in their countries.

    He, therefore, called on other G8 and G20 countries to follow suit by initiating actions to end corporate secrecy at home and their dependencies.

    “Open Ownership and its partners must also be commended for establishing a global register of beneficial ownership with entries on about two million companies.

    “However, we must note that legislative measures in the mentioned countries may need to go farther to effectively discourage or totally prohibit non-disclosure agreements by governments with big corporate, and to re-evaluate the use of secret trusts to hide beneficial ownership from the prying eyes of the law.

    “It is important to underscore the fact that opacity in one section of the globe undermines openness in the other.

    “We need to break down this wall together as we are all at risk of the evil effects of opacity in business ownership.

    NAN

  • Buhari to meet NASS leadership at Aso Rock

    Buhari to meet NASS leadership at Aso Rock

    President Muhammadu Buhari will on Wednesday night meet with the leadership of the Senate and House of Representatives at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    The closed-door meeting is billed to hold by 9:00pm at the President’s official residence.

    Before then, President Buhari will also hold a private meeting with former South African President, Thabo Mbeki at 7:30pm at the Presidential Villa.

     

  • $50b lost annually to illicit cash flows in Africa —Mbeki

    $50b lost annually to illicit cash flows in Africa —Mbeki

    African continent loses over $50billion annually as a result of the illicit flow of funds, former president of South Africa Thabo Mbeki told the meeting of the Group of African Governors affiliated with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, known as the African Caucus.

    “Africa faces the great challenge of large volumes of capital leaving the continent illicitly – money that our continent needs to address the challenges of development. We, as Africans, have an absolute obligation to act on this to ensure that the rest of the world (the destination of these illicit movements of funds), by acting together, will help stop this drain of resources which belong to the continent that needs them so badly,” said Mbeki.

    Mbeki is now head of the High-Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows From Africa created by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union, which did exemplary work and analysed the magnitude of the problem on the continent, producing a report now known as the “Mbeki Report.”

    The former President of South Africa maintains that it is possible to put an end to these issues with proper monitoring of the transactions of large commercial companies. Moreover, he points out that in order to combat this phenomenon interventions are needed from institutions such as tax authorities, customs, central banks, financial intelligence units for combating money laundering, audit and anti-corruption authorities and the police.

    According to Mbeki, there is need for appropriate legislation to give these institutions the mandate they need to cooperate in the fight against illicit capital outflows and so that countries can also cooperate at the regional level, given that some of these outflows move across shared borders.

    “Our governments lose large amounts of revenue owed to the state due to the unlawful outflow of significant capital that we need for development,” he pointed out.

    Mbeki says that it is imperative to build the global architecture required for a focused offensive to put an end to these illicit outflows, within the framework of UN processes, in order to avoid a piecemeal approach to the problem and to enable supervision by an appropriate UN body.

  • ‘Mbeki approved $10m payment to FIFA’

    ‘Mbeki approved $10m payment to FIFA’

    South Africa’s Sports Minister, Fikile Mbulula, said the decision to donate $10million (£6.5m) to FIFA to develop Caribbean football was approved by former President Thabo Mbeki.

    The payment, which South Africa denied was a bribe to secure the 2010 World Cup, is central to the FIFA scandal, the BBC reports.

    The claim came after a letter emerged that appears to show officials seeking an indirect route for the transfer.

    South Africa’s government said the letter did not contradict its statement that this was a legitimate payment.

    It said the cash was to fund the development of football for the African diaspora in the Caribbean and that the reporting of the letter in South Africa’s Mail & Guardian was “regurgitation and sensation.”

    The letter was written by then South Africa Football Association head, Danny Jordaan, three weeks before the first amount was paid in 2007.

    United States prosecutors said the money, which is a key plank in the wide-ranging criminal inquiry that has engulfed world football’s governing body, was a bribe to FIFA officials.

    Seven top FIFA officials, including two vice-presidents, were arrested last week in Switzerland as they awaited FIFA’s congress.

    They were among 14 new indictments in the U.S investigation, which alleges they accepted bribes and kickbacks estimated at more than $150million over a 24-year period.

    Four other people were charged earlier. One of them, ex-FIFA official Chuck Blazer, has pleaded guilty in the U.S to taking bribes related to South Africa’s bid.

     

  • Thabo Mbeki shines at Awolowo Prize for Leadership

    Thabo Mbeki shines at Awolowo Prize for Leadership

    The 2014 edition of Chief Obafemi Awolowo Prize for Leadership held at the Muson Centre on penultimate Friday in Lagos.       PHOTOS: OLUSEGUN RAPHEAL

  • Photo: Mbeki, Abudulsalami meet Buhari

    Photo: Mbeki, Abudulsalami meet Buhari

    ormer South African President, Thabo Mbeki (middle) APC Presidential Candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari (right) and General Abdulsalami Abubakar (extreme left). Behind is them is Buhari's Press Secretary, Alhaji Ya'u Darazo after Mbeki and Abdulsalami met with Buhari in Kaduna on Monday. Photo by ABDULGAFAR ALABELEWE
    Former South African President, Thabo Mbeki (middle) APC Presidential Candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari (right) and General Abdulsalami Abubakar (extreme left). Behind is them is Buhari’s Press Secretary, Alhaji Ya’u Darazo after Mbeki and Abdulsalami met with Buhari in Kaduna on Monday. Photo by ABDULGAFAR ALABELEWE

  • COMMENT

    COMMENT

    For Olatunji Dare

    Dare, “Once upon another commonwealth games” relieved me of pressure as I read it along because there are some funny bits, especially towards its tail end. For example, your feeling cheated by government for claiming that it triggered boycott of the games instead of The Guardian. It is funny because if the accolade was given to Guardian, it would still have been reported as championed by Nigeria. Another funny side is your bringing the issue to the general public exactly 30 years after. I thank God for sparing your life to tell us what confused us then. How I wish I were Jonathan, I would have given all the Guardian staff connected with the globe-stirring action next to the highest national honour immediately; for your achievement. Those were the days of true journalism unlike now that most mediamen are tied to aprong string of their corrupt political masters. God save us, Amen. From Lai Ashadele.

    If Nigerian Government actualy boycotted Common-Wealth Game consequent upon The Guardian editorial, it was still proper to be refered as d Nigeria-led boycott, and not The Guardian. The newspaper merely presented its well-argued case on why d country shouldnt participate in the game,and never forced the government to boycott. The decision to participate or not to was still on the government to decide.That it eventually opted to withdraw from participation  shouldn’t then mean that the credit should authomaticaly go to The Guardian newspapers, if the whole matter is logically followed – From Emmanuel Egwu

     

    For Gbenga Omotoso

     

    An elegy for Brazil: it is not true that Brazilians did not walk out of the stadium.They did, the commentator mentioned it. You always look for the exit door when you face shame. It is natural, don’t make it look like a Nigerian spirit. From Emma, Lafia

    The introduction of armed forces into the politics of Nigeria of today has alter the political calculation in the country. Nigeria will remain in darkness as long as politics of stomach infrastructure  persist. Long live Federal Republic of order from above. Long live amala politics. From Hamza Ozi Momoh  Apapa Lagos.

    In your elegy you wrote and I quote “The Super Eagles went on strike to force the government to pay their appearance fees.” Bad leaders plus followers equals systems failure! Anonymous

    Re-2015: A Lexical analysis-The new method of rigging is Stomachstructure which is not strange in Nigeria Politics  starting from NPN ERA.It is unfor tunate that our power drunk politicians can never have a change of heart. It is a bad omen for the future of this country. From Past odunmbaku. 

    How can a country like Nigeria under the vicious grip of unrepentant and kleptomanic  cabals of election riggers and looters ever learn? Our leaders are demonic and thrive in impunity.They even dare God. Our  sitiuation appear hopeless especially with the type of masses we have as shown in Ekiti State. From Chief Solomon Egwuenu, Delta State

    Nigeria will learn when people like you the media show patriotism in your write up about her.when you learn to stand by our leaders and support them in times of nation trials irrespective of where he comes from. Anonymous

    Gbenga, your write up . Lexical analysis. On point of correction, Tom is not a short form for Thabo Mbeki to the best of my knowledge. Secondly, Thabo Mbeki was not rejected by African National Congress (ANC), Thabo Mbeki ran into trouble with ANC during the second term and that necessitated temporary replacement before the election that brought in Jacob Zuma. From Chief Olabode Majekodunmi. Abeokuta

    I enjoyed your lexical analysis of 2015. One little fox, however: you mentioned Barnabas (who was rather the “son of encouragement”) instead of “Barabas”! From Brother Ame A. Aba.

    The Brazilian/German encounter may be shocking to many, for me there is nothing spectacular about the result of that match. That is football for you! Talking about patriotism: an average Nigerian is a self-centred animal, the fault being in our nature. We have not yet arrived at nationhood-The Gods are to blame. From Moyosore Aladetohun, Iyana Ipaja.  

    Why were they crying as if winning is their birthright. There is nothing Nigeria should learn from then. We crashed out from round 16 we did our best.  From Patrick, Abuja 

    Having had about the passion of Ekiti people for education,I  thought free, qaulity education would have  earned governor Fayemi a second term in office, but he seems to be elite minded only to learn in a bitter way that the so-called poor are equally stakeholders in the state and are the majority he need to remain in the state house. He should be more realistic if the opportunity comes again just like it did to Fayose. From Uzoma, Owerri.

     

    For Tunji Adegboyega

    It is good to praise achievers so they can do more, instead of showering encomiums on never-do-well leaders. Ajibola Ogunshola deserves encomiums for lifting The Punch newspaper when it was about going under. Ogunshola demonstrated leadership worthy of emulation for making Punch readable worldwide. Happy birthday, Chief Ogunshola. Congratulations! From Gordon Chika Nnorom, Umukabia, Abia State.

    Re: Ajibola Ogunshola at 70. Why I admire Chief Ogunshola so much is because of his unassuming nature. He goes about unnoticed despite his societal stature. This is an example of a leader  Nigeria needs. An actuary could do a lot with mathematics to turn things around hence, extremely few people venture into specialising in the course. Not even many universities include Actuarial Science as a course. The thinking  level is equivalent of that for Geology, Medicine and Surgery! To have been able to turn The Punch around from the grave is consequent upon his actuary science and personal discipline qualities. I join millions of Nigerians in wishing Chief Ogunshola a happy 70th birthday. From Lanre Oseni.

    What makes a man a good leader is his integrity and straightforwardness. Chief Ogunshola has proved to the world that a leader without integrity has no business being a leader. Our leaders are stealing our money because of lack of integrity; politicians trying to differentiate stealing from corruption because of lack of integrity. Integrity makes a man; without it you become nothing. From Hamza Ozi Momoh, Apapa, Lagos.

    Good day, Tunji. I read your article “Ajibola Ogunshola at 70: The actuary who brought The Punch ‘back from the dead’ joins the septuagenarian club tomorrow” (i.e. July 14). In the first place let me congratulate Chief Ogunshola for clocking three scores plus 10. Also, let me commend you for going down memory lane on progress so far made towards uplifting Punch by Chief Ogunshola. This is a man who knew every individual in the newsroom by his or her full names. He is a crisis manager of great dimension. I could recollect as a former Punch chief crime correspondent and later assistant editor, Chief Ogunshola would say “Musa, come and see me in my office in Lagos”. He would want to know what your individual problems were and how to enhance efficiency in the organisation. He however felt very sad when I resigned my appointment with the company in 1989. The Punch has produced great writers; Tunji, you are one of these. Others are Kunle Fagbemi,  Prince Dayo Adeyeye (now Minister of State for Works), Lateef Ibirogba, Lagos State Commissioner for Information, Innocent Adikwu, Demola Osinubi, the current managing director of Punch. I praise the magnanimity of Chief Ogunshola for making the late Chief James Olubunmi Aboderin realise his dreams, even if post-humously, as his eldest son Wale is now chairman of Punch Nigeria Ltd. Congratulations, Chief Ogunshola and well done, Tunji. From Abubakar Musa Abuja.