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Tag: U.S envoy

  • APC to U.S. envoy: Buhari will win without rigging

    Party’s Campaign Council kicks against ‘threats’  Polls tip President for victory

    United States Ambassador to Nigeria Stuart Symington got yesterday a piece of advice — watch your tongue.

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council accused Mr. W. Stuart Symington of creating an impression that President Muhammadu Buhari cannot win a free and fair election.

    His comments are implicit attacks against the government of Nigeria, the Council said.

    The Campaign noted that the continous warning by the American Ambassador about “flawed elections” is capable of casting an unwarranted cloud over the process, adding that instead of encouraging our country toward credible elections, such statements undermine public confidence.

    President Buhari will win the election fair and square, the Council said. Some reputable research organisations have tipped the President to win the race.

    Its spokesman Festus Keyamo, in a statement issued in Abuja, said it was concerned about the Ambassador’s statement in which he threatened to “hold to account” anyone whose speech, no matter the motivation of that speech, engendered hatred during the elections.

    Keyamo said these statements by the envoy imply that the Federal Government was inclined to rigging the election in favour of President Muhammadu Buhari. This is unfair and unacceptable as President Buhari has never been accused of electoral malpractice all his life, Keyamo said.

    The statement reads: “We are deeply concerned about many of the expressions of the United States’ Ambassador to Nigeria, Ambassador W. Stuart Symington and other Western diplomats which have been directed towards Nigeria’s upcoming elections. Whilst we laud and whole-heartedly welcome their interests in the elections, many of these expressions have been notably off- key.

    “The continued warnings about ‘flawed elections’ are capable of casting an unwarranted cloud over the process. Instead of encouraging our country toward credible elections, such statements undermine public confidence. It would appear that these envoys seem to have discredited the election before it has even taken place.

    “We truly hope some of the statements attributed to these diplomats are inaccurate. For instance, the Premium News reported that Ambassador W. Stuart Symington threatened to ‘hold to account’ anyone whose speech, no matter the motivation of that speech, engendered hatred. We all agree that any speech willfully intended to trigger violence is condemnable.

    “However, in condemning other forms of political speech, the American envoy overstepped his ambassadorial brief. For instance, the American Ambassador was reported to have condemned a situation where a candidate says that his opponent’s political and economic policies are abhorrent and dangerous to the greater welfare of the people and calls on the citizens to hate and reject such policies.

    “In our view, this is a correct statement because it is the duty of the candidate to tell the people these truths to protect the nation from subsequent calamity. But Ambassador Symington says his country would punish such necessary political speeches.

    “For us, it is significant to note that such strong political speeches are not unlawful in the United States, but Ambassador Symington is seeking to penalise such speeches by Nigerians. He seeks to shrink our ambit of free speech so that we may behave in accordance with their vision of well-behaved Africans, rather than in consonance with our vision of our own democracy, no matter how tumultuous and dramatic we may be.

    “It would appear that his position seeks to prohibit forms of expression integral to our political discourse. These forms of expression have time and time again been adjudged to be constitutionally-protected speeches by the United States Supreme Court.

    “However, Ambassador Symington intentionally issued his threats to place a chilling effect on speeches in Nigeria that, if uttered in America, would be constitutionally protected. Unfounded allegations and threats to penalise people for constitutionally-protected free speech is improper interference in our internal affairs. Sadly, what Ambassador Symington and some other western diplomats are doing border on the improper.

    “We take the view that the constant statements by Ambassador Symington and the other diplomats are implicit attacks against the government of Nigeria. These statements imply the Nigerian government is inclined to rig the election in favour of President Muhammadu Buhari. This is unfair and unacceptable to us. President Muhammadu Buhari has never been accused of electoral malpractice all his life.

    “However, in contrast, former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar publicly boasted a few months ago that he rigged the 2003 election in the Southwest states. Here, we have an open confession of blatant electoral malfeasance by the PDP candidate. But in all of these, there seems to be no concern by Ambassador Symington and other diplomats about this well-acknowledged proclivity of the main opposition.

    “We expected that such open confession to rigging in the past would have drawn condemnation from the United States. Rather what we witnessed recently was the ignoble act of giving such a self-confessed rigger with a decade-old indictment in America for corruption hanging over his head a special status to enter the U.S for a few days. Such is the double standard that America now displays for the whole world to see.

    “It is unfortunate that most of these countries that sermonise about free and fair elections have ugly histories of denial of voting right to people because of their colour and are still facing many challenges with their electoral systems till date.

    “The continued reference and praise of the 2015 election by Ambassador Symington clearly shows he needs further briefing about the Nigerian situation. For his information, the 2015 presidential election, at the end of the day, produced the correct outcome, but with flawed figures in many areas.

    “Though they lost, the figures attributed to the PDP were inflated in many places, especially in the South South, to save the face of the past President and to reduce the margin of his defeat. President Buhari is determined to improve on the 2015 elections and so it cannot even be our benchmark.”

    The statement pointed out the responsibility of an American ambassador stressing that his comments should reflect deep thoughts.

    He went on: “An American ambassador has a great responsibility in representing the strongest economic and military power in the world. His comments carry weight because of the status of his nation. This means his comments should reflect a deep knowledge of the subject.

    “Sadly, Ambassador Symington has not shown the deep knowledge of Nigerian situation. The impression he creates by constantly harping on suspected government interference with the electoral process is that President Buhari cannot win without tipping the results. He seems to be saying that only a PDP victory will be evidence of a fair election.

    “Again, he is in great error. From all of the information at our disposal, President Buhari can and should win a free and fair election. However, it appears to us that Ambassador Symington is substituting his subjective conclusions for the sovereign will of the Nigerian people.  In doing so, he has abandoned the impartiality of a true envoy and has trespassed into interfering in our electoral process.

    “Instead of encouraging free and fair elections, these judgmental statements and threats only cast an unnecessary pall over the elections and the nation. This is an international disservice and not international diplomacy. The days of unquestioned condescension to Western powers are long gone and we are not prepared at this time in Nigeria to recede to that era.

    “Nigerians will define Nigeria’s democracy. We shall hold fair and just elections, not because of scolding by diplomats, but because we have sufficient intelligence and morality to do what is right for ourselves.

    “If Ambassador  Symington has familiarised himself with Nigeria’s history from 1999 till date, he would have realised that those in the main opposition are being haunted by their past: they think President Buhari would behave exactly like they did all these years when they consistently rigged elections and denied Nigerians the right to choose their leaders.

    “If Ambassador Symington truly intends to be impartial, his statements should acknowledge that both Government and Opposition (particularly in states where the opposition have governors in place) must respect the process and refrain from rigging.

    “We expect him to counsel both governing party and the Opposition from any form of electoral malpractice. After all, it is not only Governments at the centre that rig elections. Elections can also be rigged in opposition-controlled areas.

    “It is not too late for Ambassador Symington to repair the damage of his uninformed statements. He needs to speak as an impartial envoy instead of a person who appears to have prejudged the quality of the process and the outcome. Until he attains that level of informed impartiality, whatever good he seeks is better achieved by his silence than by tendentious utterances.”

  • How Nigeria can develop, by U.S. envoy

    UNITED States Ambassador to Nigeria Mr. Stuart Symington has urged Nigerians to develop home-grown solutions to the myriads of challenges facing the country.

    The envoy gave the charge at an event to mark the 2018 World Earth Day at the Trenchard Hall, University of Ibadan, Ibadan.

    Earth Day celebration was founded 48 years ago by a former Wisconsin U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson with the objective of introducing environmental issues into the U.S. national agenda. The annual global celebration is, however, to support the environment and promote awareness of the great need to protect the environment and the planet.

    Noting that what makes Nigeria thick was beyond its diversity or colour, Symington said the greatest asset of the country was the people. He, therefore, urged Nigerians to believe more in themselves and the country.

    Addressing the teeming stakeholders who attended the event on the importance of preserving nature in various parts of the country, Symington noted that the Nigerian people, their diversity and resilience were the key elements that would make Nigeria different from every other country.

    He said his experience visiting the 36 states of the federation in his capacity as a representative of the U.S. government in the country confirmed his position.

  • Nigeria becoming new Silicon Valley, says U.S. envoy

    •IT firm receives award

    The energy shown by young people for creativity and enterprise is an indication that Nigeria can become a new Silicon Valley, the United States (U.S.) Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Stuart Symington, said at the weekend.

    The U.S. top diplomat said despite challenges facing Nigeria, young people were opening doors of opportunities through innovative and enterprising spirit.

    Symington spoke at the corporate office of Andela Nigeria, an Information Technology (IT) firm specialising in computer programming and software development in Lagos.

    The IT firm received the U.S. Secretary of State Award for Corporate Excellence, which was presented by the ambassador.

    Symington said: “Many people have asked questions about what the Nigerian youth would do in the future. The answer is, no one knows for sure. But we know the enterprise, innovation and the spirit of excitement among Nigerian youths in learning and ability to connect things in new ways indicate that the door of opportunities ahead of Nigeria is extraordinary door.

    “What Andela does with IT and its focus on the culture of connecting people with ideas through the Internet show that Andela can create the future for Nigeria and transform the future of the rest of the planet.”

    The firm’s Country Director, Seni Sulyman, said: “Andela does represent the future of the country and the world. We are convinced that software development will create massive socio-economic benefits for the country. We are in a country where IT and software development are just taking off. We want to see this progress steady and Andela is playing a lead role in delivering the future by building the people that will create the future.”

  • Be united, U.S. envoy urges Nigerians

    The United States (US) Ambassador to Nigeria, Stuart Symington, has called on Nigerians to unite for the stability and betterment of the country, Africa and the world.
    Symington spoke yesterday during his familiarisation visit to the Aminu Kano College of Islamic and Legal Studies, Kano State.
    He said Nigeria remains a great country and its survival is the survival of America.
    His words: “I urge you to think about the unity of the country and in what I have seen, you seek to advance this notion that if there is no justice for all, there is no justice for everyone.
    “There is no fairness for all until there is fairness for everyone. And it is in the way we treat each other that we can change the world.
    The strength of every nation is not in just ideas or laws, but in men and women. Each of us are like vessels, with a change to take in all the lesson we can.
    “I want to suggest to you that by learning, you and your country and our world can live better. I think about living in order to have the opportunity to learn.”
    Provost of the institution, Prof. Garba Shehu said Symington’s visit provided an excellent opportunity for the staff and students to interact on issues of contemporary significance relating to development of higher education in the country.

  • How to deal with recessionary economies, by U.S. envoy

    How to deal with recessionary economies, by U.S. envoy

    To United States (U.S.) Consul-General   F. John Bray, economic recession is not a death sentence for any country. In his presentation entitled: “The challenges and opportunities of managing a recessionary economy:  The American experience” at the 2016 Hubert Humphrey Alumni Association Annual Lecture at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Lagos, the envoy says his country has survived 47 recessions. He says the Federal Government can take Nigeria out of recession with right policies. Bray, however, cautions that there is not a one-size-fits-all solution.

    When I was first asked to give this talk I wondered which American recessionary economy you wanted me to discuss – because, using the National Bureau of Economic Research’s definition of a recession, which is: “A significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than six months, normally visible in real Gross Domestic Product (GDP), including, employment, industrial production, wholesale-retail sales”, – there have been as many as 47 recessions in the United States (U.S.) since 1790.

    This morning (yesterday) I will give you a brief overview of how the U.S. Government and the American people have dealt with recessions since we began keeping track of business cycles in 1790.

    I will conclude with a summary of what one well-known U.S. think tank – the Brookings Institute – and the Democratic and Republican parties consider to be the key lessons we have learned from the 2007-2009 “Great Recession” – the most severe recession since the great depression.

    Cycles in the country’s agriculture, consumption, and business investment, and the health of the banking industry have contributed to American recessions.

    And, as the U.S. economy became increasingly intertwined with economies throughout the world, the downturns in the U.S. economy have been felt around the globe.

    Each time we have fought our way out of a recession the U.S. government and the American people have learned new lessons about the best way to get our economy on the path to recovery.

    One of the best lessons we have learned is that recessions offer governments an opportunity to make the case to the people for taking action on overdue economic reforms.  Some of our most important long-term advances in addressing economic challenges have come in the form of legislative and policy changes.

    The U.S. economy has changed beyond recognition over two centuries, but some features endure: a vigorously competitive marketplace, spurts of invention and innovation, political swings between more government regulation and less, between higher protective tariffs or other barriers and freer trade.

    When George Washington took office as the first U.S. President in 1789, eight out of 10 Americans lived on farms, mostly just feeding themselves, and the largest U.S. city, New York, had only 22,000 residents.

    At the end of the American Civil War, 76 years later, the country was split between an industrialised North and the South which had an economy based on agriculture.  By the 1880s, U.S. manufacturing and commercial output surpassed farm output in value.

    During the 19th century, there were a number of life altering inventions and innovations, including the telegraph, the telephone, the light bulb, the phonograph, and systems for distributing electric power to homes and businesses.  By the early 20th century, electric power surged throughout the U.S. economy, powering factories, promoting automated manufacturing, lighting offices and homes, illuminating department stores and movies theaters, lifting elevators in skyscrapers and powering city streetcars and subways.

    On the heels of what appeared from the outside to be a glorious time for the U.S. economy and the American people – and for many it was – debt-ridden farmers in the South and West were fighting tight credit and falling commodity prices.  Workers and businesses faced severe economic recessions in the 1870s and 1890s.

    The American worker fought back.  A short-lived Populist political party, focusing anger at wealthy financiers and industrialists, demanded lower interest rates on loans and inflationary monetary policy to let debtors repay their debts with less valuable dollars.  Workers also backed the Progressive party which forced the government to enforce antitrust laws to break up concentrations of economic power in railroads, oil, beef, and tobacco.

    For the first time, incomes taxes were collected from corporations and wealthy individuals.  And in 1913, the Federal Reserve was created, the first U.S. Central Bank chartered since 1830.

    Coming out of World War I, the U.S. and global economy flourished during the 1920s.  However, the decade ended with the crash of the stock market and the beginning of the Great Depression.

    Prices collapsed, impoverishing farms, businesses and families.   About 40 per cent of U.S. banks failed and many depositors lost their savings.

    This time, the Federal Government took the lead in fighting back.  The U.S. imposed punitive tariffs on imports, and its trading partners retaliated in kind, spreading the economic contraction around the world.  The U.S. unemployment rate approached 25 per cent.

    President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected in 1932.  He launched programmes aimed at halting the banking crisis, creating government jobs for the unemployed and raising farm prices by reducing output.

    The U.S. did not have term limits at the time, and America elected Roosevelt four times to serve as President.  A number of the initiatives started at this time have continued to the present: a minimum wage law, the Social Security retirement pension systems, regulations on banks and the stock market, and insurance on consumer bank deposits.

    The U.S. achieved a strong, economic recovery during World War II.

    A lesson that American policymakers learned during the decade of trying to restart the U.S. economy, was that one key to long-term prosperity was a world in which the economies of other nations prospered and grew.  The U.S. and other industrial nations agreed to a global monetary system that resulted in the creation in 1944 of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.

    The U.S. also played a major role in negotiating the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) which was signed by 23 nations in Geneva in 1947 and in the successor to the GATT,  The World Trade Organisation (WTO), was established in 1995, following an agreement signed by 123 nations at Marrakesh in 1994.

    All of these efforts were motivated by the hope that promoting rules-based global trade would bring greater economic stability and peace.

    After World War II, international trade and finance became ever more crucial to the U.S. economy. By the 1950s the value of farm and factory output was surpassed by the output of services such as wholesale and retail trade, finance, real estate, health, law, and education.

    From World War II until 2007, Americans experienced periods of unprecedented economic expansion and prosperity, propelled in part by the 76 million Americans born in the 1946–1964 “baby boom.” The recessions that did occur in the postwar years until 2000 were relatively short and mild by historical standards.

    An inflationary spiral began during the Johnson administration and got worse through the 1970s. During that time, President Richard Nixon had briefly imposed government wage and price controls in a failed attempt to arrest inflation. Oil shocks to the U.S. economy following the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran contributed to stagnant economic performance. The inflationary spiral did not end until the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates sharply in 1981–1982, causing a recession.

    Tax cuts and business deregulation pursued by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s marked resumption of robust economic expansion and a long rise in stock prices. Those policies also marked, however, the start of a long climb in Federal Government debt. Economists have also noted this period saw a widening income gap between the wealthiest Americans and the rest of the populace.

    California-based entrepreneurs introduced transformative computer technologies. These sparked new domestic and international consumer markets, and invigorated the U.S. economy. The raw material for semiconductors gave the California center of computing innovation the name Silicon Valley.

    The 1990s (not unlike the 1920s) saw strong economic expansion, increased prosperity and stock market speculation. When the resulting “dot com” bubble burst in 2000, the stock market crashed and the economy went through a short recession.

    Following the dot-com recession, another speculative bubble arose, this one fueled by sustained low interest rates, which distorted the U.S. real estate and home mortgage market. The overbuilt housing market crashed in 2007, followed in 2008 by a financial crisis that spread to much of the world. For the first time since the Great Depression, U.S. unemployment soared to 10 per cent in 2009, slipping only to 8.8 per cent by March 2011.

    The U.S. and other developed countries took extraordinary measures to combat the crisis. Central banks lowered interest rates close to zero, and governments borrowed more money to support economic stimulus projects and to prop up ailing banks and major industries.

    The theory was to spend as necessary to forestall another Great Depression and to repay creditors once economic growth had been restored. The recession officially dated from December 2007 to June 2009, but high unemployment persisted in the slow economic recovery.

    Discussing the effects of the Great Recession on countries other than the U.S in detail would take me beyond the scope of my talk – and we would all be here for a very long time, so to summarise:

    The U.S. recession of 2007 to 2009 had a profound effect on the global economy. Few countries remained unscathed.

    In the final months of 2008, the U.S. economy was losing nearly 800,000 jobs per month and shrinking at an annual rate of over eight per cent, and many indicators — from household wealth to the stock market – were falling faster than they were during the Great Depression.  Today, thanks to the resilience of the American people and the decisive actions of policymakers, the U.S. economy has experienced a historic turnaround.

    Not only has our economy achieved solid growth in the near term, but it has built a stronger foundation for the long-term.

  • U.S. envoy to visit Nigeria, others

    UNITED States (U.S.) Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights Sarah Sewall is scheduled to visit Nigeria from today over insurgency and others issues.

    She is scheduled to visit Chad and Cameroon between October 25 and November 3.

    The visit was announced in a statement by the U.S. Embassy in Abuja yesterday. Issues of related to civilian security with an emphasis on the fight against Boko Haram.

    Other issues that would be focused on include countering violent extremism as well as the dire humanitarian and stabilisation needs in the Lake Chad Basin region.

    “The Under Secretary will be in Nigeria to meet with representatives from government, civil society, and the international community.”

     

  • U.S. envoy to press Nigeria, South Africa, others on climate change

    A United States (U.S) Special Envoy for Climate Change, Dr. Jonathan Pershing   will on Sept. 4 begin a five-day mission to Senegal, Nigeria and South Africa to hold talks on climate change.

    A statement from the U.S state Department yesterday, said the mission would serve as an important opportunity to discuss implementation of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

    It said that the visit would advance climate and clean energy efforts with leaders across Africa ahead of 2016 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) annual climate conference, COP-22, in Marrakesh, Morocco, which would from Nov. 7 to Nov. 18.

    It said that the American Special Envoy would visit Dakar, Senegal, on Sept.4 for meetings with government officials and the civil society “to highlight our strong partnership”.

    According to the statement, it will address climate change and how it impacts coastal communities, food security, power production and inclusive economic growth.

    The statement also said that on Sept. 6, Pershing will travel to Abuja, Nigeria, for meetings with government officials and civil society to discuss climate finance and investment.

    In Nigeria, he would equally discuss youth engagement on climate change, and the importance of joining and implementing the Paris Agreement.

    It noted that the envoy would travel to Johannesburg and Pretoria on Sept. 8 for meetings with South African government officials, the private sector and the civil society.

    In South Africa, the statement said, he would discuss climate negotiations, leadership on renewable energy and priorities going into COP-22 in Marrakesh.

    The U.S and China on Saturday in Hangzhou, China, deposited their official instruments to formally join the Paris Agreement, which demonstrated their continued and shared commitment to climate leadership.

    The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon recently invited leaders from all countries to attend a special event on Sept. 21 at the UN headquarters to deposit their instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

  • Using kids for suicide bombing is pure evil, says U.S. envoy

    Using kids for suicide bombing is pure evil, says U.S. envoy

    United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power attended a Student Town Hall at the American University of Nigeria (AUN), Yola, Adamawa State. Excerpts from her remarks and question-and-answer session. 

    U.S.’s fresh plot against
    Boko Haram

    As some of you may know, I spent the past week leading a delegation of U.S. government officials around the region. We came on the request of President Obama to see firsthand how the ongoing campaign to combat Boko Haram was going, and to look at efforts to respond to the devastating impact of Boko Haram attacks. We started in Cameroon and we met even with Nigerian refugees over in Cameroon who plan to come home, want desperately to return to their communities. We also met with Cameroonian IDPs, internally displaced, who have been so affected. We then went to Chad and we are concluding our trip here in Nigeria. We met not only with government officials but with religious leaders and civil society leaders and, of course, students.

    We are trying to hear directly from the people of the countries that we are visiting to hear how the challenges posed by Boko Haram are affecting you directly. And, of course, we seek to go back to Washington and back to New York with ideas about what more we can do to support community and national efforts to deal with the effects of Boko Haram and to defeat this evil once and for all.

    My delegation includes representatives of the U.S. military, from the United Nations – from the United States, the State Department, and from the U.S. Agency for International Development. This team – military, political and diplomatic, economic and humanitarian – includes a composition that reflects our understanding of the multifaceted approach that is needed to counter violent extremism and to address the root challenges that help fuel its growth.

    I am very eager to get to the part of this discussion where you all are the ones doing the talking, but I want to briefly lay out the way we see it. And we come here having acquired a lot of experience fighting terrorism in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. Much of that experience has been very, very difficult. The environments are incredibly complex. But we have learned some lessons the hard way, and I wanted to share those lessons with you and hear from you thereafter.

    The military, as you all know, has to play a key role in combating Boko Haram, including by driving terrorists out of the territory they occupy and ensuring that properly trained security forces, who also have the necessary equipment, are in place to prevent terrorists from retaking territory once they have been driven out. That is what Boko Haram attempted to do on Monday when its fighters attacked a Nigerian army position in Kareto, Borno State, but soldiers held their ground and beat back the attack. To strengthen this military capacity, the United States is very active here in Nigeria and across the region in helping train and equip vetted units in order that they may effectively perform operations against Boko Haram.

     

    Intelligence sharing

    and human rights

     

    We are also sharing information as we gather it and working to improve coordination among the different militaries in the region because, as we all know, the terrorists are moving back and forth. They respect no boundaries, and, thus, we need to have seamless coordination among different national militaries who are trying to fight them.

    As security forces take the fight to Boko Haram, it is absolutely crucial that they respect human rights to earn and to preserve the trust of local populations. This is something we have discussed in all of our meetings with the heads of state, of Cameroon, the president of Chad, yesterday with President Buhari here in Nigeria, as well as in our interactions with the respective regional militaries.

    All of our governments who are involved in fighting terrorism must respect human rights. And when human rights abuses happen, or when civilians are intentionally killed, the perpetrators of those attacks need to be held accountable. This is the only way to convince soldiers that there will be consequences for violations of the laws of war, but it is also the only way to persuade victims that they have a chance at getting an impartial investigation if they come forward and they describe what happened to the local authorities.

    Now, I don’t have to tell you, it is absolutely clear to the entire world that the overwhelming majority of abuses in the region are committed by Boko Haram. There is no parallel in the world to the group that in 2015 alone forced at least 44 children to blow themselves up, the youngest of whom was suspected of being just eight years old. Who does that? It is pure darkness. It is pure evil. But it is precisely because Boko Haram has inflicted such profound suffering that we need to ensure that soldiers confronting them maintain the trust of local communities. That trust, citizen participation, the partnership between militaries and local people, that’s what is going to enable us collectively – you, really, with our support – to defeat Boko Haram.

    Now, I want to tell you, we have a fair amount of humility when we come to you and we discuss the importance of protecting human rights as one fights terrorism. After the terrible attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001, some in our government, in the U.S. government, embraced the dangerous rationale that they had to violate human rights in order to protect American national security. And lately, if you follow the news, you might have even heard some prominent American political candidates making similarly misguided and dangerous arguments, saying that we need to use torture to keep Americans safe. It is just wrong. We have seen the costs of these actions. As President Obama rightly said, they were, as he put it, not only inconsistent with our values as a nation, they did not serve our broader counterterrorism efforts or our national security interests.

    As we have learned throughout our history, cutting corners on human rights ultimately makes us less, and not more, safe. I want to stress, the United States stands with Nigeria, and we will support you as you defeat Boko Haram. We will also support you as you promote not only the security but the dignity and prosperity of people in the region.

     

    Three ingredients key

    to ending Boko Haram

     

    And I would just like to discuss three more steps that I think we need to take together, three more ingredients that are key to ending the scourge of Boko Haram. First, and again, all of you know this, we need a humanitarian response that is commensurate with the scale of the current crisis. You all know the numbers; you live the numbers. The violence has killed thousands and displaced more than 2.5 million people here. In Nigeria, it is estimated that more than 90 percent of those displaced by Boko Haram are living with relatives and friends. Think about that. It is hard to imagine a greater testament to the hearts of the Nigerian people, to the generosity of the Nigerian people, than the fact that so many have opened their homes to those who have been uprooted. This is a really unusual phenomenon of having 90 percent of the displaced sheltered by other families.

    At the same time, this statistic also shows the ripple effect of the violence and instability wrought by Boko Haram, ripples that are felt way beyond the communities directly affected. And you have seen it here in Yola where, as a result of mass displacement caused by this conflict, the population has doubled. And like so many Nigerians, your university community has stepped up in heroic ways. Working together with local religious leaders, the university has provided food and other basic supplies for thousands of people. At one point, a university security guard, Kamai Tumba, was hosting some 50 members of his extended family. Now, if you all see Kamai around, you give him a high-five for me because that is extraordinary. Fifty.

    Students, including some in the audience today, began volunteering in the Malkohi camp, which I visited earlier today. One group of volunteers helped set up a virtual network to help displaced people find loved ones who had fled to other parts of the country. Some of these volunteers were in Malkohi on September 11, 2015, when a Boko Haram bombing there killed seven people and wounded many more, including several students at this very university. It speaks to the courage and the compassion of AUN students that so many of you continue to volunteer in this camp to this very day.

    But even with the tremendous generosity of Nigerian families and communities like yours, the needs here and in the broader region are still overwhelming. To this end, I was pleased to be able to announce during this trip on behalf of my delegation and President Obama, that the United States will provide nearly $40 million more in new humanitarian assistance to the countries in the Lake Chad basin, bringing our total humanitarian contributions  – to $237 million.

    Significant as these numbers are and as these contributions are, the UN’s humanitarian appeal to help those in need in the region in 2016 is only 13-percent funded – 13 percent for the needs that you know so well. Unless that shortfall, which is massive, is filled and filled soon, people are not going to get the food, the medicine, and the other vital aid that they need to survive. So when I return to the United Nations in New York, I plan to deliver an urgent message to other UN member states that we need together to do much more to support Nigeria and other affected countries in responding to this immense crisis.

    The second way we have to supplement the military response to Boko Haram is by tackling the longstanding poverty and inequality that existed long before this terrorist group emerged. The northeast has the higher infant mortality rate in the country, with one death every 10 births. The male literacy rate is 18 percent, the female literacy rate, 15 percent. It is for that reason that the U.S. government is supporting projects like Technology Enhanced Learning for All, TELA, here in Adamawa state.

    As some of you know, the TELA programme aims to teach kids who are displaced, orphaned, homeless, or otherwise unable to go to school. It aims to teach them basic literacy and numeracy, primarily using radio broadcasts. The project has trained 750 facilitators from around the state, each of whom was given a radio, a set of workbooks, and other school supplies. Twice a week the facilitators convene kids in their communities to hear a short radio broadcast, following along in their workbooks as they listen. Your university has been central to this. TELA’s 750 facilitators were trained right here on your campus, and its curriculum was developed by a team led by today’s moderator, Dr. Jacob.

    When, recently, a facilitator couldn’t make it to host a class, the kids in his neighborhood went house to house until they found someone who would lend them a radio. And when the kids couldn’t get a clear signal with that radio, they made an antenna out of a coat hanger. That is how hungry children are in your community to learn, and it is an inspiration for all of us who get to engage with you and witness this. It’s amazing.

    This brings me to the third key ingredient in confronting the threat posed by Boko Haram, and that is building the inclusive, accountable, and rights-respecting institutions that will improve the foundation for good governance and economic growth. This is the long game in countering violent extremism, one that will require tackling what President Buhari has called the biggest monster of all – you know what this is? Corruption. They will also require embracing the vibrant civil society groups in the region and recognizing that their criticism, while difficult to hear, is a crucial part of making democracies like ours stronger.

    And it will require knocking down the enduring barriers to opportunity faced by women and girls because as we know, societies where women enjoy equal rights and equal opportunities are, on average, more prosperous, healthier, more democratic, and more peaceful.

    The job of building inclusive communities cannot be left to government alone. You can build it right here in your community. You are. And this is the challenge I’d like to close my remarks with today. You can help repair and, where necessary, rebuild the fabric of your communities which have been ripped apart by violence and fear. This fear is understandable. How can you tell a young girl who was abducted and forced to choose between marrying a terrorist or being killed – how can you tell her not to be haunted by the fear? What she’s going through is unimaginable. How can you tell a young boy who watched helplessly as his village was burned down and is forced to choose between fighting in Boko Haram and being killed – how can you tell them not to be consumed by hatred? These challenges are so daunting, the pain and the scars and the wounds and the trauma so deep.

     

    Michika now divided

     

    We have seen how such fear can divide communities who have long lived side-by-side and worked together, like these religious leaders. Consider the town of Michika in the north of this state, which used to have just a single market day. Since the town was liberated by Boko Haram last year, Michika’s residents are so divided that residents now hold two market days, one for Christians on Saturdays and one for Muslims on Sundays, an arrangement that is worse for merchants and worse for consumers. Consider the abducted boys and girls who’ve been freed or who managed to escape, only to find that their own communities can treat them sometimes with suspicion and distrust or turn them away, calling them a nobody, contagion.

    Those are the kinds of fears you can and must work together to dispel by rebuilding inclusive communities from the ground up. That is what the Adamawa Peace Initiative is doing, by bringing together Christian and Muslim leaders in Yola, several of whom are here with us. They provide a living model of interfaith cooperation, and they diffuse tensions when they flare up. It is what your university is doing by welcoming 24 young women from Chibok who escaped Boko Haram, mentoring them in their studies and showing that they should be embraced.

    Every student volunteer you have who goes out and helps rebuild the communal bonds that Boko Haram has sought to sever, whether it’s by taking in displaced families or coming up with a lesson plan for kids, these volunteers, they’re changing the world. They are a critical piece of the fight against Boko Haram. They are doing everything that is Boko Haram’s opposite. And terrorism will be defeated by active kindness, active reconciliation, active trust. Your communities and your nations are looking to you to take up that work in an unimaginably challenging time. We will be with you always. We will be with you to the very end, and the sky is the limit to the partnership between the American and the Nigerian people. And we will do everything in our power as a government to support your efforts to put this horrible chapter behind you.

     

    Nigeria and

    regional conflicts

     

    We really want Nigeria to be a part of the solution when it comes to regional conflicts and potential atrocities. And this is an additional reason that we are investing in training and equipping the Nigerian military. We know you have your hands full here, and the Boko Haram priority is a huge priority for all of us. But Nigeria in the past has played a really important role in terms of regional security and stabilisation, and once we have defeated Boko Haram, we look forward to Nigerians continuing to lead all around the world to protect civilians.

     

     

     

  • Transparency crucial to stop corruption – US envoy 

    Transparency crucial to stop corruption – US envoy 

    The federal government can run a more effective anti-corruption crusade if it goes about it in a more transparent way, the Deputy Public Affairs Officer, United States Consulate-General Lagos, Mr. Frank Sellin, said Tuesday.

    Delivering the lead speech at a Media Tweet-a-thon organised by International Press Centre (IPC) with the theme: International best practices in transparency in government and the role of the media, Sellin called for the protection of whistleblowers and provision of the right tools for anti-graft agencies.

    He said: “Transparency is a crucial way to break the chain of corruption. That’s why the US government strongly supports open government.

    “Governments become unstable when they muzzle the media. They become blind to the problems of the people and the solutions.

    Sellin added that corruption affects all countries and Nigeria has to look for its own formula to tackle it.

    One such formula is to make government accountable to the people.

    He said: “When governments don’t answer questions, people will talk about it anyway. Silence encourages speculation without facts.”

    The consular officer recommended that the government should do all it can to defend media and judicial independence as well as limit secrecy.

    “Bad governments,” Sellin said, “survive in the dark.”

    One of the lead discussants at the event, Mr. Martins Oloja, Editor, Guardian Newspaper, said governments tend to hide things, so journalists must stay vigilant.

    He lamented that most of the publications in the media about the $2.1billion arms scandal are based on information released by the government and not what the media obtained by investigation.

    “The health of a democracy depends on the amount of quality information available to the citizenry.”

    Emphasising the place of funding in journalism, Oloja added: “There can be no editorial independence without financial independence.”
    The Director of IPC, Mr. Lanre Arogundade, who delivered the welcome and closing remarks, said the media tweet conference marks the commencement of a one-year Media and Transparency Watch project.

    He challenged the media to go beyond the mere reporting of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC’s) “dramatic arrests to look at the inadequacies in our institutional and legislative frameworks that make it easy for politicians to have unrestrained access to the public treasury and bleed it dry.”

    Mrs. Bimbo Oyetunde, who represented the Chairman, Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) Lagos State Council, said the Mr. Waheed Odusile-led NUJ will collaborate with publishers to solve the issue of poor welfare of journalists.

    “The NUJ will also introduce a re-certification of journalists; journalists must have a minimum of Ordinary National Diploma (OND),” she added.

  • U.S. envoy seeks viable military action to stop Boko Haram

    U.S. envoy seeks viable military action to stop Boko Haram

    United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) Ambassador Samantha Power said yesterday that Nigeria needed a viable military action to end Boko Haram.

    The African Media Hub of the U.S. Department of State, in a statement, said Power also called for a regional strategy to disrupt Boko Haram’s hideouts, weapons’ flow and means of recruitment.

    “The repeated attacks by Boko Haram, which have killed 27 in the Lake Chad region, require viable military action and a wider regional strategy to disrupt their safe havens, weapons’ flow and recruitment.

    “It’s also essential that the socio-economic conditions areas being exploited by Boko Haram be addressed and that their dire humanitarian conditions be addressed as well,’’ it said.

    The statement also said it was imperative for government to ensure that the rule of law was returned to the affected parts of the Northeast.

    It added that the U.S. envoy stressed the importance of “decisively combating and defeating armed groups” in Nigeria.

    The statement added that the perpetrators of violence and terrorism in the country needed to be held accountable while the internally displaced persons (IDPs) kept in safe places.

    “It is really important for leaders to begin to look at the welfare of their societies.

    “They should ensure stability and inclusive governance to ensure that basic dignity and human rights are protected,’’ it said.