The Nation Newspaper

Tag: United States

  • Congress probes Obama over Trump’s phone tapping

    Congress probes Obama over Trump’s phone tapping

    The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Intelligence said it would probe former President Barack Obama’s administration over alleged tapping into the phones and computer servers of President Donald Trump and campaign officials.

    The Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, said on Sunday in a statement that his panel will investigate wiretapping allegations made by Trump against Obama. The wiretapping was alleged by Trump to have occurred during the 2016 presidential campaigns.

    “One of the focus points of the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation is the U.S. government’s response to actions taken by Russian intelligence agents during the presidential campaign.

    “As such, the Committee will make inquiries into whether the government was conducting surveillance activities on any political party’s campaign officials or surrogates, and we will continue to investigate this issue if the evidence warrants it.”

    The White House on Sunday demanded that Congress examine Trump’s allegations that his predecessor conducted surveillance in Trump Tower to determine whether campaign operatives had contacts with the Russians during the election.

    White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said: “Reports concerning potentially politically motivated investigations immediately ahead of the 2016 election are very troubling.

    “President Donald J. Trump is requesting that as part of their investigation into Russian activity, the congressional intelligence committees exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016.”

    Obama has, however, denied that he ordered any such wiretaps. (NAN)

  • US plans $1 billion investment on Nigeria power projects

    United States has committed approximately $6.5 million in funding energy projects in the country.

    With another $1 billion investment on power projects is already in the pipeline, under the Power Africa in Nigeria, it was also learnt.

    Mr. Andrew Herscowitz, Power Africa Coordinator made the disclosure Tuesday at the opening of the two day Distribution Company Workshop in Abuja.

    Herscowitz also disclosed that a functional power distribution companies are critical to the development of the country.

    Power Africa is a U.S government led initiative launched by President Barack Obama in 2013 to increase electricity access in sub-Saharan Africa by adding more than 30,000 megawatts of cleaner, more efficient energy development in sub-Saharan Africa and to unlock the substantial wind, solar, hydropower, natural gas, biomass, and geothermal resources on the continent.

    He said, “Since Power Africa was launched, USTDA has committed approximately $6.5 million in funding for 10 activities supporting Nigeria’s energy sector, which could leverage up to $2.7 billion in investment.

    “$50 million in financing from the Oversea Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) to Lumos to scale up it’s off grid solar power service to about 200,000 Nigerian homes and businesses. $1 billion in project pipeline.”

    Power Africa has supported power companies in the country to the tune of $100 million capital expenditure credit enhancement facility with a corresponding $6.5 million in technical assistance and another r$1.5 million for limited commodity to turn around the DISCOS.

    He explained that, “Well functioning DISCOs are critical to the delivery of electricity in Nigeria. If the DISCOs do not work, the energy sector as a whole does not work.

    “Nigeria, like any country, needs to see capital flowing through the entire energy value chain, if there is no money for distribution, there’s no payment to electricity generators, and very little incentive for private sector investment.”

    Power Africa coordinator also assured that the project will continue as part of the partnership between both partners.

    “I want to stress that Power Africa will continue our work in Nigeria and across sub-Saharan Africa to increase access to electricity. The U.S government’s commitment to Africa’s growth and development remains strong, as was outlined in last year’s bipartisan electricity Africa Act,” he said.

  • Obama’s year-end message: I have done well as president

    Obama’s year-end message: I have done well as president

    Outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama has given himself a pass mark, telling Americans that he has done well in office as president in the last eight years.

    Obama, who made the remarks in his final press conference of the year, justified his actions on issues ranging from the economy to Syria, and from the Russia hacking scandal to the passage of Obamacare.

    “I am very proud of the work I’ve done. I think I’m a better president now than when I started,” Obama said.

    The president said his administration is a historic success, in spite of a rough beginning.

    “When I came into office, 44 million people were uninsured. Today, we have covered more than 20 million of them. For the first time in our history, more than 90 per cent of Americans are insured.”

    The President recalled the economic turmoil raging when he took office in the teeth of the worst recession in decades in 2009.

    “As I was preparing to take office, the unemployment rate was on its way to 10 per cent. Today it is at 4.6 per cent, the lowest in nearly a decade.”

    Obama also rrcalled, for the umpteenth time, the slaying of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and noted that he had brought 165,000 troops home.

    “What I can say with confidence is that what we’ve done works. That I can prove.

    “I can show you where we were in 2008 and I can show you where we are now. And you can’t argue that we are not better off. We are,” the two-term U.S. president said.

    Obama explained that he had always had the best of motives and that where he had failed, it was often owing to a lack of better choices.

    He noted the helpless horror at the human carnage in Aleppo, and admitted that he agonised over Syria more than any other issue.

    “I always feel responsible. There are places around the world where horrible things are happening and because of my office, because I’m President of the United States, I feel responsible.

    “I ask myself every single day, ‘Is there something I could do that would save lives and make a difference and spare some child who doesn’t deserve to suffer?’”

    Obama, however, believed only a massive deployment by an already exhausted American military could have turned the tide.

    According to him, the only choice, therefore, was to use diplomacy to stem the bloodletting.

    “I cannot claim that we have been successful. That’s something that, as is true with a lot of issues and problems around the world, I have to go to bed with every night.

    “But I continue to believe that it was the right approach given what realistically we could get done,” he said.

    Obama also rebuffed criticism that he had been slow to respond to allegations of Russian cyber-meddling in the presidential election.

    “My primary concern was making sure that the integrity of the election process was not in any way damaged, at a time when anything that was said by me or anybody in the White House would immediately be seen through a partisan lens,” Obama explained.

    The outgoing U.S. President also made reference to Russia meddling in the U.S. election.

    He said when he met Putin in China in September, he told him to “cut it out” and pledged to hit Russia in public and covert ways before he leaves office on Jan. 20, 2017.

    He expressed dissatisfaction with the Republicans who opposed him, the press who he said overly dwelt in trivialities and the coarsening of political culture.

    He expressed contempt for the Republicans who are now ready to accept Trump’s admiration of Putin.

    “Ronald Reagan would roll over in his grave,” he said.

    He lashed out at Putin and Assad for “savage” assaults on Aleppo and was particularly disdainful of Russia itself.

    “The Russians can’t change us or significantly weaken us. They are a smaller country, they are a weaker country, their economy doesn’t produce anything that anybody wants to buy except oil and gas and arms. They don’t innovate.”

    Obama said that the coverage of Hillary Clinton during the campaign was troubling, noting, however, that Democrats need to show up where people are hurting.

    “Democrats are characterised as coastal, liberal, latte-sipping, you know, politically correct, out-of-touch folks. We have to be in those communities.”

    The President also denied tensions between him and Trump, as his own aides and those of the President-elect spar over the Russia hacking of emails belonging to the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

    He said China would not stand for the President-elect’s warning that the status of Taiwan could be on the table in his “increasingly acrimonious relationship” with Beijing.

    Obama warned Trump that there was a difference between campaigning and being President, adding it was a reality that Trump has yet to embrace.

    He said: “I think there is a sobering process when you walk into the Oval Office,” Obama said.

    “What the President-elect is going to be doing is going to be very different than what I was doing and I think people will be able to compare and contrast and make judgments about what worked for the American people.” (NAN)

  • Nigerians need not panic over Donald Trump’s presidency — Ministry

    Nigerians need not panic over Donald Trump’s presidency — Ministry

    The new Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Sola Enikanolaiye, on Sunday assured Nigerians that Donald Trump’s presidency would not disrupt the U. S. and Nigeria’s long-existing relations.

    Enikanolaiye told the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) in Lagos that there was no need for Nigerians to be agitated over Trump’s presidency.

    The permanent secretary expressed optimism that the long existing relations between Nigeria and the U. S. would be strengthened in the years ahead.

    “We do not think that Donald Trump’s presidency would lead to a disruption in the relations between Nigeria and the United States.

    “The United States and Nigeria have had excellent relations since the attainment of Nigeria’s Independence.

    “And under every government in the U. S, whether Republican or Democrat, we have always had cordial relations.

    “So, we do not think that this already existing relations between Nigeria and the U. S. would necessarily be altered under the U. S. President-Elect Donald Trump,’’ he said.

    The permanent secretary, however, said that Nigeria would not be naive to be caught unawares by any future eventualities.

    Enikanolaiye said that ahead of eventualities, his Ministry would on Monday, Nov. 28, hold a special retreat in Abuja, to deliberate on some of Trump’s rhetorics during his campaigns.

    “Given the President-elect’s rhetorics during his campaigns and election, we would not be naive not to prepare for these eventualities.

    “We have, therefore, decided to organise a special retreat on Monday, Nov. 28, in Abuja.

    “This retreat would give major foreign policy stakeholders the opportunity to deliberate on what Trump has said and advise government on how best to respond to this,’’ he said.

    Enikanolaiye recalled that Nigeria had excellent relations with the administration of the outgoing president Barack Obama in different areas, including economic ties, deepening of Nigeria’s democracy and other areas.

  • Where is the United States that I used to know?

    Now the hurly-burly’s done
    The battle has been won and lost
    (Adapted from Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act 1, scene 1, 4-5)

    This piece was going to be written irrespective of the outcome of the elections. In fact, it is being written two days before the election because the outcome is irrelevant to the core message of the article. In a war fought without restraint, where all available weapons, nuclear, thermonuclear, biological, etc. were deployed, there can be no victors, only the vanquished, and that means the whole of humanity.

    This election did not create the American ugliness that the whole world has been exposed to. That ugliness has always been there. What masked this ugliness was a consensus (some might say a conspiracy) among the elite and the mainstream media to filter out the ugliness and present to the world an image of the United States characterised by the Kennedys, the Obamas, the Georgetown set, the Harvard-Cambridge set. Buried out of sight were Appalachia, rural Alabama, rural Mississippi, rednecks, various white militias etc. The political system filtered out the flotsam and jetsam of the political actors and presented to the world the Bush family, the Kennedys, Jimmy Carters, Nixons, Kerrys, McCains etc. and pretended that the racists and the fascists did not exist in the United States. Then along came Donald Trump and the world came face to face with a modern-day Hitler and felt what the world must have felt in the 1930s when the original Hitler came along. The modern-day Hitler has demonised every minority including women, immigrants, African-Americans, Jews, Moslems etc. And by the way, why has the International Criminal Court been silent about the hate campaign that has been mounted by Donald Trump? If this were taking place in an African country, the ICC would have taken to a megaphone to issue dire warnings and threats of prosecution.

    That a Trump surfaced in the United States is not the issue here. In fact a Trump is not an aberration in American politics. Until the 1980s, most of the Southern Governors and Senators were rabid racists who today would belong in the dock for crimes against humanity. That is the cesspool from where Trump emerged.

    The wording of the title of this article shows there was once an America that I admired so much. My first trip to the United States was in 1962. I fell in love with that country. I admired the friendliness of the people and I found the can-do-attitude of Americans infectious. All in all, I spent five years there. I was not blind to the faults of the United States. After all, it was and is a nation of human beings. And that means it was not a perfect nation. But I found also a nation that recognised the need to do better and to work at addressing the injustices of their society. And so where have all the flowers gone?

    My main concern in this article is why did the flowers go and why has this cesspool become main street and mainstream now. As I write this, the public opinion polls give Trump 43%. If Clinton wins the election, everyone would let out a huge sigh of relief or maybe I should say a huge bellow of relief and proclaim that the system worked. This would be a terrible mistake. In the German 1932 elections, Hindenburg won 49% of the votes while Hitler won 30% of the votes. And yet by January 1963, Hitler had become the Chancellor of Germany.

    Why the Trump phenomenon will not be a flash in the pan is because the phenomenon is a manifestation of a protest vote against a declining status of the United States in the world. I did not say that the United States is no longer a superpower but the United States does not call the shots as she used to. As long as the United States called the shots in the world, as long as American goods flooded the world, as long as the United States through a Pax-Americana bestrode the world like a colossus, mainstream United States was predictable and favoured.

    But the times are a’ changing as Bob Dylan the American iconic folk-singer who is the latest Nobel Literature Prize winner titled one of his songs. There are new rising kids such as China on the block and a resurgent Russia is snapping at the heels. Unlike in the past where the prosperity of America was based on the exploitation of the rest of the world , the rest of the world, by accepting lower wages have cornered the industrial landscape of the world which has led to loss of jobs and industrial output and those artificial high standards of leaving that America was once used to.

    Scholars of international relations are all agreed that the most dangerous time for the international system is when a descending power confronts an ascending power. There is a school of analytical thought which maintains that World War 1 and World War 11 occurred when an ascending Germany collided with the descending powers of France and Great Britain.

    What is playing out in the United States is how the United States confronts its status as a declining world power having to deal with an ascending Chinese power and an increasingly assertive Russian power.

    The Trump phenomenon will not go away irrespective of what happened on November 8. That is what disturbs and frightens me. Is the United States going to graciously accept a new and complex international system where the United States does not call the shots alone or is the United States through the Trumps of America be prepared to bring down the world on all our heads? The answer my friend is blowing in the wind.

    A postscript to the 2016 United States election is my expectation that from now on, there will be less hubris from the United States diplomatic representatives in lecturing others about how to conduct themselves in electoral matters. Of course, I doubt this. Arrogance has longevity of its own. Power and arrogance go together.

    Another postscript is the statement credited to Donald Trump that he would only consider the election free only if he won. What a third world mentality from the United States.

    America needs help. The biggest test for the United States is whether the United States will realise this and accept the help. The biggest help will have to come from the United States itself. The good news is that the United States has this uncanny ability to reinvent itself and do so successfully. And she has done so before. In the 1930s, the United States like the rest of the world was hit with a depression that drove Germany, Spain, Italy and others into fascism. The United States was fortunate to have had Frankling D. Roosevelt, the right man in the right place at the right time. He led the United States back to prosperity without turning her back on democracy.

    Hopefully, Hilary Clinton will prove to be another Franklin Delano Roosevelt who will ensure that America will show grace under pressure.

     

    • Professor Akinyemi is a former minister of external affairs

  • US restates commitment to fighting human trafficking

    The United States on Wednesday restated its commitment to fighting all forms of human trafficking globally.

    Mr Gil Kerlikowske, United States Commissioner for Customs and Border Protection, made in a tel-conferencing transcript with journalists across Africa watched in Lagos.

    “President Obama has made this a singularly important issue and has described human trafficking as modern day slavery.

    “And we have detected those instances here in the United States and at our borders also.

    “We have realised the need to address the current problem of human trafficking. Some people only perceive it or see it as sex trafficking.

    “And yet we know there are a number of other violations of the human spirit when it comes to trafficking in persons’’, he said.

    He added that the Department of Homeland Security and Border Protection would soon launch a ‘Blue Campaign’ that would educate people in different countries on what really constituted human trafficking.

    Kerlikowske also expressed his government’s readiness to work closely with African governments in reducing problems of human trafficking and wildlife exploitation.

    “We also know how significant tourism and visits to Africa are, particularly people that want to see these wildlife in their natural habitat.

    “And when they are being hunted down and being poached, it creates a very, very harsh economic climate when it comes to tourism’’, he said

     

  • Lessons from United States presidential debate

    SIR: It was fascinating to watch the first presidential debate leading to the election for office of President of the United States scheduled for November. Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton went with the dictate of their conscience in their campaign. It takes big picture players in today’s world to say what they truly believe in without bowing down to group-philosophy.

    Even though Trump scored less than Hillary in my estimation, he scored high for me in the area of the massive responsibility that the US takes charge of, babying countries around the world, defending the world, funding NATO mostly single-handedly, without appreciation to the US and reciprocated responsibility by some of these countries that love to settle account with the US.

    Did you see Trump in the spin room backstage after the debate? He believes in himself so much not minding whether the establishment loves him or not. But the establishment needs to follow Reagan’s advice “elect your colleagues and support the party.”

    But Clinton was strong on cooperation with members of the international community, international diplomacy, race relations within, taxes and job creation. She was so strong that she boxed Trump who became entrammelled in his past challenges and could only respond to them instead of articulating well-oiled policies.

    It is hard to tell who will win the election in November at this stage. After all Ronald Reagan’s career got boosted not before but only after his superb nomination of Gerald Ford at the 1976 RNC and again not against Jimmy Carter but against Walter Mondale – at a time when his popularity was becoming a liability.

    But unlike at the US presidential debates where belief and principles towered above all for country, in Nigeria at political campaign rallies, I see party henchmen on national television dancing seriously on-stage before the delivery of basic promissory speeches to party members and electorate. It doesn’t seem like democracy is our forte.

    Why should politicians be grinning from ear-to-ear and dancing in the midst of a recession?

    Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton pledged to accept the outcome of the election. In Nigeria, a peace committee must be put up, and agreement to accept the outcome of elections must be signed and a super power nearby to broker peace if it is elusive after elections. Many times, even after peace pacts they must continue to oil their gunnery for wars.

    In Nigeria, there is nothing to show that there is an ideological push into the regions after elections, they quarrel perennially on all issues.

    The Jews in America belong to both political parties (Democratic and Republican), yet in most regions in Nigeria, we hold on to the ethos and bathos of one political party bowing down to forces of partisan group-think.

    The United Nations Convention for the right of the child is gender-neutral and girls need not be discriminated against due to their unsought for gender over which they do not have any control but discrimination against girls is a religion in Nigeria. If Hillary Clinton were a Nigerian, she would never have been the front-runner of a major political party. Not only would she have been discriminated against by men but by women-folk in Nigeria.

    Its time our politicians began to promote inclusive democracy and refrain from creating chasms and alienating people and belly-aching the establishment and rocking the national boat.

     

    • Simon Abah,

    Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

  • 41 Nigerians deported from U.S

    41 Nigerians deported from U.S

    At least 41 Nigerians were on Wednesday deported from the United States for drug,  police and immigration related offences.

    The deportees,  all males according to Immigration sources were flown in aboard a chartered aircraft operated by Miami Air International marked with registration number N733MA, which arrived the Lagos international airport at 12.20pm.

    According to the source nine of the deportees were brought back for drug offences,  26 for police offences while six had immigration related problems.

    Only last week about 163 Nigerians stranded in Libya voluntarily returned home.

     

  • Alleged travel ban: Fayose petitions NHRC, UN, others

    Alleged travel ban: Fayose petitions NHRC, UN, others

    Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose has petitioned the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) over claim that the Federal Government has placed travel ban on him.

    The petition filed on his behalf by the state’s House of Assembly also complained about the alleged refusal of an agent of the Fed Govt, the Department of State Services (DSS) to obey a Federal High Court judgment, ordering it to pay N5 million damages on the illegal arrest and detention for 18 days of a member of the House, Afolabi Akanni.

    The National Assembly, Amnesty International, Embassies of the United States and the United Kingdom were also copied with the petition.

    Fayose had recently written to Chinese government, urging it to refuse financial aid to the Nigerian government.

    The petition signed by the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Kolawole Oluwawole, was submitted Tuesday in Abuja, to NHRC’s Executive Secretary, Professor Bem Angwe, who assured that his commission will investigate the petition.

    The Deputy Speaker, Ekiti State House of Assembly, Segun Adewumi who submitted the petition, was accompanied by the Chairman, House Committee on Information, Gboyega Aribisogan and Chairman House Committee on Health, Dr Samuel Omotoso.

    The petition reads; “We write to bring to your attention another impending infringement on the rights of the Governor of our State, Mr Ayodele Fayose and by extension the entire Ekiti by the Federal Government.

    “A few weeks ago, our governor was reliably informed that President Mohammadu Buhari had directed that he should be banned from traveling outside Nigeria. This reliable information was to be confirmed through reports in two major national dailies on Sunday, May 29, 2016 titled; ‘2 govs under watch, face travel

    “From our findings, one of the governors being referred to is our own governor, Peter Ayodele Fayose and we wish to state like we have always done that we, the members of Ekiti State House of Assembly are with the governor on everything that he does.

    “Even ordinary Nigerians do not require clearance from the Department of State Services (DSS) or any security agency to travel outside Nigeria unless in compliance with court order, and as at today, there is no court order placing travel restriction on our governor, Ayodele Fayose. Issues concerning Governor Fayose cannot even be entertained in any court by virtue of the immunity he enjoys as provided in Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

    “We however know as always that this latest plot is as a result of our governor’s critical stance on President Mohammadu Buhari’s government and its anti-people’s policies, and we make bold to say that no amount of intimidation, harassment and oppression will cowed the governor from exercising his fundamental rights to freedom of expression and to hold opinions as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended).

    “We are aware that this is coming as a result of the failure of the President Buhari led APC government’s plot to use the DSS to coerce the House of Assembly members into the plot of removing the governor.

    “We are also aware that plot to out-rightly take the governor ‘out of circulation’ cannot be ruled out as those advising President Buhari are said to be of the opinion that our governor has become a threat to his (Buhari) re-election bid and that everything must be done to ‘whip the governor to line’ before 2018.

    “Going by the antecedents of the President Buhari-led Federal Government of Nigeria and the DSS under the President’s kinsman, Alhaji Lawal Daura, it is certain that there is nothing that cannot be attempted, no matter how unlawful.

    “It should be recalled that this same DSS invaded the hallowed Chamber of the House of Assembly in our State, abducted our member, Hon Afolabi Akanni and kept him in detention for 18 days without access to anyone. Even when the court ordered that he should be released, the order was ignore. Up till today, no explanation was given for this arrest and detention.

    “It should also be recalled that on April 20th, 2016, the Federal High Court, Ado-Ekiti, in Suit No. FHC/AD/CS/7/2016 ordered the DSS to pay a sum of N5 million to Hon Afolabi Akanni as damages for what the court termed unlawful, illegal and unconstitutional infringement of his fundamental rights. Up till today, that judgment has not been obeyed by the DSS.

    “It is therefore on the premise of display of arrogance and contempt for the laws of the country by the DSS under President Buhari that we elected to bring this latest plot to place Governor Ayodele Fayose on travel ban to your attention.

    “It is worrisome that the federal government will consider the idea of compelling a sitting governor in Nigeria that enjoys Constitutional Immunity like the President to obtain clearance from the Director General DSS, who is an appointee of the President before travelling out of Nigeria.

    “This to us is an affront on the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended) more so that States, as federating units in Nigeria are not under the Federal Government, which itself is also a State and not superior to other federating units.

    “Section 35 (1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) provides that; ‘Every person shall be entitled to his personal liberty and no person shall be deprived of such liberty,’ Section 39 (1) provides that; ‘Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impact ideas and information without interference,’ while Section 41 (1) provides that ‘Every citizen of Nigeria is entitled to move freely throughout Nigeria and to reside in any part thereof, and no citizen of Nigeria shall be expelled from Nigeria or refused entry thereto or exit therefrom.’

    “Article 13 (1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which Nigeria is a signatory provides that “Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the border of each State while Article 13 (2) provides that ‘Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and return to his country,’ ditto Article 12 (2) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

    “By provisions of the Constitution of Nigeria, ordinary Nigerians do not require clearance from the DSS or any security agency to travel outside Nigeria unless travel restriction is placed by an order of the court, not to talk of State Governors that enjoy immunity just like the President and are not under the control of the President.

    “Our question is; if Governor Fayose has become a threat to the security of Nigeria just because he criticises President Buhari and says the truth about his mis-governance of the country, what happens to Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended), which provided for freedom of expression and freedom to hold opinions?

    “Most importantly, under a federal system of government, the states and national government both enjoy some autonomy, with sovereign power formally divided between the national government and the States such that each State retains some degree of control over its internal affairs.

    “However, it appears that the laws of Nigeria are not important to the President Mohammadu Buhari led government and it has become once again necessary that webring your attention to yet, another plot to subvert our rights as a State.

    “We wish to recall that in 1984 when President Buhari was a military Head of State, late Chief Obafemi Awolowo was prevented from travelling outside Nigeria for medical treatment, thereby leading to his (Awolowo) untimely death in 1987.

    “The international passports of late Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade; late Emir of Kano Alhaji Ado Bayero and late Obi of Onitsha, Ofala Akulalia Alphonsus Ogugua were also seized and they were restricted to their palaces just because they travelled to Israel for business.

    “We therefore wish to state on behalf of Governor Ayodele Fayose that as an opposition figure, he cannot be cowed by this pettiness from the presidency.”

    Angwe commended members of the House of Assembly for their commitment to the sustenance of rule of law in the country and cooperation with the executive arm of government in Ekiti State.

  • US Consulate welcomes questions on student visas

    The United States Consulate-General in Lagos on Thursday announced plans to host a ‘’Google Hangout’’ that will respond to questions from the public on U.S. student visa application processes.

    The Consulate’s Public Affairs Section said in a statement that a Google Hangout slated for April 26, at 3:00 p.m., would also respond to questions on living and studying in the U.S.

    According to the statement, the google hangout is being organised to dispel misunderstandings and rumour about the process for applying for
    U.S. study visas.

    “The Consulate General in Lagos will host a Google Hangout on Tuesday, April 26, 2016, at 3:00 p.m., to respond to questions from the
    public on student visa application processes.

    “This upcoming session is being organised with a view to dispelling myths and rumour about applying to study in the U.S.’’ it said.

    The statement said that the session was a follow-up to the one held in August 2015, which attracted questions from thousands of Nigerians at
    home and abroad.

    It said that this year’s one hour session would be moderated by an On-Air-Personality, Rufai Oseni of Inspiration 92.3 FM, with questions
    directed to two Amercan Consular Officers.

    The statement said that an EducationUSA Advisor would also be on hand to share practical information on the process of obtaining a U.S.
    student visa.

    It advised interested Nigerians and other nationals to tune in to the Live Broadcast via the event page, https://goo.gl/c6k2h7, or log on to
    the U.S. Embassy’s Google+ Profile, (https://goo.gl/c3Zts5).

    The statement also enjoined interested persons to use the YouTube channel, (http://www.youtube.com/USEmbassyNigeria). (NAN)