Fulham manager, Marco Silva has nothing but praises for Alex Iwobi after the Nigerian opened his goal account for the club against Norwich City on Wednesday night.

Iwobi was handed his first start in the Carabao Cup third-round fixture.

The Nigeria international put up a good display in the game and was on target for the Cottagers in the 72nd minute following a brilliant pass from Harry Wilson.

Silva showered encomium on the player after the game.

“As you know, he’s a player that I know really well. I was responsible for him signing for Everton as well,” Silva told Fulham’s official website.

“A player that I know what he can do for ourselves in many different positions on the pitch.

“He has quality, he’s dynamic, and his energy, as well, means he’s going to be another important player for us.”

Fulham will face Chelsea in a Premier League game next Monday.

[DailyPost]

Burkina Faso said on Thursday that four officers had been detained, a day after the military government announced it had thwarted a coup attempt.

The four are suspected of involvement in a “conspiracy against state security”, military prosecutor Ahmed Ferdinand Sountoura said in a statement seen by AFP on Thursday.

Two others are “on the run” according to the statement.

The junta said late on Wednesday that the intelligence and security services had foiled a coup attempt the previous day.

The military government said it would seek to shed “all possible light on this plot”.

It comes nearly a year to the day since junta leader Captain Ibrahim Traore seized power in the West African nation on September 30, 2022.

His takeover was the country’s second coup in eight months — both triggered in part by discontent at failures to stem a raging jihadist insurgency, which swept in from neighbouring Mali in 2015.

The military prosecutor has urged anyone with information that can “contribute to the manifestation of the truth to come to testify”.

Late on Tuesday, thousands of people had taken to the streets of the capital Ouagadougou following a call from Traore supporters to “defend” him amid rumours of a coup on social media.

– ‘Determination’ –

Traore took to X, formerly known as Twitter, on Wednesday to stress his “determination to lead the transition safely despite the adversity and different manoeuvres to stop our inexorable march towards assumed sovereignty”.

French language news outlet Jeune Afrique, which had recently published two articles about tensions within the military, saw its print and online operations suspended in Burkina Faso on Monday.

The Burkinabe government accused the news oulet of seeking to “discredit” the military.

Shortly after Traore’s takeover, military prosecutors in December 2022 said there had been an attempt to “destabilise state institutions”.

And earlier this month, the country’s military prosecutor said three soldiers had been arrested and charged with plotting against the ruling junta.

Investigators had received a tipoff about “soldiers and former soldiers working in intelligence” who were scouting out the homes and other locations used by key figures in the junta, including Traore.

Their goal was to “destabilise… the transition”, it said, referring to a term used to describe interim military rule before promised elections.

Burkina Faso, an impoverished landlocked country, saw Islamists sweep in from Mali in 2015.

More than 17,000 civilians, troops and police have since died, according to an NGO monitor.

Over two million people have been forced to flee their homes, creating one of Africa’s worst crises of internal displacement.

Anger within the armed forces led to a coup on January 24, 2022, toppling elected president Roch Marc Christian Kabore.

On September 30, Kabore’s nemesis, Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, was himself overthrown by the 34-year-old Traore.

Traore has promised a return to democracy with presidential elections by July 2024.

Burkina’s military leaders earlier this month signed a mutual defence pact with counterparts in Mali and Niger.

The Liptako-Gourma region — where the three countries’ borders meet — has been ravaged by jihadism in recent years.

[Vanguard]

The Federal Government has declared Monday October 2 as a public holiday in commemoration of the 63rd independence celebration.

The Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, made the declaration in Abuja on behalf of the government. 

He congratulated all Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora on the occasion. 

He assured Nigerians of government’s continued commitment to tackling challenges facing the country.

“It is today a known fact that difficult Socio-Economic and Security challenges are global, and Nigeria is not isolated,”the Minister said in a statement signed by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry Dr Oluwatoyin Akinlade. 

The Minister said that government is making efforts to confront the numerous challenges with all the might available until respite comes the way of the country. 

Tunji-Ojo reiterated that the eminent position of Nigeria in the comity of Nations and the greatness ahead of the country is achievable if we all work together in unity.

He said the nation’s warm welcoming spirit and love as well as its unbounded human capital and the richness of the land makes Nigeria unarguably the leading black Nation in the World. 

The Minister  maintained Nigeria would remain Africa’s pride and beacon of hope for the Renewed Hope of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

[TheNation]

The Federal Government has declared Monday October 2 as a public holiday in commemoration of the 63rd independence celebration.

The Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, made the declaration in Abuja on behalf of the government.

He congratulated all Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora on the occasion.

He assured Nigerians of government’s continued commitment to tackling challenges facing the country.

“It is today a known fact that difficult Socio-Economic and Security challenges are global, and Nigeria is not isolated,”the Minister said in a statement signed by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry Dr Oluwatoyin Akinlade.

The Minister said that government is making efforts to confront the numerous challenges with all the might available until respite comes the way of the country.

Tunji-Ojo reiterated that the eminent position of Nigeria in the comity of Nations and the greatness ahead of the country is achievable if we all work together in unity.

He said the nation’s warm welcoming spirit and love as well as its unbounded human capital and the richness of the land makes Nigeria unarguably the leading black Nation in the World.

The Minister maintained Nigeria would remain Africa’s pride and beacon of hope for the Renewed Hope of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Afenifere, a pan-Yoruba socio-political group, has expressed displeasure at former President Olusegun Obasanjo treatment of the tribe’s monarch Institution.

Recall that during the commissioning of a road project in Oyo on September 15, Obasanjo had instructed the traditional rulers who were present at the occasion to stand to greet Seyi Makinde, governor of the state.

The development elicited outrage on social media with some Nigerians accusing the former president of denigrating the monarchs.

Commenting on the matter, Afenifere asked the Obasanjo to tender a public apology to Oyo monarchs, describing the incident as “avoidable and unwarranted incident”.

In a communique issued on Wednesday, Afenifere said the former president’s action was as if a military commander was giving orders to his troops.

The group stated that the monarchs are a reflection of the Yoruba tribe hence must be shielded from disrespect and humiliation.

“We Yorubas respect our traditional institutions, the arrowhead of which, are our traditional rulers, who traditionally and spiritually, have acquired the status of deities. It’s not surprising that they are referred to as ‘Igbakeji Orisa’!” the communique reads.

“In view of the attempt to ridicule the respected Obaship institution in Yorubaland, Afenifere hereby demands an unreserved Public Apology to Obas from former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

“Our tradition describes who we are. As such, no effort must be spared to prevent the rubishing of our noble tradition.

“In that wise, it’s hereby recommended that Royal Fathers are spared the trouble to stand up at public functions as obtained in the United Kingdom among others.”

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has approved the immediate termination of the appointments of 21 heads of parastatals, agencies, and government companies of the FCT Administration (FCTA).

Wike, in a statement by his Director of Press, Office of the Minister, Anthony Ogunleye, on Wednesday, ordered the affected appointees to hand over the affairs of their offices to the most senior officers in rank.

See the full statement below:

FCTA PRESS STATEMENT

The Honourable Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Barrister Ezenwo Nyesom Wike CON, has relieved the heads of the following parastatals, agencies and government companies of the FCTA of their appointments with immediate effect.

They are:

1. Group MD/CEO, Abuja investment Company Ltd

2. CEO/MD, Abuja Markets Management Ltd

3. MD/CEO, Abuja Urban Mass Transport Company

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4. CEO/MD, Abuja Property Development Company

5. CEO/MD Abuja Technology Village Free Trade Zone Company

6. CEO/MD Abuja Film Village International

7. CEO/MD Powernoth AICL Equipment Leasing Company Ltd

8. MD Abuja Broadcasting Corporation

9. MD, Abuja Enterprise Agency

10. GM, FCT Water Board

11. DG, FCT Emergency Management Agency

12. Executive Secretary, FCT Primary Healthcare Board

13. Director General, Hospital Management Board

14. Director, Abuja Environmental Protection Board

15. Director, FCT Scholarship Board

16. Director FCT Christian Pilgrims Welfare Board

17. Director, Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board

18. Coordinator, Abuja Infrastructure Investment Center

19. Director, FCT Health Insurance Scheme

20. Coordinator, Satellite Towns Development Department

21. Coordinator, Abuja Metropolitan Management Council

They are to hand over the affairs of their offices to the most senior officers in rank.

Appointments into the offices will be made in due course.

ANTHONY OGUNLEYE
DIRECTOR OF PRESS
(OFFICE OF THE MINISTER)

uper Falcons star, Michelle Alozie took Nigerians aback after she showed off her husband on Instagram.

The female defender via her Instagram story posted a photo of herself posing with a white lady.

She further described the lady as her husband which raised the eyebrows of many.

See below:

The Nigeria Labour Congress has said that it does not have any agreement with the government to shelve its planned strike.

NLC’s Head of Information and Public Affairs, Benson Upah said this in a statement on Tuesday.

Countering a statement by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Mr Upah also said the NLC did not have any date for a meeting with government that may lead to the suspension of the proposed strike.

“We do not have any agreement with the government to suspend the planned strike action. Neither do we have any date for a meeting with government that may lead to the suspension of the proposed strike,” he said.

“While we do not intend to demean or minimise the office of the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment, this  matter is beyond the Ministry. This  should have been obvious to them during our most recent meeting”.

The NLC also faulted the position of the Ministry of Labour and Employment on the leadership of the National Union of Road Transport Workers.

“While we appreciate the role played by the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment, Barrister Simon Lalong in securing the release of the executives of the National Union of Road Transport Workers from unlawful/illegal police detention, we take exception to the Ministry describing these executives as factional leaders,” it said.

“They were lawfully elected into office. We still find it necessary to advise the police and those elements  behind their travails to desist from this  despicable and shameful conduct. They are advised to retrace their steps.

“If democracy is to be of meaning to us, then we should resist the urge or temptation for impunity. Enough is enough”.

See full statement below:

WE HAVE NO AGREEMENT WITH GOVERNMENT TO SUSPEND STRIKE

The press statement issued by the Director of Press, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Mr Olajide Oshundun on our proposed strike action and illegal occupation of the secretariat of the National Union of Road Transport Workers has been brought to our attention. We note some inconsistencies.

Accordingly, we find it necessary to make clarifications. Firstly, we do not have any agreement with the government to suspend the planned strike action. Neither do we have any date for a meeting with government that may lead to the suspension of the proposed strike.

 

While we do not intend to demean or minimise the office of the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment, this matter is beyond the Ministry. This should have been obvious to them during our most recent meeting.

Secondly, while we appreciate the role played by the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment, Barrister Simon Lalong in securing the release of the executives of the National Union of Road Transport Workers from unlawful/illegal police detention, we take exception to the Ministry describing these executives as factional leaders.

They were lawfully elected into office. We still find it necessary to advise the police and those elements behind their travails to desist from this despicable and shameful conduct. They are advised to retrace their steps.

If democracy is to be of meaning to us, then we should resist the urge or temptation for impunity. Enough is enough.

 

Benson Upah
Head of Information and Public Affairs

The naira is what 95% of Nigerians need to carry out their daily shores including putting food on their table and sending their children to school. Unfortunately, parasites waging war against our naira, their collaborating crooks in government and in the media and our foreign detractors often make us feel that without the almighty dollar which without any objective criteria they claim today exchanges for N1,000 to $1, Nigeria is doomed. But in truth, the naira in terms of its purchasing power is in high demand by our toiling but short-changed farmers in Nigerian rural communities in spite of the hysteria of parasites in the urban centres.

It is on record that our naira, until a coordinated assault by crooks, parasites and their foreign sponsors, competed favourably with both the dollar and British pound sterling. I remember when I travelled to London for three weeks’ vacation as a young employee of the Guardian in 1983, my Personal Travel Allowance (PTA) was N500. But the real story was that when I finished spending the value of my travellers’ cheque, I went to Liverpool Street where those Indian traders accepted naira without any hesitation.

Assault on naira started in 1986 with Babangida’s Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) which sounded the death-knell of our budding industries, the backbone of our naira. Olu Falae and Kalu Idika Kalu and other agents of our creditors who claimed there was no alternative to Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) spoke of ‘inevitable large scale programme of devaluation’ despite warning by professors Ricardo Fari of John Hopkins University and Sam Aluko of the University of Ife who insisted there was alternative to even death which he said was life.

In November 13, 1986, the first-tier rate put the exchange rate at N2.80 to $1. By November 13, it has depreciated to N3.45 to $1 and by November 1990, it was N10.75 to $1. By July 1991 it was N11.32 to $1 forcing Augustus Aikhomu, Babangida’s military vice president to warn the CBN that “the value of the naira cannot be left absolutely to the whims and caprices of market forces”.

Babangida went on to institutionalise corruption through the foreign exchange policies that allowed military men and their fronts to amass so much wealth with which they embarked on a wholesale importation of the labour of other societies.

The parasites adopting Obasanjo, as their arrow head, took over power in 1999. With their privatization programme which according to a National Assembly probe, was nothing but a ploy to sell to themselves Nigeria’s total investment of about $100b  for a paltry $1.5b,  it was obvious, his administration merely continued the war against the naira from where Babangida stopped.

The assault on the naira continued under Jonathan with his administration’s extension of tax waivers to parasitic car importers.  Our leaders continued to play the ostrich even as Michelin, Dunlop and some pharmaceutical firms relocated, ostensibly because of poor power supply to Ghana which ironically depends on Nigeria for her energy needs. We all played the ostrich pretending not to know that their relocation was due to uncontrolled importation of substandard tyres from China and expired tyres from Europe by dangerous and desperate parasites with the help of crooks in government.

But no one puts this better than Audu Ogbe, former Minister of Agriculture in a speech he gave back in 2018 titled ‘the problem of importation’ where he concluded that “a ship load of rice translates to a ship load of unemployment.”

According to him “the tragedy of Nigeria began with SAP in 1986 when we  became importers of everything including milk, sugar, pencil, handkerchief and champagne, consumed more by Nigerian than any nation on planet earth according to Jacques Champagne  de Labriolle, the  French ambassador to Nigeria; and toothpaste and tomato paste which cost Nigeria $18m and $400m respectively annually.”

Hitting the nail on its head, he had submitted that “someone is making sure you fail when you want to produce at home. These are people who can kill if they have a chance… these guys have seized this country’s economy; they have taken us a hostage and have no intention of giving up because this is a huge market… and they have taken control”.

He did not forget to call attention of Nigerians to the unpatriotic role of (some crooks in the media), working for their principals, who with their publications try to demoralize Nigeria local farmers in the case of rice local production. For him: “To cure Nigeria malady will take a while and will take a strong government”.

He was right. Both late Obafemi Awolowo and Dora Akunyuli had the foretaste of how vicious these desperate groups could be.  The former, for saying he would stop importation of second hand clothes if he won the 1959 election, had his helicopter stoned in Onitsha while the latter had a close shave with death when her car was sprayed with bullets in Onitsha because of her war against importation of substandard and fake drugs into the country.

 But Tinubu who has said we should not sympathise with him has his job well cut out. He already has the answer to the question of contribution of importers of the labour of other societies to our economy in our army of unemployed youths in Nigeria and thousands of others that have migrated to Britain and Canada where many of them do menial jobs.

As to the source of the parasites’ foreign exchange, he like other Nigerians already know it is CBN which was converted into an ATM without a password under President Jonathan and Emefiele. It only got worse under Buhari and Emefiele.

We also now know that some of those who secured CBN foreign exchange allocation for importation of raw materials often end up using such to import substandard products with the active support of crooks in government and cover up by crooks in the media.

If you are in doubt, ask yourself how the prime suspect in the case of banned imported crusader medicated soap and Mekado soap which (contained mercury which can damage skin,  eyes, ears, brain, kidney and the nervous system”) with a street value of N1b who according to Professor Adeyeye,  NAFDAC boss, has not produced a bar of the soap in Nigeria since 2013, secured foreign exchange to import the soap seven times in 2021 alone with each consignment not less than three containers?(Guardian Sept 16, 2023).

 The battle to protect our naira must start with starving of parasitic importers of labour of other societies of foreign exchange. The president must also devise a means of protecting our local industries.

 Our own Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala the WTO  chair,  during a recent chat with CNN’s Richard Quest pointed out that that both the US and China, the world biggest economies have accused each other of protectionism. The truth is that the West that claims we are all equal in a globalised world subsidizes each head of cow owned by those in animal husbandry industry by $2 dollars. And going by World Bank claim that 70% of Africans live below two dollars a day, that would mean the life of a cow in the West is worth much more than that of a man in Africa.

Our rural farmers that need the naira most can also be empowered by state governments buying off their farm produce just as government of rice-producing states in Asia do before exporting same to Nigeria several years later. Some of the savings made by withholding foreign exchange from parasites that bring only misery to Nigerian youths can be used to help the states set up cottage industries.

After weeks of condescending defiance, France has ultimately eaten a diplomatic humble pie served by a former colony. Paris’ Ambassador to Niger was whisked away from Niamey in the wee hours of Thursday 27 September, two months after President Mohamed Bazoum, a French ally was toppled in a military coup led by Brig.-Gen Abdourahamane Tchiani on 26 July 2023.

The junta had on 28 August ordered Ambassador Silvain Itte to leave Niger within 48 hours, accusing him of refusing to honour an invitation to the Foreign Ministry. His action was in line with the French stand of withholding recognition to the military regime.

French President Emmanuel Macron had insisted that deposed and detained Bazoum was the elected and only legitimate authority in Niger, describing the military regime as illegal.

Following the expiry of the 48-hour ultimatum, the Tchiani-led junta, having effectively severed most contacts with France, with a demand for the withdrawal of some 1,500  French troops from Niger, announced that the Ambassador had been stripped of all diplomatic immunity.

Police were subsequently ordered to kick out the French envoy, while Niger citizens staged daily protests at the entrance of the French embassy and military bases in Niamey.

Amid the stand-off and heightened tension, with the envoy helmed in and virtually living on military rations, President Macron announced on Sunday that Ambassador Itte would leave Niger within hours, to be followed by the withdrawal of French troops by year end.

Diplomatic sources have confirmed Ambassador Itte’s arrival in France on a flight via Niger’s neighbouring Chad.

While his deputy is believed to still be in Niger for possible rapprochement in the future, analysts consider this incident as another major diplomatic blow to France in a growing number of its former African colonies given that the military regimes in Mali and Burkina Faso have taken similar anti-French measures.

With two other Francophone countries of Guinea and Gabon also under military dictatorships, the band of African leaders formerly sympathetic to the French cause is shrinking rapidly, yielding place to a groundswell of anti-French sentiments among the citizens.

There could be consequences from eventual withdrawal of French troops from the security-challenged West Africa and the Sahel region, even with the mutual defence pact announced recently by Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso. But President Macron has not helped matters either, with his imperialist posture and grandstanding.

He is on record as saying that “without France, countries like Mali, Burkina Faso…. would not exist.” Such inflammatory statements are unhelpful when juxtaposed with the lopsided relations between France and its former African colonies, characterised by controversial post-independent agreements which gave Paris overbearing political and economic influence and control over the fortunes of these countries.

Under the patronising agreements, France has set up military bases in most of the countries with guaranteed right of first refusal in the exploitation of their natural resources. The common currency, CFA franc used by 14 of the former colonies is controlled by the French Treasury, that holds a sizeable amount of the countries’ revenue deposits, which they are made to borrow at economic interests.

For instance, Niger is rich in priced minerals such as uranium and gold, but foreign companies, particularly those from France, mine these natural resources to enrich and develop their countries, leaving Niger and its estimated 26 million population in penury and abject poverty.

It is no wonder, that the Niger junta has now demanded renegotiation of the country’s economic and other contracts with France to ensure that the people of Niger maximized the benefits of their God-given resources.

Insecurity, underpinned by terrorism and Islamic insurgency in West Africa and the Sahel, are the reason for the military presence of France, its European and American allies in the region.

But the junta regimes and local populations are unimpressed. They claim that the foreign forces are instead pursuing their own agendas in the name of fighting terrorism.

Meanwhile, the U.S. which has some 1,100 troops in Niger has been conspicuous in its ambivalence over the military takeover in Niger. After initial condemnation and public show of support and pressure on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to take tough measures against the Niger junta, Washington has since found some accommodation with the junta.

Curiously, Washington remains undecided whether the 26 July putsch “is a coup” or “an attempted coup,” while America’s newly appointed Ambassador to Niger recently assumed duty in Niamey. Also, following an understanding reached with the junta, the U.S. has resumed its strategic military drone flights from Niger for surveillance operations across Africa.

At the same time, continued pressure by France and America on ECOWAS to act, has led to the regional bloc’s unmet threat to intervene militarily to restore constitutional order in Niger.

ECOWAS now has every reason to feel undermined and boxed into a tight corner by the inconsistent and double-faced positions by Paris and Washington on Niger, apparently driven by fear in the West of being displaced in Africa by Russia and China.

However, there could be some silver linings in the cloud of geopolitical game in Niger, particularly a bitter lesson for African leaders that international relations are about national interests and the fact that it is Africans that should solve African problems.

For African countries to develop and prosper, they must be strategic and necessarily review their relationships with foreign powers. Africa is not zero-poor but only badly run and impoverished, no thanks to the conspiracy and unholy alliance between African rulers and powerful foreign interests, be they France, EU, America, China, Russia, or Turkey.

ECOWAS is renowned for achievements in the domain of peace and security. It has to reset its conflict management and resolution strategies with dynamic and properly nuanced home-grown tools, taking into consideration the peculiarities of each situation.

It is obvious that kinetic option in Niger is not only unpopular but risky with potentially unintended catastrophic consequences. Diplomacy, and backchannel initiatives stand a better chance of success when complemented with effective regional sanctions.

Lastly, after more than 60 years of unmitigated exploitation of Africa’s resources through its compromised and corrupt leaders, under the guise of support, France and its Western allies must now listen to the deafening voices of the long-suffering populations yearning for true freedom as opposed to the flag independence granted the former colonies.

Paul Ejime is a Global Affairs Analyst and Consultant on Peace & Security and Governance Communications