The newly-elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer has announced his first cabinet appointments following the Labour Party’s decisive victory in the general election.

This landmark win ends 14 years of Conservative governance.

This was Starmer’s first cabinet confirmation, with Downing Street making the announcement shortly after his assumption of office.

In a historic move, Rachel Reeves has been named the Chancellor of the Exchequer, making her the first woman in the UK to hold this critical finance minister position.

The full list of Starmer’s initial cabinet appointments includes:

Angela Rayner – Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities
Rachel Reeves – Chancellor of the Exchequer
David Lammy – Foreign Secretary
Yvette Cooper – Home Secretary
John Healey – Defence Secretary
Pat McFadden – Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Ed Miliband – Energy Secretary
Bridget Phillipson – Education Secretary
Wes Streeting – Health Secretary
Shabana Mahmood – Justice Secretary

Vanguard News

President Bola Tinubu extends his warm congratulations to Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour Party, on the victory of his party in the United Kingdom general election.

As a former leader of the opposition in Nigeria, President Tinubu specially notes the determination and courage the incoming Prime Minister of the United Kingdom demonstrated throughout his years in the opposition and as the leader of the Labour Party.

The President states that the party's ability to reform, mobilize, and position itself for victory after 14 years clearly affirms the leadership qualities of Sir Starmer.

President Tinubu also congratulates the citizens and the government of the United Kingdom, describing the Kingdom as an abiding model of democracy and Nigeria's long-standing partner.

The President looks forward to deepening relations between Nigeria and the United Kingdom in mutual areas of interest and in strengthening democratic institutions, as well as in building a safer and more prosperous future for the people of both countries.

Chief Ajuri Ngelale

Special Adviser to the President

(Media & Publicity)

The World Bank may approve four loan projects totalling $2 billion for Nigeria this year. 

According to findings by Nairametrics, these four projects are currently undergoing concept review, an appraisal stage that will lead to further negotiation and approval between Nigeria, which is the borrower and often represented by the Minister of Finance and the World Bank. 

If approved, Nigeria will have secured a total of $4.25 billion in loans from the bank this year alone and a cumulative $6.95 billion under the administration of President Bola Tinubu. 

The proposed loan projects, targeting crucial sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, and infrastructure, are pivotal for the country’s sustainable development and economic stability. 

According to information obtained from the World Bank’s website, each loan project is estimated to receive a net commitment of $500 million from the Washington-based lender.  

Loan Summary 

• The next project to likely get approved is Nigeria Human Capital Opportunities for Prosperity and Equity (HOPE), which is set to receive $500 million with an approval date of September 17, 2024. The HOPE project will focus on enhancing human capital by improving education, health, and social protection services. 

• Another $500 million is earmarked for the Nigeria: Primary Healthcare Provision Strengthening Program, which has an approval date of September 23, 2024. This program aims to fortify Nigeria’s primary healthcare system by enhancing healthcare infrastructure, training healthcare professionals, and improving service delivery. 

• The third project, Sustainable Power and Irrigation for Nigeria Project, will also receive $500 million and is scheduled for approval on September 26, 2024. This project focuses on sustainable power generation and irrigation, both of which are essential for agricultural and industrial development.  

• The Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project – Scale Up is set to receive $500 million and is scheduled for approval on November 28, 2024. This initiative seeks to improve rural infrastructure and market access for agricultural products. 

In addition to these four projects, the World Bank has scheduled another loan project for next year. The Solutions for the Internally Displaced and Host Communities Project is set to receive $300 million and is scheduled for approval on April 8, 2025.  

What you should know 

The World Bank recently announced the approval of two loan projects aimed at bolstering Nigeria’s economic stability and supporting its vulnerable populations.   

According to a statement from the bank, the combined package, totalling $2.25 billion, comprises the $1.5 billion Nigeria Reforms for Economic Stabilization to Enable Transformation (RESET) Development Policy Financing Program (DPF) and the $750 million Nigeria Accelerating Resource Mobilization Reforms (ARMOR) Program-for-Results (PforR). 

So far, Nigeria has secured a total of $4.95 billion in loans from the World Bank under the administration of President Bola Tinubu amid concerns over the country’s rising external debt servicing costs.   

Not less than six loan projects have been approved and they include loans for power ($750 million), women empowerment ($500 million), girl’s education ($700 million), renewable energy ($750 million), economic stabilization reforms ($1.5 billion) and resource mobilization reforms ($750 million), according to findings by Nairametrics. 

Data from the external debt stock report of the Debt Management Office (DMO) shows that Nigeria owes the World Bank a total of $15.59 billion as of March 31, 2024. 

[Nairametrics]

The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has suspended the permits of 10 private jet operators over illegal operation.

The affected operators which had their Permit for Non-Commercial Flight (PNCF) suspended had failed to undergo a recertification process as directed by the regulatory authority.

This was after revelations that most of the operators were abusing the PNCF and using their jets for commercial flights or what is simply called in aviation parlance as hire and reward.

Daily Trust reports that the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations 2023 Part 18.3.4 forbids holders of PNCF from using their aircraft for CARRIAGE OF PASSENGERS, CARGO or MAIL for HIRE or REWARD (commercial operation or charter services).

Following the flagrant disregard of this rule, the NCAA had earlier directed all holders of PNCF to undergo re-evaluation which should have been concluded by the 19th of April 2024.

To this end, the NCAA has suspended the permit of 10 operators.

Those affected include:

• Azikel Dredging Nigeria Ltd
• Bli-Aviation Safety Services
• Ferry Aviation Developments Ltd
• Matrix Energy Ltd
• Marrietta Management Services Ltd
• Worldwide Skypaths Services
• Mattini Airline Services Ltd
• Aero Lead Ltd
• Sky Bird Air Ltd
• Ezuma Jets Ltd.

In a statement by its Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Michael Achimugu, the NCAA told the public “that it is illegal to engage PNCF holders for commercial purposes.”

“The NCAA will not hesitate to initiate enforcement actions against any PNCF holder found guilty of illegal operations.

“Furthermore, NCAA officials have been deployed to General Aviation Terminals (GAT) and private wings of the airports to monitor activities of the PNCF holders,” the statement added.

[DailyTrust]

Afrobeats singer Ayra Starr has said that Nigeria and the United Kingdom are very much alike.

According to her, Nigerian and British cultures are “very similar.”

She stated this in a recent interview with Capital Xtral, London.

“I feel like the UK is very similar to Nigeria. The culture is not much different,” she said.

Starr also spoke about her just-concluded tour with Chris Brown.

“Going on tour with Chris Brown was eye-opening,” she said.

The singer said she wished she wrote ‘B**ch Better Have My Money’ by Rihanna and ‘Snooze’ SZA.

She also said she would like to relocate to New York.

[DailyPost]

The Labour Party, headed by Keir Starmer, on Friday won an outright majority in the lower house of the British parliament.

The Labour Party swept to power after crossing the 326-seat threshold for a working majority in the House of Commons.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak conceded defeat in the general election minutes before any media outlet declared that the threshold of 326 seats was reached.

Here are 24 things to know about UK PM elect Keir Starmer

1. Sir Keir Rodney Starmer was born in Southwark, London on September 2, 1962.

2. He grew up in the town of Oxted in Surrey.

3. He was the second of the four children of Josephine (née Baker), a nurse, and Rodney Starmer, a toolmaker. His mother had Still’s disease.

4. His parents were Labour Party supporters, and reportedly named him after the party’s first parliamentary leader, Keir Hardie, though Starmer said in 2015 that he did not know whether this is true.

5. He is a British politician and barrister. 

6. He has served as Leader of the Labour Party since 2020.

7. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras since 2015, and previously served as Leader of the Opposition from 2020 to 2024 and as Director of Public Prosecutions from 2008 to 2013.

8. Starmer will succeed Rishi Sunak as prime minister following the Labour Party’s victory at the 2024 general election.

9. Starmer attended the selective state Reigate Grammar School which became a private school while he was a student.

10. He was politically active from an early age and joined the Labour Party Young Socialists at the age of 16.

11. He graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Leeds in 1985 and gained a postgraduate Bachelor of Civil Law degree at St Edmund Hall at the University of Oxford in 1986.

12. After being called to the bar, Starmer practised predominantly in criminal defence work, specialising in human rights.

13. He served as a human rights adviser to the Northern Ireland Policing Board and was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 2002, later citing his work on policing in Northern Ireland as being a key influence on his decision to pursue a political career.

14. During his time as Director of Public Prosecutions, he dealt with a number of major cases including the Stephen Lawrence murder case.

15. He was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to law and criminal justice.

16. Starmer was elected to the House of Commons at the 2015 general election.

17. As a backbencher, he supported the unsuccessful Britain Stronger in Europe campaign in the 2016 European Union membership referendum.

18. He was appointed Shadow Minister for Immigration by Jeremy Corbyn but resigned from this role in June 2016 as part of the wider shadow cabinet resignations in protest of Corbyn’s leadership. Accepting a new post under Corbyn that year as Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, Starmer advocated a proposed second referendum on Brexit. Following Corbyn’s resignation after Labour’s defeat at the 2019 general election, Starmer succeeded him as party leader by winning the 2020 leadership election on a left-wing platform.

19. As the Labour leader, Starmer has repositioned the party away from the left and toward the political centre.

20. He has emphasised the importance of eliminating antisemitism within the party, a controversial issue during Corbyn’s leadership.

21. His supporters have praised him for his antisemitism reforms and for helping to improve Labour’s credibility with the electorate in the aftermath of the previous leadership, while his critics have accused him of unfairly treating leftist Labour members.

22. In 2023, Starmer set out five missions for his government, targeting issues such as economic growth, health, clean energy, crime and education.

23. Starmer led Labour to a landslide victory in the 2024 general election, ending fourteen years of Conservative rule.

24. His landslide victory was similar to the one achieved by Tony Blair at the 1997 general election, the last time a Labour opposition ousted a Conservative government.

[TheNation]

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Lagos State Command has beefed up security at its entrance in the wake of a planned protest.

The Nation reports Friday that operatives of the Lagos State Anti-Crime Outfit – Rapid Response Squad and men of the Department of State Services are among the joint security forces stationed at all routes leading to the EFCC office located at Awolowo Road in the Ikoyi area of the state.

On Thursday, the commission’s Head of Media and Publicity, Dele Oyewale said intelligence at the disposal of some Civil Society Organisations showed that a former governor and two former ministers are behind the protests being organised against the EFCC.

This is coming after the commission had raised the alarm that some groups were planning a series of protests against it. 

A user on X.com identified as #PidomNigeria had shared the demands of the protesters – Concerned Nigeria Youths, in a letter dated July 4, 2024, and addressed to the EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede.

The protest is due to take place with a hashtag on X.com as #ReformEFCC.

As seen by PUNCH Online, the demands include, “Respect our fundamental human rights, Stop indiscriminate arrest and invasion of people’s homes/businesses in the middle of the night like armed robbers, Stop the stereotyping and profiling of young innocent Nigerian youths, Be more professional and civil in your operations,” among others.

The protest will take place in some other states across the country — Edo, Enugu, Kwara, Oyo, Gombe, and the Federal Capital Territory, among others.

[Punch]

THE CNN American Presidential Debate showed humanity is in a catch-22 situation while the European high speed far-right turns on the cliffs, threaten to plunge humankind into an uncertain world.

The far-right turns have been taken in countries like Switzerland, Hungary, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Serbia, France and to some extent, Germany.

The only light visible at the end of the European tunnel is the British elections in which the Labour Party is set to end rudderless Tory rule. The British Conservative Party rule has been so chaotic that it has in the last 14 years produced five Prime Ministers: David Cameroon, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. Despite this welcome change, it is difficult, to distinguish the migration policies of the main British parties. They follow the emerging pattern in most of Europe where the policies of the far-right, right-wing, centrist, liberal, labour and left-wing parties on migration and commitment to a common humanity are blurred.

In fact, some European governments have lost all sense of humanity in dealing with the issue of migration as they deliberately ensure that migrants are drowned in the seas, or they do the drowning themselves.

The British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, in its documentary of Monday, June 17, 2024 titled ‘Dead Calm: Killing in the Med?’ provided irrefutable evidence of Greece deliberately forcing migrants to their death in the seas or intentionally drowning them.

The BBC, which analysed 15 such cases, reported that: “In five of the incidents, migrants said they were thrown directly into the sea by the Greek authorities. In four of those cases they explained how they had landed on Greek islands but were hunted down. In several other incidents, migrants said they had been put onto inflatable rafts without motors which then deflated, or appeared to have been punctured.”

In one of the cases, a Camerounian man, and his fellow travellers, Didier Martial Kouamou Nana and Sidy Keita from Cameroun and Cote d’Ivoire, were hunted down by Greek authorities after they landed in September 2021 on the island of Samos.

They were beaten and thrown into the sea without life jackets. The first two drowned while the survivor managed to swim to shore.

A Somali migrant who was caught in March 2021 by the Greek army on arrival on the island of Chios, was handed over to the Greek coastguard. The latter zip-tied his hands behind his back and tossed him into the water. Luckily, one of his arms broke free and he swarm to safety. But the other three victims, tossed into the waters, died.

One of the most heart-wrenching cases the BBC verified, occurred in September 2022 when a boat carrying 85 migrants had its motor cut out near the Greek island of Rhodes. The Greek coastguard which responded to their May Day call, loaded them onto a boat, then put them in life rafts. Survivor Mohamed said the raft he and his family were given had not had its valve properly closed, so they began to sink. He said: “We immediately began to sink, they saw that… They heard us all screaming, and yet they still left us.” Seven or eight children had died before the Turkish coastguard arrived.

One year before the BBC report, the most criminal case against Greece occurred on June 14, 2023 off south-western Greece. A fishing trawler crammed with over 700 migrants sent a distress call the morning before. The Greeks merely sent out an helicopter to circle the ship. It was only at 11pm, a Greek coastguard boat arrive. Three hours later, the ship sank claiming over 600 souls.

Survivors claimed the ship capsized when the Greeks tried to tow it while the Greek Government claimed the vessel refused assistance.

Italy might be worse than Greece. While the latter ensures that distressed migrants at sea die out of deliberate neglect, Italy backs its actions by law. Its Piantedosi Act of February 24, 2023 makes it a criminal act for any vessel already having rescued migrants on board to rescue other distressed migrants at sea even if they were seen drowning.

As we might know, the policy of the current British government is to round up alleged illegal migrants, fly them to Rwanda and dump them in camps.

Given these official policies and acts, physical attacks on migrants in some European cities and a consensus towards a far-right swing, Europe might be losing its soul.

In the case of the USA, not a few were alarmed by the lacklustre performance of a clearly tired, slow and uninspiring 82-year-old President Joseph ‘Joe’ Robinette Biden in the June 27, 2024 CNN American Presidential Debate. After 36 years in the Senate, eight years as Vice President and four years as President, Biden should have given way to a younger, more energetic and mentally alert Democratic Presidential candidate. But a caucus, desperate to cling on to power, has pushed him to the point where four months before the Tuesday, November 5 Presidential election, questions are being asked whether Biden is mentally and physically fit to run.

It is not that some of us who are worried are Democratic Party or Biden supporters. We are just concerned that the road is being cleared for the return of his predecessor, Donald Trump, a mercurial character convicted on sundry cases, including “hush money” paid to porn actress, Stormy Daniels. We are worried that a narcissist adult who does not seem capable of distinguishing between truth and falsehood and, openly tried to carry out a coup against the American state, may be sworn in next January as the President of ‘God’s Own Country’.

But it is debatable whether Trump would have been worse than Biden in the on-going genocide in the Palestine. Biden poured $12.5b aid into Israel even when it was obvious that what is afoot is genocide against the Palestinians. To collectively punish the Palestinian populace, he stopped US aid to the UN Peace and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees.

As the Palestinian casualties rose, Biden said : “I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed.” So for him, the issue is not the massacres, but that the figures might not be high or high enough. Thrice, the Biden Presidency vetoed the UN Security Council, UNSC, resolutions calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Palestinian War. Finally, as worldwide protests mounted, he submitted a ceasefire agreement to the UNSC to which he claimed Israel had agreed. It turned out that this was false.

The far-right swing in Europe, and the threatened Trump return might mean that the West is defining its own humanity and that its mask of civility has pulled off.