Nigerians worldwide gather in Chicago to review one year of President Buhari’s regime

One year ago: President Buhari’s regime so far  has been generating so much controversies in the social media circle.
One year ago: President Buhari’s regime so far has been generating so much controversies in the social media circle.

International Guardian, Houston – TX –

The Centre for Leadership and Excellence in partnership with Democracy Vanguard International are joining a list of other civil society organizations worldwide to address development and progress in Nigeria under the current regime of President Muhammadu Buhari. The event will be held 24 and 25 of May, 2016, at the Hampton Inn and Suites, Chicago Downtown.

President Buhari’s one year in office has been generating so much controversies in the social media circle. Critics are bashing the regime for a sluggish start and a lack of progress in fulfilling its campaign promises. Buhari’s backers differ, giving his regime a pass mark at specific dire areas of national development. The two-day town hall meeting is expected to bring together, Nigerians at home, Nigerian associations, professional groups, cultural and ethnic organizations, and  Nigerian in the Diaspora for a conference focusing on  critical areas of the nation.

According to Rev. Austin Emeka  Nnorom, the Executive Director of the Centre for Leadership and Excellence, “we might be looking at areas such as Nigeria’s security, the economy, power, and  rule of law within the past  year of the President Mohammed Buhari.”

Centre for Leadership and Excellence is a non-governmental entity promoting the appropriate framework for creating excellence in governance. Over the years, the group has facilitated global political forums, research workshops, and conferences to address issues of Nigeria’s governance. In a similar vein, the Democracy Vanguard International has excelled over the years in coordinating strategies to seek responsible governance in Nigeria.

The event will be held 24 and 25 of May, 2016, at this Hampton Inn and Suites in Chicago Downtown.
The event will be held 24 and 25 of May, 2016, at this Hampton Inn and Suites in Chicago Downtown.

The Chicago town hall meeting is meant to be interactive, with Prof Okey Ndibe and Dr. Anthony Ogbo, joining a list of other speakers to facilitate a concrete discussions on the current Nigeria’s situation, and how to move the country forward. Philip Oshiokpekhai Orbih, the International Program Director of Democracy Vanguard International said that such a forum is needed to usefully engage great minds in seeking solutions to prevailing national issues. “The issues about our dear country is no longer a PDP -APC partisan issues; you can see that there are major problems, and the earlier we address them the better,” Oshiokpekhai Orbih said.

One year ago, Buhari promised to change Nigeria

Buhari still has adequate time to turn his fortunes around, but he must be wary of the kind of executive arrogance that undid Jonathan's party and government.
Buhari still has adequate time to turn his fortunes around, but he must be wary of the kind of executive arrogance that undid Jonathan’s party and government.

When Nigerians rouse from sleep on April 1, they will again head for filling stations to join the now de rigueur queues for Premium Motor Spirit.

By Fisayo Soyombo
By Fisayo Soyombo

This is no big news; queueing for hours at petrol stations has been the most recurring item on the itinerary of Nigerians not only for the past month, but also for the third spell in the past three months.

What is news is that when these same people woke up exactly one year ago, the majority of them trooped to the streets in jubilation. Three hours and 47 minutes into that day, opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari was declared president-elect.

But while Nigerians hailed Buhari as a Messiah of sorts, they forgot to remind themselves that no Nigerian leader, democratic or dictatorial, had ever succeeded in delivering socioeconomic prosperity to the masses.

Joy so often short-lived

There was something familiar about the sheer joy that was unleashed on the streets of Nigeria on April 1, 2015.

More than five decades ago, on October 1, 1960, when Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa accepted the symbols of Independence from the Queen of England and cheerily declared that he was “opening a new chapter in the history of Nigeria”, it was to the delight of millions of citizens.

Elites clutched at their radios as devout Catholics would the Rosary, listening as the sonorous voice of Emmanuel Omatsola blared from Race Course, Lagos: Nigeria is a free, sovereign nation. Pupils holidayed; and when they returned to school, they were served unusual rounds of sumptuous meals and handed lovingly petite green-white-green flags.

But for all of Balewa’s education and popularity in international circles, his reputation for championing northern interests did little to foster unity and stability in Nigeria’s delicate multiethnic set-up. Both power and life were taken away from him in a coup six years later.

When Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999, after decades of torture at the hands of the military, the scenarios were repeated. Olusegun Obasanjo, a retired soldier who was on the throes of death in prison, was suddenly, miraculously handed democratic power.

Obasanjo had admitted that “the entire Nigerian scene is very bleak indeed, so bleak people ask me: where do we begin?” But he also promised to fight corruption, restore public confidence in governance, build infrastructure. Millions of overjoyed Nigerians believed him – the worst civilian government is better than the best military regime was the popular reasoning at the time.

In his book, This House Has Fallen, published a year into Obasanjo’s presidency, British journalist Karl Maier had written: “The government spends up to half its annual budget on salaries of an estimated two million workers… yet the civil service remains paralysed, with connections and corruption still the fastest way to get anything done. Up to 75 percent of the army’s equipment is broken or missing vital spare parts. The Navy’s 52 admirals and commodores outnumber serviceable ships by a ratio of six to one. The Air Force has 10,000 men but fewer than 20 functioning aircraft.”

Sixteen long years later, it is heartbreaking to see that these are still some of the issues dominating Nigerian political discourse.

Gloom of Buhari’s victory

Caveat: this is not an appraisal of Buhari’s reign – not yet. But some of his first words as president-elect back in 2015 were: “You voted for change and now change has come.”

Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency ended with a biting fuel scarcity that suffering masses felt would accompany Jonathan out of office. On the anniversary of Buhari’s victory, that scarcity they so despised is exactly what they’re grappling with. There are no noticeable improvements in erratic power supply, the unhealthy economy, the dearth of jobs. No “change”, really.

Buhari still has adequate time to turn his fortunes around, but he must be wary of the kind of executive arrogance that undid Jonathan’s party and government.

It is the same type of arrogance that made Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, declare in the face of the ongoing petrol scarcity: “One of the trainings I did not receive was that of a magician.” Only to tell prospective protesters days later: “Save your fuel, I am not going to resign” is dangerous.

That Femi Adesina, Buhari’s spokesman, told Nigerians a day earlier that: “If some people are crying that they are in darkness, they should go and hold those who vandalise the installations” betrays Buhari’s administration’s intolerance of criticism and suggests possible abdication of leadership.

Just in case Buhari has forgotten, in May, when he will have completed a quarter of his term in office, Nigerians will not only be carefully assessing the state of his “change” agenda, they will also be wondering if his party deserves to be retained in 2019.

Fisayo Soyombo edits the Nigerian online newspaper TheCable.

South African court rules Zuma must face corruption charges

mall 4

By Amogelang Mbatha and Paul Vecchiatto | Bloomberg

South African court ruled that the decision by prosecutors to drop a corruption case against President Jacob Zuma seven years ago was irrational and should be set aside, opening the way for the 783 charges against him to be reinstated.

Then acting National Director of Public Prosecutions Mokotedi Mpshe was under pressure and made an “irrational decision” to dismiss the charges in April 2009, ignoring the importance of his oath of office to act independently and without fear or favor, Judge Aubrey Ledwaba said at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Friday, citing the ruling by a full bench of judges. Zuma should face the charges in the indictment, he said.

“It’s not the sort of decision that’s going to be easy to overturn on appeal, because it seems to me, it is so well-reasoned,” James Grant, an attorney at the South African High Court, said by phone from Johannesburg. “It’s a very powerful judgment because its a unanimous decision by three judges saying that abuse of process is not something that the prosecution service may rely on.”

The ruling intensifies pressure on the governing African National Congress, which is fighting off increased calls from opposition parities, churches and civil-rights organizations to dismiss Zuma as the country prepares for local government elections on Aug. 3. The 74-year-old leader has been dogged by scandals even before he took office and now has to face an economy growing at the slowest pace since the 2009 recession and the risk of credit downgrade to junk.

“The ANC’s woes continue in the run up to the local government elections and they will have an even harder time managing their image after having decided not to recall him,” University of the Western Cape Head of Political Studies Cherrel Africa said by phone from Cape Town.

Last month, South Africa’s top court found that Zuma, had “failed to uphold, defend and respect the constitution” over his handling of a graft ombudsman report into security upgrades at his private rural residence, which found his family had unduly benefited from the improvements. That ruling followed in the wake of allegations that his friends, the Gupta family, offered senior Cabinet positions to members of the ANC. The Guptas have denied any wrongdoing and Zuma has referred questions to them, saying only he has the authority to appoint ministers.

Prosecutors had spent eight years investigating allegations that Zuma took 4.07 million rand ($287,000) in bribes from arms dealers, and had brought charges of fraud, corruption and racketeering against him. Mpshe decided to drop the case on grounds that taped phone calls indicated the chief prosecutor was using the case against Zuma to frustrate his efforts to win control of the ANC from Thabo Mbeki. Zuma, who was elected ANC president in 2007, became president of South Africa in May 2009 and won a second and final term in 2014.

The Democratic Alliance, the country’s largest opposition party, has been fighting ever since to have the charges reinstated.

“This finding by the court is an overwhelming victory for the rule of law,” DA leader Mmusi Maimane said in an e-mailed statement. “The National Prosecuting Authority must now immediately continue with the 783 charges of corruption so that President Zuma can finally have his day in court.”

The National Prosecuting Authority will study the judgment before deciding what action to take, spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku said by phone. Zuma has noted the decision and “will give consideration to the judgment and its consequences and the remedies available in terms of our law,” the presidency said in an e-mailed statement.

“The court did not deal with the merits of any allegations against President Zuma nor did it make any finding declaring guilt on any matter,” the ANC said. “Today’s judgment was solely a judicial review of an administrative action taken by the NPA as allowed for in our law. This matter has dragged on for close to a decade and the ANC is pleased therefore that it now appears closer to resolution.”

Criticism of Zuma’s government has intensified since December, when his decision to replace his respected finance minister, Nhlanhla Nene, with a little-known lawmaker sparked a selloff of the rand and the nation’s bonds. A special South African police unit, known as the Hawks, is investigating corruption allegations against the Gupta family, who are in business with Zuma’s son, and probing whether the Guptas have any influence on government business.

“President Zuma has jokingly said that he looks forward to his day in court to answer those charges. Well now that day is getting closer,” Bantu Holomisa, leader of minor opposition party, the United Democratic Movement, said by phone from Mthatha. “The ANC will have to seriously consider what it will mean to the country or to their party to have a sitting president in court answering charges and thereby taking his attention away from running the country.”

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia vows to end its ‘addiction to oil’

Attendees, including Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, silently swept past gathered journalists at a luxury hotel in Doha ahead of the meeting.
Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi.

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia is now starting to contemplate a future in which gasoline and diesel now longer power the majority of the world’s cars.

Over the next decade and a half, it hopes to transition its economy away from oil, largely by investing today’s oil revenues in other industries.

It’s part of a plan known as “Vision 2030” that Saudi Arabia claims will end its “addiction to oil.”

Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the plan’s chief architect, believes the Saudi economy will survive “without any dependence on oil” as soon as 2020, The Washington Post recently reported.

It would be a major but necessary transition for the Saudi economy.

In recent years, oil has accounted for an estimated 90 percent of the kingdom’s income, but declining prices led to a $98 billion deficit last year.

As countries across the globe enact stricter fuel-economy standards and other measures to curb carbon emissions, Saudi Arabia will only be able to depend less on oil revenues.

The government’s first major step to address that trend will be an initial public offering (IPO) in Aramco, the Saudi national oil company, it says.

While the government plans to sell less than 5 percent of Aramco, the company’s sheer size—Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed believes it will be valued at $2.5 trillion—has some analysts already describing this as the largest IPO in history.

Some funds from the sale will be used to establish a $2 trillion “Public Investment Fund,” which will then invest in other industries.

The goal is to make investment income the main source of Saudi revenue, Mohammed has said.

Yet despite Aramco’s immense value, Saudi Arabia’s opaque government and business practices could keep investors at arm’s length.

Much of how Aramco is run remains highly unclear to potential investors, an oil-industry insider told Green Car Reports on the condition of anonymity.

The Aramco IPO is the most prominent of a number of policies proposed in the Vision 2030 plan.

It also calls for the diversification of the Saudi workforce by encouraging greater participation by women, and a “green card” program for guest workers from other Arab and Muslim countries.

The plan would also see Saudi Arabia focus more on its tourist industry, and cultivate a domestic defense industry as an alternative to buying arms from countries like the U.S.

Still, Saudi Arabia will continue to keep pumping oil for decades, until that activity is no longer economically viable.

The government wants to diversify not out of concern for pollution related to burning fossil fuels, but because it knows an oil-dependent economy puts it in a vulnerable position.

Mall of Africa opens in South Africa as economic outlook sours

Thousand of shoppers scrambling to through the official opening of the “Mall of Africa” in Midrand, South Africa. With 131,000 square metres of retail space, the “Mall of Africa” is the largest African mall ever to have been built in one phase, according to developers. Image by: MOELETSI MABE

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Thousands of shoppers queued on Thursday at the opening of one of the largest malls in South Africa, set in middle-class suburbia between Johannesburg and Pretoria.

The Mall of Africa will house over 300 shops, including global brands such as Inditex’s Zara, Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), Cotton On and Starbucks. They want to attract the rising number of young consumers in Africa’s most developed economy which has thrived on demand for commodities.

But the opening comes as the outlook for the economy worsens with rising interest rates and prices putting a squeeze on spending while demand for exports such as gold and other metals is depressed. Political uncertainty has also unsettled the rand currency, making imports more expensive and investors nervous.

Retail sales have stayed robust, however, comfortably beating expectations in February and retailers at the mall were in an optimistic mood.

“We see a lot of potential in South African and in Africa… this is our third flagship store that we have opened in a matter of six or seven months,” said Amelia-May Woudstra, the public relations country manager for H&M South Africa. “We will be opening three more stores towards the end of the year.”

mall of af

Shiny malls have sprung up throughout South Africa, creating thousands of jobs. But they come amid a backdrop of rising debt levels. Nearly half of all credit-active South Africans, or 9.9 million people are overindebted, according to debt counselling firm Debt Rescue, and the number will swell as interest rates and inflation rise while the economy slows. Retail sales grew by 4.1 percent year-on-year in February, but are expected to slow.

The Treasury expects the economy to grow by 0.9 percent this year, down from 1.3 percent in 2015 and the central bank is expected to raise interest rates further to rein in inflation that has been driven higher by wage hikes, a depreciating rand and surging food prices after the worst drought in decades.

The bank has raised benchmark lending rates by 200 basis points in the last two years and analysts see rates rising even further by year end from 7 percent now.

“Interest rate hikes and slower salary increases will limit the employee’s ability to spend. This is bad news for large item sales like cars and furniture. It is likely that retailers will struggle for real growth in the next few months,” said Mike Schüssler, chief economist at Economists.co.za.

South African shoppers flocked to the opening Thursday of one of Africa's largest malls outside Johannesburg, despite rising unemployment is rising and slowing economic growth.
South African shoppers flocked to the opening Thursday of one of Africa’s largest malls outside Johannesburg, despite rising unemployment is rising and slowing economic growth.

OVERBUILDING

This could be bad news for malls such as Mall of Africa, set in the sprawling Midrand suburb housing many of South Africa’s newly middle-class black consumers around 20 km (12 miles) away from its nearest upmarket rival.

“The good malls will do well but there is a risk that there has been a little bit of over building in South Africa. There is a lot of property retail space in South Africa. Is there really another mall that size required in South Africa? I am not sure,” Portfolio manager at Gryphon Asset Management Reuben Beelders.

But with more mature markets slowing, retailers are on the hunt for anywhere offering a faster return.

Zara opened its first store in South Africa in 2011, followed by Australian no-frills chain Cotton On, Britain’s Top Shop and Forever 21 and more recently H&M. Cotton On said on Thursday South Africa was the group’s fastest growing market globally and aims to double its business in the country over the next three years to 350 stores. “Our South African operations have reported double-digit growth every month since opening our first store here in 2011. The region a key contributor to reaching our overall growth target of 20 percent year on year,” said Cotton On Group South Africa Country Manager Johan van Wyk.

Lured by opening-day bargains for their favourite global brands, shoppers in the new mall showed no sign of concern.

“It seems like this mall is going to be a success even though things aren’t going so well,” said Christa Noi, 25, an office manager in Johannesburg.

On a bus, South Africans claim back land taken under apartheid

In this file April 24, 2012 photo, a worker walks between rows of vegetables at a farm in Eikenhof, south of Johannesburg. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko
In this file April 24, 2012 photo, a worker walks between rows of vegetables at a farm in Eikenhof, south of Johannesburg. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

LONDON,  (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – South Africans whose land was confiscated under racist laws in the apartheid era have lodged more than 27,000 legal claims at “mobile land claims offices” housed in buses and four-wheel-drive trucks, a land rights commission said.

Six specially adapted vehicles have travelled between remote rural communities since April 2015, reaching more than 100,000 households, according to the Commission on the Restitution of Land Rights, which operates them.

They are part of an initiative to contact victims of racially motivated land dispossession and help them claim back their land.

Under the previous Union and apartheid white-minority governments, segregationist laws severely restricted the right of black South Africans to own land and forced millions onto reservations.

Alfred Msibi, 97, and Maria Sibisi, 79, from northeastern Mpumalanga Province, told Commission officials they hoped the use of mobile offices would speed up access to compensation for their historical claims.

“We have had no peace since the day we were dispossessed of our ancestral land,” a Commission statement quoted them as saying.

The Restitution of Land Rights Bill, aimed at restoring land to those who had it taken from them during the apartheid era, was among the first laws passed by the country’s first democratic government in November 1994.

But many people failed to claim their land in the initial period from 1995 to 1998, and President Jacob Zuma re-opened their right to make claims when he signed the Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Act on June 30, 2014.

Nomfundo Ntloko-Gobodo, Chief Land Claims Commissioner, said the decision was made to re-open claims because many families had not been aware that they qualified for the process, the commission statement said.

It quoted him as saying he was confident the mobile offices would enable farmers to reclaim their land by the 2019 deadline.

LAND CLAIM VEHICLES ON TOUR

The vehicles contain electronic equipment to register claims on site, and have toured sparsely populated areas of northeastern Limpopo province and towns in desert regions of Northern Cape province.

The initiative aimed to contact rural people who could not reach the 14 fixed-location offices, which are mostly in urban centres.

Staff are registering claims for South Africans who were dispossessed of land after June 19, 1913 – when the notorious “Natives Land Act” came into force. The Act prevented black South Africans from owning land outside designated reservations which amounted to just 7 percent of agricultural land, though black South Africans formed 67 percent of the population.

Under the Act and subsequent legislation, more than 3 million people were forcibly relocated to black townships and “Bantustan” homelands.

Land remains a highly emotive issue in South Africa, where 300 years of colonial rule and white-minority government left the vast majority of farmland in the hands of a tiny, mainly white, minority.

The 1996 constitution places a duty on the government to ensure equitable land distribution and address the consequences of the 1913 Act.

In 1996, two years after the end of apartheid, 90 percent of all agricultural land was owned or leased by just 60,000 white commercial farmers, according to government figures.

The National Development Plan set a target of transferring 20 percent of agricultural land to black South Africans by 2030. Between 1994 and 2014, the state handed 7.5 million hectares to black farmers, 46 percent of this target, according to official figures.

(Reporting by Matthew Ponsford, editing by Tim Pearce. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, traficking, property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)

College Student, 21, Who Vanished After Saying She Was Taking An Uber is Found Safe

Monique Priester had last spoken with her mom about 6:15 p.m. Friday, when she told her that she was leaving GSU’s campus in Atlanta in a shared Uber.
Monique Priester had last spoken with her mom about 6:15 p.m. Friday, when she told her that she was leaving GSU’s campus in Atlanta in a shared Uber.

The 21-year-old college student who disappeared after telling her mother she was getting in an Uber cab has been found safe, officials said.

Monique Priester, from Georgia, was located Monday after last speaking with her mother three days earlier, a police spokeswoman with the Gwinnett County Police Department told InsideEdition.com.

An officer was able to make contact with Priester between 2 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. and confirmed the Georgia State University sophomore was in good health and had left on her own accord, authorities said.

At the request of Priester, police will not disclose her location. Officials could not say if Priester had been in an Uber.

She had last spoken with her mom about 6:15 p.m. Friday, when she told her that she was leaving GSU’s campus in Atlanta in a shared Uber.

Her worried mother told reporters that since then, her daughter’s phone had gone straight to voicemail and her bank account showed activity in Nashville, Tennessee, about 250 miles away from her school.

“I’m panicked,” Jaqueline Vanloo-Alkush told WSB-TV. “I’m hoping she’s safe.”

Uber said it would only be able to hand over ride records if the company were subpoenaed, but police said they had no reason to suspect foul play in Priester’s so-called disappearance.

“Immediately upon hearing from the family, we contacted local law enforcement to offer any assistance or information that could help them locate Ms. Priester and get her home safely,” an Uber spokesperson told InsideEdition.com before Priester was located.

After she was found, the Gwinnett County Police Department thanked Uber for their help.

“They were more than cooperative… before the investigator even had a chance to call Uber, they called us. We’re so grateful,” a spokeswoman with the police department told InsideEdition.com.

Prince Didn’t Have a Will because he only trusted ‘beautiful, 20-something women’ advisors

Screen-Shot-2016-04-21-at-1_26_19-PM

It’s hard for most people to believe that Prince didn’t have a will, but for those closest to him it make perfect sense.

According to many of the people who worked with him, Prince’s finances were always in shambles. In the 5 years leading up to his death, it was impossible to get him to sign ANY legal document — because he felt “screwed over” by deals he signed in his younger years.

via TMZ:

Prince was so distrusting … he jumped from lawyer to lawyer almost every year, and sometimes more often. One professional who worked with the singer tells us, Prince called him out of the blue one day and said he wanted to hire him. The professional asked Prince for his business files, and the answer was, “I don’t know, they’re out there somewhere.” The professional never got the files. 

We’re told although Prince hired and fired a slew of professionals, his most trusted advisers were “beautiful, 20-something women, all models with no experience in anything.” It caused chaos in his life … especially in the financial department.

Well, Prince DID have a thing for beautiful women. Yesterday, his sister filed paperwork to become executor of his estate.

Enugu attacks: Southerners in Nigeria ‘have been targeted for decades’

Fulani militants are believed to carry out attacks mainly in Nigeria and CAR. In Nigeria, they mainly operate in the Middle Belt and attack primarily private citizens to gain control of grazing lands.
Fulani militants are believed to carry out attacks mainly in Nigeria and CAR. In Nigeria, they mainly operate in the Middle Belt and attack primarily private citizens to gain control of grazing lands.

By   | IBT/

Militants have been targeting southerners throughout Nigeria for decades, the prime minister of the self-proclaimed Biafran government in exile (BGIE) told IBTimes UK. Emmanuel Enekwechi, head of BGIE since its creation in the US in 2007, made the comments just days after dozens were killed in Enugu state, southeastern Nigeria, amid fears herdsmen from the Fulani ethnic group were behind the atrocity.

The killings occurred at a time when attacks attributed to Fulani militants are on the rise in Nigeria, where pro-Biafran secessionist groups have accused the Fulani herdsmen of targeting Christians and southerners in a bid to “Islamise the Christian-dominated region”.

“We don’t have the details yet, of what happened in Enugu, but for my experience, thousands and thousands of Biafans [who inhabit southeastern Nigeria] have been massacred in the north,” Enekwechi said. “A very large percentage of Biafrans living in the north relocated to their homeland, but even then, you can see they are still being pursued and killed.”

Ending attacks by herdsmen a national priority

President Buhari condemned the attack in Enugu and called on security forces to bring perpetrators to justice. “Ending the recent upsurge of attacks on communities by herdsmen reportedly armed with sophisticated weapons is now a priority on the Buhari Administration’s agenda for enhanced national security and the Armed Forces and Police have clear instructions to take all necessary action to stop the carnage,” Buhari’s spokeperson, Femi Adesina, said in a statement.

“The President urges all Nigerians to remain calm and assured of his administration’s readiness to deploy all required personnel and resources to remove this new threat to the collective security of the nation,” he continued.

The killings occurred at a time when attacks attributed to Fulani militants are on the rise in Nigeria, where pro-Biafran secessionist groups have accused the Fulani herdsmen of targeting Christians and southerners in a bid to "Islamise the Christian-dominated region".
The killings occurred at a time when attacks attributed to Fulani militants are on the rise in Nigeria, where pro-Biafran secessionist groups have accused the Fulani herdsmen of targeting Christians and southerners in a bid to “Islamise the Christian-dominated region”.

Not a sectarian conflict

Framing the Enugu and similar attacks as a sectarian conflict could further deepen violence, David Otto, CEO of UK-based global security provider TGS Intelligence Consultants, told IBTimes UK.

It is not impossible for Fulani herdsmen to infiltrate Enugu to retaliate or defend their nomadic lifestyle and their cattle, but the danger lies in framing these attacks by so-called ‘Hausa Fulani herdsmen’ under sectarian terms or targeted killings against Christians or Biafrans, amounting to genocide attempts or ethnic cleansing,” he said.

“It will only add fuel to the situation. These types of violent land disputes have existed for decades – caused primarily by the mere lifestyle of Fulani Nomads and their grazing land in the Sahel region. The disputes have increasingly become worse because of the current land degradation in the Lake Chad region, forcing migration of Nomads with their cattle from the North to the Middle Belt regions. It is not uncommon for individuals, politicians, criminal groups or Islamic movements like Boko Haram to take advantage of the situation to achieve their own goals.”

South Sudanese player detained in Canada says he doesn’t know his true age

Nicola told the Star in the January feature story that he arrived in Windsor on Nov. 22, 2015, just three days before his 17th birthday. He said he left South Sudan, his disease-ridden, wartorn home, for a better life in Windsor.
Nicola told the Star in the January feature story that he arrived in Windsor on Nov. 22, 2015, just three days before his 17th birthday. He said he left South Sudan, his disease-ridden, wartorn home, for a better life in Windsor.

A South Sudanese man who was arrested in Canada last week for allegedly posing as a teenager in order to gain entry to the country and play high school basketball admitted in a immigration and refugee board hearing he is not a teenager but claimed he does not know his true age.

Canadian border officers arrested Jonathan Nicola on April 15 after receiving confirmation from the United States that Nicola’s fingerprints matched those of a man who had applied for a visa to the U.S. from Syria using a birth date in 1986. Nicola is believed to be 29.

He had been in Canada attending Catholic Central high school in Windsor and playing basketball for the school on scholarship since November 2015. His situation came to the attention of authorities when the coach at the school helped Nicola submit paperwork to allow him to travel with the team to the U.S. to play in games here.

During the hearing, Nicola told the officiant of the Canadian Immigration Division that he is ‘not a liar person’ but does not know his true age because his mother never told him his true birthday because she could not remember it. Nicola also said a man who originally processed his paperwork in South Sudan went forward with it despite Nicola never being able to provide an accurate age.

“I really do not know what is my real age, I cannot tell you what is my real age,” he said during the hearing, according to an official transcript provided to Yahoo Sports. “But over there my mom always keep telling us different age, I do not remember what specific age, I always keep her asking like what is the specific age that I was born, and she has told me that she could not remember.”

The officiant, Valerie Currie, eventually ruled that Nicola be detained because he was a flight risk. She also said she did not believe that Nicola was being honest in saying that he didn’t know his true age.

“You have misrepresented yourself and you have been untruthful in order to achieve your goals and that shows considerable disrespect for the laws of Canada, specifically the immigration laws of Canada,” Currie said. “Those circumstances suggests to me that you are a person who cannot be trusted to comply with the laws of Canada.”

An Immigration Refugee Board has since determined that Nicola should remain in detention until a May 24 hearing. During his first hearing, Nicola said he has had suicidal thoughts while under arrest and would like to return to South Sudan to be reunited with his mother.

Nicola is 6-foot-9 and helped the Catholic Central team advance to the second round of the Ontario Federation of Schools Athletic Association playoffs this season.

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