Nigeria has avoided a potential conflict with world football governing body FIFA with the election of a new executive board for the country's federation, the NFF. FIFA threatened to sanction Nigeria if the election did not take place after a court had initially halted it. But a court of appeal would later pave the way for the election to go ahead at the last minute with Ibrahim Gusau elected the new NFF president.
Monday, October 3, 2022
Video - Ibrahim Gusau succeeds Amaju Pinnick as Nigeria football president
Friday, September 30, 2022
UK government faces court challenge in Nigerian rendition case
Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob), a prominent separatist movement proscribed in Nigeria, was arrested in Kenya in June last year before being transported against his will to Nigeria, where he has been held ever since.
In July, the UN working group on arbitrary detention published an opinion that the father of two had been subject to extraordinary rendition and said he should be released immediately. However, successive UK foreign secretaries, first Dominic Raab and then Liz Truss, before she became prime minister, have refused to take a view as to whether Kanu was a victim of extraordinary rendition.
The family has been granted a judicial review to challenge that refusal, arguing that its effect has been that no action has been taken to help him.
His brother, Kingsley Kanu, said: “The British government is well known for its stance on human rights. I believe it must be decisive when it comes to its decision-making about very serious violations of the human rights of British citizens abroad, especially when the facts are clear, as they are in my brother’s case, and when the UN has investigated and reached a firm conclusion that my brother was subject to extraordinary rendition. I am very happy that the court has agreed that a hearing is necessary to decide this important issue.”
Kanu’s family claim he was tortured in Kenya and has been held in solitary confinement in Abuja since being transported there. The UN working group referred the case to the special rapporteur on torture. It expressed concern that he had been denied treatment and medication for his heart condition and highlighted that solitary confinement in excess of 15 consecutive days is prohibited under the Nelson Mandela rules, international non-binding standards.
In a court filing concerning a parallel case brought by Nnamdi Kanu in Abuja, the Nigerian government denied torturing or mistreating him. It claimed that he entered Kenya unlawfully, having previously jumped bail in Nigeria, and so had no right to an extradition hearing.
In 2015, Kanu was arrested in Nigeria and charged with terrorism offences and incitement, after setting up a digital radio station, Radio Biafra, at his home in London. Two years later he fled the country while on bail after an attack on his family home, which he claimed killed 28 members of Ipob. In January, he pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges.
Shirin Marker, from Bindmans LLP, who is representing Kingsley Kanu, said it was essential for the new foreign secretary, James Cleverly, to reach a firm conclusion on whether her client’s brother had been the victim of extraordinary rendition in order to decide what steps to take to assist him.
“The evidence available to date establishes that he has been subject to extraordinary rendition and torture or inhumane treatment,” she said. “It is unacceptable for the UK government to continue to prevaricate on this issue. We are glad that the court has now granted permission for this case to move to a final hearing.”
Explaining her decision to grant a judicial review hearing, Mrs Justice Ellenbogen said: “Such decisions/inaction are, in principle, reviewable and do not enter forbidden areas, including decisions affecting foreign policy.”
The Foreign Office declined to comment while proceedings were active.
By Haroon Siddique
I’ll turn Nigeria from consumption to production country – Obi
Obi made the pledge in Ibadan, after a closed-door meeting with Governor ‘Seyi Makinde in his office at Agodi, Secretariat, Ibadan.
He said, despite Nigeria has performed poorly in the last sixty-two years but survived as a nation, there was still need to celebrate, adding that, the next election should be how to start building a new Nigeria everybody would be proud of.
Obi said: “At this time in Nigeria, I’m going over and consulting with all the well meaning Nigerians about the future of the country. Consulting and discussing with them about how can we collectively bring back Nigeria and Nigeria becomes the country we will all be proud of.”
In 62 years, it can be said that we performed poorly, but we survived as a nation but we are tired of saying we’ve achieved a lot, we celebrate because this next election will a one to build a nation that we all can be proud of.
“Next year election will not be based on ethnicity because there’s no ethnic group that food cheaper rate or there’s no place where the poor people are happy, there’s no place where there’s job for everybody, or a place where there’s uninterrupted electricity or any ethnic group that will say they are safe.”
“ It will not be based on religion, the Christians don’t buy bread cheaper neither do the Muslims. It is the same for everybody, everybody’s suffering. I am not saying it is my turn but the turn of Nigerians to take back what belongs to them. It will not be by corruption and that’s why we going across to say let’s save our country.”
“Next year election would be based on character and trust, capacity and commitment to do the right thing. I’ve made a commitment to be responsible but I want to move and secure Nigeria, build Nigeria.”
“I’m a Nigerian, I don’t want anybody to vote for me because I’m an igbo man, no, don’t vote for me because I’m a Christian or because it is my turn, it is the turn of Nigerians, vote for me because of my commitment and my character and especially my commitment to the young ones.”
“I’ve said it, that structure is the structure that kept us down, it is the structure of criminality, it is the structure that aids massive corruption, that’s what we want to remove. We must remove that structure for Nigeria to start working. We are doing good work, going across party lines to ensure Nigeria works. The structure of money sharing must be removed.”
“The money they are sharing is why there are jobless people, the money they are sharing is why the whole country isn’t working. They didn’t invest in health, in education, in security but rather sharing the money. So it is time make things right and make use of the money in the right way.”
“People don’t share money in the other worlds because they wants job. Out youths wants job, they are energetic. People don’t know where the next meal will come from and you’re giving them money. When people talk about money, it gets me annoyed because that’s not what we have come to do.”
By Adeola Badru
Related stories: Video - Presidential hopeful Peter Obi on his plans for Nigeria
Most Popular Candidate in Race to Become Nigerian President Plans Budget Revamp
Japan's Daikin to build air conditioners in Nigeria in renewed push
Japan's Daikin Industries Ltd (6367.T) will begin assembling air conditioners in Nigeria as it renews a push into Africa that had been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, a regional head said on Thursday.
"We are very soon going to have a factory in Nigeria," Kanwal Jeet Jawa, the head of Daikin's operations in India and East Africa, told Reuters.
Rather than building a plant, Daikin is using space in a facility provided by a local distributor in the West African nation, he said.
In East African countries, including Tanzania and Kenya, Daikin is aiming to become the leading seller of air conditioners, chillers and other cooling equipment by 2025.
The company is looking to replicate its success in India, where it has beaten the likes of South Korea's LG Electronics Inc (066570.KS) to take top market share amid rapid market expansion driven by the country's economic growth, Jawa said.
Daikin's production capacity in India is set to almost double in 2023 with the opening of a new factory, allowing it to ship equipment to Africa that is more affordable and better suited to local conditions than air conditioners the Japanese company makes elsewhere, Jawa said.
"For East Africa, we will continue to supply finished products produced in India," a Daikin spokesperson said.
By Tim Kelly and Mayu Sakoda
Related story: Japan gives Nigeria $1 billion grant
Nigeria's Abubakar launches bid to succeed Buhari as president
Official election campaigning started on Wednesday, ahead of a February presidential vote to choose a successor to President Muhammadu Buhari, who is serving a final second term.
Nigeria’s next leader will inherit a country beset by growing insecurity, separatist agitation, a sluggish economy, double-digit inflation, industrial crude oil theft and a growing petrol subsidy bill that is draining government finances.
Abubakar, 75, and a former vice president between 1999-2007, is running for the third time. He said a People’s Democratic Party (PDP) government would rebuild the economy, improve security and the education sector and run a smaller government.
“We have a plan to address these issues,” he Abubakar said at a ceremony to start his campaign. He did not give details.
“Under the watch of the current APC government, our dear country has witnessed a frightening descent into anarchy.”
To become president, Abubakar will have to defeat ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Bola Tinubu and the Labour Party’s Peter Obi, his former running mate in 2019.
He also has to heal rifts within his PDP party after an influential faction boycotted Wednesday’s event as it pushes for the chairman, Abubakar’s ally, to quit.
Abubakar has previously said he would give more power to the 36 states, remove the oil subsidy and privatise the national oil firm and allow the private sector a greater role in the economy.
Polls in Nigeria are unreliable, but Tinubu and Abubakar - both septuagenarian political veterans - lead the two biggest political parties that have ruled Nigeria since the return to democratic rule in 1999.
The PDP is seeking to return to power after its defeat by Buhari’s APC in 2015.
By Camillus Eboh
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