Global body in charge of security, United Nations
Security Council, says it is worried over what it described as continued tensions
linked to disputed electoral processes, social and economic difficulties, and
conflicts between farmers and herders in the Lake Chad Basin.
Nigeria, Cameroon
and Chad are members of the Lake Chad Basin on which the UN body also said it
remained concerned at their security and humanitarian situation caused by Boko
Haram and other armed groups.
The body spoke in a Presidential Statement released,
yesterday, on the heels of last Tuesday’s siege on the National Assembly by
Nigeria’s secret police, the Department of State Service (DSS). Acting
President Yemi Osinbajo had fired the DSS Director General, Mr Lawal Daura,
following the siege which attracted condemnation from across Nigeria. Some
international bodies, including the European Union, EU, also condemned the
National Assembly invasion. The siege had been interpreted in some quarters as
part of the moves by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to remove Senate
President Bukola Saraki, who had defected to the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP), through the backdoor. Another school of thought said the siege was
staged by the Senate President, in conjunction with the DSS, to attract
sympathy to his person and make the administration of President Muhammadu
Buhari look bad in the eyes of the democratic world. Meanwhile, the cat and
mouse game between the leadership of the National Assembly and the Presidency
to get the federal lawmakers to reconvene and approve the supplementary budget
of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2019 general
elections continued, yesterday, as indications emerged that the lawmakers may
not meet this week. The lawmakers had gone on recess late last month and are not
due to return to parliament until late September. Terrorist activity In a
Presidential Statement, the 15-member UN Security Council regretted that
Central African countries were beset by ongoing terrorist activity, instability
and the effects of climate change, and asked Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
to review the work of the UN Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA), and
recommend areas for improvement.
The presidential statement read: “The Security Council
strongly condemns all terrorist attacks carried out in the region, including
those perpetrated by Boko Haram and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant
(ISIL, also known as Daesh). “These attacks have caused large-scale and
devastating losses, have had a devastating humanitarian impact including
through the displacement of a large number of civilians in Nigeria, Cameroon
and Chad, and represent a threat to the stability and peace of West and Central
Africa. “The Council notes with particular concern the continuing use by Boko
Haram of women and girls as suicide bombers, which has created an atmosphere of
suspicion towards them and made them targets of harassment and stigmatisation
in affected communities, and of arbitrary arrests by security forces. “The
Council emphasises the need for affected States to counter-terrorism in all its
forms and manifestations, including by addressing the conditions conducive to
the spread of terrorism, in accordance with obligations under international
law, in particular international human rights law, international refugee law
and international humanitarian law”. The Security Council welcomed the support
provided by UNOCA and the UN Office for West Africa and Sahel (UNOWAS) for the
development of a joint regional strategy to address the root causes of the Lake
Chad Basin crisis through regular contact with regional leaders. The Council
encouraged partners to increase security assistance to Lake Chad Basin
Commission countries, and humanitarian and development support across the
region for those affected by Boko Haram activities. “The Security Council
remains deeply concerned at the grave security situation and related violations
and abuses of human rights in parts of Central Africa, in particular the
continuing terrorist activities of Boko Haram and other terrorist groups in the
Lake Chad Basin,” it said. “The Security Council expresses its ongoing concern
at continued tensions linked to disputed electoral processes, social and
economic difficulties, and conflicts between farmers and herders,” the
statement added. The 15-member Council noted that UNOCA’s priorities would
include to work closely with UNOWAS to address transregional issues such as
maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea, conflict between farmers and herders,
and combatting Boko Haram. The UN Security Council committee on al Qaeda
sanctions blacklisted and imposed sanctions on the Islamist militant group Boko
Haram in 2014 after the insurgents kidnapped more than 200 Chibok schoolgirls.
The designation, which came into effect after no objections were raised by the
Security Council’s 15 members, subjected Boko Haram to UN sanctions, including
an arms embargo, asset freeze and travel ban.
The National Assembly was under pressure, last week,
to reconvene to consider the budget to enable INEC prepare for the forthcoming
polls. The leadership was scheduled to meet INEC National Chairman, Prof.
Mahood Yakubu, ahead of the reconvening, last Tuesday, but the DSS siege
aborted the meeting. The meeting, nonetheless, held on Wednesday. Uncertainty
about resumption The word out there, late last week, was that the House of
Representatives will reconvene this week, specifically on Tuesday, to approve
the INEC supplementary budget. But an associate of the Senate President,
Saraki, told Sunday Vanguard, yesterday evening, that he could not say whether
the National Assembly would sit this week. “I have not heard about reconvening
when they are still plotting their evil schemes. We know that once the Senate
is reconvened that they would find ways to block Saraki and Ekweremadu from
coming to the session and force a President Pro-Tempore from their camp to do
their illegal bidding”, the associate said. Whereas to remove a Senate
President, the requirement is two-third of the Senate, representing 73
senators, in the absence of the two presiding officers, a President Pro-Tempore
can be elected among those present to preside over the affairs of the Senate
for a limited number of days. “That is their plan and we cannot be at peace
with that.” Sunday Vanguard gathered, yesterday, that 39 senators had signed a
petition to remove Saraki and his deputy, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, from office.
Senator Ahmad Lawan, Senate Majority Leader, is believed to have been tipped by
those opposed to Saraki as Senate President, Senator Sunny Ogbuji from Ebonyi
State as Deputy Senate President and Senator George Akume penciled down as
Senate Leader under the proposed scheme allegedly in the works by the APC camp.
The ruling party National Chairman, Mr Adams Oshiomhole, however, remained
unsparing of the Senate leadership, yesterday, as he insisted that resistance
to reconvene was a bid for political self- preservation by the Senate
President. He affirmed that Saraki could not continue to shift the evil day.
“If they are actually representing Nigerians, they are supposed to reopen to
deal with the issue with the supplementary budget and other presidential bills
before them which are urgent,” Oshiomhole said yesterday through his spokesman,
Simon Ebegbulem. Responding from the camp of the Senate President, Senator
Rafiu Ibrahim, who recently defected from the APC to the PDP, said they would
not bother wasting words on Oshiomhole. “For him to have any say in the affairs
of the National Assembly, he should resign his position as the National
Chairman and contest to become a senator and not to keep on talking about his
bloated ego”, Ibrahim said. Rise to defend democracy – Pro-Saraki Group In a
statement, yesterday, a pro-democracy group, Democratic Nigeria, pleaded with
Nigerians to rise and defend the nation’s fledgling democracy. Speaking against
the backdrop of the siege in the National Assembly, last Tuesday, the group
said: “In the last three years of the 8th NASS, so many illegalities have been
prevented, many of which have not really gone down well with the executive arm.
Uncovering of alleged corruption in NNPC, the Nigeria Police Force with the IGP
as major culprit, to Kenton, among many others in government agencies and
institutions. “It is on public record that none among the past NASS had been
severely subjected to attacks and disregard by agents of the state like the
present Senate, yet it is surviving, probably because those at the helm of
affairs presently, do not hold the notion that their representation is solely
about themselves, but see themselves as custodians of the people’s will and
defenders of the people’s Commonwealth. “Whichever side of the divide we
belong, we must not only condemn shenanigans and illegality when it does not
favour us, legality is not a matter of fair-weather, it must be legal at all
times notwithstanding who is involved. We saw it and condemned it when the
Judiciary was at the receiving end, with the invasion of their homes in a
Gestapo fashion, by agents of the State Security Service (SSS) at midnight. Now
that it is wearing another toga against the NASS, we must not suddenly become
janusfaced and go silent while those who never appreciated democracy but now
profess to be repentant democrats, set bad precedence for our hard earned
democracy”. Also, a former Minister of Education and a chieftain of the Social
Democratic Party, SDP, Prof. Tunde Adeniran, also speaking, yesterday, said: “I
expect the National Assembly to stand up to their responsibilities by upholding
the rule of law. I also expect them to regard the Nigerian situation as a
national emergency and treat the issues before them with dispatch.”
Vanguard
UN warns over tensions in Nigeria, others
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Monday, August 13, 2018
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