PDP crisis continues: Makarfi not ready for a reconciliation – Sheriff

Ali Modu Sheriff, factional National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said the collapse of the reconciliation moves in the party was the fault of chairman of the National Caretaker Committee, Ahmed Makarfi.

In a statement by the acting National Publicity Secretary of his faction, Bernard Mikko, Sheriff said he should not be blamed for the inability of both factions to solve their differences.

Sheriff said Makarfi faction refused to agree on the members of the reconciliation committee which was supposed to be set up for the peace talks.

He stated, “The reconciliation process appears to have relapsed due to Makarfi’s insistence not to disband its committee when Senator Ali Modu Sheriff is inclined to stepping down at the next unity convention that will usher in new executive members of the party. Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff is committed to resolving the leadership imbroglio in accordance with the law.”

But the other faction of the PDP is saying Ali Modu Sheriff was not ready for a reconciliation.

Dayo Adeyeye, the spokesperson of the caretaker committee (Ahmed Makarfi) said, “From the beginning, was Sheriff serious about the need to reconcile and return peace to the party? The national caretaker committee is a creation of the national convention.”

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The Programme also provides the platform to attract fresh and talented young graduates who will be groomed to drive the Bank’s vision of being the clear leader and Nigeria’s Bank of first choice. Driven by our vision, FirstBank has continued to reinvent itself with a view to sustaining its leadership position in the marketplace on all parameters.
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DFID - 33000 Nigerian women die from pregnancy complications every year

Mr David Ukagwu, The Regional Coordinator of DFID (The Department for International Development) of the South West, said  33,000 women die from pregnancy complications in Nigeria every year.
It was said at a workshop organised by DFID in collaboration with a  non-governmental organization, Mothers & Beyond (M&B) as part of  intervention initiatives to reduce maternal, new-born and child mortality in Nigeria, charged the mass media to step up the reportage of maternal mortality to curb the scourge.

Ukagwu said Nigeria had the highest number of maternal and new born deaths in sub-Sahara Africa.

According to him, 70% of maternal and child deaths in Nigeria were preventable.
And he called on government and stakeholders to ensure proper care for pregnant women to help safe delivery. 
Ukagwu went further to urged pregnant women to always seek medical attention at  hospitals with quality medical officers. 
The Executive Director of Mothers & Beyond, Bolaji Olagbaju, urged the media to  create adequate awareness on the challenge.

Is Africa Turning Its Back on the International Criminal Court?

On wednesday, Gambia withdrawn from the International Criminal Court (ICC) — along with Burundi and South Africa . This further established the practical irrelevance of the court. The countries are the first three signatory members to begin the process to formally leave the institution, which has long struggled to enforce its actions. That the countries are all pulling out of the ICC at the same time is not surprising and can be attributed to several factors.

1. There is the general perception that the institution is an imperialist tool of the West to pursue its interests. Moreover, African leaders are more likely to face prosecution by the court than leaders in other regions.
2. Even those countries unlikely to be targeted are hesitant to support its actions for fear of disrupting regional economic and political ties.

That Burundi and Gambia would opt to withdraw from the ICC should come as no surprise: Both are the target of ICC actions. Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza forcing his way into an unconstitutional third term in July 2015, his government cracked down, widespread allegations of human rights abuses, including torture, have provoked international sanctions against Burundi along with regional diplomatic efforts to prevent more bloodshed.

Gambia has also come under international scrutiny for its human rights abuses. Those deemed dissidents in the tiny West African country are routinely arrested and subjected to arbitrary detention, and often much worse. Gambia has a history of taking symbolic stands against international organizations. The country in 2013, pulled out of the Commonwealth of Nations  on the grounds that it was a neocolonial institution. It is making similar claims this time. Gambian leaders may one day be vulnerable to ICC prosecution regardless of membership status, but by leaving the organization, they are able to take a symbolic stand against a court that they feel unduly targets African leaders while ignoring African input.

Lastly, South Africa has other reasons. Its government which is completely different to Burundi's and Gambia's, is a maturing multiparty democracy that generally upholds human rights. Thus, South Africa's government exit from the ICC is much more significant. According to South African leaders, two factors influenced the decision.

1. The ICC's jurisdiction clashes with South Africa's commitment to respect the immunity afforded to African heads of state.
2. Membership in the international body at times conflicted with the country's goal to promote peace and stability on the African continent.

So many episodes demonstrated the ICC's impotence to actually enforce its demands without the support of national governments. This is the ICC's biggest weakness: its total reliance on national governments for enforcement. The common factor in the departure of all three countries is the underlying perception that the ICC is an outside institution imposing its will on African nations without their input, perpetuating a history of Western intervention and African oppression.

Given the inherent weaknesses of the African states, African leaders and citizens have become the most likely to be tried by the ICC. 

Furthermore, the types of crimes the ICC was created to combat are much more likely to occur in Africa than they are in other continents. And since 2002, these crimes and charges have been reoccurring in the continent. Beyond any reasonable doubt, there is also a history of African rulers clinging to power for long periods of time and several leaders have pushed to extend their mandates recently. This has caused significant social unrest and violence in some African countries, giving the ICC an opportunity to investigate abuses. So why won't Africa be the focus of the court? Consequently, African leaders as Kagame will be even more opposed to the ICC.

Someone wrote, " the turn against the ICC by some African states is intuitive, but it will not necessarily "weaken" the already feeble institution. Instead, it merely exposes the problems inherent in the court's enforcement mechanism and the animosity that it has engendered across the African continent."

Two earthquakes hit central region of Italy

Two strong earthquakes have hit central Italy, damaging buildings and sending scared residents into the streets.

A 5.5-magnitude quake struck at 19:10 local time (17:10 GMT) near Visso in Macerata province, officials said.

It was followed two hours later by a 6.1 magnitude tremor in the same area. Several people were hurt, but there were no immediate reports of deaths.

The quakes come two months after a powerful earthquake struck slightly to the south, killing 298 people.

The 6.2 magnitude quake, on 24 August, toppled buildings in Amatrice and villages in the mountainous region around the town, which is just 70km (45 miles) from Visso.

Al-Qaeda leader targeted by US drone strike in north eastern Afghanistan

A senior al-Qaeda leader has been targeted by a US drone strike in north eastern Afghanistan, US military officials say.

Farouq al-Qahtani, the group's leader in the area, is believed to have been killed on Sunday, officials speaking on condition of anonymity said.

NBC news reports: His deputy was also targeted in a separate strike.

The strikes in Kunar province have not been publicly confirmed and the results are still being assessed.

Saudi-born al-Qahtani, a Qatari national, was placed on a US list of most wanted terrorists in February.

He has been accused of involvement in plots targeting Europe and the US.

Afghan government spokesman Abdul Ghani Mosamem said that 15 insurgents were killed in Sunday's operation, including two Arabs and a number of Pakistani Taliban fighters.

Reason why Buhari may not follow rule over corruption - Segun Oni

Deputy National Chairman (South) of the All Progressives Congress (APC)  Segun Oni gave reasons yesterday why the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government will bypass the rule of law in the anti-corruption fight.

Speaking with reporters at the APC national secretariat in Abuja, the former Ekiti State governor said such procedure in the anti-corrution fight has never achieved any positive result in the past and it would result to admitting failure on the part of the government if the fight against corruption is left in the hands of those who cannot prosecute it.

Also, he challenged critics of the government of violating the rule of law to come up with an alternative way of achieving success in the anti-graft crusade.

Segundo Oni said: “If the rule of law is left to be what it is, nothing will happening. If you leave this war in the hand of people who would not be able to prosecute it, it means we give up and God forbid that we should fail. People are talking about rule of law and so on. How much have we achieved by rule of law? Are they saying there is no corruption? If there is corruption, what has been achieved in terms of stopping it? Or we should now say we cannot stop it? Then we should institutionalise it.

“At one stage, there must be a stop. In Rawlings’ Ghana, he applied certain measures. God forbid that in Nigeria. May be we should leave things until people get so frustrated and resort to self-help. Things cannot continue the way they are because everybody knows the corrupt people, but everybody is keeping their voices low even when they know corrupt people.

He asked, “Don’t lawyers know corrupt judges? Don’t judges also know corrupt judges? If the system within the judiciary is unable to deal with this, so nobody should talk?  People would get so frustrated that the people out there would come out in arms against the whole system and God forbid that.

“So, what we are trying to do now is to prevent the collapse of the whole system and people taking laws into their hands. If the National Judicial Council (NJC) had been able to deal with the issue of corruption decisively in such a way that people are very confident, I am sure this would probably not be necessary," he added. 

“But not much has been done and people are frustrated. The whole system is complaining; people are complaining. I want to see how Nigerian judges or lawyers could raise their hands and say, there is no corruption.

“Nobody has defended the system so far. Even the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) has not defended the system and say there is no corruption.

“What people are talking about is how we are going about it. Let them come up with an alternative ways of achieving that. Once they tell us, we assure you we will fish out all corrupt people out of this system within six months.

“Give us this time, then there would be no need for any extra measures.

“But if we don’t have such of an assurance from anywhere, we have to continue to do what we believe is the right way to go about it. This is an extra-ordinary circumstance and people should see it as such.”

Oni confidently said that from the reaction so far, Nigerians are happy that the APC government are taking the fight to the doorstep of corruption, which shows sincerity and seriousness. 

He begged on Nigerians to become more and more demanding, for the moment they know that their voices also can count, they would continue to raise their voices against corruption and Nigeria would be better up for it.

In response the claims that the government has not adhered to the principle of separation of power as enshrined in the constitution and the non-prosecution of serving officials accused of corruption, the party chief said, "this is the first time the fight against corruption was being extended to other arms of government." He added that the people who had been prosecuted for corruption were the executive whether they are in this government or previous government.

He asked, “Since we have been prosecuting people for corruption, how many judges have been brought before EFCC over the years? Is it an indication that the judiciary had been clean?  How many legislators were brought before EFCC?  It has always been the executive.

He asked,"how many civil servants have ever been brought?"

According to him," this is not a war directed in any particular direction. If you know corrupt people even in this government, if you have evidence, come up and let’s us see whether government would keep quiet.”