Saturday 27 June 2020

Africa#FocusNationAfrica George Floyd: Panel tasks Africans on building the homeland

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George Floyd: Panel tasks Africans on building the homeland

June 26, 2020

By Nsikan Ikpe

A Tweetchat panel has tasked Africans on building the homeland if people of African descent are to avert the resurgence of incidents like the George Floyd racist saga in the United States of America going forward.

The panel which was convened by the pan-African newspaper, The Difference, was discussed the subject, George Floyd and the African Condition as the subject of choice for the June edition of the newspaper’s monthly #FocusNationAfrica summit.

It had on the bill Professor Biko Agozino, Tony Opara and Abdulmumini Adeku.

In his presentation, Agozino made a case for the overhaul of the current police and prison systems, arguing that it really did not much than reinforce the existing inequality cleavages in society.

On how best Africa should be organised going forward, the Criminology, Law and Society expert is inclined towards a structural arrangement that unites all of the continent in one large, bloc state for maximum negotiating effect in the global arena. But he does not think this should take the form of a confederation.

‘Not the confederacy, we deserve a more perfect union as big as China or India in population to offer us an economy of scale too huge to be dominated by any ant. Free movement of people and goods, the right to live, work, study, run for office or play sports in any part of Africa,’ Agozino argued.

On the question of the character and quality of people who hold political office in the continent, Opara thinks that much more score has to be put on it.

‘There is a need to look critically into political recruitment. See Nigeria as an instance. None can get into power whose pocket is not deep or has a godfather. This is partly while persons of questionable character are in power while the qualified look on bewildered.’

Contributing, Editor-in-Chief of Paedia Express, Abdulmumini Adeku said it was his hope that should Nigeria’s former Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala become the WTO Director General, some semblance of good may come for the continent. He however qualified this by saying that it would however not be automatic:

‘I want to believe that she will be a conduit pipe to getting debt relief for other Third World nations particularly her beloved Nigerian nation, but what will happen after will depend on the level of thinking caps our people in Abuja have in place.’

The #FocusNationAfrica summit holds once every month and is a companion event to the newspaper’s annual Africa Day Colloquium.

The session was moderated by its Editor-in-Chief, Mr. Richard Mammah.

EDITORIAL PAGE!!!THE SUNBIRD UNIVERSITY IS FOREVER

BY ABDULMUMINI ADEKU,LAGOS,NIGERIA... Battle of the Sexes in Olive-backed Sunbird - EcoEvo@TCD

When Abdulmumini ireyi Adeku had gone to the offices of the Sunbird African Media Limited ,Lagos,Nigeria,owners of The Difference Newspapers ,a Pan African affairs related journal for a job he had thought to himself back then that he was just going to work in just yet another media outfit...

However ,on settling in at the time ,May,2009 ,he had met a burgeoning Citadel of international Journalism ,he knew little about the real dynamics of the global press at the time and needed the tutelage of the Founder of the outfit,Mr Richard Mammah to put him through...

From its fledging offices at Odunukan Avenue in Oregun ,Lagos,Nigeria at the time ,the company built a huge well of goodwill through her titles like The Reading Club Initiative and associated literary projects nationwide, The Difference Newspapers, The Difference En francais [Nigeria's only known French reporting Newspapers],The Africa Day Journal ,The Africa Day Colloquium and other specially produced extracts like The Pointer Newspapers ,owned by The Delta State Government as at then ,The New Diplomat :a newspaper focusing on the globe but targeted at addressing investments to the Niger Delta region of Nigeria ,published by Mr Oma Djerba and of course :The Focus on African Nations Summit :a monthly lecture series.

Mr Mammah 's proven competence as an astute media captain was also not in any doubt when Prince Emeka Obasi called on him to help him in Midwifing The Hallmark and Business Hallmark Newspapers at one time or the other in that brands history..

Mace Associates Limited,Lagos,Nigeria,also believed to have being founded by Mr Mammah has helped to nurture and produced several literary figures in the country aside from the Founder of the brand been an established author himself...

Mammah's newest book and a literary masterpiece at that ,Nanna's Diary is causing a lot of ripples globally as far as the literary Art world is concerned ...

So when Mr Abdulmumini Adeku left the Sunbird Media in 2013 to re-open his own private business:The E.N.M.Paedia Express Multimedia Group of Lagos,Nigeria..he was soon engaged by the same firm on a consulting basis albeit pro-bo-no..

It was no surprise however when Mr Richard Mammah invited him to Join other investors and promoters of a project that he had nurtured at heart which was now to see the reality of the day:The Sunbird University ,also fondly called The Difference International University,Lagos,Nigeria...

The News office Desk of the E.N.M.Paedia Express Multimedia Group of Lagos,Nigeria .,can authoritatively reveal to its readers that the collation of information leading to the publication of a prospectus for the brand is already with the Founder,Mr Richard Mammah...

He has also commissioned for further information to be submitted for the brands online e-learning initiatives, virtual campus architecture to be made available to him sooner than later..

Both Mammah and Adeku apart from been businessmen and Journalists with a bias for the academia have a lot of contribution based on professional competence and the presence of several other investors and academic authorities on ground who can make the project not just a reality but a very huge success..

Based on media audit or content analysis,The News office Desk of the E.N.M.Paedia Express Multimedia Group of Lagos,Nigeria can say that The Difference Newspapers is like The Der Spiegel Newspapers of Germany as far as Pan African News based Journalism is concerned..

While the newspaper outfit started trading sometimes in the year 2006/2007 ,The African Day Fiesta,its colloquium ,publications and of course lecture series started sometimes in 2015..

Both Sunbird Africa Media Limited ,The E.N.M.Paedia Express Multimedia Group of Lagos,Nigeria have several years of working together in between them as corporate or commercial associates exchanging content ,ideas and other capacity building strategies ..

Both organizations are globally renowned for churning out A-list reports which has being used to the benefits of corporate Turks ,bureaucrats, politicians and government officials locally and globally...

Save for regulatory body approval ,The proposed project fashioned after Ashesi University of Ghana according to Mr Mammah's blueprint already offers such platforms for seminars, conferences, workshops, lectures and research to anybody in attendance even without any form of academic certification as this is the role of universities globally..

Feelers suggests formal academic lectures,admission of students,opening of its virtual campuses,e-library initiative,The School's Senate will not happen until sometimes in and around 2023/2024 session at the earliest..

when fully operational ,academically ,The Sunbird University is expected to fully hit the ground running in contribution to the growth of the nation and the international community..

Communication parameters like The Vision Statement, The Mission Statement, The Brands official Color ,organ ogram ,Campus Mapping are all embedded in the blueprint with Mr Richard Mammah...

The Brand logo or official Crest of the brand which should include The Sunbird insignia will soon be worked upon in earnest..

It would appear that the proposed school will start on a University College model before going full blast after proper incubation with a more experienced school or better still it will go full blast upon opening up of its doors to academic operations..

Wednesday 24 June 2020

Spain must work to end colonialism in Western Sahara

SPS 20/06/2020 - 14:21

Brussels, 20 June 2020 (SPS) - Deputies of the European Parliament called Wednesday the Spanish Government, in a letter sent to the Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, to speed up the decolonization process in Western Sahara and assume its historical and legal responsibilities towards the Sahrawi people.

The European MPs said in a letter that the recent decision of the Supreme Court which establishes that the fact of being born in Western Sahara before 1975 doesn’t give the right to the Spanish nationality of origin, is “another denial from Spain towards its legal and historical responsibility and of its occupation for several years of Western Sahara which was its 53rd province and which had representatives in the legislature (Curtis), before being deliberately divided by Madrid and illegally given to Morocco,” as part of Madrid agreements of 14 November 1975.

The letter broached the historic decision of the International Court of Justice in 1975 which judged that Morocco doesn’t have any sovereignty over the territory of Western Sahara, which was reaffirmed by the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs in 2002, in a different form, i.e. that “Madrid’s arrangement didn’t transfer the sovereignty of Western Sahara and didn’t grant to any of the signatories the status of the administering power, a situation that Spain can’t transfer unilaterally because it contradicts with the legal and political reality.”

The European MPs expressed their strong condemnation of this decision, which “reflects the clear political intentions against the Sahrawi people and the decolonization issue of Western Sahara,” demanding that “the Prime minister takes the responsibility of this phase and takes all the measures to respond to it, starting with the efforts aimed at establishing high-level diplomatic relations with the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) and the granting of the Spanish nationality to the descendants of the former Spanish colony (Western Sahara)…” (SPS)

062/SPS/APS

AU Peace and Security Council reaffirms respect for existing borders at accession independence time

SPS 24/06/2020 - 14:00

Addis Ababa, June 24, 2020 (SPS) - The African Union Peace and Security Council (CPS) reaffirmed in Addis Ababa on Saturday the respect for existing borders at the time of accession to independence, as solemnly declared in Cairo Resolution 16 of 1964 that institutionalized the intangibility of African borders.

In a statement adopted in commemoration of African Border Day, the African Union Peace and Security Council recalled the unalterable relevance of the Cairo resolution, which highlighted the necessary respect for the intangibility of borders as a relevant vision from the founding fathers of the pan-African organization and also an investment of independence in conflict prevention.

This CPS reminder is of utmost importance at a time when Morocco's colonization of the territory of Western Sahara is testing this fundamental principle.

The Council, which is currently chaired by Algeria, "declared to expect a continent with secure, peaceful, prosperous and integrated borders that promote peace, security, stability and socio-economic development", stressing that "peace and security in Africa are intrinsically linked to good border governance SPS

Fresh posers emerge over Nigeria High Commission demolition

Editorial

June 22, 2020

Fresh posers emerge over Nigeria High Commission demolition

By John Eche

Fresh posers have emerged in relation to the news report about a demolition assault on the premises of the Nigerian High Commission in Accra, Ghana.

In the clip of the report which has since gone viral, the Ghanaian authorities are said to have stood idly by as the assault was being carried out.

While the Ghanaian authorities have since disassociated themselves from the incident, however, feelers from the country suggest that the issues actually run deeper than is being portrayed and that in depth investigations are required in order that some emanating posers that are connected to the story and incident can be cleared.

One, who owns the property in question; is it the Nigerian High Commission or an individual Nigerian businessman and what was exactly being constructed there? Residential flats for the High Commissioner and his staff or a business development?

Two, does the High Commission have documentary papers in its name which prove that it had acquired or been granted the said land either by the previous owner, the holding community or the Government of Ghana?

Three, was there a previous property on the land in question that was pulled down to make room for the new property that has now suffered demolition? Were all of the required consultations and negotiations conducted with the previous owners before that displacement and reconstruction process was being undertaken?

Four, is the High Commission really unaware of the many attempts to call its attention to the need to discuss and resolve the underlying issues before things deteriorated to this stage?

Noted one commentator that The Difference spoke to in Accra: ‘indeed this is a quite puzzling incident. Land matters on their own are quite difficult issues in Ghana. Even the government has to pass through quite a maze of negotiations to get land for its own purposes as land is usually held by communities. But even at that, it will indeed be quite an issue if this land in question had not been properly contracted by the High Commission itself. It really would be messy.’

Efforts to get the responses of the Nigerian High Commission in Ghana and the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to these emanating posers were yet unsuccessful as at press time.

in a related issue,Mr Adekunle Akinlabi,Government and international relations scholar urged Nigeria to as a matter of urgency take a drastic stand on the matter by taking a more pragmatic view to her foreign policy so as to prevent the Accra demolition embarrassment in the future..

An impeccable media source told The News office Desk of the E.N.M.Paedia Express Multimedia Group of Lagos,Nigeria that there were so many things that had happened in recent times between Nigeria and Ghana that were not in the public space but some of this will be answered very shortly..

Meanwhile feelers suggests as at press time that Caste Osu of Accra,Ghana obviously rattled by the issue are doing everything to solve the problems caused by the incident with a short gun diplomatic solution

Online reading session for Nanna’s Diary underway

Editorial

June 19, 2020

Online reading session for Nanna’s Diary underway

By Nsikan Ikpe

The first of several promotional reading sessions for Richard Mammah’s recently published book, Nanna’s Diary, an online event, is scheduled to hold on Tuesday, June 30th, 2020, a statement from the publishers has disclosed.

Nanna’s Diary is a work of historical fiction with the story line being built around the life and times of the illustrious Nanna Olomu, aka Nanna of Itsekiri.

A prominent oil merchant and pre-colonial era Nigerian leader, he had resisted British colonial incursion into the Niger-Delta hinterlands for which the Royal British Navy launched a war on him in 1894. In that landmark battle, which has gone on in history as the Ebrohimi war, he gamely resisted the British imperial attack for the better part of four months before taking his flight to Lagos, unconquered.

Upon his voluntary surrender to Governor Carter in the Colony of Lagos, he was taken to Calabar, tried, exiled to Accra and later returned to rebuild his business and estate in Koko, headquarters of the current Warri North Local Government Area of Delta State.

An online event, the reading session of June 30th takes place from 4-5pm on the Zoom platform.

Mammah is the Editor-in-Chief of The Difference Newspaper. He is also the author of The History and Prospects of the Nigerian Book and convener of the annual Africa Day Colloquium series in Lagos, Nigeria since 2016.

The Difference hosts George Floyd and Africa tweetchat

Africa

The Difference hosts George Floyd and Africa tweetchat

Editorial

June 17, 2020

The Difference hosts George Floyd and Africa tweetchat

By Nsikan Ikpe

The Difference Newspaper is billed to host a tweetchat on the subject, ‘George Floyd and Africa’ on Thursday, June 25th, 2020.

The event which holds from 4-6pm on that day would be hosted on the pan-African news media platform’s twitter handle, @differencenews1, and using the hashtag: #GeorgeFloydandAfrica.

Special guests at the event include Professor Biko Agozino of Virginia Tech, USA and the newspaper’s Executive Editor, Mr. Anthony Opara.

While Agozino, a widely travelled and well-heeled academic who has studied and taught in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and North America, teaches sociology, law and criminology in the United States, Opara is a sociology graduate of the Universities of Calabar and Lagos.

A trained journalist and astute public commentator, Opara also has a visibly all-consuming passion for politics, law and order and the judiciary. He was a Senior Correspondent with the Lagos based Champion Newspapers where he covered the Crime and Judicial beats for very many years.

The killing of Floyd by the cop, Derek Chauvin has sparked massive protests against racism, injustice and police brutality in the United States and worldwide, exposing serious structural cracks in the underbelly of the world’s most industrialised nation.

The event is the June edition of The Difference Newspaper’s monthly #FocusNationAfrica summit, a platform for celebrating the national days of respective African nations, and is open to members of the public.

The focus nations for the month of June are Mozambique, Madagascar, Somaliland, Djibouti, Seychelles and the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC.

George Floyd: His death has brought down the roof once again

Unilever to invest €1bn to reduce climate change

NEWS

June 22, 2020 Ralph Tathagata 0

Unilever to invest €1bn to reduce climate change

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In collaboration with farmers, governments and organisations in the next decade, Unilever has pledged to spend a whopping €1bn (£900m) to reduce the effect of climate change in its processes. The climate and nature fund aims to restore forests, soil and biodiversity through reforestation, wildlife protection and water preservation.

The company said in a report that it has also committed to achieving net zero emission by 2039, more than a decade ahead of the 2050 Paris Agreement deadline, as well as a deforestation-free supply chain by 2023.

Unilever had previously pledged to achieve zero carbon emission and half its greenhouse-gas footprint across all products by 2030.

“While the world is dealing with the devastating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and grappling with serious issues of inequality, we can’t let ourselves forget that the climate crisis is still a threat to all of us,” Alan Jope, chief executive of Unilever, said.

“Climate change, nature degradation, biodiversity decline, water scarcity – all these issues are interconnected and we must address them all simultaneously. In doing so, we must also recognise that the climate crisis is not only an environmental emergency; it also has a terrible impact on lives and livelihoods.

“We, therefore, have a responsibility to help tackle the crisis: as a business and through direct action by our brands.”

Currently, 89% of Unilever’s forest-related commodities are certified as sustainably sourced.

While Ben & Jerry’s has already committed to reducing greenhouse emissions from dairy farms, food brand Knorr has been supporting farmers to grow more sustainably.

In an attempt to preserve water, Unilever is also set to join the 2030 Water Resources Group, which aims to improve water management across India, Brazil, South Africa, Vietnam and Indonesia.

In March, Unilever partnered the UK government to jointly commit £100m to encourage people to disinfect surfaces and wash their hands during the coronavirus pandemic.