Top Stories in Nigeria today
WHAT’S NEWS? September 28, 2023
By Ezinwanne Onwuka
● Two Nigerian Americans make President Biden’s advisory council on African diaspora engagement
President Joe Biden constituted the inaugural members of the country’s first-ever advisory council on African diaspora engagement on Wednesday. Among the 12-member committee comprised of professionals from different sectors, including business, social work, and creative industry among others, are two Americans with Nigerian roots: Osagie Imasogie and Chinenye Joy Ogwumike.
The Nigerians and ten other African Americans will provide invaluable guidance to reinforce cultural, social, political, and economic ties between the U.S. and Africa, and promote trade, investment, and educational exchanges between the United States and Africa, President Biden said.
In a press statement, U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said each of the appointees who will be working closely with him “have all played important roles in strengthening United States–Africa relations and shaping United States foreign policy toward Africa.” Imasogie and Ogwimike alongside others will serve on the council until 2025.
● Nigeria’s new central bank boss tasked with regaining confidence
Nigerian lawmakers have approved the appointment of Olayemi Cardoso to a five-year term as Nigeria’s next central bank governor. Mr. Cardoso has one of the toughest jobs in the country.
Since taking office in May, President Bola Tinubu has instituted a raft of new policies — scrapping a $10 billion annual fuel subsidy and liberalizing the foreign exchange market. The reforms were much needed but crippled an economy already on its knees. The naira is in free-fall, hitting unprecedented lows of ₦1,000 to a USD, and fuel prices have more than tripled, pushing the inflation rate to a more than 18-year high. Through it all, the central bank has been leaderless, with the last governor, Godwin Emefiele, in detention and facing corruption charges since June.
With Cardoso taking full control of Nigeria ‘s central bank this week, his biggest challenges will be to restore the bank’s credibility after eight years of mismanagement, boost confidence in the naira and slow the inflation rate. He will also need to shore up the bank’s $33.2 billion of foreign exchange reserves, about 90 per cent of which have been used as collateral for dollar loans from foreign and domestic banks.
● Nigerian military bombs insurgents’ hideouts in Southeast
Nigerian soldiers under Operation Udo Ka, a military task force checkmating insurgency in Nigeria’s Southeast region, have cracked the bunkers of secessionist group Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its militant wing, the Eastern Security Network (ESN) at Mother Valley Orsumughu in Nnewi South County (local government area) of Anambra State and Aku Ihube in Okigwe county (local government area) of Imo State.
The strikes by fighter jets of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) on Tuesday (Sept. 26) were in response to a tip-off that the IPOB fighters had planned a secret rendezvous to conclude plans of launching an attack on residents of both states and the entire region, NAF spokesperson Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet revealed on Wednesday. “The strikes hit the target and were deemed successful following the ball of fire, fleeing terrorists at the location, as well as feedback received,” Gabkwet said.
IPOB ‘s political goal is to create an independent country out of the homeland of the Igbo ethnic group. More than a million people died, mostly of starvation, during a three-year civil war that began in 1967 when the region attempted to break away from Nigeria under the name “Republic of Biafra.”
● Journalist David Hundeyin pleads for protection from government-backed abduction at UN Hearing
Nigerian journalist David Hundeyin has accused President Bola Tinubu directly to the United Nations Human Rights Council for the attempt to silence him for his many devastating exposés that have kept Tinubu on his toes, posing insurmountable legal challenges for him in Nigeria and even in Chicago federal court.
Just last week, Hundeyin raised an alarm about the Nigerian government’s relentless effort to illegally repatriate him from Ghana, accusing him of treason. “Due to my journalistic work, his (Tinubu’s) regime has taken extraordinary steps to silence me including a recent attempted abduction from Ghana where I have political asylum,” he said at the 54th regular session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) held in Geneva on Wednesday (Sept. 27).
The self-exiled journalist fears that if he returns to Nigeria, he will most definitely face imprisonment, torture, and extrajudicial execution. “Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right and as a journalist, I must be able to do my work without living in fear or living on the run simply because I am doing my job,” Hundeyin told the UNHRC.
● Governor threatens to arrest citizens over planned protest
The governor of Niger State, Mohammed Umaru Bago, reportedly has threatened to lock up any person who protests the establishment of the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University Teaching Hospital (IBBUTH) in the State capital Minna, raising concerns about the constitutional rights of Nigerians to hold peaceful protest after a protest against police brutality ended in a bloodbath in 2020.
Governor Bago’s decision to site IBBUTH in Minna instead of Lapai community where the university campus is located did not sit well with Lapai locals. They are demanding that the teaching hospital be established in their locality.
“I heard that some little pests are planning to stage a protest because we took the university teaching hospital to Minna. May God give them the courage to carry out the protest,” Bago was quoted as saying by local media, “If they do, they will know who Bago is. Not only will I arrest them, but I will also arrest their parents. There are no doubts about that. And after that, I will chase them out of Lapai permanently.”
