Senate Approves Upgrade Of Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro To University

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June 1, 2021

The Senate in Nigeria has approved the upgrade of Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Ogun State to a university of technology.

The Senate resolution was sequel to the submission of the report by the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND, led by Senator representing Katsina North, Ahmad Babba-Kaita.

A Bill for an Act to Provide for the Establishment of Federal University of Technology, Ilaro and for Other Matters Connected Therewith” was sponsored by Senator representing Lagos West, Solomon Olamilekan Adeola.

Presenting the Committee report, Senator Sadiq Umar Sulaiman who stood in for Senator Kaita justified the upgrade of the federal polytechnic to university status, as he noted that there is need to expand opportunities for advance education in technology.

He further noted that the upgrade of the Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro to a university of technology will be of tremendous benefits for host communities, provide employment as well as educational development to quickly increase avenue for degree awards in technological fields for teeming Nigerian youths.

The bill is now set for concurrence of the House of Representatives and eventual assent by the president.

Somaliland Holds First Parliamentary Vote Since 2005

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Angel Gimalo

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June 1, 2021

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Somalia’s breakaway Somaliland region held its first parliamentary election for 16 years on Monday, in what politicians there describe as evidence of its comparative stability.

The region, which broke away from Somalia in 1991 but has not gained widespread international recognition for its independence, has been largely peaceful while the rest of Somalia has suffered three decades of civil war.

“Vote in peace,” President Musi Bihi said in televised remarks after casting his ballot. Opposition leader Abdirahmaan Mohamed Abdulahi echoed the sentiment: “I urge the Somaliland people to vote in peace and calmly.”

Three major parties have put forward 246 candidates for 82 seats. More than one million out of roughly four million residents have registered to vote, the National Electoral Commission said.

The parliamentary election had been delayed for a decade by a dispute among the three major parties over the composition of the electoral commission, which was finally resolved.

Although the parliamentary vote had been delayed, presidential elections have been held, most recently in 2017 when Bihi was elected. The next presidential election is scheduled for next year.

Somaliland received a major international vote of confidence this month when Dubai’s DP World announced plans, in partnership with landlocked Ethiopia, to develop Somaliland’s Berbera port. The project is expected to bring in up to $1 billion in investment over the next decade.

The rest of Somalia is due to hold indirect polls within 60 days, with clan representatives choosing legislators who in turn will choose a president.

Southwest Monsoon To Arrive In Kerala By June 3 – IMD

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Zoe Maven

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May 31, 2021

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The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Monday that the southwest monsoon will arrive in Kerala on June 3 with heavy rainfall expected on June 2-3rd.

The IMD said the southwesterly winds would strengthen gradually from June 1 resulting in rainfall over Kerala. The IMD asserted that there will be no heatwave in the country due to cyclone Tauktae and Yaas which recently hit the country.

Parts of Uttar Pradesh received light rains and thundershowers in the last 24 hours as the IMD said India’s national capital is likely to receive thunderstorms over the next three days.

The IMD informed that Delhi had received a mean maximum temperature of 37 degrees Celsius in May which is the lowest for the month in 13 years with no heatwave reported.

IMD had earlier predicted that the country will receive average rainfall this year. Amid the expectation of a normal monsoon, CEA K Subramanian said that food grains production is projected to be at record level this fiscal.

India’s capital city also received 144.8 mm rain this month which was the highest since 2008.

Last year the country had received average rainfall for the second consecutive year.

According to the private forecasting agency Skymet, India’s monsoon rains is expected to be 103 per cent of the long-term average in 2021.

Colombia To Probe Police Who Stood By As Civilians Shot At Protesters

By

Zoe Maven

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May 31, 2021

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Colombian authorities are investigating 10 police officers who allowed civilians to shoot at demonstrators in Cali, according to a high-ranking official on Monday.

The Andean country has seen more than a month of protests against the social and economic policies of the government of President Ivan Duque. The demonstrations were sparked by a now-withdrawn proposed tax reform.

Since the tax reform was withdrawn, protesters’ demands have expanded to include a basic income, opportunities for young people and an end to police violence, including the dissolution of the feared anti-riot unit ESMAD.

Colombia’s third-largest city Cali, which has become an epicenter for protests, once more saw bloodshed on Friday with civilians and even an off-duty agent of the attorney general’s office shooting at demonstrators, the attorney general said.

General Jorge Luis Vargas, director of Colombia’s national police, said An investigation has been launched to identify those who broke the law in Cali.

He added that information concerning officers who may have broken the law or not performed their duties has been sent to the military justice unit.

Over the weekend Cali Mayor Jorge Ivan Ospina reported more than a dozen violent deaths took place in the city on Friday and reported armed men shooting at demonstrators in the presence of the police.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, on Sunday called for those responsible for the violence in Cali to be held accountable.

She added it was essential that all those reportedly involved in causing injury or death, including state officials, are subject to prompt, effective, independent, investigations and those responsible are held accountable.

Nigeria’s Ex VP Inaugurates Adamawa’s First Flyover In 30 Years

By

Angel Gimalo

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May 31, 2021

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Adamawa is a state in northeastern Nigeria, whose capital and largest city is Yola. In 1991, when Taraba State was carved out from Gongola State, the geographical entity Gongola State was renamed Adamawa State, with four administrative divisions: Michika, Ganye, Mubi and Numan.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar inaugurated the Total Junction fly-over bridge in Jimeta, Yola, which is also said to be the first of its kind in the North East region of Nigeria.

Speaking at the inauguration on Saturday in Yola, Abubakar described the project as a great achievement.

According to him, traffic will now follow better, accidents will reduce drastically and it will add color and beauty to the capital city.

He said that the execution and inauguration of the project would serve as a lesson to the next generation of leaders for accountable leadership in the state and country at large.

In his remarks, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State said the inauguration was part of the activities to celebrate his two years anniversary in office as the executive governor of Adamawa.

“Today’s event, which is the commissioning of the first overhead bridge in Yola, and perhaps, the entire Northeast is the climax of the first phase of our series of commissioning.

“We have spent the past two weeks in this mood from the commissioning of urban roads in Numan, Michika, Hong, Yola-South, Yola-North to the connection of Toungo to the National Grid, it has been celebrations all through.

“The people of Adamawa have every reason to celebrate not only the presence of physical structures, but they can also see and touch as partly evidenced by what we are commissioning today.

“But more importantly, by the reinvention of trust and confidence in politicians and the fact that beyond rhetorics, campaign promises can be translated into realities,” he said.

Fintiri said that the overhead bridge and approach road expansion comprised the bridge and expansion of the approach roads to the eight-lane dual carriage from Maidoki Roundabout to the Bishop street junction.

According to him, this is one project with a short history but interesting story whereby its projected duration of 12 months was completed within nine months.

At Least 55 Killed In Eastern Congo Massacres – UN

By

Zoe Maven

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May 31, 2021

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The United Nations says at least 55 people were killed overnight in two attacks on villages in eastern Congo, in worst night of violence the area has seen in at least four years.

In a statement, the U.N. office for humanitarian affairs said the army and a local civil rights group blamed the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist armed group, for raiding the village of Tchabi and a camp for displaced people near Boga, another village.

Both are close to the border of Uganda. Houses were burned and civilians abducted,

Albert Basegu, the head of a civil rights group in Boga, told Newsmen that he had been alerted to the attack by the sound of cries at a neighbour`s house.

The Kivu Security Tracker (KST), which has mapped unrest in restive eastern Congo since June 2017, said on Twitter the wife of a local chief was among the dead. It did not attribute blame for the killings.

The ADF is believed to have killed more than 850 people in 2020, according to the United Nations, in a spate of reprisal attacks on civilians after the army began operations against it the year before.

In March the United States labelled the ADF a foreign terrorist organisation. The group has in the past proclaimed allegiance to Islamic State, although the United Nations says evidence linking it to other Islamist militant networks is scant.

President Felix Tshisekedi declared a state of siege in Congo`s North Kivu and Ituri provinces on May 1 in an attempt to curb increasing attacks by militant groups.

Thailand Welcomes Back Stolen Artifacts After San Francisco Forfeiture

By

Zoe Maven

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May 31, 2021

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Thailand on Monday held a welcoming ceremony to mark the return of two ancient hand-carved artifacts that were stolen decades ago and smuggled out of the country to the United States.

The two 680 kg Khmer-style stone carvings had been on display at the Asian Arts Museum in San Francisco, which was required to forfeit them when a settlement was reached in February between the U.S. government and San Francisco authorities.

Thailand had informed the United States in 2017 that the lintels, which date back to the 10th and 11th century, had been stolen.

The sandstone lintels were once parts of the structure of two religious sanctuaries in Thailand’s northeast. The government will assess whether they can be returned to their original locations.

Thai culture Minister Itthiphol Kunplome said at the Bangkok ceremony today is the day that they are finally returned to their home country and displayed here.

Tanongsak Hanwong, who located the artifacts and pushed for their return said this is a legal battle that has set an excellent example for the museums that still own Thai artifacts illegally because they know they will lose the case.

He added that many museums have chosen to reach out to begin the return process instead of going into the legal process.

Kingibe Appointed Buhari’s Special Envoy To Chad and Lake Chad Basin Region

By

Angel Gimalo

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May 31, 2021

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President Muhammadu Buhari, has approved the appointment of Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, as his Special Envoy to Chad and the Lake Chad Basin Region.

Secretary to the Government of the Federation SGF, Mr Boss Mustapha who disclosed this in a statement Monday in Abuja said the appointment is of a “Cabinet Rank Status”.

The statement reads; “President Muhammadu Buhari, has approved the appointment of Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, as his Special Envoy with Cabinet Rank Status, to Chad and the Lake Chad Basin Region.

“This appointment of a Special Envoy by the President is also in consonance with the resolution of the Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Lake Chad Basin Commission Member Countries, on the situation in Chad on the 25th of May, 2021.

“The Special Envoy will amongst others: Monitor developments in Chad and the Lake Chad Basin Region; aid reconciliation and seamless progress towards return to democratic rule at the end of the current Transitional Military Council’s rule; Collaborate with member Countries and partners in the region with similar initiatives to restore stability, promote peace and, security; and, Promote any other initiative ancillary to the restoration of peace and security in Chad, the North East Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin Region.

“President Buhari has by this appointment demonstrated the determination of Nigeria to lead regional security efforts that will stabilize the Lake Chad Basin Region, bring peace to Chad and ultimately eliminate the Boko Haram Insurgency in the North East zone of Nigeria.

“This is also a fulfillment of the President’s promise to General Mahamat Deby Itno, the President of the Transitional Military Council of Chad, to support a seamless progress towards return to democratic rule, when he visited Nigeria in May, 2021

“The Special Envoy, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe is an accomplished multi-lingual diplomat, who had at various times served the nation as Federal Permanent Secretary, Secretary to the Constituent Assembly, Cabinet Minister and Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

He had also participated in previous Nigeria-led Chadian reconciliation talks (Kano 1 & II as well as Lagos 1 & II)”.

Indigenous Groups Call For Identifying Graves After Remains Of 215 Children Found

By

Zoe Maven

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May 31, 2021

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Indigenous groups in Canada are calling for a nationwide search for mass graves at residential school sites after the discovery of the remains of 215 children at one former school last week shocked the country.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who did not make specific commitments, said on Monday that searching for more mass graves was an important part of discovering the truth.

Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation announced last week they had found the remains of 215 children, some as young as three years old, buried at the site of the Kamloops Indian Residential School, once Canada’s largest such school.

Between 1831 and 1996, Canada’s residential school system forcibly separated children from their families, subjecting them to abuse, malnutrition and rape in what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission tasked with investigating the system called “cultural genocide” in 2015.

Last week’s announcement sparked outrage, prompting flags to be flown at half-staff and people to lay hundreds of tiny shoes in public squares, places of government and on the steps of churches, in reference to the role of Christian churches from a range of denominations in running the schools.

There have long been rumors within indigenous communities, also discussed by the commission, of children buried at these schools.

The fourth volume of the commission’s report, titled ‘Missing Children and Unmarked Burials,’ identified 3,200 children who died at residential schools, about a third of whom were not named. Since that report’s publication in 2015, an additional 900 have been identified.

Brazil, Not Argentina, To Host Copa America, Says CONMEBOL

By

Zoe Maven

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May 31, 2021

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South America’s soccer federation CONMEBOL on Monday said it would move next month’s Copa America to Brazil, thanking Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for stepping in after original host Argentina pulled out over reports of surging COVID-19 cases.

The surprise decision, relocates the competition from one South American country to another, meaning the oldest international tournament in the world will kick off as planned on June 13, with the final on July 10.

It is a boost for Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain who has railed against lockdowns and urged Brazilians to return to normal life.

In a separate tweet, CONMEBOL thanked Brazil’s president, who has long minimized the severity of the virus, for his help.

Brazil has routinely reported the continent’s highest case numbers and deaths, and currently ranks second highest in the world for both daily reported cases and deaths.

Meanwhile, Omar Aziz, one of the senators running a high-profile congressional probe into Bolsonaro’s handling of the pandemic, said he did not see any major problems with Brazil hosting the tournament, as long as there were no crowds and the correct safety measures were followed.

But many others in Brazil, where soccer is a national obsession, were outraged by the decision.

The CONMEBOL announcement comes less than 24 hours after Argentina said its outbreak meant it could not longer host.

This year’s Copa America was to be the first featuring joint hosts, but Colombia was removed as co-host on May 20 after a wave of protests demanding social and economic change spread across the country.