KING OF MOROCCO WISHES PRESIDENT BUHARI WELL, NOTIFFIED HIM OF MOROCCO'S INTENTION TO JOIN ECOWAS

King Mohammed VI of Morocco Wednesday had a telephone conversation with President Muhammadu Buhari in London, where the Nigerian president is on vacation.

The King, who initiated the call, asked after the President's health and expressed satisfaction at his rate of improvement.

The two leaders also discussed the current stage of the Morocco-Nigeria Atlantic crude oil pipeline project.

King Mohammed VI thanked President Buhari for Nigeria's support in returning Morocco to the African Union and notified him of Morocco's request to join the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Gambia’s President-elect, Adama Barrow says "I’m alive and well"

* Shakes off assassination rumour

* Gambia Army chief declares support of armed forces for Jammeh

Gambia’s president-elect, Adama Barrow

Contrary to media reports, Gambia’s president-elect, Adama Barrow is hale and hearty. CBN Television, Banjul had ‎earlier reported that he was murdered by that unknown assailants who overpowered his security guards, leaving two dead and six others injured from gunshots.



Reacting to the report, popular Gambian journalist Fatu Camara wrote: “BREAKING: We are getting reports that due to threats on the lives of coalition members, many of them are currently evacuated to safe houses..
Meanwhile, contrary to fake news going around that President Elect Barrow and two security guards were assassinated, we can confirm to you that Barrow is fine as we speak. Stay tuned!,” she posted on Facebook
However, a tweet from his official handle, @adama_barrow, ‎said he’s alive and well. “We would like to inform you that the President-elect is alive and well. #Gambia‎”, it read. His rumoured death is coming few days after he referred to the country’s constitution that a court action taken by supposed outgoing President Yahya Jammeh cannot prevent the winner of the poll from assuming office as mandated by the constitution.

Breaking: DR Congo leader Jean-Pierre Bemba sentenced to 18 years in prison by ICC for war crimes and sexual violence

Former vice-president of Democratic Republic of Congo convicted for his part in a campaign of rape and murder in Central African Republic in 2002-3

Former Congolese vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba

Former Congolese vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for rape and pillage committed by his troops, becoming the highest level official to be handed down a sentence at the international criminal court.

Bemba, wearing a blue suit and tie, watched impassively from the dock during the hearing at The Hague on Tuesday.

Lawyers for Chad ex-dictator Habre appeal life sentence

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The legal team for Chad's former dictator Hissene Habre has appealed the verdict handed down by a special tribunal that found him guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and sex crimes during his time in power, one of his lawyers said Saturday.

The appeal was submitted Friday to the Extraordinary African Chambers, set up by Senegal and the African Union to try Habre for crimes committed during his 1982-1990 rule.

It was the first trial in which the courts of one country prosecuted the former ruler of another for alleged human rights crimes.

TO ADVANCE DEVELOPMENT, AFRICAN LEADERS WILL GIVE PRIORITY TO AVAILABLE ENERGY SOURCES, OSINBAJO SAYS AT ADB ANNUAL MEETING IN ZAMBIA

African leaders would give priority to urgent matters of development including the use of fossil fuels and coal to generate power, while also attending to important issues around Climate Change.

This disclosure was expressed today by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, at the ongoing African Development Bank annual general meeting in Lusaka, Zambia, where he and other African leaders spoke at the High Level Roundtable on the theme: Energy and Climate Change.

My plan to fight corruption in Nigeria By President Buhari:

In the run-up to the general elections in March 2015, I campaigned on the platform of addressing the challenges of security, the economy, power, infrastructure and fighting corruption. Of these, removing the cancer of corruption from the system is the key not only to restoring the moral health of the nation, but also to freeing our enormous resources for urgent socio-economic development.

Nigerians never cease to ask, for example, why it is that, at independence in 1960, Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita was higher at $559 than that of Singapore’s at $476, but today Singapore’s GDP has grown to $55,182 and Nigeria’s has increased to just $3,005 (World Bank 2016).

ENSURE SOCIAL JUSTICE TO CURB INTERNAL CONFLICTS - PRESIDENT BUHARI URGES AFRICAN LEADERS

President Muhammadu Buhari and
Foreign Minister of Equatorial Guinea,
Mr. Agapito Mba Mokuy

President Muhammadu Buhari said Monday in Abuja that to achieve greater peace and political stability in their countries, African leaders must work harder to ensure social justice for all their citizens.

Speaking at an audience with the Foreign Minister of Equatorial Guinea, Mr. Agapito Mba Mokuy, President Buhari also maintained that as leaders of sovereign nations, African Heads of Government must be allowed to discharge their responsibility for peace and security within their countries, without external interference.

According to SSA to the President on Media & Publicity Garba Shehu, the President said that this was why Heads of State and Government of the African Union decided against sending peacekeeping troops to Burundi during the country's recent political crisis.

Robert Mugabe Wants Africa to Establish Its Own International Criminal Court to Try Europeans

The 92 year old Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe has stated that Africa should also establish its own International Criminal Court (ICC) which would be mandated to prosecute Western leaders who have committed crimes on the continent.

The country-owned Chronicle newspaper, quoted Mugabe who doubles as African Union (AU) chair, as saying that it was high time Africa established a criminal court which would seek justice for “serious” war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the West, particularity during the colonial era.

Africa’s Softer, Gentler Coups d’Etat

President of Republic of Congo, Denis Sassou Nguesso

There’s a new fashion among African presidents bent on clinging to power: the constitutional coup. Military coups are no longer de rigueur, in part because the African Union has said it won’t recognize governments that come to power by means of such blatant tactics. Instead, African leaders who are unwilling to abide by term limits, or unfavorable election results, prefer to simply change the laws and constitutions that stand in their way. All too often, their legal maneuvering is accompanied by human rights abuses and brutal crackdowns on those who object.

Denis Sassou Nguesso, the nearly 72-year-old president of the Republic of Congo, is the latest to go this route. Sassou Nguesso has been in power for 31 years, with a five-year hiatus after losing multiparty elections in 1992. He returned to power in 1997, backed by Angolan troops, after a brief but bloody civil war.

African Union Intensified search for kidnapped Chibok girls

The African Union is involved in intensifying efforts to find more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram two months ago, its Ugandan ambassador said Friday in New York. Asked what the AU was doing to help, Mull Katende said it was engaged in "quiet diplomacy, because some of this information, we don't want it to reach those who abducted the children."

"We look forward to their recovery as soon as possible, and all heads of state of the African Union have offered their support," he said after talks between AU and UN counterparts in New York.

The Ugandan diplomat said Nigeria could learn a lesson from his own country's 20-year war against Lords Resistance Army rebels, "on how to isolate Boko Haram from the population."

OSUN O’MEALS CASE STUDY: Pupils And Farmers Benefit From School Meal Programmes Around The World - KOMOLAFE

Global leaders met in London earlier this year to discuss how school meal programmes can improve educational outcomes and boost agricultural economies.

The meeting was co-hosted by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Agriculture & Food for Development and the Partnership for Child Development (PCD) from Imperial College London, which is working with governments to build the evidence base and provide technical assistance for the development of effective and sustainable home grown school feeding (HGSF) programmes. HGSF refers to school feeding programmes which procure their food from local smallholder farmers thereby supporting local rather than foreign markets.

In 2013, up to $75billion dollars was invested by the governments of 169 countries into school feeding programmes. It is estimated that for every $1 spent feeding school children, $3 are generated for the local economy.

Keynote speaker Rauf Aregbesola, Governor of Osun state in Nigeria, reported on the success of his state’s school meals programme, known as O’Meals, which feeds over 250,000 children every school day. The O’Meals programme provides employment to over 3,000 women and purchases food from over 1000 local farmers.

AFRICA-EU SUMMIT IN BRUSSELS: PRESIDENT JONATHAN'S REMARKS ON PEACE AND SECURITY

REMARKS ON PEACE AND SECURITY By DR GOODLUCK EBELE JONATHAN, GCON, GCFR President Federal Republic of Nigeria AT THE 4TH AFRICA-EU SUMMIT BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
2ND APRIL 2014

PROTOCOL:

Jonathan Says External Forces Arming Boko Haram

Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan said external forces are arming the Islamist sect, Boko Haram fighters, in its insurgency in the north. He made the statement yesterday in Abuja that ordinarily the sect members whether as a group or as individuals lack the wherewithal to buy the sophisticated weapons they are using in terrorising people especially in Adamawa,Borno and Yobe States.

Crimea War: Nigeria Backs US , EU to Condemn Russian annexation of Ukraine

The Federal Republic of Nigeria on Thursday in New York backed a UN General Assembly resolution which declared Russian annexation of Crimea illegal and affirmed Ukraine's territorial integrity. 

President Jonathan to attend ECOWAS summit in Cote D’Ivoire

Nigeria President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan will depart Abuja Thursday for Yamoussoukro, Cote D’Ivoire to participate in the 44th Ordinary Session of the Conference of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Heads of State and Government.

The summit will begin Friday 28 March and end Saturday 29 March, said Dr. Rueben Abati, the president’s media adviser in a statement.

The Conference which will consider several reports from the ECOWAS Commission, Council of Ministers and ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council, will also be addressed by the Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations to ECOWAS as well as the President of the African Union Commission.