Africa Business Radio

A Ghanaian parliamentary committee has commenced a public hearing into a controversial anti-gay bill. The bill proposes a five-year jail term for lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and a 10-year term for promoters and advocates of the group. The group argues that the bill is unconstitutional because it violates the rights of the LGBT community. But the Ghana Pentecostal Council says it reflects the will of many Ghanaians. Other groups including Amnesty International and the UN Office of the Resident Coordinator are due to make their submissions.

The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, says there are over 3000 inmates still at large following jailbreaks in Nigeria within the last year. Aregbesola disclosed that 4,860 inmates escaped from various custodial centres from 2020 till date, and out of this, 984 have been recaptured. He says biometrics of all inmates in the country have been captured, and it is the hope of the Federal Government that this exercise will aid the tracking and rearrest of the escapees. He stressed that the recent attacks on some correctional facilities in the country are a reflection of the insecurity in Nigeria. The minister assured Nigerians that a ministerial task force will soon be inaugurated to enforce the re-arrest of all escapees and their collaborators.

President Muhammadu Buhari says his administration had invested extensively in critical infrastructure and economic projects, stressing that the possibilities being created through the investments for Nigerians and foreigners are enormous. Buhari also declared that investment in gas was a top priority of his government, as it had huge benefits in terms of financial returns and generation of power. Buhari emphasised his administration’s commitment to an infrastructural renaissance for Nigeria because there can’t be sustainable development without it.

ECOWAS experts converged in Ghana to review and validate the draft Supplementary Act Setting the Conditions and Modalities for Community Levy Implementation and Management. This Act once approved would replace the Protocol on Community Levy which had been in existence for 25 years now. The Commissioner for Finance, Mrs Halima Ahmed expressed her appreciation for the full participation of experts from all ECOWAS Member States despite the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. She recalled that the Community Levy Protocol was established by a Decision of the ECOWAS Authority in 1996 and its full implementation began in 2003.

President Muhammadu Buhari says that Nigerians can look after themselves when infrastructure is in place. He says when infrastructure is in place, Nigerians can look after themselves. Buhari also noted that his administration is working very hard on infrastructure because there can’t be sustainable development without it. He says crude oil which Nigeria depends so much on has lost a lot of energy.

The Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, says smuggling is responsible for the rising cost of rice in the country. The Minister says smuggling is affecting the market and hurting the citizens adding that there is a lot of distortion and the distortion is arising from the smuggling of goods into the country. She also reiterated the Federal Government’s efforts in fighting to smuggle, noting that there is a combined team of the Nigerian Customs Service, Police, the Department of Security Services among others to rid the nation of economic saboteurs.

President Muhammadu Buhari urged world leaders and global health institutions to follow a regime of enabling access to the COVID-19 vaccines, admonishing that sidelining countries in terms of reach will undermine the entire effort for safety. President Buhari says export restrictions that encourage needless hoarding of vaccines need to be lifted while welcoming the pledges by industrialized countries to share vaccines. The President says the pledges should be fulfilled in a timely manner, appreciating some countries, like France, that have donated vaccines to developing countries.

The Pakistani government and the armed group Pakistan Taliban have agreed to a one-month ceasefire. Government spokesman Fawad Chaudhry says the Taliban government in Afghanistan helped facilitate the ceasefire between the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan and the banned outfit. Chaudhry says the government of Pakistan and banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan have agreed on a complete ceasefire. State broadcaster Pakistan Television reports that the minister said the focus of the talks was on state sovereignty, national security, peace, social and economic stability in the areas concerned.

The United States Supreme Court has heard arguments in a case involving three Muslim men from California who accused the FBI of illegally conducting surveillance on them following the September 11, 2001 attacks. The country’s top court has been asked to decide whether to allow the men’s lawsuit to move forward amid opposition from the FBI, which has claimed it cannot be sued for religious discrimination because doing so could reveal state secrets. Muslim Americans across the US have accused the FBI of systematically violating their constitutional rights by spying on them after 9/11, but there have been few opportunities to challenge the FBI’s conduct in court because it has been primarily conducted in secret.

A United States appeals court has ruled that the WhatsApp messaging service can move forward with a lawsuit against NSO Group, asserting that the immunity from civil litigation in US courts enjoyed by foreign governments does not extend to the private Israeli surveillance company. WhatsApp is suing NSO Group over the alleged targeting of its servers in California with malware to gain unauthorised access to approximately 1,400 mobile devices in violation of US state and federal law. A three-judge panel on the San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s decision to allow WhatsApp’s lawsuit to proceed, stressing that NSO Group does not qualify for sovereign immunity even if its clients are foreign government agencies.

Rappers Travis Scott and Drake have been sued for having incited mayhem after eight people were killed and dozens injured in a crash during a Texas concert. Texas firm Thomas J. Henry Law tweeted a story published by the Daily Mail on the suit, confirming it had filed one of the first lawsuits in Travis Scott Astroworld Festival tragedy. Around 50,000 people were in the audience at Houston’s NRG Park when the crowd started pushing toward the stage as Scott was performing, triggering chaotic scenes. The suit, filed in Houston’s Harris County court, claims Scott had incited mayhem and chaos at prior events and that defendants knew or should have known of Scott’s prior conduct.

Australia says it will sell coal for decades into the future after spurning a pact to phase out the polluting fossil fuel to halt catastrophic climate change. Australian Minister for Resources Keith Pitt told national broadcaster ABC that they are not closing coal mines and they are not closing coal-fired power stations. Pitt says Australia had some of the world’s highest quality coal adding that demand for coal is expected to rise until 2030, Pitt says some 300,000 Australians’ jobs were reliant on the coal sector. The Minerals Council of Australia itself says the coal industry directly employs 50,000 workers while supporting another 120,000 jobs.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called on member states to impose new sanctions against Belarus, which she blamed for an influx of migrants at the Polish border.  She says the use of migrants for political purposes is unacceptable adding that the EU would also look at how to sanction third-country airlines that bring migrants to Belarus. EU diplomatic chief Josep Borrell warned that they will not hesitate to adopt sanctions if necessary against companies and countries that play into the hands of smugglers. Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas will visit the main countries of origin and transit in the coming days to ensure that they act to prevent their own nationals from falling into the trap set by the Belarusian authorities.

Kenya's Nation newspaper reports that People who flaunt their wealth on social media are being closely watched by the taxman. Kenya Revenue Authority Commissioner-General, Githii Mburu Posts says showing luxury cars, fancy homes and lavish parties are routinely monitored by Kenya Revenue Authority officers on the lookout for potential tax cheats. The authorities say those found to have dodged their taxes risk being banned from travel, having the unpaid taxes reclaimed from their bank accounts, and being prosecuted.

Amnesty International has demanded compensation for the Benet people of Uganda who were evicted from their homes 13 years ago. A report by the rights group has detailed violent evictions of this indigenous group from Mount Elgon. The group is calling on the Ugandan government to recognise that the area was their ancestral land and ensure they get remedy and reparations. The report details an account of evicted people whose houses were burnt and who have remained psychologically traumatised. Amnesty says evictions must be the government's last resort and must be conducted with respect to human rights.

The US and the African Union have said they believe there is a small window of opportunity to resolve the conflict in Ethiopia. Special envoy Jeffrey Feltman is presently in Addis Ababa to meet AU officials. AU envoy Olusegun Obasanjo told a UN Security Council meeting that time was running out and that there would be dire humanitarian consequences if the conflict is not resolved soon. The rebels are threatening to advance to the capital in Addis Ababa as the federal army calls on former military personnel to join in the fight.

The Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Mr Gbenga Komolafe, solicited the support of Nigeria’s armed forces to tackle the menace of crude oil theft in the country. The latest report from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative recently stated that Nigeria lost 42.25 million barrels of crude oil valued at $2.77 billion to oil theft in 2019. Komolafe told the CDS that the new NUPRC was now responsible for the technical, operational and commercial regulation of the upstream sector, geared towards optimising the benefits of the nation’s hydrocarbon resources. He reiterated the critical role of the defence chief to the success of upstream investments in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria and appealed for stakeholders’ collaboration and partnership to deal with all security issues affecting the industry.

The Executive Vice Chairman of the National Communication Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta has assured Nigerians of their health safety. Danbatta says the commission’s response was a sequel to the fear being expressed by Nigerians over the deployment of the new technology. He says they would realize the revenue through the sales of the 5G spectrum, fines among others. He emphasised the economic importance of the 5G Spectrum network to the country and the nation’s social transformation. Danbatta also disclosed that with the launch of the Computer Incidence Response Team and telecommunications networks across the country were secured against any form of cyber-attack.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has cautioned members of the public against engaging in panic buying of petrol, stressing that the national oil company has over 1.7 billion litres of the product in stock. A statement by the NNPC Spokesman, Mr Garba Muhammad, reiterated that the corporation was also not aware of any plan by the government to cause an increase in the pump price of petroleum. The NNPC stated that more product was expected to arrive in the country daily over the coming weeks and months, insisting that it was therefore unnecessary to entertain any fear of scarcity of petrol throughout the festive season and beyond. The NNPC says it was engaging all stakeholders to ensure smooth supply and distribution of products to every part of the country during the festive season and beyond.

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum says the Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, was working against the public’s interest by insisting on the payment of $418 million to private consultants from the accounts of state governments. The consultants are claiming a percentage of Paris Club refunds as payment of services they said they rendered to the states and local government. The spokesman of the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, Umar Gwandu, says the AGF suggested the states and local governments had acted in bad faith for taking the case to court. The NGF, says the AGF’s actions raise questions of propriety and the spirit of justice.