Africa Business Radio

The Executive Secretary National Human Rights Commission, Tony Ojukwu, says to ensure adequate enjoyment of children rights to health, health care services have to be provided for them by the government and relevant stakeholders. Ojukwu however, called on government and relevant stakeholders to do more in providing healthcare services for children in order to ensure adequate enjoyment of their rights to health. The Executive Secretary, says although the Nigerian government has put many policies in place for the advancement of the child’s rights to health, there is still more to be done.

The Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Adams, has stressed the need for the country to be restructured into different regional governments in order to ease the socio-economic and security challenges affecting the country. He says this would reduce all the agitation for secession from various ethnic groups in the country and also allow for favourable competition and true cohesion among regional areas. He added that on their demands on regionalism, the federal government and political players would pick either regionalism or secession. Adams noted that the issue can only be sorted out by proper true federalism as stated in the 1960 Constitution.

The Federal Capital Territory Administration has commenced the enforcement of the No Vaccination Card restriction or Proof-of-Negative-Test-Result for entry into public facilities. The Senior Special Assistant to the Minister of FCT on Monitoring and Enforcement, Mr Attah Ikaro, says the exercise became necessary to ensure that the spread of the infection in the FCT is curtailed. He says the FCT did not begin enforcement on December 1st, 2021 when the Federal Government began its enforcement because it wanted to give time to the civil servants to get vaccinated. He says, many, however, refused to comply, hence the need for the commencement.

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila believes the current constitutional provision where the educational qualification for elective offices is pegged at secondary school certificate should be increased. The Speaker sincerely believe that the National Assembly needs to look into section 131 of the 1999 constitution with a view to increasing the minimum educational qualification for persons aspiring to be future Presidents of Nigeria and other top offices including the National Assembly. The Speaker said he is of the opinion that the foundations of Nigeria’s educational system are still rooted in a different age.

Governors of the Peoples Democratic Party have asked President Muhammadu Buhari to restructure Nigeria’s security architecture. The governors noted that the strategies deployed to confront terrorists, kidnappers, bandits and other criminals is still a major problem for the current administration. The governors want Mr President to reconsider his position and consider decentralisation and restructuring of the security architecture as the most viable solution, together with proper arming, funding and training requirements for security agencies.

Ukraine says it has evidence that Russia was behind a cyberattack that defaced its government websites and alleged that Moscow is engaged in an increasingly hybrid war against it. Microsoft says dozens of computer systems at an unspecified number of Ukrainian government agencies had been infected with destructive malware disguised as ransomware. The Ministry of Digital Development says Moscow continues to wage a hybrid war and is actively building up its forces in the information and cyberspaces.

National Bureau of Statistics data showed that Mainland China’s birth rate dropped to a record low of 7.52 per 1,000 people in 2021 accelerating a downward trend that led Beijing last year to begin allowing couples to have up to three children. China scrapped its decades-old one-child policy in 2016, replacing it with a two-child limit to try and counter a rapidly ageing population, but many couples do not want to have more children because of the high cost of urban living. The birth rate was the lowest since 1949 when the statistics bureau began collating the data. The natural growth rate of China’s population, which excludes migration, was only 0.034 per cent for 2021, the lowest since 1960.

Sudan has revoked the licence of the live-streaming channel of Al Jazeera's television network. Al Jazeera Mubasher says its team had been barred from working in Sudan, which had accused them of unprofessional coverage of opposition rallies. Activists say more than 60 people have been killed in a series of protests held against October's military coup. Sudanese doctors protested against what they said were attacks against medical personnel by the security forces during pro-democracy rallies.

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has called for drawing up a clear-cut African strategy for eradicating extremism and terrorism and drying up their sources of financing. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli reiterated Egypt's commitment to providing anti-terrorism training assistance to sisterly African nations, contributing to UN peacekeeping missions, and maintaining efforts through the Sahel and Sahara Counter-terrorism Centre in Cairo. He says Egypt is also willing to offer more support on that score, whether through bilateral cooperation or AU cooperation mechanisms. Sisi says that Egypt will spare no efforts to address the challenges facing the Dark Continent and achieve the aspirations of all African peoples.

The World Food Program warns Ethiopia is on the edge of a humanitarian disaster as escalating fighting in the north is preventing the delivery of needed food from reaching millions of people in battle-scarred Tigray province. World Food Program spokesman Tomson Phiri says his agency's humanitarian operation in northern Ethiopia is about to grind to a halt. He says intense fighting in the region is blocking the passage of fuel and food. Phiri says stocks of nutritionally fortified food for the treatment of malnourished children and women are now exhausted, and the last of WFP's cereals, pulses and oil will be distributed next week. The World Food Program says 9.4 million people in northern Ethiopia now require humanitarian food aid, an increase of 2.7 million from just four months ago.

The UN peacekeeping mission in Mali has temporarily suspended flights. This will affect the delivery of aid to the country whose neighbours have imposed sanctions and closed borders. The peacekeeping mission has about 13,000 troops stationed in the country trying to contain an Islamist insurgency in the region. The European Union has also said it will impose sanctions and the UN has said it is essential for the military authorities to present an acceptable election schedule.

The federal government has limited companies involved in the trade or business of gas utilisation in downstream operations in the country to a once in a lifetime tax-free regime, according to the latest changes effected in the Finance Act, 2021. The new law states that additional investment, re-organisation or other forms of corporate restructuring shall not qualify for a further tax incentive under the gas investment programme. Such companies are further barred from similar incentives under any other sections of the Companies Income Tax Act or other law. Companies engaged in upstream petroleum operations however would continue to have obligation to withhold VAT, even when they have not commenced commercial operations or have not reached N25 million turnover.

President Muhammadu Buhari moved against criminal elements in the country when he instructed the military to go after terrorists and kidnappers with force. The president ordered an immediate major military operation in Niger State, which has, for instance, faced continued attacks on its communities by bandits and remnants of Boko Haram terrorists, fleeing theatres of war in the Northwestern and Northeastern parts of the country. He directed the Defence Headquarters a few days ago, to respond robustly to the cases of killings and kidnappings in the Niger State and to give effect to the strategic objectives through the use of force.

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has offered to support the Federal Government to end terrorism and other evils in the country. Tinubu made the pledge when he visited Katsina State to condole with the State Government and people of the state over the gruesome murder of the State Commissioner of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Rabe Nasir as well as the recent insecurity upsurge in the state. He urged residents to share relevant information to security agencies on suspicious movements of characters urging residents to continue preaching for peace, change their attitudes and support leaders with determination to bring terrorism to its knees.

Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to use his good offices and leadership position to direct the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed to provide the organization with a copy of the agreement recently signed with Twitter, Inc, and to widely publish the details of any such agreement. SERAP also urged him to direct Alhaji Lai Mohammed to clarify the manner and scope in which the agreement with Twitter will be enforced, including whether the agreement incorporates respect for human rights, consistent with the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended] and international obligations

The Federal Government has asked Saudi Arabia to lift the travel restrictions it imposed on Nigerian travellers following the outbreak of the omicron variant of the COVID-19 in South Africa that was later discovered among some travellers said to have visited Nigeria. Ambassador Zubairu Dada, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, urged the Saudi Authorities to review the travel restrictions it placed on Nigerians over the Omicron outbreak as already done by many countries who have earlier banned Nigeria. The Minister expressed optimism for a timely response to Nigeria’s request from Saudi Arabia.

The United Kingdom’s domestic intelligence service has alleged that a woman suspected of working on behalf of China’s governing Communist Party has sought to improperly influence members of the UK’s Parliament. House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle’s office said that MI5 had found that the woman has been engaged in political interference activities on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party. Hoyle added that the Chinese national had engaged with legislators and facilitated financial donations to serving and aspiring Parliamentarians on behalf of foreign nationals based in Hong Kong and China.

The United States Supreme Court has blocked Joe Biden’s effort to require employees at large businesses to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing. The top court also ruled in favour of allowing the federal government to proceed with a vaccine mandate for most healthcare workers in the country. The court says the Biden administration overstepped its authority by seeking to impose the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s rule requiring workers at US businesses with at least 100 employees to either be vaccinated or tested weekly.

The World Health Organization has added two more drugs to its guidelines for recommended treatments for COVID-19, as the more infectious Omicron variant of the coronavirus triggers an unprecedented surge in cases around the world. The drug baricitinib used to treat rheumatoid arthritis is strongly recommended for patients with severe or critical COVID-19, in combination with corticosteroids, The UN agency’s panel of international experts said the drug reduces the need for ventilation and had been found to improve patients’ chances of survival with no sign of an increase in adverse reactions. The panel also gave a conditional recommendation for sotrovimab, an experimental monoclonal antibody treatment, for those with non-severe COVID-19 but at the very highest risk of hospital admission.

The European Union says it will impose sanctions on Mali after the military leaders who carried out last year's coup went back on a pledge to hold elections next month. The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, says despite all the warnings to the Malian authorities there'd been no sign of progress. He says the sanctions were also in response to the arrival of Russian private military contractors. The EU says despite the sanctions it plans to keep soldiers in Mali.