UN, EU, ECOWAS Condemn Coup Attempt In Mali [Leadership]
World and regional leaders have condemned in strong terms the coup attempt in Mali by mutinying soldiers, culminating in the arrest of the President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta and the Prime Minister, Boubou Cissé.
The insurrection is coming just as ECOWAS special envoy to Mali, former President Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday briefed President Muhammadu Buhari on the crisis in that country.
Jonathan said calls by the main opposition in Mali, M5-RFP, for President Keita to resign cannot be acceptable to African Union (AU), United Nations (UN) and others.
President Buhari and four other ECOWAS leaders had visited Bamako, Mali, last month before a virtual extraordinary summit of the sub-regional body.
Yesterday, the soldiers arrested the Malian president and the Prime Minister after storming the West African country’s capital where protesters filled the streets demanding new leadership at a time of rising extremism and economic turmoil.
A group of young men set a government-owned building on fire hours after disgruntled junior officers detained commanders and took control of the Kati camp, about 15km (nine miles) from Bamako.
In the past weeks, the political crisis in that country degenerated, with opposition protesters taking to the streets to demand the departure of Keita, who they accused of allowing the country’s economy to collapse and mishandling a worsening security situation.
Mali’s years-long conflict, in which ideologically-motivated armed groups have stoked ethnic tensions while jockeying for power, has spilled into the neighbouring countries of Niger and Burkina Faso, destabilising the wider Sahel region and creating a massive humanitarian crisis.
Earlier yesterday, opposition protesters gathered at a square in Bamako in a show of support for the soldiers while regional and international powers urged the troops to return to the barracks and foreign embassies advised their citizens to stay indoors.
Reacting to the development, United Nation’s secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, condemned the arrest of Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, and members of the government, calling for their immediate release.
A statement by UN spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, noted that Guterres called for “the immediate restoration of constitutional order and rule of law in Mali”.
The European Union also condemned the insurrection in that country, saying it was not the solution to socio-political crisis in the country.
“EU strongly condemns the coup attempt underway in Mali and rejects any unconstitutional changes. This can in no way be a response to the deep socio-political crisis that has hit Mali for several months,” the block’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Twitter.
Also, African Union (AU) also condemned the coup attempt in Mali, asking the soldiers to release President Keita and the prime minister with immediate effect.
The chairman of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, noted in a tweet that AU “emphatically condemns” the arrests of President Keïta and his prime minister.
“I strongly condemn the forced detention of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of Mali, the Prime Minister [Boubou Cisse] and other members of the Malian government, and call for their immediate release,” Mahamat said in a statement.
He also denounced “any attempt at unconstitutional change” while urging the mutineers to “cease all use of violence”.
Mahamat called on the 15-nation West African ECOWAS bloc, the UN and the entire international community to “combine their efforts to oppose any use of force to end the political crisis in Mali”.
Also, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) condemned the uprising, urging the mutineers to return to barracks.
“This mutiny comes at a time when, for several months now, ECOWAS has been taking initiatives and conducting mediation efforts with all the Malian parties,” ECOWAS noted in a statement.
Also, France’s Foreign Minister, Jean Yves Le Drian, said that country condemned “in the strongest terms this serious event” and urge soldiers to return to barracks.
Earlier yesterday, the American and French embassies warned their citizens in Mali to stay at home.
“The United States opposes any extra-constitutional change of government, whether by those on the streets or by the defense and security forces,” tweeted Peter Pham, the US special envoy to the Sahel.
“The embassy has been notified of a mutiny in the Armed Forces and troops are on their way to Bamako,” the Norwegian Embassy wrote in an alert earlier yesterday.
Tens of thousands of Malians had flooded the capital of the West African nation in recent months, accusing Keïta of botching the response to a fast-spreading Islamist insurgency while allowing the nation’s economy to crumble.
The coronavirus pandemic further fanned frustrations after state lockdowns pushed many people out of school and work.
Earlier yesterday, Prime Minister, Cissé, acknowledged the “legitimate causes” of his countrymen’s anger in a statement and invited the soldiers to talk.
“There is no problem that cannot be solved with dialogue,” he wrote.
Malian mutinous soldiers also detained the President of the National Assembly and the Finance Minister, according to local journalists.
“There is a mutiny, but we do not know what it means yet,” said Mohamed Salaha, a news editor in Bamako. “Everyone is being told to stay inside. Everything is closed.”
LEADERSHIP recalls that former President Olusegun Obasanjo had warned that the current political crisis in Mali could affect Nigeria if care is not taken to end the uprising.
In an article he wrote In July, Obasanjo said the crisis also posed grave security risks to West African countries particularly Senegal, Burkina Faso and Niger Republic.
Obasanjo said the protest was different from previous ones because in addition to having the support of a wide range of actors, notably political actors, civil society organisations and some security agencies, it also has the backing of a vast majority of the population.
“The current political turmoil in Mali is of grave concern considering the multidimensional impact of an escalation of the political impasse on about 19 million citizens and what a destabilized Mali will mean to West Africa,” he said in the article.
“The consequences will reverberate across the whole West Africa region, with the safety and security of Senegal, Burkina Faso and Niger directly at risk. If those countries stumble, the effects will ripple across coastal states such as Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Guinea. It will reverberate even to Nigeria.
“Mali is the levee that if breached, will create a wave of insecurity throughout Africa’s western region.”
It’s Insurrection Not Coup, Says M5-RFP
But the coalition in Mali behind mass protests calling for Keita to resign said his detention by mutinying soldiers was “not a military coup but a popular insurrection”.
“IBK did not want to listen to his people. We even proposed an alternative but he responded with killings,” Nouhoum Togo, spokesman for the M5-RFP coalition, told Reuters news agency, referring to Keita by his initials.
ECOWAS Peace Mission Envoy, Jonathan, Briefs PMB
Meanwhile, former President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday said calls by the main opposition in Mali, M5-RFP, for President Keita to resign can’t be acceptable to African Union (AU), United Nations (UN) and others.
Jonathan stated this when he briefed President Muhammadu Buhari on the happening in Mali.
Jonathan who is ECOWAS Special Envoy to the Republic of Mali briefed President Buhari on the political situation in the West African country, as corollary to efforts by West African leaders to restore stability to the country.
According to statement by presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, Jonathan who was in Mali from Monday to Thursday, last week, recounted his meetings with the stakeholders, including political and religious leaders, Ambassadors of US, France, Russia, Germany, Union, and other important personalities key to peace and cohesion in the country.
The main opposition group, M5, he said, continued to insist on the resignation of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, a position not acceptable to ECOWAS, which insisted only on democratic process in change of power within its jurisdiction.
“We told them that no international organization, including the African Union (AU), United Nations (UN), and others, would agree with their position. We continued to emphasize the need for dialogue,” former President Jonathan stressed.
He added that the Constitutional Court had been reconstituted and inaugurated, while vacancies in the Supreme Court had been filled, thus sorting out the judicial arm of government.
UN Security Council Holds Emergency Meeting Today
Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting today afternoon to discuss the current situation in Mali.
The session was requested by France and Niger and will take place behind closed doors, a senior UN diplomat disclosed on condition of anonymity.
774, 000 Jobs: Opposition NASS Members Reject 30 Slots [Leadership]
The minority caucus in the House of Representatives has rejected the 30 job slots allotted to each member of the House for their respective local government areas within their constituencies out of the 774,000 Special Public Works (SPW) programme of the federal government.
The caucus also urged President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately order a review of the implementation process to ensure that the targeted citizens benefit from the programme as intended.
The federal government had unveiled the SPW to engage 1,000 unemployed and unskilled workers from each of the 774 local government areas. The initiative is billed to begin on October 1, and about N52 billion was earmarked for the programme in the 2020 budget. Each beneficiary will be paid N20, 000 monthly to carry out public works.
The minister of state for labour and employment, Festus Keyamo, who directly supervises the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) had been at loggerheads with members of the National Assembly over the implementation of the recruitment process.
Sequel to the disagreements, a Joint Committee on Labour, Productivity and Employment of the National Assembly announced the suspension of the programme and directed the director-general of NDE, Dr Nasir Mohammed Ladan, to take control and bring to the parliament how he intends to execute the programme.
But Keyamo declared that political office holders had been allocated 15 per cent of the 774, 00 (116,100) slots in the programme.
Also, chairman of the selection committee of the extended Special Public Works programme in Bauchi, Sanusi Aliyu Kunde, disclosed that the committees in each had been directed to reserve 40 slots for state governors in each local government of the state, 30 for each senator in the local governments within their districts and 40 for a principal officer of the Senate, also within the local governments in their districts.
For members of the House of Representatives, the committee was directed to reserve 25 slots from the local government areas within their constituencies and 30 slots for principal officers of the House within their constituencies, while ministers should be allotted 30 slots from all the local government areas in the state.
But the minority leader of the House of Representatives, Hon Ndudi Elumelu, in a statement yesterday, described the 30 slots offer out of the 1000 slots per local government, as grossly unfair and unacceptable by the lawmakers.
The caucus, however, demanded for more transparency and a review of the criteria being used for the allotment, which is alleged to favour certain interests in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) at the detriment and disadvantage of majority of other Nigerians.
The minority leader insisted that, “the 30 persons allotment to be supervised by a member in each of the local government areas, cannot by any criteria, said to be a true representation of the people they are mandated to represent.”
According to him, the 774,000 jobs are meant for the people and that the people look up to the lawmakers as major channels through which they are reached for social and economic empowerment, a situation, which makes the 30 people, out of 1000 per local government, grossly inadequate.
“The 30 person allotment per local government for lawmakers is grossly unfair, inadequate and unacceptable to Nigerians. As the representatives of the people, we are closer to them and they directly interact with us, irrespective of religion, class and political affiliations.
“All Nigerians living in our constituencies are our constituents, irrespective of political leanings. We have a responsibility to protect their interests at all times. As such lawmakers ought to have been carried along on the allotment.
“Moreover, the questions are, what criteria are being used in the job allotments? Given the 30 persons out of 1000 per local government area allotted to federal lawmakers, what happens to the remaining 970? What answers do we give Nigerians? How do we ensure that the program benefits Nigerians and not enmeshed in allegations of sharp practices as witnessed in the COVID-19 palliative distribution?
Minister Inducts Implementation C’ttee For Post COVID-19 Initiatives [Leadership]
The minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has inaugurated the Implementation Committee for the Post COVID-19 Initiatives on the Creative Industry, with a charge to design an implementation plan that will catalyze the growth of the industry.
While performing the inauguration virtually in his office in Abuja on Tuesday, the minister listed the Terms of Reference of the committee to include, the design of an implementation plan on the immediate and short-term relief for the Creative Industry, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Others, he said, are to design a Policy Framework for Tax Relief for the various sectors in the Creative Industry, if it is identified as one of the measures aimed at achieving immediate and short-term relief for the Industry; and to work out a detailed implementation plan for a long-term intervention for the overall development of the Creative industry in Nigeria.
Alhaji Mohammed, who described the Creative Industry as the second biggest job creator in the country after agriculture, urged members of the Implementation Committee to approach the assignment with a great sense of duty, as the development and growth of the Creative Industry are crucial to the nation’s economy.
He once again commended the Committee on Post Covid-19 Initiatives on the Creative Industry for producing a ‘phenomenal’ report, noting that the committee went beyond the call of duty to produce a well-researched report.
In his remarksthe Chairman of the Implementation Committee and the Director General of the National Council for Arts and Culture, Otunba Segun Runsewe, pledged his committee’s readiness to come up with robust recommendations for the overall benefit of the Creative Industry and the nation in general.
Malian President, Ibrahim Keita resigns [Nation]
Malian President, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has resigned.
Keita on Wednesday said he was resigning to avoid “bloodshed”, hours after his arrest by troops.
Rebel soldiers reportedly detained Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse on Tuesday afternoon and drove the duo to a military base in the town of Kati, near the capital Bamako, which they had seized that morning.
Jubilant crowds in the city centre, gathered to demand Keita’s resignation, cheered the rebels as they made their way to the 75-year-old’s official residence.
Keita who appeared in a state television broadcast, midnight, to declare the dissolution of the government and national assembly, said he had no choice but to resign with immediate effect.
“If it pleased certain elements of our military to decide this should end with their intervention, do I really have a choice?” he said of the day’s events.
“(I must) submit to it, because I don’t want any bloodshed.”
Fed Govt plans N3.1tr for debt servicing in 2021 [Nation]
About N3.124 trillion will go into debt servicing next year, according to a Budget Call Circular released by the Budget Office of the Federation (BOF).
The debt servicing obligations will be made up of N2.183 trillion for Domestic Debt and N940.89 billion for Foreign Debt.
In the document, N220 billion is proposed for Sinking Fund to retire maturing loans from Bonds and Treasury Bills.
The government targets about N12.658 trillion in 2021, out of which N3.086 trillion (excluding capital component of statutory transfers), has been set aside for critical capital expenditure.
They include: N1.485 trillion for MDAS’ capital expenditure; Capital Supplementation (N234.19 billion); Grants and donor funded projects (N337.06 billion); Special Intervention Programme (N20 billion); Government Owned Enterprises (N4335.59 billion) and Multi-lateral and Bi-lateral Project-tied loans (N674.11 billion).
In 2019, the Federal Government spent $1.31b on debt servicing.
The thrust of the Federal Government’s capital expenditure programme in 2021, the circular said, “will be the completion of as many ongoing projects as possible, rather than starting new projects”.
To achieve the objective, the BOF has warned Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) “that new projects will not be admitted into the capital budget for 2021, unless adequate provision has been made for completion of all.”
The circular noted that the government “in furtherance of its inclusiveness agenda, intends to sustain the Special Intervention Programme (SIP). Accordingly, a total of N420 billion is proposed to be allocated to the SIP”.
On personnel management, the BOF stated that all MDAs must ensure compliance with Service-wide Circular Ref. No 58775//T/358 on ‘Streamlining Procedures for Recruitment into Federal Agencies’ issued by the Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF) in respect of the procedure for recruitment into the public service”.
In order to check the incidence of ghost workers or inflated staff numbers, the BOF warned that all chief executive/accounting officers will henceforth “be held responsible for accuracy of the submissions in response to the Personnel Budget Call Circular (ref. BD/2000/EXP/S.651/991) issued in April 2020 to all MDAs by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning.
The circular reads: “All MDAS are now expected to comply with Presidential directive to enroll on then Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS). MDAS not yet on the IPPIS will not be accommodated in the personnel budget for 2021.
“MDAs have been enjoined to restrict their travels, training and capacity development programmes to locations within the country and as close to their office locations as possible.
“Foreign travels and training should be limited to exceptional cases and with necessary approvals in accordance with extant government policy.”
774,000 public works jobs: PDP lawmakers reject slots [Nation]
Minister: allocation a mere privilege
‘Nigerians will be beneficiaries’
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmakers have rejected the slots allocated to them in the ongoing recruitment of 774,000 artisan youths for public works jobs.
President Muhammadu Buhari initiated the programme to keep some of the unemployed busy doing public works for three months, beginning from October.
One thousand people are to be recruited from each of the 774 local government councils to participate in the programme. They are to earn N20,000 monthly per person. N52 billion has been voted for the programme in the 2020 budget.
Governors, senators, House of Representatives members and ministers have been allocated slots to be filled from their constituencies. The average Nigerians will get the other slots after screening by the panels set up in each state.
The Minority Caucus in the House of Representatives said on Tuesday that allotting only 30 slots per local government to each member of the House from the 1000 jobs per local government, was unfair and unacceptable to the lawmakers and Nigerians.
Minority Leader Ndudi Elumelu (PDP, Delta) said the caucus was demanding more transparency and a review of the criteria being used to allocate the slots, which he said, favoured certain interests in the All Progressives Congress (APC), to the detriment and disadvantage of majority of Nigerians.
The minority leader insisted that “the 30 persons allotment to be supervised by a member in each of the local government areas, cannot by any criterium, said to be a true representation of the people we are mandated to represent.”
He said the 774,000 jobs are meant for the people, adding that the people look up to the lawmakers as major channels through which they are reached for social and economic empowerment, a situation, which makes the 30 person, out of the 1000 per local government, grossly inadequate.
He said: “The 30 persons allotment per local government for lawmakers is grossly unfair, inadequate and unacceptable to Nigerians. As the representatives of the people, we are closer to them and they directly interact with us, irrespective of religion, class and political affiliations.
“All Nigerians living in our constituencies are our constituents, irrespective of political leanings. We have a responsibility to protect their interests at all times. As such, lawmakers ought to have been carried along on the allotment.
“Moreover, the questions are, what criteria are being used in the job allotments? Given the 30 persons out of the 1000 per local government area allotted to federal lawmakers, what happens to the remaining 970? What answers do we give Nigerians? How do we ensure that the programme benefit Nigerians and not enmeshed in allegations of sharp practices as witnessed in the COVID-19 palliative distribution?
He urged President Muhamamdu Buhari to immediately order a review of the implementation process to ensure that the targeted citizens benefited from the programme as intended.
Carrington offered me U.S asylum before I was arrested by Abacha –Obasanjo [Sun]
Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has revealed how former US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Walter Carrington, who passed away recently, offered him political asylum during the dark days of the late junta, Gen. Sani Abacha in 1995.
Obasanjo stated this in a condolence letter to the wife of the late envoy, Mrs. Arese Carrington.
While lauding Carrington for his contribution in restoring Nigeria to democratic rule after 16 years of military dictatorship, Obasanjo said he, however, turned down the asylum offer, despite its assuring nature.
“During his tenure as Ambassador, Carrington, helped in easing the move to democratic rule in the country, having met Nigeria under the military rule, which had run consecutively for over a decade and bred a culture of arbitrariness, flagrant abuse of human rights and disdain for the rule of law, all of which relegated our dear country, Nigeria, to the unenviable league of pariah states in the comity of nations.
“Indeed, I recall sometime in 1995, that on one of my trips to Copenhagen to attend World Social Summit as Human Development Ambassador of the United Nations Development Programme, I received the most touching of the warnings, pieces of advice and offers to me from Carrington. He called me in Copenhagen and told me categorically that I was going to be arrested on returning home and, therefore, advised me not to return home. But he did not stop it there; he offered me political asylum by his government in the US. That was both touching and assuring, but I decided that, tempting and assuring as the offer was, I would not take it. I came back and was arrested and imprisoned by Abacha. No doubt, his generous assistance to my family while I was a political prisoner makes me forever indebted to him.
“When I was in prison, he was one of the few foreign Ambassadors who regularly visited my wife to encourage her and to find out how I was doing in prison. I can proudly say he was a true friend and brother,” Obasanjo said.
COVID-19: States demand N67.2bn grant from FG [Sun]
State Governments have urged the Federal Government to release the N2.1 billion support fund it promised as the fight against COVID-19 enters a critical stage.
Commissioner for Health in Cross River State and acting chairman of Commissioners for Health Forum in Nigeria, Dr. Betta Edu, in a media chat in Abuja, said states were financially overstretched and needed to be helped financially.
She said during the nationwide lockdown, states’ internally generated revenues were affected. Dr. Edu further explained that many states can barely pay salaries and meet other financially obligations, hence the need to release the funds.
“There was a total lockdown in all the states. Most states can’t pay salaries. Their internally generated revenues went down. The Federal Government needs to release the promised N2.1 billion for states to help them tackle this pandemic.
“Only few states have been given something. I think Lagos, Ogun, Kano and Jigawa. The rest are yet to get the support funds. States need these funds to help them fight the spread of the virus.”
She further advocated funding of the healthcare system and provision of universal healthcare package for every citizen.
“States may not have enough sampling collection kits. This is like a marathon race and states are already overstretched financially.
“States need to be able to train people who can collect samples in all the local governments. States need to be able to set up designated places where these samples can be collected.
“We can’t be speaking from the two sides of our mouth. Go to the markets in every state. People are just living as if the virus doesn’t exist. People don’t wear face masks and our lifestyles don’t encourage social distancing at all.
“We want to see more of support from the Federal Government to States to enable them build more resilient healthcare systems. We also want to see a system where we can have a universal healthcare. No insurance packages in many States,” she added.
Mali president resigns after military coup [Sun]
Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita announced his resignation on live television in the early hours of Wednesday morning following a military coup.
“I’ve decided to leave my post,” he said, clad in traditional clothing and a medical mask to protect against the coronavirus.
The president and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse were arrested by the military after a mutiny on Tuesday, following months of street protests in the volatile West African state, which is also battling an Islamic insurgency.
“The president and his prime minister have been arrested.
“They are being taken to Kati military camp,” army officer Sidi Gakou told dpa earlier Tuesday.
The United Nations, European Union, African Union Commission, and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have condemned the military’s actions.
The UN has called for the “immediate release” of the president, while the EU said it “condemns the coup attempt under way in Mali and rejects any anti-constitutional change.”
“This can in no way be a response to the deep socio-political crisis that has hit Mali for several months,” the EU said in a statement.
Later, ECOWAS said that it decided to close its member states’ borders with Mali, suspend the country from its decision-making bodies “with immediate affect,” and temporarily interrupt financial flows between its other 14 members and Bamako.
Mali has been struggling to maintain stability since tens of thousands of opposition supporters accused Keita of gross intimidation and vote-buying during a parliamentary election in April, which gave his administration a firm majority.
Soldiers started to mutiny early Tuesday in the garrison town of Kati, 15 kilometres north-west of Bamako. Gunfire was heard in the capital.
A photographer told dpa there had been several thousand protesters on the streets, with people firing into the air in celebration.
Before its leaders were detained, the government had released a statement calling for calm, admitting that soldiers might have legitimate frustrations and saying they were prepared to engage in a dialogue.
The U.S., Australian, and Swedish embassies in Mali warned of possible unrest in the volatile West African country, urging their citizens to stay at home.
France, a former colonial power in Mali, condemned the mutiny.
“France has learned with concern of the mutiny that has started today in Kati, Mali.
“It condemns this serious event in the strongest terms,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The coup come after several weeks of political tensions and repeated anti-government protests during which talks between the government and the opposition, which is led by popular cleric Mahmoud Dicko, a former ally of Keita, failed.
A coup in Mali in 2012 was carried out by soldiers from the same barracks.
Political instability in Mali is seen as a dangerous development for the entire Sahel region, which already faces ongoing threats from numerous terrorist and separatist groups.