Today's Headlines: Nigeria Has Capacity To Be Global Power – Bolaji Akinyemi; Tinubu Recalls Ambassadors, Mulls New Foreign Policy

Nigeria Has Capacity To Be Global Power_ Bolaji

Photo Credit:Punch papers

A former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, has said Nigeria has what it takes to be a global power.

Speaking on Saturday during a zoom meeting with the theme, ‘Opportunity and Challenges of BRICS’, organised by the Academy of International Affairs, the ex-minister stated that Nigerians must change the negative perception and stop de-marketing the country.

He said, “Nigeria has the capability to be a global power and the ideas of how to get there are all on the table; they are obvious. Whatever we need to do to get there; I don’t believe our economy is bankrupt. I know what J.P. Morgan said. That is what they said about India and Turkey. That xyz is the sick man of Europe and the sick man of Europe all of a sudden becomes the big man of Europe. People will try to run us down, but we must accept that the fault, when it is ours, must be corrected.

“We should probably go after three things: leadership, discipline, and a reformation of ourselves to believe in Nigeria and not to find reasons why we should continue to de-market Nigeria.”

Tinubu Recalls Ambassadors, Mulls New Foreign Policy

Photo Credit:The Nation papers

Determined to drive a new foreign policy, President Bola Tinubu has approved the recall of more than 100 career and non-career Ambassadors.

Also affected are Heads of Consulate or charge d’affaires in all the nation’s embassies and High Commissions.

The only exemptions are the country’s Permanent Representatives at the United Nations in New York and Geneva.

The envoys have till October 31 to clear their desks and return home.

Out of the 100 Ambassadors, 41 are non-career comprising ex-ministers, politicians, retired top civil servants, retired military officers and ex- editors.

The Senate had in June and July 2020 confirmed 83 Ambassadors, including 42 career and 41 non-career.

All the 83 missions have career diplomats as Heads of Consulates or charge d’affaires whose tenure ended on Friday.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the recall was part of a “recalibration of the nation’s foreign affairs structure.

Photo Credit:Google

Obasanjo’s Govt Best Till Date_Abaribe

Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe represents Abia South on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), in the Senate. In this interview monitored by DAVID CHUKWU, he speaks on some political developments in the South-East and other issues

Distinguished Senator, how were you able to win in the last election, to return to the Senate, despite all the road blocks you had to cross?

Well, I can’t say how it happened but I can say that we have to thank the people of Abia South Senatorial District, who found me worthy to be sent back to the National Assembly. In actual fact, that election was a contest between the record of the incumbent Governor Abia State at that time and my own record for the people of the Senatorial District. I know that a whole lot of people were interested in it from all over the country. First of all, because the habit and the tendency is that governors exiting from their position will all like to come and rest in the National Assembly.

Let’s look at the position of the Igbo nation in Nigeria. Some people say that Igbos are disadvantaged because other zones have had a shot at the Presidency. Some blame it on Igbos; others blame it on the rest of Nigerians. What’s your take on this?

I don’t see us marginalised. I think if Igbos feel anything, you shouldn’t bother. Look, Igbos took the best decision in the interest of Nigeria. And I will explain what I mean; at a point when Igbos determined that Olusegun Obasanjo should be supported, despite the fact that an Igbo man, Alex Ekwueme of the blessed memory, had just been denied the opportunity by the then military that was going to hand over, and despite the fact that Igbos were actually looking at the whole thing at that time on national unity, Igbos still supported Obasanjo.

And you know what happened thereafter. He formed the government that has remained the best government till date in terms of economic revival of the country. And what did he do? He didn’t marginalise anybody from the South-East. He actually used a lot of people from the South-East ideas from the South-East as the core of his cabinet, which eventually led to a government that was able to exit the debt espionage we have just been brought back to.

Damagum’s Silence On Wike’s Letter, Worrisome–PDP chieftain

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A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party has said the silence of the party’s acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum, over claims by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nysom Wike, that he notified him in writing when he was nominated by President Bola Tinubu for a ministerial position is worrisome.

The PDP and its 2023 presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, are challenging the declaration of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress as the winner of the February 25 presidential election.

The stand of the party on the election notwithstanding, Wike accepted a cabinet position and last week, dared any member of the party to suspend him, a development that unsettled Atiku’s camp, prompting the former vice president to remind Wike that he would be sanctioned at the appropriate time.

However, party chieftains insisted that Wike’s continued membership of the PDP posed a huge threat to whatever the former vice president might have in mind politically for the future on the platform of the PDP.

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