Gates And Dangote Team Up Against Malnutrition In Nigeria

Nigerian President Mohammadu Buhari (C) poses with tech billionaire Bill Gate (L) and Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote, after signing on to the Abuja Agreement on Polio Eradication at the presidency in Abuja, on January 20, 2016 (AFP Photo/Philip Ojisua)

Abuja (AFP) - Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote and tech billionaire Bill Gates on Thursday announced plans for a $100-million scheme to cut malnutrition in the continent's most populous nation, Nigeria.

Dangote said the partnership between his Dangote Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would address the problem, which affects some 11 million children in northern Nigeria.

The announcement was made in Abuja, a day after both men signed a deal to ramp up immunization programs in the northern states of Kaduna, Sokoto and Kano, where Dangote is from.

US philanthropist Gates, who also met President Muhammadu Buhari, told reporters Nigeria's key resource was its young population. Some 44 percent of the 170 million population are aged under 14.

The Microsoft founder said their prospects would be "greatly damaged if we don't solve malnutrition".

The new scheme will fund programmes to 2020 and beyond, using local groups in the northwest and northeast, which has for the last seven years been ravaged by Boko Haram's Islamist insurgency.

Dangote and Gates have previously worked together on polio eradication programs, which resulted in the country being taken off the global list of endemic countries last year.

Nigeria is Africa's leading economy and number one oil exporter, but poverty remains acute for all but a fraction.

Average life expectancy is 52 -- five years fewer than the overall rate for sub-Saharan Africa -- with high rates of infant mortality and for children under five.

Some 31 percent of children under five were deemed under-weight in 2013, the 12th lowest in the world.

Taylor Dad On A Mission To Send Unused Books To Former School In Nigeria

BY JESSICA STRACHAN

THE NEWS HERALD

A collection of slightly tattered but perfectly legible children’s literature that Taylor students are no longer reading has a new destination: southeastern Nigeria.

The gently used books were set out for families to take at Clarence Randall Elementary’s fall open house, which Taylor resident Amobi Uzochukwa was attending with his third-grade daughter and fourth-grade son, according to Librarian Caroline Patts.

Librarian Caroline Patts said the collection of books were donated from local organizations, discarded from the library, or simply the titles students were no longer interested in.

“Every year we let the kids take some home from school,” said Patts. “But these books, they were left over, it seemed like we weren’t going to find anyone to take them.”

But at the end of the event when the three boxes of books remained, seemingly unwanted, Uzochukwa, who came to Michigan 18 years ago, knew exactly where the donation could go after his summer trip to Nigeria led him to the sad state of his own elementary school where he grew up.

“The the level of dilapidation I met (in) the school was shocking,” said Uzochukwa about Community Primary School NKWE, a rural schoolhouse in the state of Enugu, located approximately 200 miles from Nigeria’s capital. A recent summer trip to Nigerial led Uzochukwa, who moved to Michigan 18 years ago, to the sad state of his own former elementary school.

“There were no sign of textbooks anywhere in the school, there were cracks on the classroom walls, potholes in the classroom floors, and no chairs for pupils to seat while receiving lessons,” he added.

Uzochukwa said it was a sight hard to believe for an outsider, but familiar to him having grown up in the region. Since then, he has donated seating for the students and currently collecting other ways to support the school and saving up money to cover the cost of shipping the material internationally.

Three boxes of used books may seem small, but according to Uzochukwa, it’s will be a huge gift to the people they reach and his attempt to “alleviate the suffering of the little students growing up in this area of Nigeria.”

Patts said the project is something new and off the cuff, but an endeavor that has gotten many people excited to learn about.

“I think it’s outstanding that he has such a care in his heart to get those books to kids who really need them and a lot of us in the building here are really excited about it,” Patts said, reiterating a mission that transcends country borders: “We have to get books in the hands of kids. Whether they are old or new books, and it makes my heart warm to know this is happening.”

European Union Replies Biafra Over Calls For Independence

Against the backdrop of the request by Biafra agitators and the organization of Emerging African States (OEAS) for the referendum to be conducted on the independence of Republic of Biafra, the European Union has replied the agitators.

BY AKPAN JEREMIAH

NAIJ, JANUARY 19, 2016

The Biafra had earlier through OEAS requested that the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security, Federica Mogherini, to wade into the need to conduct a referendum for Biafra’s independence.

Sahara Reporters reported that the OEAS also called for the release of those it described as Biafran political prisoners and a stay of action by the Nigerian troops, and for quick referendum to be held within 90 days.

In response to this request, Mogherini told Dr. Jonathan Levy, OEAS chief administrative officer, that while the European Union has strong diplomatic and economic relationship with Nigeria, the “protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms remains a priority for the EU and we encourage the authorities [Nigeria] in every occasion to respect such rights.”

The EU further went on to caution the OEAS and Biafran that the push for self-determination and border changes must be carried out within the ambits of established international law.

It added that Biafra can only be recognized through international law and not through armed secession.

The OEAS had been pushing for an internationally recognized referendum on Biafra independence or autonomy.

In the same vein, OEAS advised that all nonviolent means should be utilized including general strikes, economic boycotts, work actions, demonstrations, lawsuits, and civil disobedience. Nigeria is a member of The International Labor Organization (ILO).

The ILO recognizes the right to engage in general strikes and the right to strike is also recognized in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966 (Article 8(1)(d)).

Below is a copy of the letter:






Meanwhile, former president Olusegun Obasanjo had continued to hit hard on Biafra agitators lashing out on pro-Biafra movement describing it as dead agitation which was borne out of sheer ignorance and error of judgment.

He added that those involved in the current agitation in support of Biafra were embarking on a hopeless and futile exercise, which no serious-minded Nigerian should ever become a part of.

Nigerian Separatists Claim Police Kill 8 In Biafra Protest

 MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016

WARRI, Nigeria — Nigerian separatists said police killed eight people during renewed violent protests Monday demanding an independent Biafran state in southeastern Nigeria and the release of a detained leader. Police deny the allegation from leaders of a cause that sparked a civil war in the 1960s in which a million people died.

Police shot protesters in southeastern Aba city, after protests erupted in cities in six southern states, Uchenna Madu, leader of the Movement for the Actualization of the State of Biafra, told The Associated Press.

But Abia state police spokesman Ezekiel Onyeke said no one was killed and police fired only tear gas and smoke grenades to disperse protesters after some lobbed petrol bombs at security forces. It was not possible to verify the contradictory claims.

Onyeke said police arrested 26 people for possessing weapons including machetes, axes and clubs.

Fourteen other protesters and two police officers have been killed and about 200 people detained across the country since the demonstrations started three months ago, according to the separatists and police. They began after intelligence agents detained the director of banned Radio Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, on Oct. 17. He was initially accused of criminal conspiracy and hate speech but the charges were escalated to terrorism and financing terrorism.

A Federal High Court ordered Kanu's unconditional release on Dec. 17 but President Muhammadu Buhari said two weeks ago that his government would not release Kanu.

Monday's protests come six days after the anniversary of the surrender in 1970 of the breakaway state of Biafra following a 32-month-old civil war in which the casualties were mostly Biafrans who starved to death because the military blocked supply routes. Buhari, a former military dictator in the 1980s, was a brigade major who commanded troops in Biafra during the war in which soldiers were accused of mass atrocities.

Gabon Recalls Paris Ambassador After Election Comments

REUTERS

* French PM seemed to cast doubt on Bongo's 2009 election win

* Gabon's opposition disputed the election

* Not the first spat between Gabon and former colonial ruler (Adds analyst comment)

By Gerauds Wilfried Obangome

LIBREVILLE, Jan 18 Gabon said it recalled its ambassador to Paris after France's prime minister appeared to question the legitimacy of President Ali Bongo's election in 2009.

The latest sign of fraying relations between Gabon and its former colonial ruler follows a French investigation into the origins of the wealth of the Bongo family, which has ruled the oil-producing west African nation since 1967.

Asked during a television interview on Saturday whether Bongo had been democratically elected, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said: "No, not as I understand it."

Gabon's opposition disputed the election result at the time.

Bongo, who succeeded his father Omar, is expected to seek a second seven-year mandate in August and will run against one of his main critics, Jean Ping, a former African Union chairman. .

Francois Conradie, analyst at South Africa-based NKC African Economics, suggested Valls' comment could boost the opposition's chances.

"Mr Valls' undiplomatic exclamation has spread like wildfire in Gabon, and has further damaged Mr. Bongo's public image," he said in a note on Monday, while noting Ping's candidacy also had its critics.

Gabon's Interior Minister Pacome Moubelet Boubeya told state television late on Sunday the government was seeking clarification of Valls' remark.

"We are surprised and shocked by the words of Manuel Valls when our two countries have such excellent relations," he said.

France's foreign ministry said it was "extremely attached" to its relationship with Gabon under Bongo's presidency.

Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal told reporters that the ambassadors of both countries had met government representatives in each capital on Monday, "to remove any misunderstanding".

Gabon has twice before recalled, and then reinstated, Ambassador Germain Ngoyo Moussavou in recent years.

For decades after Gabon's independence in 1960 the two countries were close allies under the "Francafrique" system that gave veteran African leaders security guarantees in exchange for business deals.

Gabon is one of Africa's richest countries but wealth is very unevenly distributed.

France remains a key player in Gabon's economy, with more than 100 companies based there, including oil major Total .



It also has a military base in the capital Libreville with more than 400 French soldiers. (Reporting by Gerauds Wilfried Obangome and John Irish in Paris; Writing by Emma Farge; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and John Stonestreet)

West Africa To Fight Back Against Jihadists As Burkina Gunmen Named

AFP

Ouagadougou (AFP) - Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) Monday named three gunmen behind a deadly attack on a luxury Burkina Faso hotel that has highlighted the growing reach of jihadist groups in west Africa, as French police joined in the probe.

Burkinabe troops fanned out across the capital, Ouagadougou, with security stepped up at key sites as visiting Benin President Thomas Boni Yayi pledged that west African nations would fight back against a mounting terrorist threat.

"We're not going to just sit on our hands. We will react and respond," he said, speaking on behalf of the 15 regional nations.

"The question is whose turn is it next," Boni Yayi added.

"The terrorists who think they can take our youngsters away from us are wrong."

Friday's attack by Islamist gunmen on a four-star Ouagadougou hotel and nearby cafe left at least 29 people dead, around half of them foreigners.

First such incident in the country, it came weeks after Islamists claimed an assault on a top hotel in Bamako, capital of neighbouring Mali, where 20 people died.

At the crime scene, an 18-strong team of French investigators, including forensic experts, joined local police in white coats combing for clues at the Splendid hotel and Capuccino cafe stormed by the gunmen.

At least 14 or 15 foreigners, including a nine-year-old, and seven or eight Burkinabes were among the dead, according to differing tolls given by the government and the public prosecutor. Seven bodies have not yet been identified.

The French foreign ministry said 30 people had been killed and 20 identified.

- 'Drop in sea of global jihad' -

In a statement carried by US-based monitoring group SITE, AQIM said the Splendid Hotel was "one of the most dangerous dens of global espionage in the west of the African continent."

It published photos of the three young gunmen dressed in military fatigues and wielding weapons, identifying them as Battar al-Ansari, Abu Muhammad al-Buqali al-Ansari and Ahmed al-Fulani al-

The operation, claimed by AQIM in the early hours of Saturday morning while the attack was still ongoing, was a "drop in the sea of global jihad," the statement said.

In their earlier statement, AQIM said the gunmen were from the Al-Murabitoun group of notorious Algerian extremist Mokhtar Belmokhtar.

Authorities in Burkina Faso have said that the bodies of three assailants had been identified, but several witnesses said they saw more than three attackers and a manhunt is still under way for accomplices.

Burkina Faso has declared three days of national mourning following the onslaught.

"People are afraid. Anyone who's not afraid isn't normal -- this is guys with guns," said Souleymane Ouedraogo, who lives near the scene of the violence.

Until recently Burkina Faso had largely escaped the tide of Islamist violence spreading in the restive Sahel region and the hotel assault will heighten fears that jihadist groups are casting their net wider in search of targets in west Africa.

President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, who took office just last month, said west African states needed to work together.

"We need to share information and military means," he said. "This is an asymmetrical war and we need to train our army for this new type of combat."

- Australians kidnapped -

The attack began around 7:45 pm (1945 GMT) on Friday when an unknown number of attackers stormed the 147-room Splendid Hotel in the heart of Ouagadougou.

The hotel and surrounding area became a battleground as Burkina Faso troops, backed by French forces based in the city under a regional counterterrorism initiative, launched an attempt to retake the hotel around 2:00 am.

Internal Security Minister Simon Compaore said the foreign dead included four Canadians, three Ukrainians, two French nationals, two Portuguese, two Swiss and a Dutch person.

The US State Department said one American was killed.

Burkina's public prosecutor Maiza Sereme said 15 foreigners were killed and gave a slightly different breakdown of the nationalities.

In a reminder of the fragile security situation, an elderly Australian couple were kidnapped on Friday in Burkina Faso's northern Baraboule region, near the border with Niger and Mali.

Malian militant group Ansar Dine told AFP the couple were being held by jihadists from the Al-Qaeda-linked "Emirate of the Sahara".

The pair had been running a surgical clinic in the north of the country since 1972, and no reason has been given for their kidnapping, a statement from their family said.

Over $6.5-Billion Stolen In Nigeria In Seven Years -- Minister

ABUJA - Nigerian state governors, ministers, business leaders, public officials and bankers allegedly stole $6.7-billion (R112.3-billion) in public funds in seven years, information minister Lai Mohammed said on Monday.

Mohammed told reporters in the capital, Abuja, that some 1.34-trillion naira ($6.72-billion, 6.15-billion euros) was allegedly stolen between 2006 and 2013 by just 55 people.
"The situation is dire and the time to act is now," he added.

Giving a breakdown of the alleged theft, Mohammed claimed:

- 15 former state governors stole 146.84-billion naira

- 11 businessmen took 653-billion naira

- Eight people in the banking industry stole 524-illion naira

- 12 former state and federal public servants made off with more than 14-billion naira

- Five former lawmakers pilfered 8.35-billion naira

- four former ministers took seven billion naira.

The period covered starts toward the end of the second term in office for Nigeria's first civilian president after military rule, Olusegun Obasanjo. He was replaced in 2007 by Umaru Musa Yar'Adua.

Goodluck Jonathan took over in 2010 when Yar'Adua died in office.

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari came to power in May last year, vowing to crack down on endemic corruption in Africa's most populous nation.

He accused Jonathan's administration of leaving the treasury "virtually empty" and vowed to recover what he said were "mind-boggling" sums stolen from the public purse.

Former national security advisor Sambo Dasuki and a string of high-profile figures are currently facing corruption charges over allegedly bogus arms deals to the tune of $2-billion.

Last Friday, the investigation was widened to military top brass who served under Jonathan.

Mohammed said tackling corruption was central to Buhari's administration but added that it involved everyone.

"This is Nigeria's war," he said.

Nigeria's main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused Buhari of conducting a witch-hunt against its members. Obasanjo, Yar'Adua and Jonathan were all PDP presidents.

But the current All Progressives Congress (APC) government would not spare anybody who has stolen public funds, regardless of their political affiliation, ethnicity or religion, added Mohammed.

- AFP

58,000 Nigerian Infants Infected With HIV Yearly -- NGO

News Agency Of Nigeria/Daily Trust

Mr Jamie Drummond, Executive Director ONE, an NGO, said that about 58,000 Nigerian infants were being infected with preventable and treatable diseases, including HIV, from their mothers yearly. Drummond said this on Monday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

He noted that many maternal and child mortality occurred in the country resulting from lack of good governance and adequate data to prioritise the health sector.

``One child in every seven in the world who dies of preventable, treatable diseases every year in the whole world is a Nigerian child.

``One out of seven mothers who dies anywhere in the world is a Nigerian mother and every year 58,000 Nigerian infants catch HIV from their mothers who love them because they didn’t get the drugs to stop the transmission of HIV from mother to child. ``These are completely treatable, preventable things and Nigeria has the resources to stop all of these from happening with good governance dependent on good data and accountability,” said Drummond.

According to him, Nigerians need to demand good governance, promote the fight against corruption and encourage the existence of high profile data to utilise the country’s resources wisely. He further added that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) would require more funding and political space to enable the bureau to achieve its objectives. ``The people of Nigeria need to demand good governance, every single person in Nigeria says the same thing; they need to demand the promotion of the fight against corruption, transparency and good governance.

``When you have transparency and good governance everything else goes better, when you don’t have that, you cannot say that the most important thing is health or agriculture. ``If someone should weigh the magic wound, to provide more political space for the National Bureau of Statistics, provide more funding for it and allow it more independence, I think that can change things,” he said. Besides, Drummond said that the relevant authorities needed to monitor the implementation of the budget. He said: ``Journalists and relevant stakeholders need to follow the budget because they are activists about facts.

``But they cannot do that if the budgets are not open and if they can’t get statistics of what that money have been spent on and after a while people lose the focus of asking questions about following the money. ``Demanding to follow the money and for better governance is the way to improve the lives of the people, so that the money in the health sector will be better spent,’’ said the executive director. However, he observed that Nigeria had the manpower and entrepreneurs that could work effectively to ensure adequate keeping of data. (NAN)

We Envision Africa Thus

BY ALSTON C. ARMAH
THE PERSPECTIVE, JANUARY 14, 2016

Are you an optimist? Are you an African youth who believes in the enormous possibilities that lie ahead for the African continent? Whether you respond in the affirmative or not, I would like to make one request, which I wholeheartedly think you could grant. Disabuse your mind of all doubts and come with me on a journey; together let’s envision Africa 2063.

First, let’s go down memory lane and take our minds to the year 1963. When the leaders of 33 independent African countries met in May that year in Addis Ababa, they were undertaking a task many thought was unrealistic and impossible to achieve. That task was to form a continental body that would be used as a platform to elevate the campaign against all forms of colonization and thus liberate Africa from European subjugation and humiliation. With dedication and commitment, the leaders of independent Africa – William Tubman of Liberia, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Sekou Toure of Guinea, and Halie Selassie of Ethiopia, among others – worked tooth and nail to decolonize the continent. Despite the seemingly insurmountable odds against them – foreign infiltration, some colonial masters’ policy of indirect rule and the strategy of divide and rule – these African leaders collaborated, harnessed their collective skills and efforts, worked tirelessly and remained unwavering in their pursuit to liberate Africa from the claws of European colonization.  As always happens in all human endeavors where there is passion coupled with commitment to ideals and the unflinching will to succeed, the leaders of Africa sustained the independence revolution and eventually the last bastion of colonial rule was dismantled.

Interestingly, many of these leaders did not have access to the many ivory tower universities and centers of learning we have in Africa today. Some of them were largely self-taught. More often than not, the ones who could afford had to fly across the Atlantic to study in faraway places such as England, Portugal, the United States, France, among others. Fortified with education and a kind of enlightenment rooted in self-determination for the African people, these founding fathers, the Pan Africanists, returned home and committed themselves to the task to liberate Africa from the manacles of colonization.

Eventually Africa was decolonized. The commitment and passion of the founding fathers had paid off. But no sooner had most of Africa gained independence then the clouds of civil wars and political unrests began to gather, courtesy of the ploys crafted by reactionary forces and elements of retrogression. Thus we saw Biafra War in Nigeria, coups d’état in countries like Togo, Liberia, Ghana, etc. And then came the instances of full blown civil crises such as seen in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, among others. Much of the first 50 years since the formation of the OAU (now AU) has been devoted to ending civil wars, education and training, fighting diseases and other menaces. 
That, in summary, is the story of the first 50 years of independent Africa.

In the first 50 years after the end of colonization, Africa has prospered in many ways. Roads, airports and seaports have been built, many more people have been educated, and infrastructures have been built to cater to the needs of the growing population. All these are not enough, one would argue, given Africa’s enormous resource potentials – arable land, virgin rainforests, minerals, crude oil, blue oceans, biodiversity, and most important a youthful population. And it would seem that the progress achieved has been tainted by political instability and acts of terror that have come to grip the continent in the last few decades.

The next 50 years leading up to 2063 will be the African Era. This will be the time to bring about the African Renaissance – the rebirth and rebranding of an Africa that is peaceful and serene where the youth are seen as instruments of peace and catalysts to drive the engine of economic growth and technological advancement. To bring about the renaissance of the Africa we envision, all of Africa must work together - governments and citizens – to pursue a continent-wide agenda.  

The next 50 years leading up to 2063 promises to be a most critical period for modern Africa. The vision for Africa, as crafted by authorities of the African Union Commission, is laid out in the document titled “Agenda 2063 – The Africa We Want.” In this document are well laid out the African Aspirations for the year 2063. Among other things, “we aspire to see an integrated continent, politically united, based on the ideals of Pan-Africanism and the vision of Africa’s Renaissance.” Towards this end, “we envision a peaceful and secure Africa with world class, integrative infrastructure that crisscrosses the continent.” Great aspirations indeed!

Africa is not just a continent in name. It is the second largest landmass home to 1.166 billion people (according to UNFPA estimates for the year 2015), approximately 16% of the world’s population. The primary stimulus for Africa’s forward march will be its youthful population. According to Wikipedia (the online encyclopedia), Africa's population is the youngest amongst all the continents; 50% of Africans were born in 1991 or later. This means that half of Africa’s population is made of young people aged 24 years or younger. UNICEF estimates that 1.8 billion babies will be born in Africa over the next 35 years, and the “total African population will nearly quadruple to about 4.2 billion by the end of the century.”

The youth boom will be a force to awaken Africa from its slumber. The African youth – our greatest source of energy - will be the catalysts to speed up the continent’s leap into the future. With their exuberance and passion coupled with the right mix of education and training and their active participation in civic and governance processes, the youth of Africa can bring forward the Age of the African Renaissance. Give them adequate training in agriculture, science and technology, business and commerce and the space to participate in governance processes, and you will have a perfect formula for moving Africa forward in this age of rapid human advancement. 

When adequately educated and nurtured, Africa’s greatest assets - its youth - will become productive citizens and the pillar for economic, cultural, political and social reformation of the African continent. The youth of Africa can be trained to become the golden generation of African technocrats leading business and commerce, scientific inventions, climate preservation, and infrastructural development. A trained youth-dominated workforce can make possible the construction of superhighways winding and meandering through hills and valleys, forests and deserts from Cairo to Cape Town. We can imagine and bring to reality an Africa where railways run from Kismaayo in the east to Monrovia in the west. We can dream and remake an Africa where the cultures, wisdom and skills of ancient kingdoms such as Timbuktu - where we had the first medical college in Africa – Songhai, Dahomey, and Nubia are revived, refined and used for the betterment of the lives of the African people. 

All these dreams are possible and can be achieved. But to achieve these dreams, the youth of Africa must be given prime place and priority in terms of their education and training for conscious participation and positive contributions to this wonderful continent and its aspirations as outlined in “Agenda 2063.”

There has never been a perfect moment and an ideal driving force for the betterment of Africa. Agenda 2063 is not just a document; it is a living source of strength and energy. When allowed to work, this agenda is the single most important charter that will turn the 21st century into the Age of the African Century.  For this agenda to work, we have to play our various roles dedicatedly. The youth will have to commit to education and training. We must demand from our governments and policy makers the support and opportunities to acquire education and skills in such indispensible disciplines as agriculture, natural resource management, climatology, engineering, medicine, business and commerce, and governance and civic leadership. The governments on the other hand must invest in education and job creation. We should even dare to say that African governments must invest up to 50% of their annual budgets into education, training and job creation for young people over the next 20 years. Is this too much a demand to make? When we invest in more education, training and job opportunities for our young people, we create an incentive for African youth to shy away from extremism and even the perilous journey through the Sahara and across the Mediterranean onward to Europe. 

Africa is blessed to have a young population and hardworking people together with an enormity of untapped natural resources. Our evergreen rainforest remains mostly intact, stretching from the Congo to the western shores of Africa. Our oceans and rivers abound with great species of marine life which is already a source of employment for many. Our arable land and water resources can be used to fuel an African food and agro-processing industry to produce more than sufficient food to feed the African people and the rest of the world. All this can be led by our ever dynamic and energetic youth, given the proper mix of education and training and opportunities to hone their talents.

Our blue oceans – the Atlantic and Indian Oceans together with the Mediterranean Sea could be an enormous conduit for the boom of maritime and commerce to support this vast continent that Mother Nature has so graciously endowed us with.

We must all work to change Africa. We must rewrite our own stories wherein the African youth are given a prime place. Africans can create their own realities. In the immortal words of Kwame Nkrumah, “Circumstances can be changed by revolution and revolutions are brought about by men, by men who think as men of action and act as men of thought.”

No longer shall we sit idly and grieve about the wrongs of the past and ills of the present. O dear youth of Africa! Take this Agenda 2063 and move forward with it. Engage stakeholders and policymakers; hold seminars and roundtable discussions on this noble Agenda. Do so with the conviction that it is our collective African destiny! And in the process to chart the course for a new and better Africa, no African – young or old – should be an idle observer watching from a distance.  

You who dream of not only a peaceful but a prosperous Africa, stand up! You who dare and dream to see youthful Africans taking leadership roles in governance, science, commerce, technology and academia, dream with us! Believe with us and embrace the renaissance and join the campaign to remake Africa, for the rebirth of our beloved continent is at hand.


About the author: The author is a Liberian citizen residing in Monrovia. He works for the Ministry of Education in Liberia, and he does consultancy for a number of youth organizations.

Nigeria Stocks Near 3 1/2 Year Low As Naira Hits 300/US$ On Black Market

BY CHIJIOKE OHUOCHA
REUTERS, JANUARY 13, 2016

Jan 13 Nigerian stocks fell 3.6 percent to near a three-and-half-year low on Wednesday after the local currency hit a new trough of 300 per dollar on the black market, weighed down by sliding oil prices and the central bank decision to curb dollar supply.

Currency and stock markets have been hard hit by the persistent fall in crude, Nigeria's main export, triggering a fall in government revenues and exit of foreign investors from the local bourse.


Brent crude, which gives Nigeria around 95 percent of its foreign earnings, fell to $30 a barrel for the first time in twelve years on Tuesday.

"With pressure on foreign reserves and oil prices at $30 per barrel, devaluation is now unavoidable. The issue will be the quantum and methodology," said Samir Gadio, head of Africa strategy at Standard Chartered Bank.

The central bank on Monday stopped the sale of dollars to retail foreign exchange operators saying they were using up the country's foreign reserves for illegal transactions and selling the dollar above the bank's official rate of 197 naira.

On Wednesday, bureaux de change traders were quoting to sell dollars at a record low of between 290 to 300 naira citing thin liquidity. The unofficial market accounts for less than 5 percent of total dollar trades in Nigeria.

The stock index, which has the second-biggest weighting after Kuwait on the MSCI frontier market index, fell to 25,206 points, dropping to levels last reached in September 2012. The index is down 9.1 percent in its eight days of trading this year, after shedding 17.4 percent last year.



"The market is facing acute dollar shortages, even many people who want to buy at 300 naira cannot find the dollar," said Aminu Gwadabe, the head of Nigeria's bureaux de change association. (Additional reporting by Oludare Mayowa; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Oil Rises For First Time In Eight Sessions On China, US Stocks Draw

BY KAROLYN SCHAPS

REUTERS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2016

A sign for a Haffner's gas station is seen in Lowell, Massachusetts December 15, 2014. Picture taken with long exposure. Picture taken December 15, 2014. Image: Brian Snyder

Oil prices rose for the first time in eight days on Wednesday as positive Chinese trade data and an unexpected draw in weekly U.S. crude oil inventories gave investors reasons to buy crude futures.

Brent crude, the global benchmark, was up 63 cents at $31.49 a barrel at 1151 GMT, but remained near lows last seen nearly 12 years ago.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) was up 69 cents at $31.13 a barrel, recovering from Tuesday's dip below $30.

"The API inventory data triggered a profit-taking wave, that's the main reason for this uptick," said Hans van Cleef, senior energy economist at ABN Amro in Amsterdam.

"But the overall sentiment is still negative, meaning downside risk is still greater than upside potential."

U.S. crude stocks fell unexpectedly last week, data from industry group the American Petroleum Institute showed on Tuesday.

Crude inventories fell by 3.9 million barrels in the week to 480.071 million, compared with analysts' expectations for an increase of 2.5 million barrels. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery hub fell by 302,000 barrels, the API said.

China reported exports dipped just 1.4 percent in U.S. dollar terms in December, compared to forecasts of an 8 percent drop, positively surprising world markets.

The world's second-biggest oil consumer has also been taking advantage of the oil price rout to stock reserves and increase exports of refined products, and may be set to overtake the United States as the world's largest importer.

But the bearish outlook for oil remains. Analysts at Morgan Stanley warned on Wednesday that a rise in demand for crude could be lower than previously expected.

"Any slowing in the rate of demand growth could delay the timing of rebalancing and ultimately a price recovery," they said in a research note.

The potential for the calling of an emergency OPEC meeting also weakened on Wednesday when Iran's oil minister was quoted as saying he had not received any request for such a gathering.

Nigeria's oil minister said on Tuesday that a "couple" of OPEC members had asked for an emergency meeting.

Days ahead of the expected implementation of a landmark nuclear accord between Tehran and world powers, Iran briefly detained a group of U.S. sailors after they entered Iranian waters.

Iran released the sailors on Wednesday after holding them overnight, determining they had entered Iranian waters by mistake.


(Additional reporting by Christopher Johnson in London and Aaron Sheldrick in Tokyo; Editing by Dale Hudson)