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Tag: trump

  • Twitter disables Trump’s campaign video on George Floyd

    Twitter disables Trump’s campaign video on George Floyd

    U.S. President Donald Trump is currently not having the best of time with his favourite social media platform, Twitter as the platform once again disabled the president’s campaign tribute video to George Floyd.

    The social media platform cited a copyright complaint, as basis for its action, reports Daily Mail.

    The clip, which is a collation of photos and videos of protest marches and instances of violence in the aftermath of Floyd’s death, has Trump speaking in the background.

    Floyd’s death after a fatal encounter with a police officer on May 25 has led to nationwide, and even global protests.

    In widely circulated video footage, a white officer Derek Chauvin was seen kneeling on Floyd’s neck as Floyd gasped for air and repeatedly said, ‘I can’t breathe,’ before passing out.

    The decision to remove the video is the latest from Twitter in an on-going feud between the social media platform and the President that begun with Twitter fact-checking his tweets.

    Twitter said the video on the president’s campaign account was affected by its copyright policy.

    It was not the the first time Twitter has removed a video from Trump on copyright grounds.

    In 2019 it took down a meme of his because it used a clip from Nickelback’s “Photograph.,” Business Insider reported.

    A spokesman for the Trump campaign accused Twitter of “making up the rules as they go along.”

    In a tweet posted late Thursday , the @TeamTrump account complained: “Twitter and @Jack are censoring this uplifting and unifying message from President Trump after the #GeorgeFloyd tragedy.”

    It added that the media had “refused” to cover the speech.

  • Taking analgesics for another person’s headache – Owei Lakemfa

    By Owei Lakemfa.

    The last of five Iranian ships carrying petroleum products to Venezuela berthed safely this week after repeated United States (US) threats to militarily stop them. The first ship, Fortune, had arrived on Saturday May 23, escorted by Venezuelan Navy to ward off possible American attacks. It was followed by the vessels, Bella, Bering and Clavel.

    Apart from threatening the ships as they sailed from Iran, America had dispatched destroyers, littoral combat ships, Poseidon maritime planes and Air Force surveillance aircraft off the Venezuelan coast ostensibly to check drug smuggling but making it clear it could use them against the Iranian ships.

    But Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had warned: “Any pirate-like action by the U.S. Navy against the Iranian fuel shipments to Venezuela would trigger a harsh response.”

    The US was willing to spark off an international conflagration on the bizarre basis that it does not approve trade between the two sovereign countries. Secondly, the Americans claim that since they have imposed sanctions on both countries, they have lost the legitimate right to trade even between themselves. Thirdly, it says the Iranian supply of petroleum products to Venezuela amounted to an intervention in that country which is against its 19th Century Monroe Declaration under which US rejects outside intervention in the Western Hemisphere, a region it regards as its “backyard” This, the Trump administration says, gives it the right to militarily attack the ships. The Commander of U.S. Southern Command, Admiral Craig Faller in buttressing this inane position claimed Iran’s objective was to “gain positional advantage in our neighborhood in a way that would counter U.S. interests.”

    Fourthly, America says it is angry that Iran is trying to help Venezuela restart its 310,000 barrel-per-day Cardon refinery, a claim Iran denies. But what is criminal in Venezuela working to end fuel shortages and bringing relief to its people?

    Fifthly, the US childishly wails that the petroleum products were stolen by the Iranian government from the Iranian people and given illegally to Venezuela. If this weird claim were true, how is it America’s business? How is it in America’s place to cry for Iranians who in the first place have not reported their oil stolen? How can it be America’s business to take analgesics for the headache it claims Iranians have? If America were a human beign, I would have suggested its sees a psychiatrist because its actions and postulations do not make any sense.

    Elliott Abrams, the U.S. Special Representative to Venezuela – the elegant title given to the man charged with overseeing the overthrow of the democratically elected government of President Nicholas Maduro – says American is opposed to the fuel supply because: “You have two pariah states finding that they are able to exchange things they need for things they have.”

    Mr. Abrams, an ex-convict might have been chosen for that role because he has a sordid past of being lawless and having little or no regard for human lives. He was appointed in January, 2019, thirty years after exiting the American State Department.

    In December 1981, American-trained special units of the Salvadorian military entered the village of El Mozote and massacred almost 1,000 men, women and children. When the massacre became public knowledge, the American Senate decided to probe it. The CNN in its January 26, 2019 report quoted the Human Rights Watch Report of the massacre which said Abrams at the Senate hearings “artfully distorted several issues in order to discredit the public accounts of the massacre,” insisted the numbers of reported victims were “implausible” and “lavished praise” on the military battalion behind the mass killings.

    The Reagan administration from August 20, 1985 to March 4, 1987, sold arms to Iran which was ostensibly under American sanctions, and used the money to fund Nicaraguan terrorist campaigns which included blowing up civilian ships at that country’s ports, and killing civilians especially in the rural areas.

    When the US Congress probed what became known as the Iran-Contra Scandal, Abrams lied to Congress. In order to escape multiple felony counts, he agreed to a guilty plea and was sentenced to two years probation and 100 hours of community service. The President George Herbert Walker Bush government later granted him pardon.

    The American establishment in resurrecting such a man three decades later, is a clear statement that the American interests in Venezuela is neither democracy nor human rights, but Venezuela oil and gas which it has been unable to exploit since the election of Hugo Chavez twenty two years ago.

    The Venezuelan refineries might not start running soon, and these Iranian supplies might soon be depleted necessitating more purchases which the Iranians might oblige. So, soon, there might be another round of American threats to go to war because two sovereign countries decide to buy and sell legitimate goods to each other.

    It is this type of incomprehensible diplomacy America displayed in warning Coronavirus-wracked countries not to accept medical aid from Cuba. With 1.87million infections, 421,000 recoveries and 108,000 deaths, as at Wednesday, America has clearly been unable to withstand the virus onslaught. So it has been in no position to assist other countries. In contrast, tiny Cuba with its sophisticated healthcare system built on prevention and community-based fights against viruses, is able to send medical personnel to fight Covid-19 in countries like Italy, South Africa, Jamaica, Grenada, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Suriname. In fact, it is trying to keep up with aid requests from 22 countries. But in a curious move, the American State Department issued a statement demanding countries to reject Cuban medical aid claiming that it is “an abusive programme” that engenders “end labour abuses” in Cuba. No country has responded to the odd American request as they are more interested in saving the lives of their people than be distracted by an administration locked in queer Cold War battles.

    A major headache of the American government might be campaigns by appreciative groups calling for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded to Cuba’s Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade which is fighting Covid-19 in various countries.

    America had exhibited a similar diplomatic attitude when it asked African countries to reject Chinese development loans which have favourable repayment terms and spread in contrast to those of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Ironically, while Africa’s total loan from China is less than $140 Billion, the US alone is owing China $1.1 trillion.

    The US is a busybody interfering in the internal affairs of various countries, dabbling in many issues it has no direct, and sometimes even indirect stake. All the while, it claims to be all-knowing and omnipresent across the globe and even the planetary system. The universe will be a better place if the US stops playing god in world affairs.

  • Covid-19 winners and losers – Udeme Nana

    Covid-19 winners and losers – Udeme Nana

    By Udeme Nana

    As the lockdown , self and compulsory isolation or quarantine of people forced by the corona virus disease pandemic eases , its pertinent to take a look at some winners and losers within the last three months.

    The Gold medalist is no doubt the Peoples Republic of China , a country of more than 1.4 billion people and the most populous nation on earth.

    Although it is alleged that the corona virus disease originated from one of its regions ; Wuhan to be specific, the country was proactive in its response and was able to push back the disease faster.

    It was also one of the first countries to return to a normal way of lifeinspite of the impact of the dreaded virus disease in other parts of the world.

    China’s President , Xi Jinping , who took office seven years ago also shares in the glory of his nation.Under his leadership, the Red country has grown in stature and prominence and the communist country has stood boldly , toe to toe with the United States of America in the wake of the rampant Covid – 19 pandemic.Even though the economies of most countries of the world have been impacted negatively by the pandemic, that of China is still robust and its well known billionaire has emerged as a prominent do – gooder , ferrying medical aid to less endowed countries in the world.

    If China was a mere challenger for the topmost spot in world politics, in post Covid 19 diplomacy and world politics , it is assured a more visible role and voice and its President would be bouncing sprightly like our own dear General Ibrahim Babangida walked during his heydays as Nigeria’s first and only Military President.

    On the flip side , the country which prided itself as the world’s only superpower and policeman , the United States of America lies prostrate, dazed and more confused than at any other time since Pearl Harbour.

    Just as it happened in 1945, ‘God’s own country’ was taken by surprise by coronavirus and though its Congress closed political party ranks to approve a humongous bail out in emergency appropriation worth trillions of US Dollars and its professionals made to rise to the occassion , its iconoclastic President behaved like a boxer drunk with a flurry of hard blows to his medula oblangata .

    As President Trump muddled along in a reactionary manner ; prescribing drugs , quarrelling with China , the World Health Organisation (WHO), his top Medical adviser , Dr.Anthony Fauci and grumbling with some of the State Governors who requested for Federal Aid by way of more equipment while the popularity , self confidence and control of the American and world political arena became like shifting sand under the feet of President Trump, the popularity of his main opponent in this year’s Presidential elections scheduled for November, former Vice President , Joe Biden, whom Trump derides as sleeping Joe is on the move, saying the right things and acting more Presidential.

    If Covid – 19 exposed President Donald Trump as a freak, the gruesome murder of George Floyd and the riots sparked by that dastard racist action has greatly exposed the soft underbelly of Donald Trump’s America.China’s and Joe Biden’s gains might yet turn out to be Trump’s huge loss. Trump is the loser here.

    Prayer warriors are praying for the conquest of Corona virus disease but it is possible that a lot officers and men of the Nigerian Police Force are countering such prayer points because the lockdown and curfew season have turned out to be their best ever moment.

    If it depended on them , Coronavirus should last forever.They were so excited while at the various road blocks everywhere , wore tough looks and harrassed , impounded vehicles and Keke from hapless citizens who breached the confinement of people and curfew no matter the excuse given by their victims.The Police also invented another synonym for bribe money, it was no longer ‘Roger’ but ‘sanitizer’ ! Anybody who heard the command to bring out and give out a sanitizer at a checkpoint who brought out the container of glycerine with alcohol hand cleanser was seen as a joke! You needed to watch them share the ‘sanitizers’ which they extorted each day.When the policeman next door moves house into his newly completed home at the end of the year, don’t ask how he made it so soon , it is the windfall from mounting roadblocks in the wake of COVID – 19.They are winners , indeed.

    Another set of winners are the Pharmacists , Patent medicine shop outlets and shylock traders who raised the prices of goods to high heavens.The price of a medical nose mask which was N100 pre COVID – 19 pandemic rose to N500 ! The smallest bottle of a real hand sanitizer sold for N3,000.00 from N1000.00.The prices of basic food items went up and so these category of business people are winners.

    Wives and children ; indeed family life also won.Covid – 19 Pandemic and the resulting restriction of movement forced couples to stay and spend more time at home with their children.To many couples , it was honeymoon all over again while children got to know more about their parents and vice – versa.Parents no longer hurried out from home every morning to return to eat and sleep at night.Most wives loved this but for the tragedy associated with COVID – 19 , many married women would pray that the pandemic lasts forever.Yes , families won as previously absentee parents quarantined themselves at home.

    On the other hand , the hospitality industry got severely hit.They were forced to close.Bars , sit – outs, club houses , gyms , swimming pools , fast foods and joints where the old and young met to socialize became desolate places. The market for ‘side – chicks’ and their patrons closed and parents had the chance to live with their grown but estranged female children.’Runs’ ceased for a moment .

    Another big loser is the World Health Organisation (WHO). Led by an Ethiopian, Dr.Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Organisation has lost some credibility for late reporting of the incidence of Corona virus.It has also been accused of having worked in cahoots with China.The fall out of this is the withdrawal from that Organisation by the United States of America , its largest patron.Another country, Madagascar has also exited it over the management of its home made COVID – 19 therapy.

    A further set of winners are manufacturers of health personnel protective equipments like face masks , hand gloves , foot wears , aprons , disinfectants , sanitizers including other big ones like test kits , PCU’s and ventilators. The health sector and its professionals have also been accorded more respect and importance by political leaders because of their frontline role in trying to push back and managing COVID – 19 patients.

    Worship centres and their Pastors lost out .They missed, though temporarily, their stages, their offerings and those who prophesied about when the pandemic would end or those who failed to see its coming have lost a measure of their ecclesiastical integrity.

    In addition to all these ones , the Aviation sector, active politicking , Education, Transportation sector have lost immensely.

    The Almajiri system in the Northern zones and core Muslim parts of Nigeria have lost too because it has been disbanded and the Almajiris sent back to their states of origin.

    Several marriages were put off defering much hope and joy of prospective couples. People postponed trips long planned and anticipated.

    Like everything in life , COVID – 19 has been both a blessing and a curse to the global community.

    But no matter its positives , winners or losers, let COVID – 19 just go away and not return to infect and disorganise the world.

  • The Unravelling of America: You’ve Gotta Watch To Cry – Azu Ishiekwene

    The Unravelling of America: You’ve Gotta Watch To Cry – Azu Ishiekwene

    Azu Ishiekwene

    I first watched the movie in the lockdown. At the beginning, it was funny when the pair was fiddling with their entrée in the restaurant and wondering why they had both avoided each other until now.

    A few minutes after they left the restaurant, trouble started. The movie, entitled “Queen & Slim,” is the love story of two black Americans drawn to each other by tragedy even before their love story began.

    Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith) and Slim (Daniel Kaluuya), were driving home from their date when a white police officer flagged down their car for a minor traffic offence. In the testy, racially charged atmosphere, the lone white police officer shot at Queen as she tried to come down from the passenger side, hitting her leg.

    Slim, who had already been profiled and was being frisked by the officer behind the car, feared that his date may have been fatally shot. He tackled the officer whose gun fell in the process. Slim got the gun first and as he scrambled up, he shot the white police officer who died in a pool of his own blood a few minutes later.

    What next? An argument immediately broke out in my living room as it well might have happened in many homes around the world wherever this horrific scene was watched.

    I said the right thing was for Slim to call the police and immediately report what had happened. He had acted in fear and panic during the scuffle, with no intention to kill. But once the deed was done the full weight of the incident left him stricken and confused.

    Queen, his companion and black lawyer who was already bleeding from the gunshot wound, asked Slim to get off the ground and jump into the car so they could get away fast. I thought that was wrong and screamed for Slim to call the police, as if he could hear me.

    My son, 26, replied that he didn’t think Slim should report. Why, I turned towards him, puzzled! Because a black man in his shoes in America might not get away from that scene alive, if he called the police immediately. And not only him, his injured companion too, would be lucky to leave the scene alive, once the police arrive.

    At the end of the movie – a tale of dangerous living, adventure, love, fatal heroism and betrayal – you are in no doubt at all that racism is still alive, well and prospering in the US.

    Although a white cop was undeservedly at the receiving end of the bullet at the beginning of the movie, by the time it ends, Queen & Slim turns out to be only a modified version of what the world witnessed on the streets of Minneapolis, Minnesota, last week.

    It’s a narrative that has blurred any distinction between fiction and reality; a narrative replete in movie adaptations such as Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, produced long before Queen & Slim was even conceived.

    In America, life imitates movies. And in Hollywood, the life of blacks and minorities imitates movies in a horrifyingly real way that it’s sometimes difficult to separate life from movies or movies from life.

    As I watched the video of George Floyd handcuffed and Derek Chauvin dug his knee into Floyd’s neck, life ebbing away as Floyd begged to breathe, I understood why Queen urged her companion to flee the crime scene in that movie, when it was clearly the wrong thing to do. In America, it appears your life doesn’t matter, if you’re black.

    And watching President Donald Trump emerge from the bunker in the White House on Monday only to deploy the National Guard in teargassing protesters so that he could have a photo op with a borrowed bible in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church across the White House, the unintended message was that Floyd won’t be the last victim of racial bigotry in the US.

    Think, for a moment, what would be happening now if Floyd was white, the police officer black, and Barrack Obama was still president.

    After just one opening sentence of remorse for Floyd, President Trump had plenty to say about law and order, about professional anarchists, violent mobs, arsonists, looters, rider rioters, Antifa and others. You could see that his speech was exactly where his heart was: with his white, right-wing base.

    He even went back 213 years in time to invoke the insurrection act deploying the National Guard, when the other three accomplices in Floyd’s murder have still not been charged. Trump’s America is worse than anything I have seen in a banana republic. With him, it promises worse. If America lived racism in whispers and pretense before, Trump’s presidency has put it on open display and he’s doubling down.

    Had the scenes from cities across the US in the last few days been from Venezuela, Papua New Guinea or some corner of Africa, a section of the US press would have had a lot to say, with reel after reel of footage on how bad leadership, human rights violations and police brutality had brought the country in question to its knees. Memes of the Statute of Liberty in tears would have flooded the internet.

    A group of bipartisan US legislators would even have proposed a bill for the review of US relationship with such a country, while dire warnings of American reprisals would echo at the Capitol Hill. American hypocrisy can be impatient and relentless, except when the US is the man in the mirror as it has been these past few days.

    Sure, Nigeria has had its own moments of shame in the last few days, too. The senseless killing by the police of the 17-year-old Justina Ezekwe; the rape and murder of undergraduate Vera Uwaila Omozuwa inside a church where she was studying; and the continuing reports of widespread killings in Kajuru, southern Kaduna almost in a cavalier manner while government appears like a bystander, are all truly heartbreaking.

    These incidents are a reproach, a continuing blemish on the record of President Muhammadu Buhari whose strongest point when he ran for the presidency was the promise fix insecurity.

    We can’t get used to violent killings and senseless murders as normal. The world should rightly be outraged wherever it happens, especially when those elected to protect citizens are complicit.

    From the recent turn of events in the US, Trump appears to be acquiring exceptional notoriety for stoking the flames with a growing suicidal streak that makes any moral equivalence pointless. The world may have laughed him off, and even ignored him as a maverick, but now it really needs to worry.

    It needs to worry because the rise of Trump propped and sustained by dangerous right-wing multibillionaires and their media interests is affecting not only the US, but also creating fertile breeding grounds in other parts of the world.

    In Europe, Hungary’s Viktor Orban excites his base by treating immigrants like viruses; while in Britain a remnant of institutional order managed, even in defeat, to restrain the Brexit mob led by Nigel Farage and Prime Minister Boris Johnson from a dangerous frenzy of nationalism and xenophobia.

    Thanks to Trump-myelitis, President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, and President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil are testing the limits of democracy and yet it would not matter if they were not doing so at the expense of individual liberties and the lives of citizens. But who can question them now, when the US, the city on the hill, has become a spectacularly bad example?

    With US streets more militarised than Chinese streets during Tiananmen Square, Trump may as well finish off what he has started by leaving troops to roam till after the election in November. That way, he can be sure to win again without Russia remotely in the picture.

    Then, President Justin Trudeau would know that Canada’s southern neighbours have just traded places with Kim Jong Un, Queen & Slim would win an Oscars, and all pretenses to the US being a democracy would be well and truly over.

    Ishiekwene is the MD/Editor-in-Chief of The Interview

  • Buhari, Trump are clueless- Wizkid

    Award winning Nigerian singer,

    Wizkid has stated that Muhammadu Buhari and Donald Trump, his US counterpart, are clueless.

    In a post on his Twitter page, the music superstar said the only difference between the two is Trump’s ability to use Twitter than Buhari.

    The ‘Joro’ crooner’s comment comes against the backdrop of the recent cases of extra-judicial killings by the police in the two countries.

    George Floyd, a black man was recently killed in the US by an officer of the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD).

    His sad demise came amid dusts over the alleged killing of Tina, a 16-year-old girl, at Iyana Oworo area of Lagos, by an officer of the Nigerian police.

    The two tragic occurences had sparked outrage in Nigeria and across the world with many taking to social media platforms express their angst.

    Wizkid took to his Twitter page to criticize the alarming rate at which police officers are killing unarmed citizens.

    “Police is kill black Americans and Nigerian police kill Nigerians. No man can sort this matter. God save us,” he had written on Saturday.

    In a follow-up post on Monday, the talented singer said the inability of the two leaders to contain the killing of innocent citizens by security operatives was indicative of how “clueless” both of them are.

    “Buhari and Trump are same person. Lol. The one different between them is that one knows how to use Twitter than the other. Clueless!,” Wizkid wrote in a mixture of Pidgin and English.

  • George Floyd: Trump threatens White House protesters with ‘vicious dogs, most ominous guns’

    George Floyd: Trump threatens White House protesters with ‘vicious dogs, most ominous guns’

    In multiple tweets, U.S. President Donald Trump warned #BlackLivesMatter protesters that they face ‘the most vicious dogs’ and ‘the most ominous guns’ if they breach the White House fence.

    He was reacting to the protest outside his official home on Friday night.

    Demonstrators protesting yet another white police brutality, after the killing of Minneapolis resident, George Flyod, clashed with secret police outside White House.

    Instead of Trump to sue for calm, he bragged about the counter-violence that awaited the protesters.

    That is, if they had breached White House fence.

    “Great job last night at the White House by the U.S. @SecretService,” Trump tweeted.

    “They were not only totally professional, but very cool. I was inside, watched every move, and couldn’t have felt more safe. They let the “protesters” scream & rant as much as they wanted, but whenever someone got too frisky or out of line, they would quickly come down on them, hard – didn’t know what hit them.

    “The front line was replaced with fresh agents, like magic. Big crowd, professionally organized, but nobody came close to breaching the fence. If they had they would have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen.

    “That’s when people would have been really badly hurt, at least. Many Secret Service agents just waiting for action.

    “We put the young ones on the front line, sir, they love it, and good practice.”

    “As you saw last night, they were very cool & very professional. Never let it get out of hand. Thank you! On the bad side, the D.C. Mayor, @MurielBowser, who is always looking for money & help, wouldn’t let the D.C. Police get involved. “Not their job.” Nice!”.

    Trump tweeted this after he sparked accusations of racism with another tweet on Friday, in which he referred to the Minneapolis protesters as ‘thugs’.

    Then he borrowed a racist-laden threat by a Miami Florida police chief: ‘when the looting starts, the shooting starts.’

    Probed about the remarks at a White House press conference on Friday, the president denied knowing that his ‘looting’ phrase was popularised by segregationist Miami Police Chief Walter Headley in 1967.

    Trump claimed to have used the words as a public safety message, to warn people to avoid getting shot, rather than calling for looters to be shot.

    The protests that spread to Washington began in Minneapolis, Minnesota began on Tuesday after George Floyd, an unarmed black security guard was killed Monday by a white policeman Derek Chauvin.

    Floyd was filmed saying ‘I can’t breathe’ as Chauvin knelt on his throat.

    Floyd died soon afterwards, with Chauvin fired and charged with murder.

    Protests, riots and looting spread to other US cities including New York, Detroit, Los Angeles, Dallas, Austin and Portland.

    In the early hours of Friday, Trump sparked accusations of racism after referring to the looters as ‘THUGS’ and tweeting .

  • Trump terminates US relationship with WHO

    Trump terminates US relationship with WHO

    US President Donald Trump has announced that he is terminating the country’s relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO).

    The president has accused the WHO of failing to hold Beijing to account over the coronavirus pandemic.

    “China has total control over the World Health Organization,” the president said while announcing measures aimed at punishing Beijing.

    Washington will redirect funds to other bodies, he said.

    The US is the global health agency’s largest single contributor, providing more than $400m (£324m; €360m) in 2019.

    Mr Trump, who is campaigning for re-election this year and has been criticised for his own handling of the pandemic, has blamed China for trying to cover up the coronavirus outbreak.

    Mr Trump’s criticism of the WHO’s handling of the pandemic began last month when he threatened to permanently withdraw US funding, suggesting the UN health agency had “failed in its basic duty” in its response.

    “It is clear the repeated missteps by you and your organisation in responding to the pandemic have been extremely costly for the world,” he wrote in a letter to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on 18 May.

    He later labelled the WHO a “puppet of China”

    Source: BBC

  • Adesina saga: Obasanjo, Jonathan, 13 other ex-African leaders warn Trump’s U.S. to stay off AFDB

    Fifteen former African leaders have urged the U.S. government to respect the governing systems of the African Development Bank (AfDB).

    In a statement on Friday, the former leaders said the bank and its president, Akinwumi Adesina, should not be distracted at a time when the continent is battling the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The leaders — including Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan, former Nigerian presidents, — said conflict resolution processes outside laid down rules would undermine the reputation of the bank and its president.

    The US, through Steven Mnuchin, its treasury secretary, had called for an independent probe of Akinwumi Adesina, AfDB president, despite being absolved of whistleblower allegations by the bank’s ethics committee.

    “Adesina, who some whistleblowers alleged to have violated the banks’ code of ethics, has firmly and consistently declared his innocence of these allegations.

    “The ethics committee of the board of directors, a legal oversight body of the bank, made up of representatives of shareholders, cleared Dr Adesina of all 16 allegations, declaring them as baseless and unsubstantiated and exonerated him completely.

    Press Statement by African Leaders on Dr_ Adesina Leadership of AfDB UPDATED 29 May 2020

    “Governance is all about respecting and abiding by rules, laws and established governing systems of organizations. In the case of the AfDB, while differences may exist among parties, the best way to address them is to first respect the rules, procedures and governance structures of the bank.

    “The African Development Bank is a pride for all of Africa, and its president, Dr Adesina, has taken the bank to enviable heights. At this critical time that Africa is battling with COVID-19, the bank and its president should not be distracted.”

    Listing achievements of the AfDB under Adesina’s leadership, the leaders said: “The bank announced a $10 billion crisis response facility to support countries in Africa. The bank also successfully launched a $3 billion Fight COVID-19 social bond, the largest ever US dollar-denominated bond in world history”.

    “Powered by his vision and leadership, the shareholders of the bank from 80 countries all approved a general capital increase of $115 billion for the bank, the largest in its history since establishment in 1964.

    “The bank has been doing a lot for women, with a $3 billion fund to provide access to finance to women, supported by G7 countries and Africa.

    “Across the continent, the bank’s presence and work have been highly visible and impactful. In less than five years, the bank’s High 5 agenda has impacted over 333 million people, from access to electricity, food security, access to finance via the private sector, improve transport and access to water and sanitation.

    “The bank has maintained its stellar AAA rating among all global rating agencies.”

    They urged all shareholders to work with mutual respect and honour the procedures of the bank saying: “No nation, regardless of how powerful, has veto power over the African Development Bank, and no nation should have such power”.

    The statement was signed and endorsed by:

    Olusegun Obasanjo (president of Nigeria; 1999-2007)
    Boni Yayi (president of Benin; 2006-2016)
    Hailemariam Desalegn (prime minister of Ethiopia; 2012 – 2018)
    John Kufour (president of Ghana; 2001 – 2009)
    Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (president of Liberia; 2006 – 2018)
    Joyce Banda (president of Malawi; 2012 – 2014)
    Joaquim Chissano (president of Mozambique; 1986 – 2005)
    Tandja Mamadou (president of Niger; 1999 – 2010)
    Goodluck Jonathan (president of Nigeria; 2010-2015)
    Mohamed Marzouki (president of Tunisia; 2011 – 2014)
    Benjamin Mkapa (president of Tanzania; 1995 – 2005)
    Ameenah Gurib-Fakin (president of Mauritius; 2015 – 2018)
    Rupiah Banda (president of Zambia; 2008 – 2011)
    Kgalema Motlanthe (president of South Africa; 2008-2009)
    Jakaya Kikwete (president of Tanzania; 2005 – 2015)

  • Trump yet to fulfill his ventilator promise to Nigeria – FG

    The Federal Government is yet to receive the ventilators promised by U.S. President Donald Trump.

    Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed stated this at the daily briefing of the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19.

    The U.S. President on April 28, promised to send some ventilators to the country during his telephone conversation with President Muhammad Buhari.

    Mohammed said: “On when the ventilators promised by President Trump will arrive, to the best of my knowledge, they have not arrived. When they do arrive it will be made known to the public. “

    In his quick run down of the activities of the ministry in sensitizing the populace on the best ways to contain the spread of the virus, the minister said jingles were produced for both the radio and television in various languages.

    “The ministry so far produced video and radio jingles in the following areas: General information of COVID-19 Use of Face Masks; Burial protocol; Testimonials by COVID 19 survivors and Mass gathering.”

  • Trump accuses Twitter of interfering in U.S. elections

    Trump accuses Twitter of interfering in U.S. elections

    President Donald Trump has accused Twitter of interfering in the 2020 U.S. election scheduled for Nov. 3 after the microblogging service provider tagged his tweet as misleading.

    Trump also lashed out at the company for “completely stifling free speech”, saying he would never let that happen as president.

    “@Twitter is now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election.

    “They are saying my statement on Mail-In Ballots, which will lead to massive corruption and fraud, is incorrect, based on fact-checking by Fake News CNN and the Amazon Washington Post.

    “Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!” he tweeted in response.

    Earlier on Tuesday, Twitter labelled a post by Trump as misleading, and directed the president’s followers to a fact-check page on the post.

    In the tweet, Trump had claimed that voting by mail or mail-in ballots would lead to “substantial fraud”.

    It read in part: “ There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent.

    “Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out and fraudulently signed.”

    Under the tweet came a circled exclamation mark followed by the message: “Get the facts about mail-in ballots” in a hyperlink.

    The link takes readers to a Twitter fact-check page that debunks the claim.

    “Trump falsely claims that mail-in ballots would lead to ‘a Rigged Election’.

    “However, fact-checkers say there is no evidence that mail-in ballots are linked to voter fraud,” the company said.

    The move came after Twitter turned down a widower’s request to delete “horrifying lies” told by the president in a tweet about the death of his wife.

    Rather, the social media giant, which had promised to warn its users about false or misleading messages posted on the platform, resorted to the use of the label on Trump.

    Trump’s claim on the mail-in ballots followed his attacks, over the weekend, on the use of the voting method by several states, including California.

    The states say they will use that option in November to prevent a second wave of the coronavirus disease that has taken a heavy toll on the country.