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  • Buhari returns to Abuja after outing at UNGA77 in New York

    Buhari returns to Abuja after outing at UNGA77 in New York

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday morning returned to Abuja, after a successful participation in the 77th session of the high-level meetings of the UN General Assembly in New York, United States.

    Newsmen reports that the presidential jet conveying the president and other members of the entourage landed at the Presidential wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja at about 6.25 a.m.

    While in New York, President Buhari participated in no fewer than 12 High level events, including bilateral meetings.

    Buhari attended the opening of Transforming Education Summit on Sept 19 ahead of the General Debate and attended Leaders Roundtable segment of the Summit where he delivered Nigeria’s statement.

    The Nigerian leader was also the first speaker, on Wednesday, to deliver Nigeria’s statement to the world leaders, assuring them of leaving lasting legacies and restated commitment to constitutional term.

    He told the global body that his administration was determined to entrench a process of free, fair, transparent and credible elections through which Nigerians would elect their leaders.

    The president also engaged in various bilateral talks with some world leaders on the margins of the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly.

    He also alerted the world leaders on the danger of escalation of the war in Ukraine, saying the conflict further justified Nigeria’s resolute calls for a nuclear-free world and a universal Arms Trade Treaty.

    Buhari said the call had become necessary to prevent global human disasters.

    He, therefore, demanded that world leaders must find quick means to reach consensus on the nuclear non-proliferation Treaty with related commitments by nuclear weapon states.

    The president also at the Nigeria International Economic Partnership Forum held on the margins of the UNGA77 in New York on Sept. 22, expressed delight that Nigeria’s investments in improving security were yielding fruitful results.

    He, therefore, lauded the Nigeria military for making significant progress in the fight against insecurity and building the momentum in reducing challenges to its barest minimum.

    Buhari also spoke at a ‘Leaders’ Closed-Door Meeting on Climate Change’ convened by the Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr Antonio Guterres.

    He restated the commitment of the Nigerian government towards ensuring a rapid and strategic transition to renewable energy.

    He said this would be in response to the world-wide efforts for the preservation of the environment.

    Also at a meeting with the Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU) at the Nigeria International Economic Partnership Forum on Sept. 23, Buhari described the United States as Nigeria’s main trading partner and one of ‘‘our most important diplomatic partners’’.

    This, he said, underscored the need for concerted efforts to increase the volume of bilateral trade.

    The Nigerian leader told the gathering that in 2020, Nigeria exported more than $1.69 billion worth of goods to the U.S., adding that these exports were primarily made up of crude oil and other petroleum products.

    Buhari also held bilateral talks with the President of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, in New York on Wednesday, where he called on African countries and their Arab partners to work hard and be more united to realise common objectives.

    He said the actualisation of the UN resolution, which proposed a two-state solution to the crisis between Israel and Palestine, required a platform to think creatively on how to engage the rest of the world on the matter.

    The president also engaged in various bilateral talks with some world leaders on the margins of the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly.

    At a meeting with the Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Buhari urged for a closer partnership with Nigeria in education, health, security, and non-oil and gas sectors.

    While stressing the importance of education and knowledge, he said the time had come to begin to look at practical ways of tackling health challenges coming without notice.

    The president also on Friday in New York called for more private sector participation in the humanitarian sector in Nigeria.

    Buhari made the call against the backdrop of lingering challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, catastrophic weather events and conflicts.

    The Nigerian leader also stressed the need for efficient collaboration among stakeholders involved in humanitarian action and disaster mitigation in the country.

    Buhari at a High-Level side event on ”Food Security Response: Combating Illicit Financial Flows and Securing Asset Returns for Sustainable Development’‘, urged African leaders to fight tirelessly to get rid of corruption.

    The president, who spoke in his capacity as the African Union Champion on efforts to eliminate corruption on the continent, lamented that the continent had remained at the far end of global development index because of its menace.

    The event, held at the margins of UNGA77 on Sept. 24, was co-hosted by African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    While providing his perspectives on the effects of corruption on the continent and the way forward, the Nigerian leader said he was honoured to serve as AU Champion on anti-corruption since 2018.

    Buhari also on Friday inaugurated Nigeria’s Integrated National Financing Framework (INFF) for Sustainable Development.

  • UNGA77: Nigeria demonstrated workability of returned looted assets – Malami

    UNGA77: Nigeria demonstrated workability of returned looted assets – Malami

    Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami has said that Nigeria has demonstrated the workability of application of returned looted assets for sustainable development.

    Malami disclosed this in his remarks at a High-Level side event on ”Food Security Response: Combating Illicit Financial Flows and Securing Asset Returns for Sustainable Development’‘, on the margins of the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly.

    The event was co-hosted by African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    Malami said in 2017, the 322 million dollars recovered looted assets from Swissland laid the solid foundation of getting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty.

    He said it got millions out of poverty through the Social Investment Programmes that include National Homegrown School Feeding Programme, Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme, N-Power job creation and youth empowerment programme and National Social Safety Net programme, amongst others.

    Malami said that Food Security Response was placed on top of Africa’s 2022 agenda to align with the Global Sustainable Development Goal “to end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture” by 2030.

    He noted that crisis experienced in the globe as well as onslaughts of terrorism and criminality continued to exacerbate challenges to world peace posed by starvation, malnutrition, diseases, climate change which he said continue to contribute to a worsening global economy.

    “Indeed, these challenges are truly interlocking and have put our collective ability to devise innovative solutions to the test”.

    While highlighting the nexus between illicit financial flows and food security, Malami cited reports from law enforcement agencies especially the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that showed that IFFS undermine efforts to development including food security.

    He said that the Federal Government has put in place laws and frameworks to address IFFs, noting that this year, President Muhammad Buhari has signed the Money Laundering Prevention and Prohibition Act, (2022), the Proceed of Crimes Act among others.

    The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), however, stressed the imperative of international support and cross-border collaboration in implementing measures to combat illicit financial flows.

    According to the AGF, “transformative solutions to the thorny issues of International Financial Follows (IFFs), looting, internet-related crimes and other threats to global economic growth and development, necessarily require international collaboration and cross-border cooperation of all stakeholders”.

    Malami recall that in response to the threat posed by IFFs, the United Nations General Assembly, since its 72nd Session, placed the “promotion of international cooperation to combat illicit financial flows and strengthen good practices on assets return to foster sustainable development” on its agenda item 16 (d).

    He noted that African Continent bears the major consequences of IFFs, which has continued to derail its journey towards the African Union’s Agenda 2063 that envisions “An integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens, representing a dynamic force in the international arena.”

    According to Malami, the vision, can only be realised when the key to life, ‘nourishment’ is guaranteed and secured maintaining that “tackling illicit financial flows, in terms of blocking the leakages and recovery of looted assets, will open the door to releasing the much-needed investment in productive sectors, inclusive of food security”.

    In her remarks, the Chief Executive Officer of AUDA-NEPAD Nigeria, Gloria Akobundu said, “the forum was adopted in 2018 as an annual event with the objective to promote peer-to-peer learning for best practices and strengthen partnership for good governance.

    “If Africa’s population and land space are credibly and productively harnessed, it will not only address these challenges but will be a turnaround for world economic boost and sustainable development.”

    Newsmen reports that President Muhammadu Buhari attended the event and spoke on ways to address corruption in the continent.

  • UNGA77: Buhari appeals for debt cancellation for Nigeria, other poor debtor nations

    UNGA77: Buhari appeals for debt cancellation for Nigeria, other poor debtor nations

    Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, has appeled to the global community to consider “outright debt cancellation” for countries facing severe fiscal challenges.

    The Nigerian leader made this appeal while speaking at the ongoing 77th United Nations General Assembly in New York.

    In his words: “Nigeria, therefore, implores our global partners to do more to complement our endeavours.

    “Indeed, the multifaceted challenges facing most developing countries have placed a debilitating chokehold on their fiscal space.

    “This equally calls for the need to address the burden of unsustainable external debts by a global commitment to the expansion and extension of the debt service suspension initiative to countries facing fiscal and liquidity challenges as well as outright cancellation for countries facing the most severe challenges.”

    President Buhari’s call for debt cancellation for developing countries with fiscal challenges comes as Nigeria’s debt profile continues to rise under his watch.

    In nearly eight years under President Buhari, Nigeria’s debt profile has risen up to N42 trillion, according to the Debt Management Office.

    With the present Nigerian government proposing to borrow over N11 trillion to fund the 2023 budget deficit, President Buhari regime will bequeath over N50 trillion debt on Nigeria when he leaves office next May.

    President Buhari furthered assured the global community that he would leave a legacy of free, fair and transparent elections.

    He told the assembly that Nigeria is committed to the “sanctity of constitutional term limits”, stressing that Nigeria has steadfastly adhered to democratic ethos.

    President Buhari said Nigeria has worked to strengthen democracy and rule of law in the West African region.

    He said: “In Nigeria, not only have we worked to strengthen our democracy, but we have supported it and promoted the rule of law in our sub-region.

    “In The Gambia, we helped guarantee the first democratic transition since independence. In Guinea-Bissau, we stood by the democratically elected Government when it faced mutiny.

    “And in the Republic of Chad, following the tragic death of its President, the late Idris Deby Itno in the battle field, we joined forces with its other neighbours and international partners to stabilize the country and encourage the peaceful transition to democracy, a process which is ongoing.

    “We believe in the sanctity of constitutional term limits and we have steadfastly adhered to it in Nigeria. We have seen the corrosive impact on values when leaders elsewhere seek to change the rules to stay on in power. Indeed, we now are preparing for general elections in Nigeria next February.

    “At the 78th UNGA, there will be a new face at this podium speaking for Nigeria. Ours is a vast country strengthened by its diversity and its common values of hard work, enduring faith and a sense of community.

    “We have invested heavily to strengthen our framework for free and fair elections. I thank our partners for all the support that they have provided our election institutions.

    “As President, I have set the goal that one of the enduring legacies I would like to leave is to entrench a process of free, fair and transparent and credible elections through which Nigerians elect leaders of their choice.”

  • President Buhari to inaugurates Nigeria’s INFF on Friday

    President Buhari to inaugurates Nigeria’s INFF on Friday

    President Muhammadu Buhari will on Friday inaugurate Nigeria’s Integrated National Financing Framework (INFF) for Sustainable Development.

    Mr Femi Adesina, the President’s spokesman in a statement in Abuja, said the Nigerian leader would perform the inauguration on the margins of the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA77) in New York.

    Adesina said: ”Proposed within the broader Addis Ababa Action Agenda, the Integrated National Financing Framework (INFF) is a planning and delivery tool to finance sustainable development at the national level.”

    According to him, the INFF helps policymakers lay out a strategy to increase investments for sustainable development, manage financial and non-financial risks, and ultimately achieve sustainable development priorities.

    ”While a country’s national development plan spells out what needs to be financed, the INFF shows how it will be financed and implemented.

    ”For Nigeria, the INFF is also expected to help in the recovery from the effects of COVID-19 pandemic as well as help address lack of an integrated approach to financing SDGs.”

    This has been a key challenge to meeting the financing requirement, estimated at $100 billon over the next 10 years.

    According to Adesina, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development presents an ambitious, complex and interconnected vision that countries around the world have committed to working towards.

    ”Realizing this vision will require mobilization of a diverse range of public and private resources.

    ”The INFF is a tool to help countries strengthen planning processes and overcome existing impediments to financing sustainable development at the national level.

    ”It helps governments and their partners to build more integrated approaches to financing, Strengthening the alignment between public and private investments and longer-term sustainable development objectives.

    ”It builds greater coherency across the governance of public and private financing policies.”

    The presidential aide affirmed that Nigeria committed to be a champion of INFF and officially began the design process as an INFF pioneer country in 2020.

    To steer the implementation process, he said, Nigeria set up the INFF Steering Committee chaired by the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning (MFBNP), represented by the Minister of State, Budget and National Planning.

    Members of the committee include the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service and the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, the Director General of the Budget Office of the Federation,

    Others are the Director General of the Debt Management Office, the Statistician-General of the National Bureau of Statistics, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, the UN Resident Coordinator and Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme.

    The Head of Development Cooperation of the European Union mission, the Resident Representative of the International Monetary Fund, the Country Director for the World Bank, and the Co-Chair of the Private Sector Advisory Group are also members.

    Adesina revealed that those expected at the inauguration include some Heads of Governments, the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, Amina Mohammed and representatives from countries and international Organisations.