EU officials holding an emergency meeting over a threatening new Covid variant first detected in southern Africa agreed on Friday to urge all 27 nations in the bloc to impose travel restrictions from that region.
“Member States agreed to introduce rapidly restrictions on all travel into the EU from 7 countries in the Southern Africa region: Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe,” European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer tweeted.
The European Union (EU) and the
German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) has supported the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Nigerian Energy Support Programme (NESP) with additional £15 million to enhance electricity supply across the nation.
EU Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ms Cécile Pelzer speaking in Abuja on Thursday at the signing ceremony and extension of the NESP Phase II stated that the EU has decided to further replenish and extend the programme with additional contribution of £15 million bringing the total EU contribution to £35 million.
According to Pelzer, the NESP programme will address the policy gap and incubate the private sector engagement to appropriate handling of renewable energy equipment at the end-of-life cycle, promote the diversification of the energy mix in the renewable energy space.
She added that the programme will support distribution companies to improve fee collection efficiency from populations residing in peri-urban areas whilst enhancing the promotion of productive uses of renewable energy and improve the profitability of mini-grids.
Country Director of GIZ Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ms.Ina Hommers stated that the NESP II extent will expand its activities and upscale geographically while extending its measures to strengthen the support to the Nigerian Government in the areas of solar battery recycling, clean cook stoves and access to finance mechanisms for renewable energy and energy efficiency investment investments.
Meanwhile, Hommers Described the NigeriaSE4ALL platform, as a major milestone of NESP which aim at offering the most accurate data and latest tools that empower data-driven and the least cost electrification planning in Nigeria.
‘Over 3,000 settlements and 2.6 million buildings have been remotely mapped, with over 50,000 kilometers electricity grid tracked in 22 states,” she stated.
Head of Nigeria, NESP II Duke Benjamin, said the programme in the first phase has been able to electrify 15,000 Nigerians and continue to count and hoping that by the end of 2022 which will climax the second phase we are targeting 130,000 Nigerians with access to electricity.
The new U.S. president has urged his fellow NATO leaders to stand up to China’s authoritarianism and growing military might, a change of focus for an alliance created to defend Europe from the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
The language in the summit’s final communique, which will set the path for alliance policy, came a day after the Group of Seven (G7) rich nations issued a statement on human rights in China and Taiwan that Beijing said slandered its reputation.
“China’s stated ambitions and assertive behaviour present systemic challenges to the rules-based international order and to areas relevant to alliance security,” NATO leaders said in the communique.
Biden also told European allies that the alliance’s mutual defence pact was a “sacred obligation” for the United States – a marked shift in tone from his predecessor, Trump, who had threatened to withdraw from the alliance and accused Europeans of contributing too little to their own defence.
“I want all Europe to know that the United States is there,” said Biden. “NATO is critically important to us.”
Biden stopped at the NATO headquarters’ memorial to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States by al Qaeda militants, when NATO triggered its Article 5 for the first and only time. Under the article, the alliance treats an attack on one member state as being an attack on all.
Later at a news conference, Biden, who will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in Geneva, said China and Russia were trying to split the transatlantic alliance and that, while he was not seeking conflict with Russia, NATO would respond if Moscow “continued its harmful activities”.
He described Putin as tough and bright.
“Russia and China are both seeking to drive a wedge in our transatlantic solidarity,” Biden said. He also pledged to support Ukraine in its conflict with Moscow, although he was non-committal on whether Kyiv could one day join NATO.
“We are going to put Ukraine in a position that they will be able to maintain their physical security,” Biden said, without giving more details.
‘AMERICA IS BACK’
While there are still differences in strategies on how to deal with China across the West, Biden said NATO was united under U.S. leadership. “America is back,” he said, seeking to reassure Europeans that a Trump-like populist would not be back in the White House in four years.
“The leadership of the (U.S.) Republican Party is fractured and the Trump wing of the party is the bulk of the party, but it makes up a significant minority of the American people”.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, at her last summit of the alliance before she steps down in September, described Biden’s arrival as the opening of a new chapter. She also said it was important to deal with China as a potential threat, while keeping it in perspective.
“If you look at the cyber threats and the hybrid threats, if you look at the cooperation between Russia and China, you cannot simply ignore China,” Merkel told reporters. “But one must not overrate it, either – we need to find the right balance.”
In NATO’s glass and steel headquarters on the outskirts of Brussels, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said China’s growing military presence from the Baltics to Africa meant nuclear-armed NATO had to be prepared.
“China is coming closer to us. We see them in cyberspace, we see China in Africa, but we also see China investing heavily in our own critical infrastructure,” he said, a reference to ports and telecoms networks.
Stoltenberg also said the leaders had agreed to increase their contributions to the alliance’s common budget. The vast bulk of military spending in NATO is handled separately by member countries.
CHINA’S REPUTATION
G7 nations meeting in Britain over the weekend scolded China over human rights in its Xinjiang region, called for Hong Kong to keep a high degree of autonomy and demanded a full investigation of the origins of the coronavirus in China.
China’s embassy in London said it was resolutely opposed to mentions of Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan, which it said distorted the facts and exposed the “sinister intentions of a few countries such as the United States”.
“China’s reputation must not be slandered,” the embassy said on Monday.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there were risks and rewards with Beijing. “I don’t think anybody around the table wants to descend into a new Cold War with China,” he said.
From China’s investments in European ports and plans to set up military bases in Africa to joint military exercises with Russia, NATO is now agreed that Beijing’s rise deserves a strong response, although envoys said that would be multi-faceted.
Allies are mindful of their economic links with China. Total German trade with China in 2020 was more than 212 billion euros ($257 billion), according to German government data. Total Chinese holdings of U.S. Treasuries as of March 2021 stood at $1.1 trillion, according to U.S. data, and total U.S. trade with China in 2020 was $559 billion.
The complaint was about Nigeria’s policy on dairy.
Director General of the WTO Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala made this disclosure in Abuja on Tuesday when she visited the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Okonjo-Iweala said the WTO has received a letter from the European Union complaining about Nigeria’s restrictions on milk and diary products.
She said the WTO will look into the complaint but urged Nigerian to take advantage of the trade remedy initiative in place at the WTO to protect local industries.
Reacting, CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele, said the process to bring milk and dairy producers has been on for six years with the milk and diary producers treating the matter with levity.
One of the producers, he said, has been in Nigeria for over 60 years and has not deemed it necessary to engage in backward integration rather but is comfortable importing products.
Details shortly…
The pharmaceutical company’s image had already taken a hit, with several countries suspending the roll-out of its vaccine over blood clot fears, though the World Health Organisation (WHO) said there was no reason to stop using it in the fight against the pandemic.
Mass vaccinations are considered critical to ending the pandemic, which has claimed more than 2.6 million lives globally, and the AstraZeneca announcement was another blow for EU leaders, who have already faced criticism for the stumbling start to the jab drive on the hard-hit continent.
“AstraZeneca is disappointed to announce a shortfall in planned Covid-19 vaccine shipments to the European Union… despite working tirelessly to accelerate supply,” the firm said on Saturday (March 13).
It previously warned of shortfalls from its European supply chain due to lower-than-expected production output, and was hoping to compensate by sourcing shots from its global network.
“Unfortunately, export restrictions will reduce deliveries in the first quarter, and are likely to affect deliveries in the second quarter,” the company said.
AstraZeneca’s shot is among the cheapest available, and forms a bulk of deliveries to poorer nations under the WHO-backed Covax initiative, which aims to ensure the equitable global distribution of vaccines.
The supply issues added to the firm’s troubles, with some countries including Denmark, Norway and Iceland suspending the use of its shot over concerns over side effects such as blood clots.
The WHO, which said its vaccines advisory committee was examining the safety data, stressed that no causal link has been established between the clots and the jab. AstraZeneca has also insisted that the shot is safe.
Global coronavirus infections are approaching 120 million and even as nations around the world ramp up vaccinations, social distancing and movement restrictions are being used at varying levels to counter the spread of Covid-19.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex did not rule out a new lockdown in the region that is home to the capital Paris, describing the situation as “on a razor’s edge”, while the head of Germany’s disease control agency warned that “the third wave has already started” there.
Italy had already announced new restrictions on Friday, with schools, restaurants, shops and museums ordered to close across most regions.
In Africa, Tunisia and Ethiopia both launched vaccination campaigns on Saturday, but Ethiopian officials flagged an alarming rise in cases too.
The drives are crucial in reviving the global economy, which was battered by the pandemic as most travel was curbed and people forced to stay home, with no nation spared the impact.
Millions were left jobless in the United States, the world’s biggest economy, and those who could not work from home had to balance the risk of Covid-19 with the need to make ends meet.
For Mr Matt Valentin, who worked at a cafe in the state of Michigan, the job became an increasingly anxiety-ridden environment last year as the pandemic worsened.
“It went from ‘get these drinks and orders done as fast as possible’ to ‘do all of that, and try not to bring a deadly virus home to your vulnerable family,'” the 21-year-old told AFP.
After a much-criticised start to its vaccination programme, the US has accelerated the roll-out of shots, with the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention saying 100 million doses have been administered.
That is just less than a third of the total given worldwide so far.
There was also a sign of recovery at American airports, which saw their largest number of passengers in a year.
Just over 1.35 million travellers were checked in at US airports on Friday, the most since March 15 last year, according to the Transportation Safety Administration.
And hopes for international travel were boosted as officials said Australia and Singapore were working to create a travel bubble as early as July, which would allow travellers between the two countries to avoid quarantine.
The group said that Pantami’s antecedence suggests a systematic link and subtle sympathy with terrorist organisation, making him unfit to head a ministry as sensitive as Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy. “Insecurity thrives on compromised communication management”. The group wrote.
Part of the letter sighted by LeadingReporters reads:
“A man who was banished from Bauchi State at one point in time because of his activities which caused security breach cannot be honoured with a national assignment, more especially when the menace of Boko Haram, Banditry and other forms of criminalities is ravaging the nation and impoverishing millions of Nigerians.
“Security is hinged on communication. A compromised communication system will aid terrorism, kidnapping, banditry and other forms of criminalities as we are currently experiencing in Nigeria under Pantami as Minister of communication.
“These criminals make calls, send messages and execute their nefarious plans in Nigeria leveraging on communication. In other nations, most of the criminal activities have been traced through communication – calls and sms. Pantami has either refused to initiate strategies through which these criminals should be nabbed or he does not know a jack about the ministry he prides himself as a sage.
The group further appeals to President Buhari and other stakeholders to reinvestigate the reason why Pantami was banished from Bauchi and reconsider if he is fit for a position of a minister in a sensitive ministry as ministry of communication and digital economy.
“The country now needs people with verifiable profiles and clean past that do not suggest allegiance to terrorist groups. Pantami is highly sectional, laden with religious bigotry. He may be selling out.
“Go through his social media official handle. It speaks volume of a man who knows nothing about social cohesion and tolerance. He only replies to comments made by those whose names suggest they hail from a particular side of Nigeria and from a particular religion. That speaks volume of his precedence.
