News Release: Afreximbank Works To Increase African Footprint As It Celebrates Landmark Term Loan

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) is working diligently to increase its footprints in major countries across the continent and to broaden its role in African trade finance, Bank President Jean-Louis Ekra, said today in Frankfurt, Germany.

Open Letter: A Presidential Sallah Gift & Demand For Constitutional Democracy In Nigeria (2)

Buhari

Another breach of Sections 13, 14 (2) (a), 14 (2) (b) and 14 (2) (c) of the 1999 Constitution by Your Excellency is Your Excellency’s perceived unfriendly disposition towards the Southeast in particular and the South-south, to some extent; on account of their choice of voting in the March and April 2015 polls. Your Excellency’s recent public comments, policies and actions are a clear case in point. Attempts by Your Excellency’s media aides to glorify them did not fly.

News Release: Côte d’Ivoire Announces Plans To Increase Investment In Afreximbank

Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara flanked by Afreximbank President Jean-Louis Ekra (left) and President Designate Dr. Benedict Oramah.

Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara today in Abidjan announced that the country planned to increase its investment in the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) by taking up its rights under the Bank’s ongoing general capital raising exercise.

U-Report: Quds Conference; A Symposium Featuring Scholars And Thinkers

Participants

Report By Stephen Lawan

Symposim on Quds titled  ‘From Al-quds to Zaria: A melting Point of Rights Violation, Veil of Bias and Conspiracy of Silence’. The Speakers, who were introduced by Sheikh Muhammad Turi, include Prof Chidi odikalu, Chief Ebineza, Pastor Yohanna Buru, Mr Massoud Sharez from London and remarks by Malama Zeenah, Iran Ambassador, Hajiya Bilkisu among others.

Open Letter: A Presidential Sallah Gift & Demand For Constitutional Democracy In Nigeria (1)

Buhari

Ref: Intersociety/NG/001/07/15/Presidency/FRN/ABJ

His Excellency, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retired)

President of Nigeria & Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces

The State House (Aso Rock Villa), Three-Arms-Zone

Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Nigeria

Sir,

A Presidential Sallah Gift & Call For The Return Of Constitutional & Procedural Democracy In Nigeria (Part One)

We, the leadership of International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety) have observed disappointedly the unfolding presidential events since the emergence of Your Excellency on 29th May 2015 as the sixth democratic civilian President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In other words, there are recorded breaches of fundamental provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, amended last in 2011, in the course of Your Excellency’s presidential policies and conducts so far; leading to torrential feeling of disaffection and public outcries among Nigerians.

News Release: Advanced Technology Increasingly Shaping Africa’s Financial Sector

The African financial services industry is rapidly evolving as a result of advancing technology which is fueling innovation and growth in the sector. While the sector is mature in most developed countries, it is less saturated in Africa, therefore offering many opportunities for new market entrants to challenge the status quo of how business has traditionally been conducted.

U-Report: Soldiers Attacked Shaikh Ibraheem Zakzaky’s Convoy In Abuja

Report By Ibrahim Usman

Heavily armed soldiers today, July 26, 2015 attacked the convoy of Leader of Islamic Movement in Nigeria Shaikh Ibraheem Zakzaky on entry into Abuja.

News Release: Staff Indebtedness, A Monster Threatening The Foundation Of Independent Media In Nigeria

An extensive investigation carried out recently by the leadership of International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety) showed clearly that there are three hydra-headed monsters threatening the foundation of independent media establishments and press freedom in Nigeria, particularly the print and visual media. These are: indebtedness, corruption and unprofessionalism.  Media indebtedness is triggered by greed and maximization of proceeds on the part of the independent media proprietors. Media corruption, on its part, is caused by corruption of the media industry and injection of billions of naira derived from ill-gotten wealth as well as ownership of many of them by corrupt former public office holders particularly former, and in some cases, serving State governors; for the purposes of influencing and skewing public opinions on matters of politics, ethnicity and religion, as well as covering their kleptomaniac and homicidal records in office. Media unprofessionalism is caused by vicious factors like promotion of ethno-religious clannishness and personal interests; poor working condition and job de-satisfaction on the part of staff or media practitioners, occasioned by poor remuneration and remuneration arrears of journalists as well as general ineffective and inefficient media management policies and actions. Our extensive investigation also found that media indebtedness, corruption and unprofessionalism are interwoven, resulting to guided press freedom in present democratic dispensation.

News Release: Moody’s Changes Afreximbank’s Rating Outlook To “Stable”

Moody's Investors Service announced today that it has changed the outlook on the Baa2 long-term issuer rating of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) from negative to stable. Concurrently, the rating agency also affirmed Afreximbank's Baa2/P-2 long and short-term ratings.

News Release: MEND Dissociates Self From Ex Militants’ Meeting

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) dissociates itself from the purported meeting of “MEND/Ex-MEND Leaders” scheduled to hold on July 25, 2015 , in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State

MEND wishes to state categorically that the proposed meeting is merely an assembly of dubious contractors and disgruntled elements, reacting on behalf of oil thieves and corrupt officials of the past administration of Goodluck Jonathan.

News Release: Questions SSS Must Answer Over Former CSO’s Incarceration

Obua

Earlier, our leadership issued a statement, titled: “Purported News of Former CSO’s Death in DSS Custody”. We had in the statement demanded, among other things,   the public and physical production of Senior Agent Gordon Obua by the Service Management of the Department of the State Security Service as the only way Nigerians would believe he is still alive.  Though the Service complied with the said demand of ours by featuring him in a “protective news briefing” with a seemingly skewed statement; but other demands were left totally unaddressed by the Service at the news briefing in which only the detained former CSO spoke.

News Release: Summit On State Of Osun Holds Thursday, 23rd July, 2015

We issue this statement to reassure all invited delegates, the distressed people of Osun state and Nigerians at large that the proposed summit on the state of Osun state scheduled for Thursday, 23rd July 2015 in Osogbo is going on as scheduled.

News Release: Purported News Of Former CSO’s Death In DSS Custody

Obua

The breaking of news this morning by the Trent Online News of the death in custody of Senior Agent Gordon Obua, former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to former President Goodluck Jonathan is saddening and shocking if true. Agent Gordon Obua, a senior operative of the SSS and former CSO (or Chief Detail) of the immediate past President Goodluck Jonathan was said to have died yesterday in the underground dudgeon of the Department of the State Security Services. He had been in detention since his presidential arrest on Thursday, 16^th July 2015. He appears to have been detained presidentially without disclosure of reasons for his arrest and detention in a manner reminiscent of indiscriminate and long detention of Nigerians by Buhari’s military regime, using Decree No.2 of 1984 (State detention of persons without trial military Decree). The Decree was enacted and recklessly applied by  Major General Muhammadu Buhari (as he then was) to hound independent voices and political opponents into detention and jails without trial and disclosure of reasons warranting their arrests and detention or offenses allegedly committed.

U-Report: Islamic Movement To Commemorate Year Anniversary Of Zaria Quds Day Massacre

Shaikh Ibraheem Zakzaky

Report By Stephen Lawan   

The Islamic Movement in Nigeria under the guardianship of His Eminence Allama Shaikh Ibraheem Zakzaky (H) will commemorate the first annual anniversary of the Zaria Quds Day massacre.

News Release: Right Livelihood Laureate Vandana Shiva To Speak In Port Harcourt, Bori And Abuja

(On July 23, to mark the UN International Year of the Soil and the decades long struggle against oil extraction in the Niger Delta, 1993 Right Livelihood Laureate, Vandana Shiva, will give a lecture at the Right Livelihood College in Port Harcourt. The event, organized in collaboration with Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) and 2010 Right Livelihood Laureate, Nnimmo Bassey, will be followed on July 24 by a seed democracy workshop in collaboration with Ogoni women and a press conference in Abuja on July 27.)

News Release: Call For Entries For Etisalat Prize For Literature 2015 Announced

Nigeria’s fastest growing and most innovative telecommunications company, Etisalat (http://www.etisalat.com.ng) has announced the call for entries for the 2015 Etisalat Prize for Literature (http://prize.etisalat.com.ng) which is in its third year. The prize is the first ever Pan African prize celebrating debut African writers of published fiction.

News Release: Secret Police Operations In Nigeria, The Rule Of Law Is In Danger

Following the official statement issued last night (Saturday, 18th July 2015) by the Service Management of the Department of  State Security Services (SSS) as it concerns its unpopular invasion of the residences of the immediate past National Security Adviser (NSA), Retired Col Mohammed Sambo Dasuki, the leadership of International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety) has carefully studied the statement and observed that the country’s Rule of Law and by extension; its democratic pluralistic composition  are at crossroads; save the coercive instruments of the State are forced popularly to revert to their original democratic roles. We also thank the Service Management of the DSS for exercising its corporate rights to freedom of expression and fair hearing as guaranteed by Sections 39 and 36 of the 1999 Constitution.

News Release: The Return Of Presidential Dictatorship In Nigeria

President Buhari

In our 2014 World Human Rights Anniversary lecture titled: “Africa: A Blessed Continent Ruined By Dictatorship & Tyranny” (www.elombah.com/index.php/articles-mainmenu/28451-africa-a-blessed-continent-ruined-by-dictatorship-tyranny), we had observed that out of 30 dictatorial and tyrannical governments on African Continent, at least 25 of them are operated under “presidential dictatorship”.  By presidential dictatorship, we mean a civilian government usually headed by a member of a dominant primordial tribe, which operates without strict recourse to democratic convention and constitutional provisions, but with recourse to policies and actions inimical to civil liberties, rule of law and collective or general public interest.  It operator settles at all times for those policies and actions that benefit his or her primordial tribe and self.   As a dictator, he or she operates above the law and constitutional norms. Dictatorship in the world over has been identified as the chief trigger of armed conflicts and failed State.

News Release: Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) Accredited As A Partnering Institution To The Green Climate Fund

 

Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) (http://www.africafc.org) has been accredited as a partnering Institution to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), making it the fund’s first African development finance institution.

News Release: Unpaid Workers' Salaries In Imo State

Governor Okorocha of Imo State

The Youths for Human Rights Protection and Transparency Initiative (YARPTI)  is angry with the  continuation of the  policies which enrich the wealthy few while further impoverishing the poor working masses in Imo Sate of Nigeria. We are also sad  over the non-payment of workers' salaries and retirees' pensions in Imo state by the Rochas Okorocha’s led government and the financial mismanagement of  the state. We are aware that workers in the Imo State Civil Service that are owed 3 months salaries were given Diamond bank cheques for one month payment and unfortunately the cheques bounced back. We are also aware that Local Government Civil Servants have not been paid for 3 months while the Imo State Health Workers have not received salaries since February 2014. What about pensioners that are owed for 18 months.

Article: Before Buhari Goes To America

President Buhari

By SKC Ogbonnia

President Muhammadu Buhari will be the guest of President Barack Obama of the  United States of America on July 20, 2015. This visit is uniquely different. First, Nigeria no longer commands the respect and confidence it once did during the oil boom where the  United States was competing to remain the top importer of  Nigeria’s crude. Second, for no fault of his own, Buhari is going to America on a precarious perch to plead for Uncle Sam's help. But before then, here is a necessary mock to consider.

News Release: Nigeria Continuously Sinks In Butchery Under Buhari’s Presidency With Over 1000 Terror Murders In Two Months

President Buhari

It is an established fact that over 625 killings have been recorded since 30^th May 2015 in the hands of the Boko Haram Islamic Insurgency. It is also correct to observe that at least 380 innocent citizens of rural extraction have been slaughtered since May 2015 in the hands of the Fulani Islamic Terror group, erroneously called “Fulani Herdsmen”.  In other words, over 1000 terror killings have been recorded since May 2015, mostly under Alhaji Muhammadu Buhari’s Presidency.

Article: Global Conscience, Solidarity, Sacrifice And Besieged Gaza

By Bukhari M. Bello Jega (Bukharijega2015@yahoo.com)

The month of Ramadan is among the special months designated by Allah for His servants to get closer to Him and seek forgiveness and pity.

News Release: African Infrastructure Investment Top Priority For Continent, Need To Rally Behind NEPAD

Closing Africa’s infrastructure gap is a top priority in order to put the continent on a path for double digit growth and sustainable development. This is according to world-renowned professor of economics, Jeffrey Sachs.

News Release: Buhari’s Sectional Appointments & Policies

President Buhari

By the Preamble of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, with its last amendment in 2011, “(We, Nigerians, hereby) provide a Constitution for the purpose of promoting the good government and welfare of all persons in our country on the principles of Freedom, Equality and Justice, and for the purpose of Consolidating the Unity of our people”. By Section 14 (3) of the Constitution, “the composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few States or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in the Government or any of its agencies”.

U-Report: Shaikh Ibraheem Zakzaky Condemns Zaria Bomb Attack As Callous Act Of Stone-Hearted Enemies Of Humanity

Shaikh Ibraheem Zakzaky

Report By Stephen Lawan

Leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, His Eminence Shaikh Ibraheem Yaqub Zakzaky has condiment the recent bomb attack on civil servants in Zaria on Tuesday, describing it as callous act of sadists and enemies of humanity.

U-Report: Sokoto High Court Discharges And Acquits 112 Supporters Of Sheikh Zakzaky

Sheikh Zakzaky

Report By Stephen Lawan

The Court of Appeal Sokoto Judicial Division yesterday discharged and acquitted 112 members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria led by Shaikh Ibraheem Zakzaky of any offence, in a case between Malam Kasimu Muhammad Umar and 111 others and Commissioner of Police, Sokoto State.

News Release: CLO Says “Relocation Of Boko Haram Suspects To Aguata Prisons Is Another Devilish Onslaught Against Ndigbo”

Forty five years after the fratricidal Nigeria Civil War where millions of Ndigbo were massacred with utter savagery and no mercy, the Igbos despite the proclamation of the famous three Rs have remained the most endangered species on planet earth.

News Release: Official Lies Associated With Boko Haram Terror Detainees In Anambra State

It shocks and saddens our heart over lies of unpardonable proportion emanating from the official quarters since the controversies over the relocation of Bko Haram terror detainees to Ezinifite-Aguata Minimum Prison rented the air. In fourteen days or two weeks, from 27^th June when the deadly “Awaiting Trial Detainees”  of Terror Insurgency, to 10^th July 2015; five official lies of shocking proportion have been identified.

News Release: Afreximbank Closes Largest Ever Term Loan: $458 Million And EUR406.5 Million Dual Tranche Facility To Go To Debt Repayment, Trade Finance

  

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) today announced the closing of the general syndication stage of the largest ever term loan facility in the Bank’s history, with the conclusion of a $458 million and EUR406.5 million two-year, dual tranche facility.

News Release: Afriland First Bank To Receive EUR 15 Million Afreximbank Facility For SME Support

Afreximbank President Jean-Louis Ekra (left) and Afriland First Bank Group Chairman Dr. Paul Fokam exchange documents after the signing ceremony in Cairo.

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank)  today signed on to provide a 15-million Euro financing facility to Afriland First Bank’s Côte d’Ivoire subsidiary for the financing of  transactions by SME’s in that country’s key growth sectors.

Article: Sins Of The Nigerian Political Class

By S. Okey Mbonu                                                                                                           

Background

He or she who stays silent in the face of evil, shall sooner or later have evil visited upon them; and he or she who holds his or her people down, stays down. 

News Release: Human Rights, Social Contract & The Citizens: Three Pillars Of Civil Governance & Social Conducts In Nigeria

Following the theme for 2014 World Human Rights Declaration (66^th  Anniversary), adopted by the United Nations, to the effect that “Every Day Is World Human Rights Day”, the leadership of International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety) has resolved to remind the people of Nigeria, classified by Section 13 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended in 2011; as “all authorities and persons exercising executive, judicial and legislative powers (as well as the citizens)” on the need to be mindful at all times  of  their sacred obligations to the society and the people contained in the Social Contract.

News Release: Ghana’s President Mahama Urges Strengthened Support From Afreximbank

Afreximbank President Designate Dr. Benedict Oramah (right) with Ghanaian President John Mahama

Ghanaian President John Mahama today in Accra urged the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to further strengthen its trade finance support to the Ghanaian business sector, particularly in the areas of agro-processing and pharmaceuticals.

News Release: Escalation Of Boko Haram Insurgency By Terror Detainees’ Transfer To Southeast: Putting The Records Straight

On 28^th June 2015, we issued a strong worded public statement, condemning “the proposed transfer” of Boko Haram Terror detainees to Anambra Prisons at Ezinifite/Ekwulobia in Aguata Local Government Area. This followed State-wide protests by Igbo traders based in Anambra State, which took place on 27^th June 2015. Hours after the issuance of the widely circulated and read statement, we were reliably informed with a shock that 47 Boko Haram Terror detainees had already been transferred and dumped at the said Prisons. As a matter of fact, they were brought into the Prisons under heavy escort by soldiers of the Nigerian Army in the night of Saturday, 27^th June 2015; hours after the said protests.