Tag: #Richard Inoyo

 

The Nigerian sense of reality is dictated by what Nigerian leaders are pretending does not exist. If you are avoiding reality how then would you face it? If you don’t visit the ghetto, how would you know what is going on in the minds of Nigerians living there? How then would you know what people are facing and how then can you get their suggestions on how to tackle their problems?

I heard a song said, wake the pretenders sleeping. Nigerian political and corporate leadership must come to terms with the fact that they along with some religious leaders are the reasons why millions of NIGERIANS are suffering and yet failing to find the legal action and extralegal inspiration to fight back through any means necessary.

Deliberately and systematically, the Nigerian government is living in denial and simultaneously eroding access to anything good for the poor, and part of the strategy is the development and application of draconian laws, corrupt judicial decisions, and policy hikes on communities and the systematic engagement of propaganda and disinformation to confuse and weaken popular uprising.

In Abuja, Wike_ the unfortunate Minister of F.C.T is actively and busily targeting and destroying the houses of Nigerians that are not in power and who are not politically connected to this regime.

But then, that isn’t all, all attempts by the masses to resist the atrocity of this government is being met endlessly with either police brutality or army’s trademarks, sorrow, tears and blood in the word of the Great Fela Kuti.

Yet I must say, the tools to fight back have not totally lost their efficacy and it is important I stress this_ Protesting, investigating, court filing, petitioning, picketing, revolting against irrational government excesses and naming and shaming those responsible for our collective socioeconomic misfortune, these legal work tools are as potent as they have always been, only if the Left is willing to press on with them.

Year 2025 should be one year where all dissatisfied Nigerians should think about the possibility of marching towards to and occupying all government institutions and the public residence of all current serving politicians responsible for the major problems in the country; from NNPCL HEADQUARTERS to Nigerian Energy Commission to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) up to the both chambers of the National Assembly as well as the official residence of the president in Aso Rock, and those of the Vice President, the Senate President, his deputy, the 36 governors and their deputies, I doubt if anything good can come out from just online outrage_ which is watery and soft resistance without on ground action with the death warrant of saying we are ready to end all the bad governance in the country_ through marching to and occupying those institutions and residence that serve as symbols of mass oppression and poverty, yet if taken on can be transformed via thick resistance into fundamental overhaul for a new NIGERIA.

At this juncture, it is important I stress that the burden of protest and the yoke of resistance shouldn’t be left on the NLC and TUC alone, it is instructive that civil society and the forces of conscience should realign and join hands together to find the alternative demographic to reject this current system that only seeks to extend poverty to all households in the country that refused to identify with this callous regime.

In closing I wish to remind us that as long as there is no arm resistance for ethical defence, no political program, and no organisation for rejection of rigged polity and socioeconomic systems, Nigerian masses needlessly feel that the ruling class will somehow improve things for good, must be asked to wake up from such deep sleep.

What 139million Nigerians facing multidimensional poverty need is a rethink and realignment of forces to emancipate themselves, and you can’t leave such burden to just TUC and NLC alone, two institutions whose combined membership is less than 7million people.

As we flip the calendar to 2025, I wish to ask that you think about the possibility of visitation and occupation of key public residence of top government officials and institutions responsible for our collective national misfortune as a critical, yet untried step that may force Nigeria to change its ways.

Signed

Richard Inoyo,
Country Director,
Citizens’ Solution Network

As long as we fail to do this and make this a priority

The Cameroon-Ambazzonian War, And The Regional Impact On Mass Displacement And Insecurity In Nigeria, And The Call For Urgent Government Actions

By Richard Inoyo
December 12, 2023 | 09:36AM

Understanding the conflict:

The Cameroon-Ambazonian War also called the Anglophone Crisis by some writers, and the Ambazonia War or the Cameroonian Civil War by others have been ongoing for over 6years now.

Chronically, it is an ongoing armed conflict between Cameroon Armed Forces and Ambazonian separatist rebel groups, part of the long-standing Anglophone-Francophone problem in Cameroon.

Following the suppression of 2016–17 protests by Cameroonian authorities, separatists in the Anglophone regions (formerly collectively known as the Southern Cameroons) launched a guerrilla campaign and later proclaimed independence. Within two months, the government of Cameroon declared war on the separatists and sent its army into the Anglophone regions.

Starting as a low-scale insurgency, the conflict spread to most parts of the Anglophone regions within a year. By the summer of 2019, the Cameroonian government took control of major cities and parts of the countryside, while the Ambazonian nationalists held parts of the countryside and regularly appeared in the major cities.

Although, separatists have occasionally carried out raids into the neighboring Francophone regions of Littoral and West. Thousands of people have been killed in the war, and more than half a million have been forced to flee their homes.

It is a public knowledge that Cameroonian government was supported by the Buhari administration in Nigeria, while at least one Ambazonian group is allied to Biafran separatists.

Sadly, talks mediated by Switzerland in 2019 ultimately failed, and the Ambazonian leadership crisis has long complicated any diplomatic process.

Separatist leaders who were extradited from Nigeria in 2018 were in 2019 handed life sentences by a military tribunal. Facing mounting international pressure for a global ceasefire, in July 2020, Cameroon began negotiating with these imprisoned leaders. The talks were held between Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe and other imprisoned leaders and representatives of the Cameroonian government. The talks outlined a series of conditions for the Cameroonian government to accept that Ayuk Tabe said would create an “enabling environment” for substantial negotiations to occur.

These talks ultimately failed, and fighting has long continued and the impacts are now affecting neighboring State like Cross River State in Nigeria. Three Local Government Areas (Boki, Obanliku and Etung) in Nigeria have been on the receiving end of the spilling conflict especially as regards the destructions of villages, kidnapping and mass displacement of Nigerian citizens living in those Local Government Areas due to the actions of Ambazonian separatists who are now turning these local government areas to their attack launching Garrison and as revenue points to raise money for their war efforts.

For instance, Obanliku, a Local Government Area in Cross River State (famous for its mountains), that is 207 miles from Calabar and 293 miles from Abuja has suffered heavily from the actions of Ambazonian separatist fighters who have long invaded their communities and turned same to military bases while terrorizing, killing, kidnapping the people and setting their villages ablaze. Pregnant women, children, elderly citizens, the disabled, the sick and injured have suffered unprecedentedly from the invasion and destruction of a community like Belegete in Obanliku by Ambazonian separatist fighters.

The visible absence of the Nigerian Military to protect these communities is further endangering the besieged Local Government Areas, with tens of hundreds displaced from their ancestral homes and some people killed. We are yet to see the Cross River State House of Assembly even prioritizing or deliberating on these matters nor any Senator or House of Representatives Members interceding for the security and humanitarian actions a community like Belegete needs urgently. This is so sad as the people suffer ethnic cleansing and mass exodus in the hands of the occupying Ambazonian separatist fighters.

Citizens’ Solution Network is calling on the Nigerian Government and the Cross River State Government to provide urgent security and humanitarian relief materials to Obanliku as several communities suffer from mass displacement and their decoupling from their farms and means of livelihoods. Children, Pregnant Women, Elderly Citizens and those injured need urgent medical support and humanitarian assistance because they desperately need it along with security of their communities so that they can return back. We don’t need to wait for hundreds to be slaughtered before the Nigerian government and its representing officials live up to the oath of protecting our people.

We call on the Nigerian President_ Mr. Bola Admed Tinubu, and The Governor of Cross River State, Senator. Prince Bassey Otu to act and bring the needed assistance and security the people in Obanliku need urgently. We ask all Nigerians to do what they can to support humanitarian and medical efforts in ways they can.

Thanks

Signed

Richard F Inoyo,
Country Director,
Citizens’ Solution Network

Disclaimer: The opinion expressed in this article is strictly that of the author, Richard Inoyo and does not represent TheLumineNews or its agent.

 

War On The Poor: Nigerian Political Leaders Firing Series of Shots

By Richard Inoyo.
4th December, 2023 | 1:40pm

According to a recent statistics published by _United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF)_ , “1 in 3 children across Nigeria are out of school children”. The revelation further showed that, “10.2 million of these out of school children exist at the primary level and 8.1 million at the junior secondary school (JSS) level1. Whereas, 12.4 million children never attended school and 5.9 million left school early.”

The bulk of that last statistics left the Universities, Monotechnic and Polytechnics, and this is largely due to the socioeconomic condition in the country.

What this means is that, Nigeria’s out of school children now account for 15% of the global population of all out of school children worldwide. What a feat on negative scale for a nation! That notwithstanding, the Federal Government through its yes-ma and yes-sir proxies are rolling out new policy to further worsen the Out of School Children Statistics of the Nation.

Some months ago, University of Lagos rolled out new school fee hike that crossed into and above N100,000 per academic session, and when the students protested against the school fee hike, they were attacked by poor policemen, who were directed and dispersed to break the protest without any question at the front gate of UNILAG. Many of the armless students were shot at with teargas cannisters, arrested and locked up by the Lagos Police Force sent in by the School Authority under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Education.

Just two days ago, the leadership of University of Calabar led by its Vice Chancellor, Mrs. Florence Obi joined the shameless community of leaders who once attended education when it was fairly affordable, but now turned around to ensure that university education becomes needlessly expensive and far more exorbitant for the poor to send their wards and children to tertiary education. As it stands today, the new school hike introduced by the Management of University of Calabar means that, parents and guardians have to raise between N110,000 and N155,000 to have their wards and children attend the university in the next session and that will be the fee from henceforth. Imagine family with three children in the university.

There is no where on earth any sane leadership can rationalize this new attack on poor people and the calculated erosion of access to national education for Nigerian family. One is foist to ask, what is the essence of leadership, or national governance? Is it to make life miserable for the poor and rob them to feed the opulent appetite of miscreants in power?

As absurd as this indefensible affront on access to education would sound, the university called it fee adjustment, how ridiculous can it get? Lest we forget in Finland and Cuba education is free up to Master’s Degree Level. You don’t pay a dime.

At _Citizens’ Solution Network_ we know the snake behind this hike in school fee, it is the Federal Government led by Bola Tinubu, a president that took the first shot at poor Nigerians when he pronounced policy on the day of his inauguration that saw the rise in the cost of PMS to over N591 per liter and the concomitant astronomical rise in the prices of things nationwide. We know that he is behind this latest school hike with his fraudulent and empty call for student loans. And his belief and confident is that the Nigerian police, army, airforce, navy and their sister arm-bearing organisations in care of public firearms and ammunition will open life fire on poor students and Nigerians if they decide to resist the school fee hike through picketing and protest.

My question therefore is this: “Is it what the Military and Paramilitary have been reduced to, to defend all affront against Nigerian citizens and to defend even the worst of evil policies against poor people struggling to even send their children to school amidst the excruciating economic pains that are all man-made?

Activist communities like Citizens’ Solution Network and _Citizens’ Assembly_ have taken the path of civility and not arm struggle, by using civil means to call on all levels of government and all public institution leadership to bring to an end the unholy war they have clandestinely declared on poor Nigerians which is now in the open that is bleeding the country’s poor via man-made orchestrated inflation and hikes, which is seen to be causing needless hardship and unnecessary pains.

It will be unfortunate if calls from civil organisations like mine isn’t heeded, because the alternative might see the emergence of a new generation of youths ready to die and willing to risk their lives invading military cantonment and armament centres to pick up public firearms and confront the judicial, legislative and executive mismanagement of the expectations citizens have.

Now is the time to reverse this school fee hike, least the country build the groundwork for unprecedented development of unexpected reactions. A word is enough for the wise, we are all aware that the military and paramilitary combined will not be able to defeat the Nigerian people if things get out of hand. The country does not need to push its youthful citizens outside the education community to join new arm struggle based on socioeconomic freedom from the current political mismanagement of our resources, time and expectations. The suffering, the hikes, the pains are all man-made and can be reversed. Reverse it.

Signed

Richard Inoyo,
Country Director,
Citizens’ Solution Network

Disclaimer: The opinion expressed in this article is strictly that of the author, Richard Inoyo and does not represent TheLumineNews or its agent.

 

 

07:07AM

By Richard Inoyo.

Good data they say is the foundation of proper planning and policy execution. May be in Europe not in Africa, and certainly not in the Lugardian playbook called Nigeria which is now under siege in the hands of federal and state psychopathic and almost dystopian leadership that knows nothing good other than manufacture excuses, create diverse and endless schemes to empty whatever the country earns and owns, and then go about doing cosmetic touches here and there to withhold and misdirect public wealth in the name of governance against the expectations citizens hold.

In the State Capital of Cross River State for instance, the amount of levies taken by government-backed levy-enforcers from the hands of thousands of keke riders, taxi drivers and market women daily is abundantly sufficient to repair all the bad and decaying roads in Calabar South and in some parts of Calabar Municipal. The same is true for States across the country, but ask where all that money goes to? They will declare you inciting the public, while the hands that grab such funds feed on the sweat, tears and blood of those hardworking citizens driving the Keke, the taxi and trading in our primitively organized markets with plans not to end this injustice.

True, the situation isn’t improving and Government is complicit in this open defense of the injustice and destruction of public infrastructure due to failure to insist that such money shouldn’t go into private hands but should be directed into repair, construction and upgrading of critical and life sustaining infrastructure. The solution for bad and rotten roads is here, take the funds and fix them.

On the flipside, *Citizens’ Observatory*, the research wing of Citizens’ Assembly and Citizens’ Solution Network has been mining socio-security data over the last 9years and we have shown that irrespective of the log of irrational arguments against data collation and data analytic project, everyone working with us knows that data is king in serious society that wants to truly become developed with an objective plan and will to fight and uplift many from poverty like China is doing, in reinvesting public wealth in communities, creating opportunities and reducing public dissatisfaction and earning real respect from different countries and human race.

But driving new growth transition from a sustainable corridor requires the basic understanding of demand and supply. Company sells what people are buying_ and if there are no buyers for a particular product, the production and distribution of such product will come to an end. For a minute, kindly picture this economic truth from a government-citizen standpoint, and you will discover that Government supplies citizens what citizens accept, not necessarily what citizens require and expect_ the opposite of which in form of rejection of rotten services would take a catastrophic toll on public leadership when citizens say enough is enough and grind public functions risking institutional violence and death toll from police and the military sent in by underperforming sociopathic government to dismantle resistance. For more understanding chat 08142147410 and get my article on *Collective Losses: How Lack of Opportunity Created by States is expanding the Dependency Ratio*

When two scholars came up with the formal theories of Electoral Replacement and Rational Anticipation which have survived scientific testing, the aim is to let citizens understand that citizens have the power to hold their representatives and government accountable by ensuring that they replace the underperforming government and the greedy politicians if they fail to do what the citizens expect from them, and that politicians should be aware that, there are immense consequences for their actions and inactions, especially when and if they take actions or pass policies that the citizens do not agree with.

In both situations, citizens are admonished to use their PVCs to vote them out during election and get people in that truly care about the electorates with willingness to tackling community problems such as insecurity, weak economic opportunity buildup and the destruction of public water systems by politicians who took public waterboard land in a State like Cross River and now justifying the stoppage of public water distribution system, something Donald Duke and Senator Liyel built and sustained respectively for over a decade which served millions of citizens, providing millions of litres daily during their regimes.

Today, waterborne disease is causing a State like Cross River State millions of nairas monthly in treatment cost due to the man-made embargo on potable public water supply system caused by the immediate past Ayade Regime which the new administration is doing nothing about to restore 6months into office while internally generated revenue and State-LGA allocations from Abuja still troop in on a monthly basis. It is the same story in Ilasa in Lagos State where there is zero access to decent water supply and where opportunity has been grounded to a halt.

But the twin evils of electoral fraud and result manipulation have further jeopardized the aforementioned accountability instruments of electoral replacement and rational anticipation theories. Nonetheless, citizens can organize politically, by identifying credible alternatives, campaigning for them and utilizing their candidacy to uproot, remove and get rid of public enemies occupying political offices who have done nothing tangible to create jobs, increase opportunities and grow the economy or guarantee security of citizens’ lives, businesses and assets.

As I think about the data and the man-made sufferings that Government explicitly supports via its inaction and action, the question that looms was *”Are Nigerians going to give up and continue to slide down in government supervised administration of sufferings and excuses?”* I heard someone exploded with a capital *No* .

As an activist pushing for positive social change, I re-echo the capital no of Mallam Kabiru Muhammad who recently chaired the General Assembly Special Session of Citizens’ Assembly. The least we can do is increase the advocacy to full volume in a quest to build a just and fair society where the money taken from Keke drivers and Taxi men as levies daily and from market women do not go into private pockets but rather get channeled into resuscitating comatose critical infrastructure, fixing bad roads and expanding their access to coupon-free credit, which can make real difference in life, economy and longterm development from Africa’s devastating vicious circle-poverty trap.

Signed

Richard Inoyo,
Country Director,
Citizens’ Solution Network.

Disclaimer: The opinion expressed in this article is strictly that of the author, Richard Inoyo and does not represent TheLumineNews or its agent.

 

There are those who came to us with opened arms and demand we give them all we have, for hunger has found refuge in their pouch and their soul is tormented with want of food. Some, with arms they approach residence and offices and loot what isn’t theirs and justify the terror. Not many has seen the boundary of raw rage in the absence of opportunity to earn, feed, cloth and shelter. As a country, the notion that the doctrine of survival is a textbook exercise and has no real bearing to human unpredictability as regards new danger or old terror is questionable and misleading. If there is one thing evolution taught earliest humans is that humans will feed on humans in the absence of alternative meal.

Cannibalism isn’t necessarily the societal construct of humans eating other human flesh and getting drunk in the blood and liquidates of fellow humans, rather it is the sociopathic manifestation and reminder that in the absence of shared affection and care, new terror and old danger abound. The epistemology which occupies the realm of thought and imposes the thinking that man can’t degenerate into confrontation, arm conflicts and eventual destructions of his own race has dominantly failed to capture war history into the bricks that lay the groundwork for such ahistorical conclusion. We call on all to proceed with caution and offer care when it’s truly needed, in such we survive self-destruction.

The Nigerian government should act with all urgency to end the looting of our sovereign wealth by its leadership, lest the public arms in the care of military and paramilitary institutions may fail them as they rest their protection on such. 340,000 police men and an equally rough population of all military forces combined may not prevent the keg of gunpowder which they have concluded won’t explode to explode. Make hay while the sun is seen for the N5Billion Presidential Yacht and N160million SUVs are exceeding the boundaries of the Nigerian patience and public anger. We condemn the brutalization of NLC President, Mr. Joe Ajaero.

Signed.

Richard F Inoyo,
Country Director,
*Citizens’ Solution Network*

Calabar And Insecurity: An Expanding Concern Yet To Be Addressed

Monday, 13th November, 2023 | 9:27AM

She had gone to Holy Family Catholic Church in Big Qua Town to worship, on coming out to pick something from her car less than 9minutes of parking the car, she came out and discovered someone had entered and started the car. In shock, she shouted, “thieve! thieve!!”. Confidently the car thief reversed the car, head towards highway, and the rest they say is history.

When I ran into her, she was still in pains three months after her car was stolen, nothing has been heard about her car. She was quick to remind me that, that car made it possible for her to move around and to carry her kids to school not even mentioning the fact that her gratuity of service was what that car represented. A retiree who now treks due to a car crime in Calabar that has spiralled out of state control.

Ededet Effiong, whose car was equally stolen just last month, on the 5th of October around 2pm, ran into me a week ago before I traveled. He decried the frustration of his car that was stolen. And in his raw and expressive pain, he was of the view that it is completely depressing to know that nothing tangible has come out from the search exercise one month after and neither the police force nor any paramilitary institutions have been able to solve this car theft problem as he narrated to me that, just two weeks ago another car was stolen opposite the Redeemed Christian Church of God at Akim Timber Market.

That is three car gone, Citizens’ Solution Network hasn’t mentioned theirs nor provided the full list of what is plaguing the state due to the absence of strong leadership to end this crime.

Charles Eyo, a renowned journalist, yesterday being Sunday was explaining to Agba Jalingo how armed robbers with machetes, guns, sticks, etc took over the Calabar-Itu road and dispossessed travelers and commuters of their belongings yesterday, and that they operated for hours and no security or law enforcement agency came to the rescue of these hapless citizens.

This is the situation we find ourselves in the State, where citizens are left to suffer under the encouraged crime-ribbon that is spreading across every part including homes, offices and roads, yet every month, billions of Nairas come to Cross River State as State and Local Government Allocations not even listing security votes amidst huge internally generated revenues. Question is, what are all these money used for? Security and welfare are the first score cards, outside propaganda what can you point to?

Too often those of us asking that something reasonable, responsible and responsive be done are considered the problem, they just want citizens to endure the pain, suck it up and die in their frustration. And what happens too often? Jungle justice becomes the order of the day in the visible absence of State coordinate response to growing and expanding insecurity in the state. The question is no longer if, it’s when someone else becomes the next victim. I was at Rwanda sometime back and I discovered that, every major street has cameras, I mean Rwanda, that is an African country and they ain’t wiser than us and the credit to a large extent is due to what the governors and mayors are doing than what the media want people to believe that all credit goes to Paul Kagame.

There has been sustained calls by activists sent to the State Government to use technology and proper funding of the State Police Command to deter these crimes, because from all indications, Calabar has fast become the safest haven to steal car, kidnap hard-working professionals like Prof. Ephraim and go scot-free, and then plan the next attack since nothing on ground suggests deterrence, counter intelligence and rebalancing of the fear matrix against the criminals who now move freely with the audacity to steal cars, rob whosoever they please and even kidnap who they target with little or no cameras and intelligence to track where they are, living citizens to pay money to continue the search and retrieval process of either their stolen items or loved ones respectively.

As they say, the cost of insecurity can be unquantifiable; as I remember the woman whose car was stolen in her pains and Mr. Ededet’s suffering since that incidence happened just to mention a few; someone was quick to bring to my attention that, the funeral procession that happened in the Dome at the Calabar Municipal Council last month, was that of one of the patients of Prof. Ephraim_ the neurologist who was caring for the stroke patient until the doctor was kidnapped, and the patient had to die in the absence of her care giver who happened to be Prof Ephraim. But that isn’t all, the sister of Prof. Ephraim had long suffered psychological breakdown since she had come to the frustration of her sister’s kidnapping that has entered months without closure from a so called community project government_ that says voting them into winning their election is a community project that all citizens should join hands to achieve for them during the election, and now, since they got into Peregrino Government House in Calabar, all you see is the tightening of their own personal security with escorts, and arm guards while public security is treated with utter disregard thereby causing organisations like mine to suffer car theft and others to go through one insecurity pain or the other. So, who is fooling who? During election, they come with the mantra of community project, and afterwards, all citizens are abandoned to fed for themselves as they suffer irresponsive leadership to their plight.

It is the primary responsibility for Government to protect citizens and their assets using public wealth and arms in their disposal from insecurity. That responsibility in itself is the bargaining chip for faith in government and political survival. Hence the need for the government to prioritize public security in the same measure they fund and supply the need of their private guards as overseen by state resources. The lamed press release that says insecurity is a national problem and commonplace should be discarded_ nobody elects any person to keep doling such expired and dysfunctional justification for ineptitude in the face of new crime estimates.

*Citizens’ Observatory*, the research wing of Citizens’ Assembly and Citizens’ Solution Network, will continue to investigate, document and report this abandonment of citizens to their travails as they suffer from possible suicidal silence from insecurity especially as nothing as regards Victims’ Funds and Crime Victim Support Centre isn’t set up to help cushion the financial and distabling psychological burden that comes with their losses, pains and frustration due to insecurity in the State, and to enable victims get back on track with the belief that their government shows up when they are in pains through such proposed victim’s support funds and centre.

Signed

Richard F Inoyo,
Country Director,
Citizens’ Solution Network

 

There are those who came to us with opened arms and demand we give them all we have, for hunger has found refuge in their pouch and their soul is tormented with want of food. Some, with arms they approach residence and offices and loot what isn’t theirs and justify the terror. Not many has seen the boundary of raw rage in the absence of opportunity to earn, feed, cloth and shelter. As a country, the notion that the doctrine of survival is a textbook exercise and has no real bearing to human unpredictability as regards new danger or old terror is questionable and misleading. If there is one thing evolution taught earliest humans is that humans will feed on humans in the absence of alternative meal.

Cannibalism isn’t necessarily the societal construct of humans eating other human flesh and getting drunk in the blood and liquidates of fellow humans, rather it is the sociopathic manifestation and reminder that in the absence of shared affection and care, new terror and old danger abound. The epistemology which occupies the realm of thought and imposes the thinking that man can’t degenerate into confrontation, arm conflicts and eventual destructions of his own race has dominantly failed to capture war history into the bricks that lay the groundwork for such ahistorical conclusion. We call on all to proceed with caution and offer care when it’s truly needed, in such we survive self-destruction.

The Nigerian government should act with all urgency to end the looting of our sovereign wealth by its leadership, lest the public arms in the care of military and paramilitary institutions may fail them as they rest their protection on such. 340,000 police men and an equally rough population of all military forces combined may not prevent the keg of gunpowder which they have concluded won’t explode to explode. Make hay while the sun is seen for the N5Billion Presidential Yacht and N160million SUVs are exceeding the boundaries of the Nigerian patience and public anger. We condemn the brutalization of NLC President, Mr. Joe Ajaero.

Signed.

Richard F Inoyo,
Country Director,
Citizens’ Solution Network

By Admin

5years after the launch of Agenda 2063_ tagged: The Africa We Want, a brilliant set of initiatives geared at recreating Africa and developing the continent to emerge as a great one, not much of those initiatives have been achieved.

Hunger is still ravaging the continent, and its ageless partner_ poverty is still strongly ubiquitous across the motherland.

Although, there are series of challenges that have been identified as being responsible for the unpopularity of Agenda 2063.

Today, in a bid to help raise awareness around the agenda of the Africa We Want, I have decided among other things to spell out the 15 initiatives below for added awareness:

You can view Agenda 2063 as a set of initiatives proposed and currently under implementation by the African Union.

Historically, it was adopted on 31 January 2015 at the 24th Ordinary Assembly of the Heads of State and Governments of the African Union.

The call for such an agenda was first made by the 21st Ordinary Assembly on 26 May 2013, 50 years after the foundation of the OAU as a plan for the next 50 years.

The stated goals of the Agenda are economic development (including the eradication of poverty within one generation), political integration (in particular through the establishment of a federal or confederate United Africa), improvements in democracy and justice, establishment of security and peace on the entire African continent, strengthening of cultural identity through an “African renaissance” and pan-African ideals, gender equality, and political independence from foreign powers.

History has it that, the First Continental Report on the Implementation of Agenda 2063 was presented by President Alassane Quattara of Cote d’ Ivoire on 10 February 2020, marking the beginning of a biennial reporting cycle.

Agenda 2063 measures progress against a set of goals defined for the first Ten-Year Implementation Plan and was launched together with an interactive online dashboard showing progress in individual areas of the Agenda as well as geographical regions.

The Agenda includes 15 so-called flagship projects, which have been identified as being key to enabling and accelerating progress in all areas of development.

These are:

1. A high-speed train network connecting all African capitals and commercial centres.

2. The formulation of a strategy for transforming the African economy from a supplier of raw materials to one that actively uses its own resources.

3. The establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area.

4. The introduction of the African Union Passport, and removal of all visa requirements for its holders within Africa.

5. Ending all wars, civil conflicts, gender-based violence, and violent conflicts by 2020.

6. The construction of a third Inga Dam.

7. The establishment of the Single African Air-Transport Market.

8. The establishment of an Annual African Economic Forum.

9. The establishment of a set of financial institutions, envisaged as an African Investment Bank, a Pan-African Stock Exchange, an African Monetary Fund, and an African Central Bank.

10. A pan-African digital data network.

11. The development of a common African strategy for the use of outer-space technology.

12. The establishment of an African open, digital, distance-learning university.

13. Cooperation on cyber security.

14. The foundation of a Great African Museum, preserving African cultural heritage and promoting pan-Africanism.

15. The compilation of an Encyclopaedia Africana as an authoritative resource on the authentic history of Africa and African life.

You can help to spread awareness around it and participate to achieving same, after all we are here to see a better Africa.

Disclaimer: This is strictly the opinions of Richard F. Inoyo and does not represent TheLumineNews.