Youneedtoknow : March 2015

Saturday 28 March 2015

Nigeria gets N1.2bn from UN for general elections

The UN Secretary-General High Level Representative to Nigeria, Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas, said the United Nations (UN) had provided 60 million dollars, about N1.2 billion, to ensure the success of Nigeria’s 2015 general elections.

Chambas disclosed this at a press conference in Abuja on Friday.

He said the UN was interested in Nigeria’s elections because “the country is too important for the sub-region, the region and the world at large”.

Chambas explained that the UN had been involved in building institutions and capacity that were required for the elections.

“Several months even before this election, the UN deployed a Needs Assessment Mission and based on that needs assessment mission, certain areas were identified by INEC in particular.

“But also by National Human Rights Commission and many civil society organisations as to where they could benefit from institutional strengthening and human resource capacity building.

“We then came up with a budget which amounted to almost 60 million US Dollars.

“This was mobilised for members-states and other international organisations and has been provided to Nigerian various institutions and organisations in the process of preparing towards this election.

“So that is the kind of ongoing work that the UN does throughout the period.

“And this has been the specific contributions that the UN has made and the UNDP managed this basket of funds that was collected.

“And I should say that one particular intervention that I am personally proud of is the creation of the National Peace Council which was an initiative out of the UN.

“To get a group of Nigerian eminent personalities and respected citizens to come together and to lead the clarion call for peaceful, credible elections.

“So, it is out of this peace council that we have seen, for instance, the two leading candidates, Mr President and General Buhari re-affirming their commitment to the Abuja Accord.

“Which itself is a product of the work of the UN through the former Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, other prominent Nigerians such as Prof Gambari through his Savannah Institute, Bishop Matthew Kukah through the Kukah Centre.

“UNDP was very instrumental in working with them, in bringing on board other partners which culminated in the establishment of the National Peace Council.”

He said that the UN’s interest in the election was borne out of the strategic importance and value of Nigeria.

“Even at the United Nations, Nigeria is a member of the Security Council. Nigeria on the African continent, is a natural leader providing leadership in the past and present on the issuer of peace and security.

“On economic issue, Nigeria is the biggest economy in Africa. Politically, Nigeria is acknowledged leader.

Togo takes cue from Nigeria, postpones election

Togo’s presidential election has been postponed by 10 days to April 25, the communications minister announced on Friday, after calls for a delay over claims the voter register was flawed.

“The presidential election will be held on April 25, 2015 and not April 15, the initial date,” said a presidential decree read on state television in the small West African country by Communications Minister Germaine Koumealo Anate.

The chairman of regional bloc ECOWAS, Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama, had suggested the postponement during a visit to Togo Tuesday, citing the need to update the electoral roll.

“As a result, ECOWAS proposes that the election is delayed by 10 days to allow the election list to be revised so everyone is satisfied,” Mahama told reporters.

The opposition claims the electoral roll is plagued by “serious anomalies” and says it must be checked before a transparent vote can be held.

President Faure Gnassingbe is running for a third five-year term in office.

He came to power in 2005 after the death of his father Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled Togo with an iron fist for 38 years and abolished a limit on the number of mandates.

Attempts to introduce term limits have been blocked in parliament, where Gnassingbe’s party has a majority.

Late last year, opposition supporters took to the streets with civil society groups to demand reforms.

INEC postpones elections in 11 Federal Constituencies

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced the postponement of election in seven out of eleven federal constituencies in Jigawa state, the Vanguard has reported.

The resident electoral commissioner in charge of state, Alhaji Halliru Aliyu Tambawel announced the development while briefing news men yesterday night at INEC headquarter in Dutse, said the postponement was due to the short-fall of Sensitive materials including ballot papers and results sheets from the central Bank of Nigeria.

He listed the affected seven federal constituencies as Dutse/Kiyawa, Ringim/ Taura, HadeJia/Kafin Hausa/Auyo, and Jahun Miga federal Constituencies of Jigawa state, others include Gumel/Maigatari/Sule tankarkar/ Gagarawa, Kaugama/Malam-madori and Gwaram Federal constituencies.

Tambuwal explained that the remaining four federal constituencies in the state election will hold today and they include Babura/Garki, Birnin Kudu/Buji, Birniwa/ Guri/Kirikasamma and Kazaure/Roni/Gwiwa/’Yankwashi federal constituencies in the state.

The resident electoral commissioner further explained that, the Presidential election and senatorial elections will hold as scheduled in all the 27 local government areas in the state as the commission received both sensitive and non sensitive material for the election and ready for election.

Co-pilot deliberately crashed Germanwings plane – Report

The co-pilot of the Germanwings flight that crashed in the French Alps, named as Andreas Lubitz, appeared to want to “destroy the plane”, officials said.

Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin, citing information from the “black box” voice recorder, said the co-pilot was alone in the cockpit, the British Broadcasting Corporation reports.

He intentionally started a descent while the pilot was locked out.

Robin said there was “absolute silence in the cockpit” as the pilot fought to re-enter it.

He said air traffic controllers made repeated attempts to contact the aircraft, but to no avail. Passengers could be heard screaming just before the crash, he added.

Details are emerging of the German co-pilot’s past – although his apparent motives for causing the crash remain a mystery.

Lubitz, 28, had undergone intensive training and “was 100% fit to fly without any caveats”, according to Carsten Spohr, the head of Lufthansa, the German carrier that owns Germanwings.

Spohr said Lubitz’s training had been interrupted briefly six years ago but was resumed after “the suitability of the candidate was re-established”.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters that the co-pilot’s apparent actions had given the tragedy a “new, simply incomprehensible dimension”.

The Airbus 320 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf hit a mountain, killing all 144 passengers and six crew, after an eight-minute descent.

“We hear the pilot ask the co-pilot to take control of the plane and we hear at the same time the sound of a seat moving backwards and the sound of a door closing,” Robin told reporters.

He said the pilot, named in the German media as Patrick S, had probably gone to the toilet.

“At that moment, the co-pilot is controlling the plane by himself. While he is alone, the co-pilot presses the buttons of the flight monitoring system to put into action the descent of the aeroplane.

“He operated this button for a reason we don’t know yet, but it appears that the reason was to destroy this plane.”

Lubitz was alive until the final impact, the prosecutor said.

Robin said “the most plausible interpretation” was that the co-pilot had deliberately barred the pilot from re-entering the cockpit.

He added that the co-pilot was “not known by us” to have any links to extremism or terrorism.

Passengers were not aware of the impending crash “until the very last moment” when screams could be heard, Mr Robin said, adding that they died instantly.

Meanwhile, relatives and friends of the victims are due to visit the area of the crash.

Lufthansa has arranged two special flights for families and friends on Thursday – one from Barcelona and one from Duesseldorf – to Marseille, and both groups will travel on by road. Separately, some relatives who did not want to fly are travelling by bus from Barcelona.

The second “black box” – that records flight data – has still not been found.