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Impose Sanctions on Buhari, Others for Undermining Democracy, Shehu Sani Tells UN, EU
Human rights activist and pro-democracy crusader, Senator Shehu Sani, has urged the United Nations and the European Union (EU) to immediately impose visa sanction and other restrictions against President Muhammadu Buhari and elements under his government for undermining democracy in the country. According to him, if the current trend is allowed to continue it would mar the conduct of 2023 general elections.
Sani explained that unless the international community rises up to its responsibility to save democracy in Nigeria, the subsequent conduct of elections in the country after the outcome of the recent governorship polls in Kogi and Bayelsa States might lead to chaos and erode democracy. He was reacting to the violence, the use of firearms against voters, the killings and general malpractices that were recorded during the elections in Kogi and Bayesa States. He said unless the international community responds appropriately to sanction the anti-democratic elements in Nigeria the country’s future stands endangered.
According to him, “The only way to address the problems of elections in Nigeria, apart from implementing electoral reforms, is through sanctions on individuals that are fully involved in electoral malpractices. The European Union should not sit down and simply fold its arms and allow only the United States to carry out the responsibility of sanctioning individuals that are involved in election fraud or violence.
“The EU must join other democratic nations of the world. A no-fly sanction must be declared against elements in the army, police, INEC and the political sphere that are involved in violence, killings and other malpractices internationally.
“They cannot fly to any country. The African Union (AU) must also be serious about this political problem. Visa restrictions should not only be limited to people going to the United States. The EU and other democratic nations of the world who are not part of the EU must impose sanctions. The airline companies of these countries must apply sanctions against anti-democratic elements”.
Also, Sani blamed President Buhari for allowing the country’s democracy to nose-dive, saying that if former President Goodluck Jonathan had followed Buhari’s antecedent, he would not have been in office as incumbent president.
According to him, “The former INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, has been consistently drawing the attention of the country to the new reality as far as elections in Nigeria are concerned. There is general consensus that the 2015 elections were free, fair and credible. Most of those who lost elections did not go to court to challenge the results. The president at that time, Jonathan, warmly and heartedly congratulated Buhari.
“Buhari promised the country that he would leave behind a legacy of fair, transparent and credible elections in the country. But the 2019 elections and subsequent elections have clearly demonstrated that the president rather has drown us back to pre-2015, particularly the military era. Our elections are now characterized by violence, thuggery, ballot stuffing and ballot snatching; the use of arms, killings and outright manipulations. This is not what Nigerians bargained for. The two elections in Bayelsa and Kogi are an eye-opener.
“The government of Buhari has lost the moral ground to organize elections that the world can see as free and credible. We have never had it so bad in this country where the international, domestic observers, the media and Nigerians will unanimously condemn elections such as the ones in Kogi and Bayelsa. I have said it many times that President Buhari should be concerned about his role in Nigeria’s history.
“What kind of legacy does he want to leave behind when the elections that brought him to power is more credible than the ones he is organizing? So, as far as I am concerned, this present INEC, as it is today, and the conduct of elections show that we have gone backward to the dark and stone ages where election results are simply written and announced”.
Sani excoriated the electoral umpire for taking the country’s democracy backwards just as he insisted that most of those in elective positions today would not have been elected if the electoral umpire did its good job properly.
“When you see a political leader using violence, thugs, manipulations, fire arms to secure votes, he knows very well that he has lost the moral high ground and he does not have the support of the people. So, we cannot call this a democracy if the method and processes of getting elected into office is through violence, bloodshed and manipulation of votes, ballot snatching and ballot stuffing.
“You can’t build honesty in a foundation of fraud. The assessment of the UN, the EU, and international and domestic observers said they have never seen anything like this.“With subsequent elections in the country, especially the 2023 general elections, I think the message has been sent clearly to everybody that the means of assuming power is not through a peaceful, credible and transparent elections. It is the ability to gather and garner an equivalent force that may likely play out to counter the other side. And I am very sorry to say that the judiciary and the National Assembly, as they are today, are not in a good position to address the problems of elections in the country”.
The Guardian
Cameroon ’s top court on Monday declared incumbent Paul Biya, the world’s oldest president, the winner of the Oct. 12 election. Clashes with security forces left at least four protesters dead ahead of the announcement as opposition supporters rallied to demand credible results.
Biya, 92, has led the central African nation since 1982. The Constitutional Council said he received 53.66% of votes while former ally-turned-challenger Issa Tchiroma Bakary got 35.19%. The turnout was 57.7%.
In a social media post after the declaration, Tchiroma said that there was gunfire directed at civilians and two people were shot dead in his hometown in Garoua.
He said: “Toll of their attack: two dead. I wonder what will be said this time? Shooting point-blank at your own brothers — I can’t help but wonder if you’re mercenaries. Kill me if you want, but I will liberate this country by any means necessary. What blatant impunity.”
The four protesters were shot dead in Douala, the economic capital, on Sunday, as hundreds of people stormed streets in several cities. Tchiroma had claimed victory days before Monday’s announcement, citing results he said were collated by his party. Biya dismissed the claim.
According to Samuel Dieudonne Ivaha Diboua, governor of the Littoral Region that includes Douala, several members of the security forces were injured by protesters. He said at least 105 protesters were arrested.
Dozens of opposition supporters, activists and leaders have been arrested in recent days. Paul Atanga Nji, minister of territorial administration, said on Saturday the government arrested several people plotting violent attacks.
One protester, Oumarou Bouba, a 27-year-old trader in Maroua, said: “I am ready to stake my life to defend my vote. I voted for Tchiroma because I want change.”
Following the announcement of the results, Sani Aladji, a 28-year-old who works in a hotel in Maroua, said: “Nothing will change. I expected that Issa Tchiroma would bring change, which is why I voted for him. There’s rampant corruption under Biya’s regime. We are tired of that. We don’t have roads.”
Biya has ruled Cameroon longer than most of its citizens have been alive. Over 70% of the country’s almost 30 million population is below 35. The election has been the latest dramatic example of tension between Africa’s youth and the continent’s many aging leaders.
He first came to power in 1982 following the resignation of Cameroon’s first president and has ruled the country since then, later benefiting from a constitutional amendment that abolished term limits.
Critics accuse Biya of leading Cameroon from a period of relative stability into one of crisis and conflict. The country in recent years has faced attacks by Boko Haram militants in the north and a secessionist insurgency in the country’s English-speaking North West and South West regions.
That crisis, triggered by the government’s attempts to impose French in English-speaking schools and courts, has killed nearly 7,000 people, displaced more than one million more internally and sent thousands fleeing to neighboring Nigeria.
Despite Cameroon being an oil-producing country that is experiencing modest economic growth, young people say the benefits have not trickled down beyond the elites. According to World Bank data, the unemployment rate stands at 3.5%, but 57% of the labor force aged 18 to 35 works in informal employment.
“Many young people across the country and in the diaspora had hoped for change, but that their hopes have been dashed. It feels like a missed opportunity,” said Dr Emile Sunjo, a senior lecturer in international relations at the University of Buea. “Cameroon could potentially slide into anarchy.”
Source: AP
There was mild drama in court on Monday as detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, declined opening his defence against the seven-count terrorism-related charge the Federal Government preferred against him, saying categorically that there’s “no case against me”.
Kanu, who elected to defend himself after he disengaged his team of lawyers, adduced reasons before the Federal High Court in Abuja, why he would not open his defence to the charge.
Addressing the court from the dock, the IPOB leader maintained that after going through the case file, he discovered that there is no valid charge to warrant his defence.
He contended that since he had been subjected to an unlawful trial based on an invalid charge, there would be no need for him to offer any explanations or defend himself through the evidence of witnesses.
“Join me in praising God. I have gone through my case file, and there is no charge against me,” he started.
“There is no extant law in this country upon which the prosecution can predicate the charges against me. If there’s any, let my Lord read it out to me.
“So, I should not enter any defence in a charge that does not exist under any law in Nigeria. I urge you to release me today or grant me bail.”
Consequently, he shelved his initial request for the court to issue summons to compel certain persons to appear as his witnesses in the case.
Kanu, who has been in detention since 2021, had in a motion he personally signed and filed before the court, named several individuals that included serving Governors, Ministers, ex-Governors and Security Chiefs, among the 23 persons he intends to produce as his witnesses.
Describing them as vital and compellable witnesses in his case, Kanu, urged the court to grant him a 90-day period to enable him to open and conclude his defence.
He argued that expanding the initial six-day period the court gave for him to conclude his defence has become necessary in view of the number and status of the witnesses he intends to produce to give evidence in the case.
Among the proposed witnesses in the principal list he submitted before the court, included the Governor of Imo state, Hope Uzodimma; that of Lagos state, Babajide Sanwo-Olu; Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike; the immediate past Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami; as well as a former Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Tukur Buratai (rtd).
Others are the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi; the immediate past Governor of Abia State, Okezie Ikpeazu; a former Minister of Defence, Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (rtd); immediate past former Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, NIA, Ahmed Rufai Abubakar; as well as the former Director-General of the Department of State Services, DSS, Yusuf Bichi.
In the motion dated October 21 and marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/383/2015, Kanu equally hinted that he would call other persons whose names were not on the list he submitted.
However, he ditched the plan on Monday, a development that led the court to adjourn the matter till November 4, 5 and 6 for the adoption of final written addresses.
Before the case was adjourned however, trial Justice James Omotosho implored the IPOB leader to consult experts in criminal law to explain the consequences of his decision.
It will be recalled that the court had earlier rejected a no-case-submission that Kanu filed to be discharged and acquitted.
The court dismissed his contention that the totality of evidence the prosecution tendered in the matter failed to establish a prima facie case against him.
Kanu argued that the five witnesses FG brought to testify before the court failed to prove that he committed any offence that is known to law.
Former US Vice President Kamala Harris said in a British television interview previewed Saturday that she may “possibly” run again to be president.
Harris, who replaced Joe Biden as the 2024 Democratic presidential candidate but lost to Donald Trump, told the BBC that she had not yet decided whether to make another White House bid.
But the 61-year-old insisted she was “not done” in American politics and that her young grandnieces would see a female president in the Oval Office “in their lifetime, for sure”.
“I have lived my entire career a life of service, and it’s in my bones, and there are many ways to serve,” Harris told the British broadcaster in an interview set to air in full on Sunday.
“I’ve not decided yet what I will do in the future, beyond what I am doing right now.”
The comments are the strongest hint yet that Harris could attempt to be the Democratic Party nominee for the 2028 election.
The interview follows the release of her memoir last month in which she argued it had been “recklessness” to let Biden run for a second term as president.
She also accused his White House team of failing to support her while she was his deputy, and at times of actively hindering her.
