₦airaland Forum

DAILY POST recalls that Gen Tsiga was kidnapped on Wednesday night following the invasion of his residence in Katsina State by over 100 gunmen.

According to a member representing Bakori/Danja federal constituency Katsina State, Abdullahi Balarabe Dabai, the attackers after surrounding the house, began to break doors, a situation that prompted the general to come out and asked them what they were looking for.

Security operatives had launched a manhunt for his release from the captivity of the assailants.

A source close to the family who preferred anonymity, told Daily Trust on Friday that the family was contacted and N250 million was requested.

The Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS, Christine Stegling, while addressing reporters in Geneva said although a waiver was placed on HIV/AIDS programmes in last month’s US foreign aid funding freeze, many concerns remained about the future of treatment programmes.

“There is a lot of confusion, especially on the community level, how the waiver will be implemented. We’re seeing a lot of disruption of delivery of treatment services,” Stegling said.

DAILY POST reports that Trump put hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of foreign aid donations on hold for 90 days upon taking office on January 20.

However, in the following days, the US State Department issued a waiver on the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, PEPFAR, the world’s leading HIV initiative, for life-saving humanitarian assistance.

While welcoming the waiver, Stegling stressed the situation remains chaotic.

Amid a broader decline of funding, Stegling warned there would be a 400% increase in AIDS deaths if PEPFAR financial support is not re-authorized between 2025 and 2029.

“That’s 6.3 million people, 6.3 million AIDS-related deaths that will occur in future…Any penny, any cut, any pause, will matter for all of us.

“In Ethiopia, we have 5,000 public health worker contracts that are funded by U.S. assistance. And all of these have been terminated,” she said, urging UN member states to step in.

She also highlighted that community clinics were facing the biggest interruption as they are entirely dependent on US government funding.

She expressed concern that some people may not come forward for treatment, which could in turn increase new HIV infections.

This was made known on Thursday by the Executive Chairman of the Bauchi State Primary Health Care Development Board, Dr Rilwanu Mohammed.

Mohammed, who spoke during an advocacy visit by members of the Civil Society Organisation, Journalists for Public Health and Development Initiative, stated that the suspension activities has impacted the distribution of family planning commodities.

According to him, the suspension has led to challenges in ensuring a steady supply of family planning commodities to health facilities in Bauchi State.

“However, with the suspension of their activities, these facilities are now facing stockouts, in spite of the increasing demand for family planning services at the community level,” he added.

He, however, stated that the board was making moves by holding meetings to ensure that family planning commodities reached all health facilities in the state.

Mohammed, who expressed regret over the suspension of USAID’s activities, emphasized the negative impact on family planning services in the state.

The left-back, one of the most decorated players in history, played 58 times for Brazil.

After coming through the ranks of Brazilian club Fluminense, Marcelo joined Real Madrid in 2007 at the age of 18.

He won 25 pieces of major silverware in 15 years at the Bernabeu, including five Champions League titles and six La Liga titles.

"At 18, Real Madrid knocked on my door and I arrived here. Now, I can proudly say that I am a true Madrileno," Marcelo said in a video on his social media.

"Sixteen seasons, 25 titles, five Champions Leagues, one of the captains and so many magical nights at the Bernabeu. What a journey!

"My journey as a player ends here, but I still have so much to give to football. Thank you for everything."

Marcelo was named club captain in 2021, becoming the first non-Spaniard to be given the armband at the club in 117 years.

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez said: "Marcelo is one of the greatest left-backs in the history of Real Madrid and world football, and we have had the privilege of enjoying him for a long time.

"He is one of our greatest legends and Real Madrid is and will always be his home."

He left Madrid at the end of the 2021-22 season to join Greek side Olympiacos, but terminated his deal just five months after joining.

Marcelo re-joined boyhood club Fluminense in 2023 and spent two seasons back at the club, making 68 appearances.

The full-back left by mutual consent last November, following a public falling out with manager Mano Menezes.

Netanyahu called Trump’s plan, which would involve relocating hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, “the first good idea’’ he has heard, during an interview with Fox News late on Wednesday.

He framed the plan as a temporary relocation for the benefit of the residents, in spite of critics arguing that it could lead to the permanent displacement of around two million people.

Netanyahu backed the idea of allowing Gazans who want to leave to leave.

“I mean, what’s wrong with that? They can leave, and they can then come back, they can relocate and come back. But you have to rebuild Gaza.’’

Trump’s proposal offers the chance to “create a different future for everyone.’’

Following a meeting with Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday, Trump left many observers stunned by saying the U.S. would take over the Gaza Strip.

That he supports that the Palestinians living in the territory should be relocated to other countries.

Trump added that Gaza could become the Riviera of the Middle East where anyone, including Palestinians, could live.

The devastating war in Gaza was triggered by the attacks led by the Palestinian militant organisation Hamas on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

In the attack, 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 abducted.

The coastal strip is in ruins and experiencing a humanitarian catastrophe.

More than 47,400 people have been killed, according to the Hamas-controlled health authority.

The number does not distinguish between civilians and fighters.

“From now on women’s sports will be only for women,” Trump said before he signed the order at the White House, surrounded by dozens of children and female athletes.

“With this executive order the war on women’s sports is over.”

Top Republicans including US House Speaker Mike Johnson and firebrand Congresswoman Marjorie Green were among those in the audience to watch the signing ceremony.

“We will defend the proud tradition of female athletes, and we will not allow men to beat up, injure and cheat our women and our girls,” Trump added to applause and cheers.

Trump’s order allows US government agencies to deny funds to schools that allow transgender athletes to compete on women’s teams.

“If you let men take over women’s sports teams or invade your locker rooms, you will be investigated… and risk your federal funding,” Trump said.

Trump said he would now push the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to change its rules on transgender athletes before the 2028 Los Angeles games.

He said he had ordered Secretary of State Marco Rubio to “make it clear” to the IOC that “we want them to change everything having to do with the Olympics and having to do with this absolutely ridiculous subject.”

Trump added that he had directed Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem to deny visa applications to “made by men attempting to fraudulently enter the United States while identifying themselves as women athletes to try and get into the Games.”

Culture war

Republican Trump has repeatedly targeted gender non-conforming people in a blitz of orders pushing his radical right-wing agenda at the start of his second term.

At his inauguration speech, Trump announced that US government policy would only recognize two genders, male and female — ending the practice of providing a third gender option in some settings.

Days later Trump signed an order to rid the military of what he called “transgender ideology” and effectively ban transgender troops. He also issued an order to restrict gender transition procedures for people under age 19.

The slew of actions comes despite the fact that transgender people make up only a small minority of the US population.

During the 2024 election campaign he repeatedly hammered Democrats on the divisive issue of transgender rights during the 2024 election campaign, capitalizing on a broader culture war over the topic.

One of Trump’s most successful attack lines against his election rival Kamala Harris — “Kamala Harris is for they/them. President Trump his for you” — targeted her support for trans rights.

Trump also targeted her one-time support for gender reassignment operations for prisoners.

His executive order on Wednesday comes after the Republican-led House of Representatives in January passed a bill severely restricting transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.

As transgender people have become a more visible presence in the United States, sparking questions around gender norms and fairness, many conservatives have rallied around women’s sports.

“Trump thinks Gaza is a pile of garbage — absolutely not,” the 34-year-old said, attacking Trump’s choice of words when he told reporters last week of his plan to “clean out the whole thing”.

Calling him “delusional”, Azzam said that Trump “wants to force Egypt and Jordan to take in migrants, as if they were his personal farm”.

Both Egypt and Jordan have flatly rejected Trump’s idea, as have Gazans and other neighbouring countries.

Azzam’s outrage comes as Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are set to meet in Washington later Tuesday and discuss plans for the Palestinian territory ravaged by more than 15 months of war.

“Trump and Netanyahu must understand the reality of the Palestinian people and the people of Gaza. This is a people deeply rooted in their land — we will not leave,” Azzam told AFP.

Ihab Ahmed, another Rafah resident, deplored that Trump and Netanyahu “still don’t understand the Palestinian people” and their attachment to the land.

“We will remain on this land no matter what. Even if we have to live in tents and on the streets, we will stay rooted in this land,” the 30-year-old said.

Ahmed told AFP that Palestinians had learned lessons from the 1948 war that followed the British mandate, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were chased from their homes at the creation of Israel, and never allowed to return.

“The world must understand this message: we will not leave, as happened in 1948.”

-‘Owners of this land’-

Standing near crumbling buildings blocks destroyed by war in the northern Gaza city of Jabalia, Raafat Kalob is concerned about the consequences that the Trump-Netanyahu meeting will have on his life.

“I expect Netanyahu’s visit to Trump to reflect his future plans to forcibly displace the Palestinian people and redraw the Middle East,” he said.

“I sincerely hope this plan does not succeed.”

Behind him, rows of tents provided by charity organisations line a patch of land at the foot of concrete buildings whose facades still bear marks of war: bullet holes, blown away windows and facades stripped of their stone finishing.

In Jabalia and Gaza’s north, areas that were particularly hard-hit by the war, displaced Palestinians who returned after a ceasefire took effect on January 19 have taken residence in tents next to their destroyed homes.

Some were nevertheless optimistic, like Majid al-Zebda, a 50-year-old resident of Jabalia.

Trump “will pressure Netanyahu to end this war” permanently, he said.

The first phase of the ceasefire brought a fragile end to fighting in Gaza and started the process of a hostage and prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas, but negotiations have yet to begin for a permanent end to war.

Zebda, a father of six who lost his home in the war, said neither he nor any Gazan would leave the coastal territory.

“We are the owners of this land; we have always been here, and will always be. The future is ours,” he said.

Beijing’s State Administration for Market Regulation said the US tech giant was “suspected of violating the Anti-Monopoly Law of the People’s Republic of China”.

It has “launched an investigation into Google in accordance with the law” as a result, the administration said in a statement.

It did not provide further details about the allegations against Google.

The US tech behemoth’s core search engine and many of its services are blocked in mainland China, where US internet titans have long struggled with doing business due to the “Great Firewall” that blocks politically sensitive content.

Google in 2011 abandoned its Chinese-language search engine in the mainland and transferred it to Hong Kong.

By 2014, China blocked the last remaining way to access Google’s email service Gmail.

Beijing also said Tuesday it would add US fashion group PVH Corp. — which owns Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein — and biotech giant Illumina to a list of “unreliable entities”.

The move would “safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests, in accordance with relevant laws”, China’s commerce ministry said in a statement.

“The above two entities violate normal market transaction principles, interrupt normal transactions with Chinese enterprises, and take discriminatory measures against Chinese enterprises,” it added.

China in September said it was investigating PVH for an “unreasonable” boycott of cotton from its Xinjiang region, where Beijing is accused of widespread rights violations.

AFP has reached out to all three firms for comment.

The United States on Saturday announced sweeping measures against major trade partners, with goods from China facing an additional 10 percent tariff on top of existing duties.

Trump said the measures aimed to punish countries for failing to halt flows of illegal migrants and drugs including fentanyl into the United States.

Kafirbigot:
You are a definite mumu. Where is the SW included in that map? I showed you the exact demarcation of the tribes and the IGBO dominated landscape that stretches to the sea'( e shock you abi) ?

You are talking SS as if SS is a TRIBE? Are you really mentally OK?

Na so una dey mumu una sef for public.

What will happen will shock you cunts into submission.

Na time ..and It will happen

BIAFRA..so beautiful.. HYPERTENSION wan kpai una.

Kafirbigot:
Gladly...

1st Map ... With other ND Tribes..

I prefer the second map...


2nd Map.....With Only IGBO speaking and direct kindreds, related by language and Blood ties.

Igbo and Uhrobo.. itsekiri..Ijaw...don't share anything in common. So don't add them.

So enjoy the map..

Remember: It was called Bight if BIAFRA, before it was Changed to gulf of Guinea.

Kafirbigot:
That question is very simple..

BIAFRA has a map..and the outlay is still the same. Is that question meant to be intelligent as you claim?

Omo...brain dey leak for NL ooo!

The leadership of the groups which came under the auspices of BIM/MASSOB, in a letter sent to the US leader, said the recognition is necessary and the only solution for lasting peace in Nigeria.

In the appeal letter issued on Saturday and signed by the Director of Information/Senior Special Assistant to BIM-MASSOB on Media and Publicity, Mazi Chris Mocha, the group said it supports the reported “tough measures taken by the United States against Nigeria, including the planned deportation of illegal immigrants and the ordering of the sale of private jets and properties allegedly owned by Nigerian politicians, among others.”

“BIM-MASSOB, known for non-violence and non-exodus methods of agitating for the freedom of the oppressed people of over fifty million people, believes that since Trump recognised Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, a similar ‘Executive Order’ should also be extended to Biafra,” the letter reads.

“We believe God saved Mr. Donald Trump’s life for the betterment of world politics by stopping all raging wars and, in addition, righting the wrongs of past leaders that have hitherto remained unresolved and buried for over a hundred years now.

“Biafra, which is the 46th member nation of the UNPO, is still looking up to America for its emancipation from political slavery in Nigeria without being hypocritical any further on the issue.”

Oakenshield:
Patel mocked Nigeria security saying 'he was scared authorities will shot them down' 🤣😂🤣😂🤣 which air defense capabilities do we have answer is zero

pazienza:
Anioma are not Minorities in Delta.
They occupy the biggest land and have the biggest population too.
They host the capital city and are the most educated and influential group in the state.
The Igbo spirit of excellence rests on them and stands them out.

And by the way, no well breast fed Igbo wants anything to do with Minorities, only mentally challenged IPOB and her membership are thinking of such abomination of tying Ndiigbo down to a group of people filled with Igbophobia and Igbo resentment.
Most mentally stable Igbos are only interested in Igbo speaking people scattered in 13 states of Nigeria spread between SE, SS and NC.

ValarDoharis:
But I'm from Delta and I'm Igbo!

He said failure to do this, the former VP should immediately apologize to opposition leaders over claims that they are taking funds from the ruling party.

DAILY POST reported that Atiku had recently claimed that the Tinubu Government is paying some opposition members/leaders N50m to destabilise the opposition parties.

Dantalle, who was a guest on Friday’s edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today, asked Atiku to apologise to the opposition leaders over the bribery claims.

“You have to be careful what you say so that you don’t unnecessarily hit up the polity.

“Yes, you have your information as Atiku Abubakar, but that is not enough for you to come out and say that all oppositions, or all members of the opposition family, are collecting N50 million,” he said.

“As far as I know, my party the Allied People’s Movement and today, I am managing the Secretariat of the umbrella body of all the political parties in Nigeria, there is no national chairman, no leader anywhere collecting any money that I know.

“If you are coming out to say, okay, fine, so, so and so are collecting the money, to give a lead to what you are saying, it is different.

“You have succeeded in creating mutual suspicion. So what I think Atiku Abubakar should do, with all due respect, is to either apologize publicly to opposition leaders in totality, the same way he made this allegation, or he identify and mention opposition leaders who are involved in this rubbish.

“But for us in the Inter Party, Advisory Council, we are not aware of what Atiku is insinuating. Sincerely.

“Everything and anything is possible in politics. But what I’m saying, I’m restricting this to the Inter Party Advisory Council, that’s the 19 registered political parties that I know today, there is no such sign that anybody has collected N50m.

“I’ve Been speaking with the leaders of all the other opposition parties. I’ve spoken to the national chairman of SDP, I’ve spoken to national chairman of YPP, I’ve spoken to national chairman of PRP, national chairman of AA, national chairman of NRM and everybody seemed to be angry.

“It came to a point when I was not talking and it seemed as if I was involved in some of these things. It is embarrassing. And sincerely, we need an apology from the former Vice President or he should come out to identify and mention the people involved.

“In this situation, he claimed that ‘some opposition leaders’, it is possible that some persons want to get money from Atiku and they went to him and say ‘okay, this is what this person is giving us, so you can give us something like that’.

“It will be fair to all of us in the opposition family that you mention or identify the people who are involved in this, because I don’t know who is giving such money, and I don’t know who is collecting it.

“I’m saying this between me and God. This is capable of hitting up the polity unnecessarily. So as an elder statesman and as a leader, you are not supposed to make this kind of utterance, because you are hitting up the polity unnecessarily.

“He will be helping us if he identifies these persons, even if he doesn’t want to mention directly, he can use a proxy to mention the people involved, or the parties or the leaders involved in this thing,” he stated.

The All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, had earlier asked Abubakar to provide evidence backing his claims that the APC bribes opposition parties with N50m.

ValarDoharis:
A proper legitimate democratic governments will do referendums, proper boundary adjustments so that same people are not separated into two or more states by artificial borders. There are Igbos in Delta, Rivers, Benue. There are Ijaws in Delta, Bayelsa,
Ondo, Rivers. etc

Again, unity cannot be forced