Alkasim Abdulkadir is the media assistant to the minister of foreign affairs Ambassador Yusuf Maitama-Tuggar
Alkasim Abdulkadir @alkayy
Traoré Receives President Tinubu’s Delegation Led by Ambassador Tuggar, @YusufTuggar Reaffirms Commitment to Stronger Nigeria–Burkina Faso Relations
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has dispatched a high-powered delegation to Burkina Faso, led by Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Tuggar. On Wednesday, Ambassador Tuggar delivered a message of solidarity and fraternity from President Tinubu to the President of Burkina Faso, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, as both sides considered avenues for deepening bilateral relations and strengthening integration within the regional bloc.
Talks held in Ouagadougou centred on advancing political, security, and economic cooperation, with particular emphasis on coordinated responses to regional security challenges and collective action through existing sub-regional frameworks. In the same spirit of constructive engagement, the two governments amicably resolved the issue concerning Nigerian Air Force pilots and crew, reinforcing mutual confidence and highlighting the effectiveness of dialogue in addressing sensitive matters.
President Traoré welcomed the Nigerian delegation and conveyed his appreciation to President Tinubu for the message of goodwill. He acknowledged the long-standing ties between Nigeria and Burkina Faso and emphasized the importance of closer collaboration, particularly in addressing shared security and development challenges across the Sahel and the wider West African region.
Ambassador Tuggar reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to good neighbourliness and sustained engagement with Burkina Faso, noting that Nigeria remains firmly supportive of initiatives aimed at strengthening regional cohesion, peace, and economic integration. He reiterated President Tinubu’s readiness to work closely with Burkina Faso in advancing stability and development.
Both sides agreed to sustain regular consultations and pursue practical measures to deepen bilateral cooperation and regional integration, reflecting a shared resolve to promote peace, unity, and stability in the sub-region.
The delegation also met with the detained crew who were in high spirits.
Members of the Nigerian delegation included Ambassador Mohammed Mohammed, Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency; Air Vice Marshal A. Y. Abdullahi, Chief of Policy and Plans, Nigerian Air Force; Ambassador Olawale Emmanuel Awe, Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to ECOWAS; and Ambassador Wahab Akande, Chief of Protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Alkasim Abdulkadir Special Assistant on Media to HMFA Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Tuggar (OON)
Traoré Receives President Tinubu’s Delegation Led by Ambassador Tuggar, @YusufTuggar Reaffirms Commitment to Stronger Nigeria–Burkina Faso Relations
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has dispatched a high-powered delegation to Burkina Faso, led by Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign… pic.twitter.com/gdZ7WzW1Cd
I wore this badge with pride for 15 years. From a 17-year-old boy answering every call 🇳🇬 to becoming the most capped Super Eagle with 111 appearances. AFCON champion 🏆 Nigeria’s highest World Cup goalscorer ⚽️ Captain. Servant. Believer.
I gave everything. Thank you Nigeria… my heart will always beat green. 🦅🇳🇬
Trump threatens military operations in Colombia and Mexico
The US president stated that if the situation does not change, “Petro is next”. He also threatened to invade Mexico and impose special tariffs on Mexican products if Mexico did not provide more water.
December 16, 2025 by Pablo Meriguet
Many believe that the US military deployment in the Caribbean could be seeking even more than what many believe to be its primary agenda of pressuring the Venezuelan government to resign and thus reposition itself as the main beneficiary of the South American country’s oil.
Recent statements by US President Donald Trump seem to affirm these fears. According to the Republican leader, “[Gustavo] Petro is going to get into big trouble if he doesn’t wake up… Colombia is a major drug producer… If Petro doesn’t open his eyes, he’ll be next. I hope he’s listening.”
Trump also stated that ground attacks against “narco-terrorists” will take place “very soon”, and that they will not only happen on Venezuelan soil, which has set off alarms throughout Latin America.
In an interview on December 9, Trump also said he would be willing to order attacks on Mexican territory.
The statements come after the recent armed seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker carrying fuel to Cuba, which has been denounced by Caracas and Havana, claiming that the action constitutes “international piracy” and “theft”.
In this way, Washington seems to be gradually abandoning all caution with its operations in Latin America, moving toward an open warning against Latin American presidents who are not to its liking.
The response of Petro and Sheinbaum
In response to what many are calling a “threat” by the United States to Colombian sovereignty, President Petro told his Council of Ministers, “Trump is a man who is very misinformed about Colombia. This leads him to make statements and take actions that cannot be directed at a president who was democratically elected by the majority of Colombian society.”
In addition, the Colombian president, in a measured and diplomatic tone, personally invited Trump to see the reality of the South American country with his own eyes: “Let Trump come to Colombia to see firsthand and in reality what cocaine laboratories are like. Let him see how nine laboratories are destroyed every day.”
Furthermore, on X, Petro stated that his government’s efforts in the fight against drug trafficking are backed up by hard facts: “There have been more than 1,446 ground battles against the mafia carried out by our military forces during my government and 13 bombings in an attempt to locate their leaders, many of these battles with shared military intelligence. My government has seized 2,700 tons of cocaine, the largest seizure in world history. That is 32 billion doses that did not reach the US or other consumer countries.”
Finally, he referred to the US Army’s bombing of boats: “But it is not true that missiles fired at boatmen are fighting narco-terrorists, when the boatmen are poor people and when there is no international sea in the Caribbean and when the drug lords live on yachts near Dubai, in Madrid, etc. I have requested a plan to fight and pursue the capital and assets of drug traffickers worldwide.”
Criticizing Trump’s move to pardon former Honduran president and convicted narco-trafficker Juan Orlando Hernández, Petro added, “It is not by pardoning them; I do not agree with those decisions. Negotiating sentences with drug traffickers is the job of the justice system, not governments. If we can save lives, all the better, but the goal is to dismantle the drug trade, not encourage it.”
For her part, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum also referred to the recent statements by the US president and rejected them outright. “I would never accept foreign intervention. It’s not going to happen,” the president told reporters on December 10.
In addition, Trump said in recent days that he is considering imposing a 5% special tariff on Mexican imports in light of a long-standing dispute between the two countries over water in the Rio Grande, Colorado, and Tijuana river basins. Trump threatened economic measures if Mexico does not release 200,000 acre-feet of water, or about 65 billion gallons, to the United States by the end of 2025.
In a clearly conciliatory tone, Sheinbaum said that both governments will find a solution “that does not obviously put the population and agricultural production in Mexico at risk, but that also allows us to help the United States,” although she also clarified that it is impossible to immediately satisfy Trump’s demand due to the limitations of the pipeline that carries water from Mexico to the United States.
INDEPENDENT CORRUPT PRACTICES AND OTHER RELATED OFFENCES COMMISSION (ICPC)
Tuesday 16th December, 2025
MEDIA RELEASE
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) writes to confirm that it received a formal petition today Tuesday 16th December, 2025 from Alhaji Aliko Dangote through his lawyer. The petition is against the CEO of the NMDPRA, Alhaji Farouk Ahmed.
The ICPC wishes to state that the petition will be duly investigated.
gulfer: Funny that Nigerian police cannot distinguish between privacy glass and standard tinted glass. 👇
They used to (I'm not sure if they still do). Some years ago tinted glass was completely banned (and at the beginning of the renewed enforcement policemen were even helping people to remove it), while privacy glass was allowed, but you need to get a permit for it.
The way the restriction is enforced has changed over the years. When the order was first made c1990 there was nothing like tint permit. Everybody was mandated to remove tinted windows or privacy glass. The issue of tint permit came much later.
This is another issue that I saw live. I watched as it unfolded and I remember exactly what happened.
Tinted car windows became very popular in the mid-1980s. All kinds of people had heavily tinted glasses. I am not referring to the kind of tinted glasses that we have today, I mean car glasses that were so dark that you could not see the people inside the car, even if you placed your eyes right beside the glass.
All kinds of people used tinted glasses. I told you about a presidential bodyguard that was my friend. He drove various types of Peugeot 504 cars and almost all of them had tinted glasses. I also told you about a guy that was the son of one of the wealthiest people in Nigeria at the time. He drove a red Peugeot 505 Evolution and it also had tinted glasses.
All kinds of government officials, security officials and wealthy private individuals used tinted glass vehicles in the 1980s.
Then the NTA did a special report on the 9 o'clock news sometime in 1989 or 1990. The report highlighted the dangers of tinted glasses. They said that some were so dark that they impaired the vision of the drivers. More importantly, they said that criminals could use tinted glasses to evade detection. They showed footage of various cars with tinted glasses on the streets of Lagos.
The next day a statement came from government and it banned everybody from using tinted glasses. The only exceptions were the president (General Babangida) and the chief of general staff (Admiral Aikhomu).
Interestingly, Babangida and Aikhomu had used tinted glass vehicles in the mid-1980s (1987, 1988), but that stopped sometime around 1988. They had used regular Peugeot 504s when they used tinted glasses, but Babangida began using the W100 Mercedes limousine in 1988 and it didn't have tinted glasses. The Peugeot 505 limousine and W124 limousines that he used from 1989 to 1993 also did not have tinted glasses.
The order was formalised in 1991 when a decree was issued. It is that decree that the police is enforcing today.
The NTA went one step further and I was really interested in seeing what would happen.
The NTA did a special report about blinding lights.
You see, many senior government officials and senior military officials lived in Ikoyi in the 1980s. It became common that you would see very powerful security lights at the gates of the houses of these officials. These lights were incredibly powerful.
The NTA said that these lights were a danger to motorists. They could easily blind motorists and cause car crashes.
One of the reasons that I wanted to see what the government would do was because the Presidency was also guilty.
I have driven towards State House Ribadu Road as late as 7:20 in the morning in the 1980s and you could not see the gate at all because of the blinding lights that were there.
Politics › Videos And Photos Of Tuggar In Burkina Faso For Release Of Air Force Personnel by naptu2(op): 1:37am On Dec 18, 2025
