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3, July 2017

President Buhari’s Health: Aisha returns to London ⁰

Nigerian first lady, Aisha Buhari has reportedly traveled to the UK today Monday the 3rd of July 2017 to see her husband, President Muhammadu Buhari for the second. Rumour circulated late yesterday that Buhari had died in a London hospital.

According to a statement made public by Suleiman Haruna, Aisha Buhari’s Director of Information, Madam Buhari the wife of the President left for London, United Kingdom on Sunday, July 2, 2017 to visit her husband.

The statement also stated that Aisha Buhari will convey to the President the best wishes of the Nigerian people and their fervent prayers for his speedy recovery. Buhari’s wife will make a stopover in Addis Ababa to attend a meeting of the Organization of African First Ladies Against HIV / AIDS (OAFLA).

The big man himself left Nigeria on May the 7th for medical reasons. No date has so far been announced for the return of Buhari to Nigeria.

By Chi Prudence Asong
Cameroon Concord News

3, July 2017

Trump disapproval rating nearing 60% again ⁰

US President Donald Trump’s disapproval rating appears to be on the path to reach 60 percent, a Gallup’s daily tracking poll shows. The 57-percent disapproval rating the president currently enjoys is slightly lower that his 60 percent record in mid-June, showed results of the Gallup poll released Sunday.

The past two Democratic presidents, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, never reached a 60 percent disapproval in the Gallup survey but Republican President George W. Bush managed to reach the 60 percent disapproval mark after almost five years in the White House.

Thirty-seven percent of those surveyed in the latest poll, said they still approve of the job Trump is doing. Having a margin of error of 3 percentage points, the poll was conducted among approximately 1,500 American adults via telephone.

According to a RealClear Politics average of polls, 54.5 percent of the Americans disapprove of the president’s job performance while 40 percent approve of it. A Gallup poll in May suggested that Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, gets less negative ratings than her father.

“Virtually all Americans are familiar with Donald Trump, with only 1% having no opinion of the president. Ivanka Trump is less familiar, though still well-known to Americans, with 16% saying they have never heard of or have no opinion of her,” Gallup said.

Source: Presstv

2, July 2017

Germany wins Confederations Cup ⁰

If Germany retain the World Cup next year, then perhaps this was the night that laid the groundwork. Chile will ask themselves how they lost this Confederations Cup final after they missed a number of chances and let in Lars Stindl for the winning goal with a defensive slip. But it was a triumphant night for Joachim Low and a group of players he opted to test run this summer ahead of the bigger challenge in 2018; he now has 11 months to sift through a more battle-hardened set of options than any other international coach has at his disposal.

Chile started at a ferocious tempo and carved Germany open within five minutes. Excellent work from Arturo Vidal freed Charles Aranguiz but, with the midfielder poised to pull the trigger, Antonio Rudiger executed a perfect tackle. The ball stayed alive and Vidal’s low drive was kept out by the legs of Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

The early onslaught continued, Vidal and Eduardo Vargas both trying their luck. It was near-incessant pressure and in the 19th minute Alexis Sanchez missed a glorious chance. He seemed certain to convert after Ter Stegen parried from Vidal but, perhaps taking his eye off the ball, failed to make a clean contact.

Within seconds Sanchez was made to pay. Germany had barely laid a glove on Chile but took the lead with a gift of a goal, Marcelo Diaz allowing Timo Werner to rob him of possession just outside his own box. Werner squared to Stindl for the simplest of tap-ins; nobody could say this turn of events had seemed remotely likely.

It was a shock to Chile; they began to huff and puff, and Leon Goretzka might twice have doubled Germany’s lead before half-time. First the in-form Schalke player fired across goal from Sebastian Rudy’s smart pass, then he was denied well by Claudio Bravo after Julian Draxler had capitalised on another lapse.

Draxler, surging through before a lunging Gonzalo Jara deflected his shot wide, threatened 10 minutes into the second half and Germany looked more than capable of picking off their older opponents on the counter. Chile were becoming fractious and Jara received a let-off when, after appearing to elbow Werner, a lengthy VAR review led to nothing more than a yellow card.

Tempers raised even further when, 15 minutes from time, Sanchez went down in the box after colliding with Rudy. Vidal shot over from the loose ball but Chile’s players furiously claimed a penalty and urged referee Milorad Mazic to review using the VAR. To their disgust, he failed to oblige although more conventional replays suggested Sanchez did not have a case.

Chile rallied for one last push, Ter Stegen tipping wide from Aranguiz, and then they missed their final big chance. Substitute Angelo Sagal had a gaping net to fire into when fellow replacement Edson Puch squared past a committed Ter Stegen, but he blazed over and with that wayward finish went his side’s hopes.

Source: ESPNFC

2, July 2017

Biya stays away from AU summit in Ethiopia ⁰

President Biya has failed again to represent Cameroon at the 29th African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The 84 year old dictator decided to send as his personal representative, Philemon Yang, the so-called Prime Minister and Head of the Cameroonian government.

The AU summit that started since on Tuesday, the 27th of June, 2017 will come to a close on the 4th of July. Heads of state and government are expected to arrive tomorrow Monday the 3rd of July 2017 at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa for the conclusive phase of the 29th AU summit.

The draft resolutions taken during the committee’s work since last Tuesday, June 27, will be subject to appreciation and adoption by the Heads of State and Government during the Conference and as usual, President Biya will not be attending.

The search for ways and means to combat the economic and security crisis that is going through some member countries and the reform of the AU are the main subjects on the agenda of the Conference of Heads of State and Government. It is also the first outing of the Chadian, Moussa Faki Mahamat, elected six months ago as head of the AU Commission to replace the South African Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

By Rita Akana
Cameroon Intelligence Report

2, July 2017

West Cameroon still in shock over death of former Mayor of Tinto, Baiye Oscar Steelcam ⁰

The population of West Cameroon, especially Manyus and Bakweris in the South West Region are still in shock days after news was made public that one of their illustrious sons had passed to eternity.

Enow Baiye Oscar, Former Mayor of Tinto Council and CEO of STEELCAM died at a community clinic in Tiko, Fako Division, South West Region of Cameroon.

Hospital sources say Steelcam died of cardiac related issues. The deceased was a political heavyweight, a successful businessman and a family person who was well respected.

STEELCAM as he was fondly called is said to be related to Hon. Enow Tanjong, Cameroon’s eldest Member of Parliament and also to Prof Enow Tanjong of the University of Buea.

Source: National Telegraph

2, July 2017

In swipe at Trump, Obama warns against ‘aggressive’ nationalism ⁰

Former US President Barack Obama warns against “aggressive” nationalism and President Donald Trump’s decision to leave the Paris climate agreement. Obama made the remarks on Saturday at the Fourth Congress of the Indonesian Diaspora in Jakarta while he and his family were there on holiday.

“We start seeing a rise in sectarian politics. We start seeing a rise in an aggressive kind of nationalism. We start seeing both in developed and developing countries an increased resentment about minority groups and the bad treatment of people who don’t look like us or practice the same faith as us.”

After taking office in January, Trump issued a travel ban against people from predominantly Muslim countries. The ban and its second version were both blocked by two federal judges. However, on Thursday the US Supreme Court allowed the ban to be enforced pending a full hearing in October.

Trump insists his ban is necessary for national security, but critics have called the ban discriminatory against Muslims. Obama also touched upon the Paris climate accord and the US withdrawal from it which provoked national and international criticism. “In Paris, we came together around the most ambitious agreement in history to fight climate change,” he said, adding the deal “will still give our children a fighting chance.”

He also talked about democracy and freedom of press amid Trump’s continuous barrage of criticism against US media. “If we don’t stand up for tolerance and moderation and respect for others, if we begin to doubt ourselves and all that we have accomplished, then much of the progress that we have made will not continue,” Obama said.
“What we will see is more and more people arguing against democracy, we will see more and more people who are looking to restrict freedom of the press, and we’ll see more intolerance, more tribal divisions, more ethnic divisions, and religious divisions and more violence,” he added.

Trump has recently criticized major US media outlets including CNN, ABC, The New York Times and The Washington Post. He has also launched a personal attack against two MSNBC hosts, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, which was condemned by both Democrats and Republicans alike.

Source: Presstv

2, July 2017

The Holy Father Pope Francis replaces top conservative cardinal ⁰

Pope Francis has refused to extend the mandate of the head of the Vatican office that handles sex abuse cases, replacing the conservative cardinal who is said to have been “at odds” with the pontiff’s attempts to create a more inclusive Church. In a brief Vatican statement on Saturday, Pope Francis appointed the deputy of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, as the new head of the office, declining to renew the five-year mandate of Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, its former head.

The 69-year-old Mueller allegedly had frequent clashes with the Pope over key reform issues, criticizing the pontiff’s openness to allowing civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion. The German cardinal had also censured parts of a 2016 papal treatise called “Amoris Laetitia” (The Joy of Love), a cornerstone document of Francis’ attempts to make the 1.2 billion-member Church more inclusive and less condemning, according to Reuters.
Mueller’s successor, the 73-year-old Ladaria from Spain had been appointed to the CDF by former Pope Benedict in 2008 and is said to be a soft-spoken person. “They (Ladaria and the Pope) speak the same language, and Ladaria is someone who is meek. He does not agitate the pope and does not threaten him,” said a priest who works in the Vatican and knows both Mueller and Ladaria, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Clearly, the Pope and Cardinal Mueller have not been on the same page for five years.”

The head of the CDF enjoys the most important position in the Vatican hierarchy after the Secretary of State, and most incumbents keep the post until they retire at the traditional age of 75. Mueller had been appointed to the powerful department by former Pope Benedict in 2012. In another major shakeup of the Vatican’s administration, the Pope granted a Vatican finance chief, Cardinal George Pell, a leave of absence from his position to return to his native Australia to face trial on sexual assault charges.

The Roman Catholic Church has been hit by numerous scandals in the past few years, involving allegations of covering up the sexual abuse of children by priests to protect pedophiles and the reputation of the Church. The issue of abuses being concealed by the Church has left many child rights defenders, including Christians, disgruntled by the Church and has put Church authorities on the defensive.

Pope Francis, who was appointed in 2013 with a plan to overhaul the Vatican, has warned that there will be “no privileges” for bishops when it comes to child sex offenses. The pontiff also promised more action in response to accusations of cover-up and excessive leniency by the Vatican.

Source: Presstv

1, July 2017

Kanu Nwankwo says Tiote’s death is a lesson to all of us ⁰

Former Super Eagles striker, Kanu Nwankwo, has urged Africans to become more aware of heart-related diseases, following the untimely death of Ivory Coast international, Cheick Tiote.

Tiote collapsed and died last month while training with his Chinese club, Beijing Enterprises. Kanu recalled how Cameroon’s Marc-Vivien Foe slumped and passed away, while playing at the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup.

The 40-year-old who established the Kanu Heart Foundation, also revealed his plans to build five specialist hospitals across five African nations including Nigeria. “I’m talking to friends so we can do something to create awareness to try to help children in Africa,” Kanu told BBCSport.

“Tiote’s death was not good news. It’s not the first time it is happening. “We lost Marc-Vivien Foe. He died and nothing was done. Tiote is gone and nothing is being done. “One man cannot do everything. What happened to Tiote is a lesson to us all. We can’t let it go on like this.

“We should talk more about it, information needs to get out there because the problem is huge. “Our dream is to build a hospital in Nigeria and four other countries in Africa. “The funds have been the issue but if we can make it happen it’s going to help a lot because right now we are taking the kids to India and it cost a lot.”

Source: Daily Post

1, July 2017

London: President Buhari on track to spend exorbitant amount of Nigerian money ⁰

A Nigerian presidential jet that transported President Muhammadu Buhari to the UK for treatment has been stationed in London for more than two months raising questions about its cost to the state. Cameroon Intelligence Report understands the official airplane of President Muhammadu Buhari has been in a small airport nearer the city of London for more than fifty days with the cost of parking estimated at thousands of dollars in daily charges.

President Buhari’s spokesman was quoted as saying that the head of state’s comfort is a top priority. “You are dealing with the president of Nigeria and in all the countries of the world, no one abandons the president. There must be a possibility for a quick return or an evacuation, “he said.

“No one should do that.” Nobody is doing this. The Nigerian Armed Forces represented by the Nigerian Air Force, who runs the President’s plane, have a duty to be with their Commander-in-Chief, wherever he is,” he added.

The biggest doubts hang over the health status of Muhammadu Buhari aged 74. Nothing is being said of his bill of health ever since the retired soldier traveled to London in May for medical reasons. Earlier this year, Mr. Buhari spent nearly two months in the UK for health concerns.

By Chi Prudence Asong

1, July 2017

Biya receives Cameroonian-born Burkinabe envoy ⁰

The Cameroonian dictator, Paul BIYA has held talks with a special envoy of President Roch Marc Christian KABORE. Biya met with Cameroonian-born Thierry Hot, Special Adviser to the Burkinabe President on Thursday 29 June 2017 at the Unity Palace.

Thierry Hot was bearer of a fraternal message linked to ongoing measures to bolster bilateral ties between Yaounde and Ouagadougou.

President Paul BIYA and his Burkinabe counterpart initially met on Friday 23 September 2016. The meeting was on the side-lines of the 71st United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Thus, Thierry Hot’s stay at the Unity Palace is a continuation of consultations based on the engagements taken by both leaders to enhance cooperation.

Source: PRC