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Trump has lowest approval for any president in their first year

18, January 2018

Trump has lowest approval for any president in their first year 0

US President Donald Trump wraps up a year in office with the lowest average approval rating of any elected president in his first year.

That is according to polling by Gallup, which shows that Trump has averaged just a 39 percent approval rating since his inauguration.

The previous low was held by former President Bill Clinton, whose first-year average stood 10 points higher than Trump’s, at 49 percent.

Recent surveys show most Americans view Trump as a divisive figure and even question his fitness for office.

One relative bright spot for Trump is his handling of the economy, though even there his ratings are not as high as might be expected given a relatively strong economy.

Trump’s current approval rating in Gallup’s weekly poll is comparable to his average rating, standing at just 38 percent, with 57 percent saying they disapprove.

The persistence of Trump’s first-year blues is unprecedented for a president so early in his term. Americans usually give their new presidents the benefit of the doubt, but Trump’s “honeymoon period”, to the extent he had one, saw his approval rating only get as high as 45 percent.

Since then, Trump has spent more time under 40 percent than any other first-year president.

Presidents have recovered from periods of low popularity before. For example, Clinton’s rating fell to just 37 percent in June 1993 before quickly regaining ground, and he went on to win re-election in 1996.

Former President Harry Truman held the approval of less than 40 percent of Americans for significant chunks of his first term and was also re-elected. He went on to set Gallup’s lowest-ever approval mark, at just 22 percent in 1952.

Trump’s lowest point in Gallup’s weekly polling – 35 percent– remains higher than those of several earlier presidents. Truman, Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter all had their ratings dip under 30 percent.

Aside from the economy, surveys have suggested few policy bright spots for Trump.

Healthcare has been a consistent low point. Seven in 10 Americans in the December AP-NORC poll said they disapproved of Trump’s handling of the issue, even as 85% called the issue very important to them personally.

In another AP-NORC poll conducted late in 2017, just 23 percent of Americans said he has kept the promises he made while running for president, while 30 percent said he has tried and failed and 45 percent said he has not done so at all. More than half said the country is worse off since Trump became president.

But it may be character more than policy that is driving negative opinions of Trump. In the January poll by Quinnipiac University, most voters said Trump is not level-headed, honest or even fit to serve as president.

And the AP-NORC poll conducted in December found that two-thirds of Americans thought the country has become even more divided as a result of Trump’s presidency.

In a July Gallup poll that asked those who disapproved of Trump for their reasons why, most cited his personality or character over issues, policies or overall job performance. That stood in stark contrast to Gallup’s polling on Obama in 2009 and George W Bush in 2001, when far fewer cited such concerns about personality or character as reasons for their negative opinions.

(Source: AP)


Yaounde: Francophone students auctioning President Biya’s laptop computers

18, January 2018

Yaounde: Francophone students auctioning President Biya’s laptop computers 0

Many French Cameroun students have reportedly auctioned the free lap top computers given to them by President Biya, Cameroon Concord News has learned from businessmen operating at the Kennedy Avenue in Yaoundé.

After the first phase of distribution of the computers recently, some students simply rushed to the Kennedy Avenue and offered them at give away prices to traders. Confirming the news on Wednesday January the 17th 2018, the French Cameroun triweekly L’oeil du Sahel reported that on the day of delivery, some students were already at the Avenue Kennedy to sell them.

A computer dealer at Kennedy Avenue hinted Cameroon Concord News that the PBHev computers are bought at a very low price. “Some students offer them for 55,000 FCFA while others are ready to exchange it for a modest sum of 39,000 FCFA.”

It was in the framework of the “Special youth plan” prescribed by the 84 year old Paul Biya, on February 10, 2016, that the Minister of Higher Education signed a convention agreement on July 27, 2016 in Yaoundé, with a Chinese company Sichuan Telecom Construction Engineering Co. Ltd called “e-national higher education”. Through this program, Paul Biya decided to implement a project “a student a computer.”

By Rita Akana


Menchum State: 2 Gendarmes killed in Weh

18, January 2018

Menchum State: 2 Gendarmes killed in Weh 0

According to the Wum Gendarmerie Company Commander in Menchum Division in Southern Cameroons, a Credit Union Microfinance Bank located at Weh village market some 7 km from Wum, the chief town in Menchum on the Nyos axis was attacked on the 16th of January 2018 by unidentified men.

Two of the five gendarmes guarding the premises of the bank were killed.  The Wum Gendarmerie Company identified the two as Constable Ndjameya Jean-Bosco (Class of 2013) and Peloton 905.

The Francophone dominated gendarmerie force also revealed that two other gendarmes were wounded during the aggression and one is in “a serious condition”.  Cameroon Intelligence Report was reliably informed that the weapons of the officers killed were carried away by the thugs.

Since the outbreak of the socio-political crisis in Southern Cameroons, security forces loyal to the regime in Yaoundé have been frequently attacked by Ambazonian militants in these areas.

www.cameroonintelligencereport.com


12 killed, 48 injured in suspected Boko Haram attack in Nigeria

17, January 2018

12 killed, 48 injured in suspected Boko Haram attack in Nigeria 0

Twelve people have been killed and 48 others wounded in an attack by suspected Boko Haram bombers on Nigeria’s northeastern city of Maiduguri.

Officials from the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) for Borno said two assailants struck a market in the Muna Garage area in the vicinity of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, on Wednesday afternoon.

Muna Garage, the site of a camp for displaced people, is a frequent target of Boko Haram attacks.

Witnesses reported that parts of the market were still ablaze in the wake of the assault.

More than 20,000 people have been killed since Boko Haram started its deadly campaign in northeast Nigeria in 2009. The violence has claimed many lives in neighboring countries of Chad, Niger, and Cameroon as well.

Boko Haram has been largely pushed out of its main strongholds in northern Nigeria, according to the country’s military and government. The group, however, is still active in its Sambisa Forest enclave in Borno and launches sporadic attacks on civilians and security forces from there.

On January 8, at least 20 loggers were killed near Maiduguri after Boko Haram Takfiri terrorists opened fire on them.

On Monday, a Boko Haram faction released a video purporting to show some of the girls abducted from a school in the town of Chibok in 2014, as well as a downed Nigerian helicopter and a group of policewomen captured last year.


Biya’s agent to visit Ambazonian refugees in Nigeria

17, January 2018

Biya’s agent to visit Ambazonian refugees in Nigeria 0

The National Executive Committee of the SDF has authorized Chairman Ni John Fru Ndi to visit Ambazonian refugees in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Cameroon Concord News has learned from SDF sources.

We gathered that it was one of the resolutions taken at the National Executive Committee meeting that held in Bamenda last weekend.  SDF executive members also resolved to appeal for the establishment of parliamentary commission of inquiry on the Southern Cameroons crisis and the release of those still detained by the francophone dominated army.

Discussions during the NEC forum also focused on the future of the current leader John Fru Ndi who has been at the helm of the party since its creation in May 1990. A majority of SDF militants and sympathizers have been calling on the Chairman to step down.

Information has filtered that contrary to what was reported by some Cameroonian media houses, Fru Ndi has indicated his willingness to seek a new term as the head of the party during the February 22nd convention.

By Rita Akana


Abduction of Ambazonian leaders in Abuja: The Nigerian Police Force  got it all wrong

17, January 2018

Abduction of Ambazonian leaders in Abuja: The Nigerian Police Force  got it all wrong 0

The Nigerian Police Force (NPF) recently sponsored an article in the Vanguard in which it claimed that the leaders of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia abducted last week in the capital city of Abuja flouted Nigerian laws by operating training camps deep inside the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The Vanguard story further pointed out that Southern Cameroonians were staging an “Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB-styled” revolution in Cameroon. The report stated that the leaders were arrested in both Taraba and Cross River states.
According to a Police source not cited by the publication “the government of Nigeria cannot be seen to be harbouring separatists from a neighbouring country like Cameroon when both countries are cooperating and jointly fighting to uproot Boko Haram terrorists who are insurgents trying to impose their own Islamic state in the North east.
In its ill-disguised attempt at misleading the Nigerian public opinion, the Vanguard noted that “It is common knowledge that the federal government of Nigeria recently clamped down on the illegal activities of the IPOB (Independent Peoples of Biafra). So how can the territory of Nigeria be used to train separatists to cause civil disobedience in such a friendly country?”
The Vanguard story also observed that the arrested Ambazonian leaders were caught red-handed within the training camps for separatist members for future confrontation with Cameroonian authorities. Vanguard confirmed that officials of Nigeria’s ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cameroon’s Embassy in Nigeria have held discussions over the arrest.
Ambazonians are of the opinion that the Nigerian Vanguard’s take on the ongoing crisis is shameful, disgusting and disgraceful. The reasons given by the Nigerian Police Force is also utterly wrong.  The revelation that the leaders were caught red-handed is mere whitewash.
The leader of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and his top aides were not arrested in Taraba and in Cross River State, but in Abuja. Correspondingly, a Nigerian Police Chief Inspector had issued a public statement informing Nigerians that there was  no incriminating evidence against the 39 Southern Cameroonians who were arrested in Taraba.
The Buhari administration, including the DSS, is very much aware that the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia is not engaged in any armed conflict with La Republique du Cameroun. The Interim Head of State, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, has made this position loud and clear in his public outings in Nigeria and in the West.
Linking the Southern Cameroons crisis to the IPOB and Boko Haram is also an inaccurate stereotype. Biafrans have not sought refugee status in another country as it is the case with Ambazonians in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The war against the Nigerian Islamic Sect, Boko Haram, is an international issue which includes troops from the United States of America, Chad and Niger. To be sure, the Joint Multinational Force combating Boko Haram is not a Nigerian- French Cameroun affair.  The Bakassi Peninsula is also an international issue. However, Nigerians are being slaughtered everyday in Bakassi by French Cameroun gendarmes and many have been killed ever since the beginning of the Southern Cameroons uprising. Is the Nigerian Police Force saying that these Nigerians living in Bakassi and the border areas of Southern Cameroons cannot be protected?
  
Understandably, Boko Haram is a money making venture for the Nigerian and French Cameroun political elites, including the Vanguard newspaper. Consequently, the so-called Upper Houses and Lower Houses of both countries will prolong the Boko Haram war as long as it gives them money.
In any case, if the Buhari administration had any grievances with the Ambazonian leaders, why abduct them? Why not go to court? Painting the Southern Cameroons struggle with the same battery of adjectives used on political Islam is completely unacceptable. The Nigerian Police Force got it all wrong.
By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai



Unrest in Ambazonia fuels cocoa smuggling to Nigeria

17, January 2018

Unrest in Ambazonia fuels cocoa smuggling to Nigeria 0

Unrest in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, the central African nation’s cocoa-growing heartland, is fuelling bean smuggling into neighbouring Nigeria, farmers and buyers said on Tuesday.

EKOK, Cameroon: Unrest in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, the central African nation’s cocoa-growing heartland, is fuelling bean smuggling into neighbouring Nigeria, farmers and buyers said on Tuesday.

Cameroon has been gripped by spiralling violence since November 2016, when government forces crushed a peaceful movement of Anglophone teachers and lawyers protesting against their perceived marginalisation by the French-speaking majority.

Violent clashes between separatists and security forces have cut many Cameroonian buyers off from parts of the Southwest region, source of roughly half of Cameroon’s total production which reached around 240,000 tonnes last season.

“Our usual buyers are scared. Some come, but they stop in towns like Mamfe and do not dare to venture further into villages that produce more cocoa,” said Takor, a cocoa farmer in Mamfe, who did not give his surname out of fear of retribution.

“Now we have buyers that come from Nigeria,” he said.

A Reuters reporter in the south-western town of Ekok saw bags of cocoa beans loaded on to pick-up trucks and into cars registered in Nigeria’s Cross River State.

Cocoa smuggling has long been an issue along the border. But Cameroonian farmers and buyers told Reuters that the crisis has aggravated the practice.

Smugglers, they said, are now paying higher prices for beans and venturing deeper into Cameroon, the world’s fifth biggest producer, to scoop up more of farmers’ output.

One farmer in the south-western village of Eyang Ntui said Nigerians paid between 850 and 1,000 CFA francs (£1.1-£1.3) per kilogram of beans. Cameroonian buyers were, meanwhile, paying around 600 CFA francs/kg, he said.

“The crisis has brought us closer together. It is easier to sell to the Nigerians who are near us,” said Mbeng, who farms 12 hectares of cocoa near Mamfe and also withheld his surname.

No estimate was available for the smuggled volumes, but Cameroonian farmers and buyers said the amounts were significant.

Farmer Georges Eyong said his cooperative had sold 53 tonnes of beans to Nigerian buyers this month.

A senior official with Cameroon’s sector regulator, the National Office for Cocoa and Coffee (ONCC), said it plans to curb cocoa smuggling by setting up check points along the Nigerian border.

“This is an illegal trade. We are not opposed to exporting Cameroonian cocoa, but exporters need to meet all the necessary terms and conditions,” said the official, who asked not to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the press.

www.channelnewsasia.com


Ambazonia: Nigerian House of Reps Reject Motion To Grant Full Protection To Cameroonian Refugees

17, January 2018

Ambazonia: Nigerian House of Reps Reject Motion To Grant Full Protection To Cameroonian Refugees 0

The House of Representatives on Tuesday at plenary rejected a motion urging the Federal Government to grant full protection to Cameroonian refugees and asylum seekers crossing into Nigeria. The motion by Hon. Sani Zorro also urged states and federal authorities to allow for the construction of refugee camps.

Zorro noted that there had been an influx of tens of thousands of asylum seekers and refugees fleeing Cameroon into Nigeria since the last quarter of 2017. He said that the refugees had continued to cross the Nigerian borders through Rivers, Benue and Taraba states, due to the crisis in Cameroon.

He urged the Federal Government and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees to extend full protection and assistance to the asylum seekers and refugees through timely provision of shelter, food and non-food items as well as security in their various camps.

The lawmaker further called for the prevention of alleged cross-border raids by the Cameroonian armed forces, which, he said, was inconsistent with humanitarian principles and best practices. He said in line with Section 33 of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Refugees, security personnel should not arrest and deport the refugees and asylum seekers.

Contributing to the motion, Hon. Nnenna Ukeje urged the house to take a critical look at the implications of granting full protection to the asylum seekers, considering relations between both countries.

She noted that Nigeria already had several security challenges and had entered into treaties with neighbouring countries to address insecurity in the country. Ukeje said that if caution was not taken in granting full protection to the fleeing secessionist Cameroonians, Nigeria could be seen to be supporting the division of Cameroon.

According to the lawmaker, Cameroon could pull out of the fight against Boko Haram in the region, adding that any action in favour of the secessionists, could sour the long standing relations between both countries.

In his remarks, Speaker Yakubu Dogara said that the security agencies, in line with the Geneva Convention, would profile the asylum seekers for proper identification. However, the legislators in the lower chamber unanimously voted against the motion when the speaker put it to a voice vote.

 

www.theeagleonline.com


Ambazonia Crisis: Nigerian Police Force speaks of the arrest in Taraba and Cross River

17, January 2018

Ambazonia Crisis: Nigerian Police Force speaks of the arrest in Taraba and Cross River 0

Nigerian Police Force, NPF,  has explained  that leaders of Cameroon’s Separatist Movement who were arrested within Nigeria’s territory flouted the nation’s laws by operating training camps in Nigeria. IGP-Idris Vanguard’s investigation revealed that members of the Cameroon’s Christian Secessionist group, who were agitating an “Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB-styled” independent movement were arrested in both Taraba and Cross River states. The two states have boundaries with the Southern parts of Cameroon hence there is easy access to Nigeria.

According to a Police source, “the government of Nigeria cannot be seen to be habouring separatists from a neighbouring Country like Cameroon when both countries are cooperating and jointly fighting to uproot Boko Haram terrorists who are insurgents trying to impose their own Islamic state in the North east.

“Moreover, it is common knowledge that the federal government of Nigeria recently clamped down on the illegal activities of the IPOB (Independent Peoples of Biafra). So how can the territory of Nigeria be used to train separatists to cause civil disobedience in such a friendly country.”

A security source confirmed to Vanguard that the arrested leaders were caught red-handed within the training camps for separatist members for future confrontation with the Cameroonian authorities. It was gathered that the separatist leaders would be moved to Force headquarters, Abuja, since the issue of training camps across borders have become an international and diplomatic issue. There was also indications that officials of Nigeria’s ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cameroon’s Embassy in Nigeria were already holding discussions over the arrest.

 

Source: Vanguard


Arrest of Ambazonian leaders: UN Deputy Secretary General tells Abuja “the world is watching”

16, January 2018

Arrest of Ambazonian leaders: UN Deputy Secretary General tells Abuja “the world is watching” 0

The  UN  Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed’s  emergency meeting on the arrest of the Interim President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and 9 of his top aides in Nigeria showed Abuja “the world is watching” its actions.

Madam Amina Mohammed reportedly called the meeting during her recent trip to Nigeria after acknowledging that the UN was following closely the developments in Anglophone Cameroon. Nigerian President Buhari and members of his administration had privately praised the anti-Ambazonian action carried out by the DSS and had also settled down for an extradition.

But the UN and the African Bar Association and some other interested parties said Africa’s most powerful nation had no business weighing in on the crisis in Southern Cameroons. The leadership of the African Bar Association based in Lagos, Nigeria was quoted as saying that the Nigerian government should applaud the courage of Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and amplify their message portraying their struggle for self determination as a human rights issue that is spilling slowly but surely over into the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Nigerian elected representatives have complained openly that the Buhari administration was dragging a nation focused on domestic security issues into what they called a foreign matter. Nigerian foreign missions in several other countries have expressed reservations about whether it was right to detain the Ambazonian leaders.

Nigeria is aware that the UN charter empowers the Security Council to “investigate any dispute, or any situation which might lead to international friction,” and the lawyer representing the Ambazonian Interim Government is not alone in thinking the Abuja arrest qualified.

Our West Africa Bureau Chief, Kingsley Betek who contributed to this report said the Buhari administration says it is their responsibility … to assess whether the presence of the Interim Government leaders on Nigerian soil could become a threat to Abuja’s peace and security.

The UN boss was given assurances that Nigeria was designing a preventive measure to avoid further escalation of violence in Southern Cameroons.  Abuja is expected to publicly call on the Francophone dominated government in Yaoundé to set up a process to address any serious human rights violations and hold accountable anyone involved.

At least 755 people have been killed and hundreds arrested amid the anti- French Cameroun government protests and unrest. Up to 42,000 people have fled to Nigeria, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.  The outspoken governor of Cross River State has urged the Nigerian Federal Government to react carefully with all the vigilance required. A legal auditioning of the leaders is expected to begin soon.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai


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