Month: October 2023

 

 

By Flowerbudnews
Lagos: The 2023 Lagos State Street Soccer Championship, began on Sunday at the Obele Oniwala mini Stadium with series of ceremonial games involving men, women and U-15 boys’ teams selected across the state.

In the first game, the Lagos Mainland-based Wazbak defeated Middlewell team from Lagos Island 2-1 in the women’s category.

Also, Dolphin High School defeated Kings College by 2-0 in the U-15 category while Ayo Davis Street, Surulere, lost 0-2 to BogunBolu FC Street FC in the men’s category.

The ceremonial event, attended by Chairmen of some Local Government Areas across the state also had the state Commissioner of Youth and Social Development, Mobolaji Ogunleke, and Chairman, Lagos State Football Association, Fuad Oki, in attendance.

Ogunleke, in his remarks, lauded the organisers for putting up a colourful show.
He also He advised the youths of Lagos to step out of their comfort zones to embrace the sports rather than wait for white collar jobs.

He further charged them to take advantage of the opportunities and initiatives offered by the street soccer championship.

Similarly, the Chairman of the Lagos Street Soccer Championship Committee, Bolaji Yusuf, expressed his delight at the turnout as he promised a seamless competition when it kicks off later this month.

The Chairperson of Ikosi-Isheri LCDA and co-chairman of Lagos State Street Soccer Championship, Mayoress Samiat Abolanle Bada, said the championship is in line with the mandate of the Executive Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

According to her, the grassroots event will provide several opportunities for youth of Lagos state. (Flowerbudnews)

 

 

As Western politicians line up to cheer on Israel as it starves and bombs Gaza’s civilians, it’s important to understand how we reached this point – and what it means for the future, writes Jonathan Cook.

More than a decade ago, Israel started to understand that its occupation of Gaza through siege could be to its advantage. It began transforming the tiny coastal enclave from an albatross around its neck into a valuable portfolio in the trading game of international power politics.

 

The first benefit for Israel, and its Western allies, is more discussed than the second.

 

The tiny strip of land hugging the eastern Mediterranean coast was turned into a mix of testing ground and shop window.

 

Israel could use Gaza to develop all sorts of new technologies and strategies associated with the homeland security industries burgeoning across the West, as officials there grew increasingly worried about domestic unrest, sometimes referred to as populism.

 

The siege of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians, imposed by Israel in 2007 following the election of Hamas to rule the enclave, allowed for all sorts of experiments.

 

How could the population best be contained? What restrictions could be placed on their diet and lifestyle? How were networks of informers and collaborators to be recruited from afar? What effect did the population’s entrapment and repeated bombardment have on social and political relations?

And ultimately how were Gaza’s inhabitants to be kept subjugated and an uprising prevented?

 

The answers to those questions were made available to Western allies through Israel’s shopping portal. Items available included interception rocket systems, electronic sensors, surveillance systems, drones, facial recognition, automated gun towers, and much more. All tested in real-life situations in Gaza.

 

Israel’s standing took a severe dent from the fact that Palestinians managed to bypass this infrastructure of confinement last weekend – at least for a few days – with a rusty bulldozer, some hang-gliders and a sense of nothing-to-lose.

 

Which is part of the reason why Israel now needs to go back into Gaza with ground troops to show it still has the means to keep the Palestinians crushed.

 

Collective Punishment

 

Which brings us to the second purpose served by Gaza.

 

Israel’s standing took a severe dent from the fact that Palestinians managed to bypass this infrastructure of confinement last weekend – at least for a few days – with a rusty bulldozer, some hang-gliders and a sense of nothing-to-lose.

 

Which is part of the reason why Israel now needs to go back into Gaza with ground troops to show it still has the means to keep the Palestinians crushed.

 

Collective Punishment

 

Which brings us to the second purpose served by Gaza.

 

As Western states have grown increasingly unnerved by signs of popular unrest at home, they have started to think more carefully about how to sidestep the restrictions placed on them by international law.

 

The term refers to a body of laws that were formalised in the aftermath of the second world war, when both sides treated civilians on the other side of the battle lines as little more than pawns on a chessboard.

 

The aim of those drafting international law was to make it unconscionable for there to be a repeat of Nazi atrocities in Europe, as well as other crimes such as Britain’s fire bombing of German cities like Dresden or the United States’ dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Gaza is about as flagrant a violation of this prohibition as can be found”

 

One of the fundamentals of international law – at the heart of the Geneva Conventions – is a prohibition on collective punishment: that is, retaliating against the enemy’s civilian population, making them pay the price for the acts of their leaders and armies.

 

Very obviously, Gaza is about as flagrant a violation of this prohibition as can be found. Even in “quiet” times, its inhabitants – one million of them children – are denied the most basic freedoms, such as the right to movement; access to proper health care because medicines and equipment cannot be brought in; access to drinkable water; and the use of electricity for much of the day because Israel keeps bombing Gaza’s power station.

 

Israel has never made any bones of the fact that it is punishing the people of Gaza for being ruled by Hamas, which rejects Israel’s right to have dispossessed the Palestinians of their homeland in 1948 and imprisoned them in overcrowded ghettos like Gaza.

 

What Israel is doing to Gaza is the very definition of collective punishment. It is a war crime: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks of every year, for 16 years.

 

And yet no one in the so-called international community seems to have noticed.

 

Rules of War Rewritten

But the trickiest legal situation – for Israel and the West – is when Israel bombs Gaza, as it is doing now, or sends in soldiers, as it soon will do.

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu highlighted the problem when he told the people of Gaza: “Leave now.” But, as he and Western leaders know, Gaza’s inhabitants have nowhere to go, nowhere to escape the bombs. So any Israeli attack is, by definition, on the civilian population too. It is the modern equivalent of the Dresden fire bombings.

 

Israel has been working on strategies to overcome this difficulty since its first major bombardment of Gaza in late 2008, after the siege was introduced.

 

A unit in its attorney general’s office was charged with finding ways to rewrite the rules of war in Israel’s favour.

 

At the time, the unit was concerned that Israel would be criticised for blowing up a police graduation ceremony in Gaza, killing many young cadets. Police are civilians in international law, not soldiers, and therefore not a legitimate target. Israeli lawyers were also worried that Israel had destroyed government offices, the infrastructure of Gaza’s civilian administration.

 

Israel’s concerns seem quaint now – a sign of how far it has already shifted the dial on international law. For some time, anyone connected with Hamas, however tangentially, is considered a legitimate target, not just by Israel but by every Western government.

 

“If you do something for long enough, the world will accept it”

Western officials have joined Israel in treating Hamas as simply a terrorist organisation, ignoring that it is also a government with people doing humdrum tasks like making sure bins are collected and schools kept open.

Or as Orna Ben-Naftali, a law faculty dean, told the Haaretz newspaper back in 2009: “A situation is created in which the majority of the adult men in Gaza and the majority of the buildings can be treated as legitimate targets. The law has actually been stood on its head.”

Back at that time, David Reisner, who had previously headed the unit, explained Israel’s philosophy to Haaretz: “What we are seeing now is a revision of international law. If you do something for long enough, the world will accept it.

“The whole of international law is now based on the notion that an act that is forbidden today becomes permissible if executed by enough countries.”

Israel’s meddling to change international law goes back many decades.

Referring to Israel’s attack on Iraq’s fledgling nuclear reactor in 1981, an act of war condemned by the U.N. Security Council, Reisner said: “The atmosphere was that Israel had committed a crime. Today everyone says it was preventive self-defence. International law progresses through violations.”

He added that his team had travelled to the U.S. four times in 2001 to persuade U.S. officials of Israel’s ever-more flexible interpretation of international law towards subjugating Palestinians.

“Had it not been for those four planes [journeys to the U.S.], I am not sure we would have been able to develop the thesis of the war against terrorism on the present scale,” he said.

Those redefinitions of the rules of war proved invaluable when the U.S. chose to invade and occupy Afghanistan and Iraq.

‘Human Animals’

 

By Biola Lawal

Abuja (Flowerbudnews):  The Director General of the Directorate of Technical Aid Corps (DTAC), Hon. Yusuf Buba Yakub has assured that the Directorate would implement recommendations of the Committee set up to re-energise TAC.

The Committee was Set Up to evolve strategies to Reposition the Directorate and align its mandate and  programmes with the foreign policy objectives of President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

Receiving the report of the Committee over the weekend in Abuja after completion of its assignment, Hon. Buba Yakub said that TAC Management was committed to actualising recommendations of the Committee to strengthen TAC operations.

This was disclosed in a statement by Nkem Anyata-Lafia,  the Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the DG, DTAC, a copy of which was made available to Flowerbudnews on Sunday in Abuja.

DTAC Director General thanked members of the Committee for working round the clock to meet the deadline set for the assignment.

Hon. Buba Yakub noted that the Committee could not have delivered on the expectations of the Hon.Minister of Foreign Affairs,Amb.Yusuf Maitama Tuggar,and those of the Management of DTAC without the high sense of commitment and the collective zeal for results,which each of its members had demonstrated  by completing the work on schedule.

He said:
“Against what has become a sad practice in this country,where very beautiful and well-crafted Reports suffer the ugly fate of being abandoned on the shelves of various offices across the land,I want to assure you,Mr.Chairman,Your Excellencies,that this piece of work to which you have given your all in the past five days,will see the light of day.

” Conscious of what we intend to achieve with this in the promotion of His Excellency,our dear President’s Renewed Hope Agenda,I shall in the next few days and weeks personally ensure that the recommendations that this august Committee has put forward are quickly conveyed to all the various stakeholders of this Agency for their consideration and likely inputs.”

Earlier,while presenting the Report,Chairman of the Committee, Prof. Yusuf Zoaka, expressed the hope that the commitment of the members of the team, drawn from various professions, including Law,Diplomacy,Finance as well as Administration and Security,would deliver on the expectations of the Hon. Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Management of the Agency.

The University don thanked the Directorate for the opportunity given to him and members of the Committee to serve the nation through the Agency.

He once again aligned himself with the position of the Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Tuggar, who had told the Committee during its inauguration a few days earlier that the DTAC had enormous roles to play in the actualisation of President Tinubu’s 4-D Foreign Policy Agenda itemized as: Democracy, Development Demography and the Diaspora.

Also speaking,a Professor of Law at the Federal University, Lokoja, Daniel Friday Atidoga, who once served in the TAC Scheme as a Volunteer, said he was, particularly, impressed with the quality of the deliberations of the Committee in which he was also a member.

He said, having had a personal experience of the TAC Scheme as a participant years ago,he was highly persuaded that the mandate and structure of the Agency as they exist at the moment ought to be reviewed to reflect newer realities.He thanked the Management of the Agency for giving him the opportunity to contribute his thoughts to the review process.

Among other members of the Committee, who made contributions in support of earlier speakers were Amb. Ijeoma Bristol, a retired Ambassador of the Federal Republic; Amb. Sani Bako, a former Director of Programmes at DTAC, and Ms Mitchell Mamnyer Nyagba from the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja.

It will be recalled that the Committee was inaugurated by the Hon. Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Tuggar, early last week and was given the task of looking through the TAC Documents, including its Handbook and the Act that established the Agency to work out a review that would align with the vision of President Tinubu’s 4-D Foreign Policy initiatives.

Members of the Committee included:
i.Prof. Y.F. Zoaka- Chairman

ii.Prof. D. F. Atidoga Member

iii. Amb. Ijeoma Bristol -Member

iv. Amb. Sani Bako, MFR, mni- Member

v. Dr. Louis Solomon, mni-Member

vi. Dr. Sani Adamu -Member

vii. Hon.Jimoh Olajide-Member

viii.Ms Mitchell Nyagba – Member

ix. Mr. Ahmed Mohammed Tilde-Member

x. Mr Suleiman A. M-Member. (Flowerbudnews)

 

 

 

By Flowerbudnews
Abuja (Flowerbudnews): His Eminence Sheikh Ibraheem Ya’qoub El-Zakzaky (H), the leader of the Islamic Movement, has been awarded an honorary doctorate degree by the University of Tehran, Iran.

Dr. Fatima Ismaeel Hassan, in a statement on Sunday in Abuja on behalf of the Islamic group, said the event took place at a convocation organised by the university on Saturday, October 14, 2023.

“According to the university, the award was granted as a result of the approval given by the Senate of the University.

“After thorough study of the life, education, and struggle of the Sheikh, the Senate of the University unanimously approved the award of an honorary doctorate degree (Honoris Causa) to Sheikh Ibraheem Ya’qoub El-Zakzaky (H) on World Studies: Peace and Conflict Resolution,” she said.

The University of Tehran is among the top 500 universities in the world.

According to the Centre for World University Rankings, the University of Tehran was ranked 2nd in Iran, 157th in Asia, and 495th in the world.

Sheikh Ibraheem Ya’qoub El-Zakzaky (H) was born on April 28, 1953, and after Qur’an and Islamic education at his early ages, he joined the Provincial Arabic School in Zaria from 1969 to 1971, the School for Arabic Studies in Kano from 1971 to 1975, and then the B.Sc. Economics programme at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, from 1976 to 1979.

Sheikh El-Zakzaky (H) is the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, and he has disciples across the neighbouring African countries.

Hassan said that “in more than 40 years of the Islamic Movement, the Nigerian government has on several occasions attacked him and his disciples, using different methods and agents.

“He survived three years of detention by the Shehu Shagari regime (1981–1984), five months of detention by the General Muhammadu Buhari regime (1984–1985), three years of detention by General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (1987–1999), a second arrest by the IBB regime in November 1991, two and a half years of detention by General Sani Abacha (1996–1998), the Zaria massacre, and six and a half years of detention executed by the Muhammadu Buhari regime (2015–2021).

“Sheikh Ibraheem Ya’qoub El-Zakzaky (H) is happily married with nine children, seven male and two female.

Six of his children have attained martyrdom: Ahmad, Hamid, and Mahmud were assassinated by the Goodluck Ebele Jonathan regime during the Quds Demonstration in 2014, while Hammad, Ali, and Humaid were killed by the soldiers in front of their parents during the 2015 Zaria massacre.

“While congratulating our leader on this honour, we call on people to struggle for the emancipation of mankind from slavery, tyranny, and injustice.” (Flowerbudnews)

 

By Flowerbudnews

Enugu: The troops of Joint Task Force South-East Operation, code-named “Operation UDO KA II”, have conducted clearance operations in terrorists’ camps within Imo and Anambra States in the South-East.

 

The troops also arrested one suspected terrorist and recovered several items in their camps, which included: Improvised Explosive Device (IEDs) making materials, motorcycles, stored foods and other logistics items.

 

This is contained in a statement issued on Sunday in Enugu by Lt.-Col. Jonah Unuakhalu, acting Deputy Director of Army Public Relations, 82 Division of the Nigerian Army, for the Joint Task Force Operation UDO KA II.

Unuakhalu said that the troops of Operation UDO KA II based on intelligence continued with its clearance operations to Lilu community, Mother Valley and Orsumoghu Forest in Orsu Local Government Area of Imo and Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State.

He said that the clearance operation was conducted simultaneously in the respective locations in the two states on Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023.

 

“During the clearance operations, troops encountered and detonated many Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) instantly as well as various types of obstacles.

 

“The undeterred troops also came in contact with the terrorists who fled into the nearby bushes with gunshot wounds due to superior fire power.

“Several camps and shrines of the terrorists were destroyed,” he said.

 

According to him, Joint Task Force Operation UDO KA II, therefore, calls on the law abiding and good citizens of the South-East region not to relent in providing timely, credible and reliable information.

 

The army spokesman said that such reliable information would help in apprehending those that escaped with different degrees of injuries.

“We also wish to use this medium to urge the good people of the South-East region to ignore the deceitful tweet of the self-acclaimed Biafra leader, Simon Ekpa.

“The law-abiding residents should be rest assured that the South-East region will be free of all forms of criminality.

 

“Operation UDO KA II will continue combating crime and criminality in accordance with the extant rules and regulations guiding its operations,” he added.

It would be recalled that troops of Operation UDO KA II within some weeks had carried out several clearance operations in terrorist groups’ camps within the South-East with outstanding successes and recovery of incriminating deadly items. (Flowerbudnews)