President Muhammadu Buhari has told the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, he is ready to negotiate for the release of Chibok school girls, but that the challenge is identifying the bona fide leaders of Boko Haram in whose custody they are being held.
President Buhari, who spoke at a bilateral meeting with the UN scribe at the sidelines of the 71st UN General Assembly in New York, emphasized that he is willing to bend over backwards, to get the Chibok girls released from captivity.
“The challenge is in getting credible and bona fide leadership of Boko Haram to discuss with. The split in the insurgent group is not helping matters. Government had reached out, ready to negotiate, but it became difficult to identify credible leaders. We will welcome intermediaries such as UN outfits, to step in.”
The President reiterated that the teachings of Boko Haram are far from being Islamic, as neither Islam, nor any other religion advocates hurting the weak and innocent.
“The fact that they kill men, women, children, and other people wantonly, and shout Allahu Akbar (God is great) shows that they do not know Allah at all. If they did, they would not shed innocent blood.”
He thanked Ban Ki-moon for the moral and material support given to Nigeria, which has enabled the country surmount many of the challenges facing it.
Responding, the UN Secretary General congratulated President Buhari on the anti-corruption war, saying: “you are highly respected by world leaders, including myself. Your persona has given your country a positive image.”
He said that the UN recognized the achievements of the Buhari administration against Boko Haram, advising that human rights be upheld always, to prevent a repeat of the scenario being witnessed in Syria.
Ban Ki-moon also thanked the Nigerian leader for his commitment to issues on climate change and that the government should “own the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” for the good of its citizens. [myad]

President Barack Obama of the United States of America has commended President Muhammadu Buhari’s economic reforms, describing them as “bold.”
President Obama who made the commendation when he met with Buhari on the sidelines of the ongoing 71st UN General Assembly in New York, said that Ameoffer support to Nigeria in the areas of agricultural development, recovery of stolen funds and the fight against Boko Haram.
He said that America would put things on ground to sustain partnership and cooperation between the two countries, adding: “we discussed broader issues on development and the President is taking some very bold economic reforms in allowing for a flexible exchange rate.
“We are focusing on agriculture and we pledged to offer all the assistance that we can in that area and as the president is trying to stamp out corruption and to recover external funds that may have been illegally obtained and are sitting in bank accounts around the world.
“As he continues to work to see that the security forces inside Nigeria are abiding professional and human right standards, what we have pledged is that we will partner in any way that we can be helpful.”
President Obama, who spoke at a briefing after the bilateral talks, said his administration is carefully coordinating additional ways to make further progress in not only destroying Boko Haram but to ensure that the region fully recovered.
He said that America is also willing to assist Nigeria to facilitate a reduction of the conflict in
the Niger Delta region.
“America is willing to help in any way it can to faci any way it can to facilitate a reduction of conflict in the Niger Delta region, a major oil-producing region, but one that has been mired by a number of militant organizations that have appropriated or siphoned off the oil revenues.
“The President, I think, is wisely heading a delegation to bring varying stakeholders together and try to make progress on that front. We want to be helpful in any way that we can.”
In his remarks, Buhari thanked Obama for the assistance rendered so far in the fight against terrorism, especially in the training of Nigerian military in both hard and software.
He said that steady progress is being made towards resolving the problem in the Niger Delta region, which led to economic sabotage on a grand scale. [myad]

President Francois Hollande of France of has told President Muhammadu Buhari in New York, the United States of America that his country believes in Nigeria and is planning to bring a lot of investment soon.

“We will invest in Nigeria, we believe in her,” President Hollande said when he had a bilateral meeting with President Buhari on the sidelines of the ongoing 71st United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Hollande pledged that France would not only fully engage with Nigeria on different fronts, but would also provide humanitarian assistance in the North East. This was even as President Buhari commended the cordial diplomatic relationship that has been existing between Nigeria and Franc.
“Apart from your country’s close relationship with us, you have maintainws the same with most of our neighbours. We seek more collaboration, particularly in agriculture, mining and security.”

President  Buhari told his French counterpart of the Presidential Committee on the North East, which he described as a one-stop mechanism on development partnership for a zone that has been ravaged for many years by Boko Haram insurgents, and which needed urgent rebuilding.
At another audience with President Johann Schneider-Ammann of Switzerland, President Buhari sought his counterpart’s cooperation on speedy repatriation of Nigerian money stashed in that country, stressing that Nigeria needed such resources, particularly for infrastructure.
With the two countries having agreed on projects to which the restituted funds would be deployed, President Schneider-Ammann promised quick action, as soon as the draft agreement was signed. He also pledged consolidation of mutual trade relationships, infrastructural development as well as support in training and equipping of the Nigerian military.  [myad]

The United Nations (UN) Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon has asked leaders in many countries to serve their people diligently and stop subverting democracy.

He said: “In too many places, we see leaders rewriting constitutions, manipulating elections and taking other desperate steps to cling to power.My message to all is clear: serve your people. Do not subvert democracy; do not pilfer your country’s resources; do not imprison and torture your critics.”

Ban Ki-moon, who spoke at the ongoing 71 General Assembly of the UN in New York, the United States of America, charged South Sudan’s leaders, which includes Kiir, with having “betrayed their people” by pursuing a violent path to power.

He blasted Syria’s Assad for prosecuting a brutal military campaign to cling to power at the expense of millions of brutalized victims of war.

“Many groups have killed many innocents — but none more so than the government of Syria, which continues to barrel bomb neighborhoods and systematically torture thousands of detainees,” he said.

Ban excoriated the outside powers that have supported the warring parties on both sides of the conflict. While Ban didn’t name names the list of regional or global powers — from Russia and Iran to Turkey, Saudi Arabia, France and the United States — that supported the combatants — is long. “Powerful patrons that keep feeding the war machine also have blood on their hands,” he said. “Present in this hall today are representatives of governments that have ignored, facilitated, funded, participated in or even planned and carried out atrocities inflicted by all side.”

In what appeared to be an implicit criticism of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and nationalist, anti-immigrant leaders in Europe, Ban criticized politicians for scapegoating foreign migrants, especially Muslims, and engaging in “cynical and dangerous political math.”

“Muslims in particular are being targeted by stereotyping and suspicion that have echoes of the dark past,” he said.

Ban also voiced particular frustration that efforts to welcome an independent Palestinian state during his tenure have foundered. “It pains me that this past decade has been lost to peace. Ten years lost to illegal settlement expansion. Ten years lost to intra-Palestinian divide, growing polarization and hopelessness.”

“This is madness. Replacing a two-state solution with a one-state construct would spell doom: denying Palestinians their freedom and rightful future, and pushing Israel further from its vision of a Jewish democracy towards greater global isolation.”

Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Danny Danon, fired back shortly after the speech. “The real madness belong to the U.N.,” he said in a statement. “Instead of focusing on Palestinian terror and incitement, and instead of compelling Mahmoud Abbas to return to the negotiating table, the secretary general chose to criticize Israel once again. This is an obsession with Israel and it must end.”

He also expressed remorse over two internal scandals that have roiled his tenure at the U.N., the exploitation of women and children in the Central African Republic by U.N. peacekeepers and the outbreak of cholera in Haiti, which was introduced into the country be Nepalese U.N. peacekeepers.

“I would like to use this moment to express my regret,” he said, noting that the incidents “tarnished the reputation of the United Nations and, far worse, traumatized many people we serve.”

In Haiti, the U.N. had denied responsibility for years, but Ban said he was working on an aid package for victims and their families in the impoverished country. [myad]