Musings From Abroad

EU team begins 4-day working visit to Nigeria

Published

9 months ago

February 26, 2024

The inaugural four-day working tour to Nigeria by members of the Council of Europe’s Africa Working Party (COAFR) has begun in Abuja.

Scheduled to take place between February 26 and 29, 2024, the visit represents a turning point in EU-Nigeria ties as COAFR leaders interact with different stakeholders throughout the nation.

Representatives from all 27 EU member states make up COAFR, which is entrusted with directing EU foreign policy towards sub-Saharan Africa, the African Union, and other regional institutions.

According to a statement released on Sunday by the European Union in Nigeria, the party works with the Commission and the General Secretariat of the Council under the direction of the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) of the European Union. It is chaired by a permanent member of the European External Action Service (EEAS).

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Office of the National Security Advisor, and the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning are just a few of the important federal government ministries and agencies that COAFR delegates will be meeting with in Abuja. The statement went on to say that interactive meetings with the ECOWAS Commission will shed light on integration procedures and regional trends.

COAFR intends to meet with officials of the European Business Chamber (EuroCham) Nigeria, Consuls General of EU Member States, and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu in Lagos.

In order to strengthen talks on strengthening the EU-Nigeria collaboration, the group will also visit EU-funded initiatives with an emphasis on digital innovation, key infrastructure, connectivity, and migration.

The statement notes that this is the group’s first-ever working trip to Nigeria and that officials from EU institutions will be joining them in addition to representatives of 17 EU Member States.

Recent high-profile visits by top EU officials to Nigeria demonstrate the EU’s increased engagement with the country and emphasise how crucial the EU-Nigeria collaboration is. The statement brought to mind that a team from the EU-Nigeria Strategic Dialogue Meeting in Abuja in October was led by EU Commissioner for International Partnership Jutta Urpilainen and her energy equivalent, Kadri Simson.

“Prior to their visit, Helena Konig, the Deputy Secretary General of the European External Action Service (EEAS), and Rita Laranjinha, the Managing Director, of Africa at the EEAS, had also been in the country.

“This followed the visits in 2022 by Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission’s Executive Vice President, in February, the EU and Member States Maritime Security Coordinators in April, and senior officials of the European Commission responsible for Energy and Home Affairs,” the statement reads.

To strengthen their cooperation, the EU and Nigeria decided on a more comprehensive political framework called the EU-Nigeria Joint Way Forward in 2008.

In the broader framework of the EU’s ties with the African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries, the agreement sets the principles, norms, and priority areas for greater political discussion and collaboration.

Related Topics:European Union Featured Nigeria

Click to comment

Musings From Abroad

Finnish court imprisons Nigeria’s Simon Ekpa for aiding terrorism

Published

16 hours ago

November 21, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Simon Ekpa, a Nigerian separatist leader based abroad, has been placed under detention by the Päijät Häme District Court in Finland on suspicion of inciting others to commit acts of terrorism.

According to the local daily, Helsingin Sanomat, the court rendered the ruling on Thursday following his arraignment by the Central Criminal Police for his involvement in the terror attacks that have afflicted the southeast area of Nigeria.

“The police suspect that the man has promoted his efforts from Finland with means that have led to violence against civilians in the region of South-Eastern Nigeria,” stated Otto Hiltunen, the crime commissioner and investigation head.

“The man has carried out his activity, among other things, on his social media channels.”

Hiltunen also informed the court that the police suspected four additional individuals in Finland of funding Ekpa’s activities.

According to the story, Ekpa is of Nigerian descent and was born in the Finnish city of Lahti.

His offence occurred between August 23, 2021, and November 18, 2024, according to court documents cited in the publication.

Ekpa is not the only person the police have arrested. In February 2023, they caught him at a private Lahtian flat, but he was freed the same day.

Through the Eastern Security Network (ESN) and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement, Ekpa has continued to be outspoken on social media, raising money and agitating for a Biafran nation to secede. In the southeast part of Nigeria, both factions have been involved in acts of violence, murders, and maimings.

Since gaining formal independence in 1960, Nigeria has seen the emergence of several separatist organisations. The latest surge of calls for self-determination among different ethnic groups has been louder under its immediate previous President Muhammadu Buhari.

Musings From Abroad

Malian singer Rokia Traore arrested in Italy, to be sent to Belgium

Published

2 days ago

November 20, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

After Italy’s top court denied her appeal, well-known Malian singer, Rokia Traore, who was detained in Rome in June due to a global child custody dispute, will be sent over to Belgium in the next few days, her attorney announced on Wednesday.

The 50-year-old Traore is a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR and one of Africa’s most well-known vocalists.

“Rokia suffered an injustice. She was arrested without the Belgian criminal court hearing her voice. Now, the battle for Rokia’s rights moves to Brussels,” lawyer Maddalena Del Re said in a statement to Reuters.

The attorney also stated that in its decision late Tuesday, Italy’s Court of Cassation upheld an extradition decision from the European Court of Justice.

Under a European arrest order, Traore was taken into custody on June 20 at the Fiumicino airport in Rome. In October 2023, she was given a two-year prison sentence in Belgium related to a dispute over her daughter’s custody.

She had flown to perform outside Rome’s Colosseum, and she has been imprisoned in Civitavecchia, close to the Italian city, since her detention at Fiumicino.

Lawyer Del Re said that because a conviction was rendered without the defendant’s presence, the Belgian process goes against both international norms and Italian constitutional standards.

After she disregarded a court order to turn over her baby to her Belgian father, the singer’s divorced ex-partner, she was initially taken into custody in France in 2020 on a Belgian arrest warrant.

She disobeyed orders not to leave France until her extradition case was handled by taking a private jet to Mali months after being conditionally released. Mali is where her daughter resides.