Nigerian students dazzle the world at UN headquarters in New York

For five secondary school students from schools in Rivers and Akwa Ibom States it was an unforgettable experience to behold the hallowed precincts of the United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York, USA where they joined 3,000 other students from 23 countries for a week long conference in March, 2012. Africa was represented by two countries, namely Nigeria (our delegation) and The Gambia. 

 Every year, for the past 38 years, the UN hosts the National High School Model United Nations (NHSMUN) conference which brings together international students from all corners of the globe to deliberate on today’s burning issues. Essentially, the sessions are simulations of a real United Nations. The forum offers invaluable insights into the full range of UN activities and responsibilities. 

 The conference takes a problem-solving approach where the students are truly placed in the shoes of diplomats – a uniquely powerful way to educate young people about global issues. The young delegates, in seeking solutions to these problems learn to break away from narrow self-interests and develop true international co-operation. The research and preparation required, the adoption of views and attitudes other than their own, the involvement and interaction with so many other young people from around the world, all combine to give the young people a deep insight into the worlds’ problems, to make them aware of the causes of conflict between nations and to lead them to a better understanding of the interest and motivations of others. 

 Each conference delegate is assigned a committee of the UN. Each committee has topics to deliberate on throughout the week-long conference. Standard UN presentation procedures are applied during conference. During the days of the conference, delegates are expected to exchange ideas (brainstorm) with other delegates in order to negotiate and work out issues in an effort to come up with conference resolutions to be voted upon on the last day of the conference.

 In summary, Model United Nations (MUN) conference is designed to equip students with transferable lifelong skills such as negotiation skills, conflict resolution and consensus-building, confidence-building, public speaking, internet literature research skills and social etiquette. Conference participation also fosters global citizenship. 

 For the Nigerian delegation to the 2012 NHSMUN, they qualified to participate after an excruciating selection process organized by a Port Harcourt-based NGO, FutureTrust Initiative for Capacity Building (FTI) in select secondary schools. Dr. Maureen Egbuche, Country Director of FTI has been involved in the selection, coaching and ultimately the participation of Nigerian Secondary school delegates to the conference since 2002. 

The five student ambassadors (three parent-sponsored and two FTI-sponsored), in the persons of Chukwuebuka Araka, Tolulope Olukanmi, Rahmat Udousoro, Olisaemeka Okolo and Prince Alugbara are from Bloombreed International School, Graceland Secondary School and Oginigba Community Comprehensive Secondary School in Port Harcourt and Topfaith International Secondary School, Mkpatak, Akwa Ibom State, respectively. These students flew the Nigerian flag, sorry, the flag of New Zealand. New Zealand? Yes. By special arrangement of the conference, the student delegates represent countries other than theirs. 

Our delegates were assigned five committees of the UN General Assembly and two topics of debate per student including “Security Implications of a Nuclear Weapons Programme in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” “State-sponsored Terrorism,” “Management of External National Debt,” “The Effects of Agricultural Export Subsidies on Least Developed Countries,” “Children in the Workforce in Southeast Asia,” “Rights of Indigenous Peoples in South America,” “The Water Crisis in the Middle East,” “UN Involvement in Election Monitoring,”

 “Universal Jurisdiction, Intellectual Property Law in a Globalized Society.” Working papers on the topics were generated after delegates had presented their country’s opinions on the topics of discussion. On the final day of the conference, all delegates gathered together for the plenary session where resolutions were presented to be voted on. Our delegates generated and sponsored seven resolutions. Five of the seven resolutions passed with high majority votes while two failed. Chukwuebuka of Bloombreed International School Port Harcourt had this to say of his experience: “if I was to call this conference a life-changing experience, I’ll be lying. 

It was a world-changing experience. It taught me how to speak in public and how to get people to buy your ideas”. An FTI-sponsored delegate, Prince Alugbara of Oginigba Community Comprehensive Secondary School, Port Harcourt, captured his feeling succinctly when he declared: “I was really surprised with the letters some delegates sent to me after my first speech. To cut it short, this conference has given me a public speaking skill. 

It built my confidence in myself and made me understand that there is something deep within me which the world is really waiting for.” Tolulope summarized it thus: “this experience is definitely the springboard to greater heights for me. I also made good friends and was enlightened by thousands of other things I never had an idea of before.” Dr. Maureen Egbuche had this to say:

 “The performance of the students qualified us for an increase in the number of Nigerian delegates for 2013 NHSMUN. This is the first time our delegation has been granted such opportunity since our maiden participation in 2002. All our preparations paid off indeed. To God be the glory.” Plans are already in full gear for the three-phase selection tests for Nigerian delegates to NHSMUN 2013. Select schools in Rivers, Anambra, Lagos, Bayelsa and Abia States will participate while a test centre is being planned for Abuja.

Read More...

UN To Stop All International Aid To Nigeria

Nigeria's problem has gone from frying pan to fire. First, It was Fuel subsidy removal, synonymously followed by Boko-haram. And then, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta (MEND). And now, World governing body, the United Nation, through the British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who has yet to warn Nigeria about its laissez-faire attitude towards the persecution of Christians


has stated that International Aid to Nigeria must be stopped until mass persecution of Christians is effectively policed by the Nigerian Government... which way Nigeria?

Read More...

Boko Haram, others jostle UN Security Council

The UN Security Council raised concerns Wednesday about security and the humanitarian situation in the Sahel, citing arms proliferation and the influence of militant groups in the African region.

The 15-member Security Council, which reviewed the situation following the release of a report by a UN mission, said many of the problems have been present for years but have been exacerbated by the Libyan crisis.

“In this context, the members of the Security Council expressed their concern about the security and humanitarian situation in the Sahel region,” the council said in a statement.

It said “arms proliferation, and large-scale influx of returnees from Libya, exacerbated long-standing and serious problems including terrorist activities by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Boko Haram, transnational organized crime including illicit drug trafficking, recurrent food crises and lack of development in vulnerable remote areas.”

The council members expressed their strong support for efforts by countries in the region to deal with those challenges and stressed “the urgent need for a coordinated and inclusive approach by all main stakeholders.”

A UN mission that traveled to the Sahel highlighted in its report last week the threat posed by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which is active in Nigeria, and its links with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

It recounted numerous examples of increased activity by terrorist groups and organized crime in the Sahel since the Libyan crisis, and called for greater regional and international cooperation.

Mauritania, Algeria, Niger, and Mali are among the countries faced with growing insecurity linked to attacks involving Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and other criminal groups.

Read More...

Boko Haram members may face crimes against humanity

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms Navi Pillay, has warned that members of the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, who have claimed responsibility for series of bomb attacks in Nigeria leading to loss of lives could be guilty of crimes against humanity if they are judged to have carried out systematic attacks on religious targets.

The UN chief gave the warning as the National President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor berated governors from the southern part of the country who he said were yet to see the need to make deliberate efforts to engage their northern counterparts on ways to end the killings.

According to the UN statement, “members of Boko Haram and other groups and entities, if judged to have committed widespread or systematic attacks against a civilian population, including on grounds such as religion or ethnicity, could be found guilty of crimes against humanity.

The statement added: “It is essential that the country’s leadership, and especially its Muslim and Christian leaders, join forces to unequivocally condemn all violence, including retaliation, and encourage their followers to identify and help arrest all those involved in killings and other acts of violence that have been taking place.”

Meanwhile, Pastor Oritsejafor, who was piqued by the vandalisation of five churches in Gusau, Zamfara State in the guise of oil subsidy protest, said several Nigerian leaders, including the leadership of Labour and civil society coalition, owe this country an explanation for their conspiracy of silence while innocent Nigerians are being killed like animals in the North.

Ebenezer Baptist Church, Chapel of Grace, C and S Church, COCIN Church and CAC, all in Gangaren Yerima area of Gusau, were vandalised while a pastor was molested by people said to be protesting hike in oil prices.

Said he: “I am really ashamed at southern governors whose citizens are daily being mauled down by a group of Islamic fundamentalists who are hell bent on annihilating Christians from the nation without any attempt to engage their northern counterparts on ways to end the madness.

“I am really ashamed. Its amazing the kind of publicity the Borno State governor gave to the payment of N100 million compensation to the family of late Yussuff’s father-in-law.

“We were all witnesses to how this same Yussuff killed Rev. Orji like an animal in Maiduguri in 2009. Nobody in this country has thought of paying any compensation to the late reverend’s family to date nor rebuild the churches that are being burnt everywhere,” Oritsejafor said, adding that he had to relocate the man’s widow from Borno State for fear that her life also be in danger.

According to the CAN helmsman, “these are some of the injustices and imbalances we have been talking about. Who needs compensation? Is it the sponsored attacker or the victim of the attack who very often loses everything? We have, to no avail, consistently called on the Borno State government to pay adequate compensation to victims of the various attacks in that part of the country.”

Stating that he sympathised with the pains of the Nigerian people who are currently going through harsh economic conditions as a result of fuel subsidy removal, the CAN president said if the House of Representatives truly love the nation they should have demonstrated it by holding a special session to end the growing menace of terrorism in the country.

“Much as I identify with the pains of Nigerians at this dark moment of the nation’s history, I think those guys were on an ego trip, otherwise the security situation in the country should have been their number one priority.

“They reconvened a special plenary because of fuel subsidy removal as if the lives of those being killed don’t matter to them. If the government reverts to N65 who will buy the fuel—the dead or the living? How can the National Assembly be so insensitive to the plight of Christians who are being killed like animals daily?

“Are they by their silence over the security challenges occasioned by Boko Haram, saying that the Christians have no stake in the Nigerian project? The House was quick to reconvene on Sunday to deliberate on oil subsidy, why haven’t they taken one Friday to find ways to end the killings in the North?” Oritsejafor asked.

He maintained that the House was only playing to gallery because “the security situation in the North especially with Boko Haram giving an ultimatum to southerners to quit the North and vice versa is a much more serious issue than the oil subsidy removal because it is a threat to the corporate existence of the nation”.

It will be recalled that the CAN president resettled late Rev Orji’s widow who was pregnant at the time her husband was slaughtered, and gave the children scholarship in addition to giving her a car and money to start a new business.

Read More...

UN commends Jonathan, as EU passes vote of confidence

United Nations, UN has commended President Jonathan for withdrawing the subsidy on petroleum products, describing it as “a bold and correct policy”.

Speaking during a visit to President Jonathan at the State House, Abuja, the Special Adviser to the United Nations’ Secretary General, Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, said the funds from the removal of subsidy would go a long way to rapid infrastructural development and the health sector.

Sachs also commended Nigeria’s president for his conditional grants to local governments for the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals, describing it as “one of the most innovative schemes of using national resources for local government development”.

Similarly, European Union, EU has said that it has confidence in Nigeria’s economic and political system.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Finland, Dr. Erkki Tuomoija, disclosed this while speaking to President Goodluck Jonathan during an audience at State House, Abuja. a

He stated that his country and most of Europe have confidence in Nigeria’s economy and political system.

“Your economy is doing very well, and many countries in Europe envy your growth figures”, he said, adding that “we have confidence in your democracy, and in your ability to deal with the terrorism and other challenges confronting you”.

Tuomoija described Nigeria as “a very important partner” and underlined the many similarities and views shared by the two countries on global issues in the United Nations and other multilateral for a, and assured President Jonathan of Finland’s continued cooperation.

Responding, President Jonathan said Nigeria was facing challenges, especially in the area of terrorism, and requested for technical assistance to check the menace.

Read More...