Foreign
FG, stakeholders commend EU over disability rights funds
*Decry USAID funding cut
By Francesca Hangeior
The Federal Government and stakeholders, has applauded the European Union for funding a project aimed at advocating the rights of Persons with Disability in the wake of the halt in funding by the United States Agency for International Development.
They gave the tributes at the official launch of the Disability Rights Advocacy Project for Inclusive Development, a three-year initiative co-funded by the EU in collaboration with the Christian Blind Mission held in Abuja.
The Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities, Ayuba Burki, described the project as a welcome development.
He said, “This project is very commendable. As it is a three-year project, it is our desire that this will go as planned for all persons with disability to be involved. Disability programmes are not exclusively the purview of some persons in organisations.
“It means all hands must be on deck, and we must achieve our set goals. So I am delighted and look forward to a successful implementation of this programme in the next three years. We call on other partners to follow suit so that at the end of the day, people living with disabilities can heave a sigh of relief.”
Burki also rued the funding cut of USAID by United States President Donald Trump, saying it will put pressure on many third-world countries.
He also sees it as an opportunity for leaders in the affected countries to look inward and find solutions.
“I will call on African leaders to take up this challenge and look inward. I believe that USAIÐ was doing a great job. But we cannot abandon caring for our people because it pulled out. We need to look inward and re-strategise.
“Who knows? This may be a blessing in disguise. So I don’t see a cause to worry. But it is an opportunity to look inward and solve funding and reprioritise our priorities as a nation. We will be fine at the end of the day,” he stated.
The Founder of The Albino Foundation, Chief Jack Epelle also shared his sentiments.
Epelle warned that Nigeria and many other developing nations cannot continue to depend on USAID funding forever.
He said, “I think it’s a good and bad omen. It is a good omen because it is high time we begin to take our eyes off development funding and begin to develop ourselves so that we, in turn, can fund others. This kind of event should propel us to look inward and begin to see how to meet the needs of the people by ourselves.
“The bad omen is that there are projects USAID has started and individuals were employed. Some projects were expected to run for three to five years. It will create hardships. Several children will be out of school, and many families not sure of where their next meal will come will suffer.”
He, however, praised the European Union for agreeing to undertake the advocacy of persons with disabilities, especially at the grassroots.
Earlier in his address, the CBM Global Head of Programme Implementation, Bright Ekweremadu, said the project couldn’t have come at a better time.
Ekweremadu also hailed the EU for taking up the bold initiative to continue funding humanitarian projects at a time when President Donald Trump halted USAID funding in Africa and other regions.
He said, “We all know what recently happened to USAID. So when you see a global donor or funder for programmes like this, we need to prostrate and think of them for coming to the aid of the less privileged and vulnerable in society.
“Today is a bold declaration of purpose in a shared commitment to a future where every Nigerian, regardless of their ability, has a right to dignity, opportunity and full participation in the society.
“It is our collective response to the persistent inequalities that persons with disabilities face every single day of their lives, sometimes consciously from us. Together, let us build a Nigeria where disability will be recognised, every voice will be heard, and no one is left behind.”
While appreciating the gesture from the audience, the head of the European Union delegation, Wynyfred Egbuson, emphasised the need to advocate for the cause of the less privileged in society.
According to her, the EU-CBM project was signed after a conscious and rigorous exercise of assessing its possible impact.
She said, “Today’s event is an outcome of the long process that started in June 2024 with a call for proposals by civil society organisations and human rights organisations within and outside Nigeria through a competitive and rigorous process that entails three stages of assessment.
“The CBM and its co-implementing partners were selected from 31 applications, leading to the project being launched today. It is estimated that over 25 million people live with disability in Nigeria. This translates to one in every 10 Nigerians.
“Unfortunately, persons with disability are among the most vulnerable members of our society. They face social stigma, exploitation, discrimination and exclusion from participating in the society. We believe that a lot still needs to be done.”
Foreign ministers of military-ruled Sahel states of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger said on Monday they endorse an initiative offering them access to global trade through Morocco’s Atlantic ports, Reuters reported.
The foreign ministers expressed their countries’ position during a meeting with Morocco’s King Mohammed VI in Rabat, it said.
The West African nations, run by military leaders who took power in coups in recent years, withdrew from the regional grouping ECOWAS last year and formed an alliance known as the Confederation of Sahel States (AES).
Morocco, a major investor in West Africa’s financial and agricultural sectors, announced its trade access initiative in November 2023, after ECOWAS imposed trade restrictions on the three states.
The initiative is conducive to “diversifying our access to the sea,” Mali’s foreign minister Abdoulaye Diop told state media.
The meeting “is part of the strong and longstanding relations of the Kingdom with the three brotherly countries of the Alliance of Sahel States,” Morocco’s news agency said.
The visit takes place as relations between the AES and Algeria, Morocco’s regional rival, deteriorate.
Algeria has cut ties with Morocco and backs the Polisario Front which seeks an independent state in Western Sahara, a territory Morocco considers its own and where it is building a port worth $1 billion.
The new AES grouping expelled French and other Western forces and turned towards Russia for military support.
In December, Morocco mediated the release of four French spies held in Burkina Faso, five months after Paris recognised Rabat’s sovereignty over Western Sahara.
A massive power outage paralyzed Spain and Portugal on Monday in an incident with no immediate explanation.
“It’s best to not speculate. We will know the causes soon. We are not discarding any hypothesis, but right now, we just focus on what’s most important: returning electricity to our homes,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said at a news conference Monday.
The stoppage, which occurred about 12:30 p.m. Madrid time, caused chaos across the Iberian Peninsula and showed the vulnerability of Europe’s electrical grid — even on days without extreme weather or spiking demand.
Trains stopped running. Hospitals canceled surgeries, according to news agencies, and depended on backup generators. Business ground to a halt as machines were unable to process credit card transactions. The outage even suspended several Madrid Open tennis matches, with photos showing a court with nonfunctioning scoreboards and darkened stands. Sánchez urged citizens to restrict cellphone use and to call emergency dispatchers only “when it is really necessary.”
By about 5:30 p.m. Madrid time, Red Eléctrica, the corporation that operates Spain’s electricity grid, said some power had been restored across corners of the peninsula, including parts of Catalonia, the Basque Country and Andalusia. About two hours later, the utility provider said more than a fifth of the peninsula’s power had been recovered. Full recovery may take up to 10 hours, Red Eléctrica told Spanish news outlets, which means the country’s power could be restored some time late Monday.
“Causes are being analyzed, and all resources are being dedicated to addressing the issue,” Red Eléctrica said in a statement.
More than 50 million people live on the Iberian Peninsula, but authorities did not provide an immediate estimate for the number of people affected by the outage. Portugal’s national grid operator described it as a “massive cut” in electricity supply across the peninsula. Data from Red Eléctrica showed a sudden plunge in electricity demand from about 27,000 megawatts to less than 13,000. Levels remained abnormally low two hours later.
Spain’s Energy Ministry said in a statement that Sara Aagesen, a deputy prime minister, visited the Red Eléctrica control center to “learn about the situation firsthand and monitor the incident.”
“All necessary measures will be put in place to restore normality as quickly as possible,” the statement said.
Prime Minister Sánchez also held a meeting at the control center, with Aagesen and several other ministers present, the Spanish newspaper El País reported, and Spain’s National Security Council called a meeting to address the outage.
Portugal’s Lusa News Agency said the country’s cybersecurity center had seen no evidence so far that the blackout stemmed from a cyberattack. Separately, the Reuters news agency quoted unnamed officials as saying a cyberattack had not been ruled out.
The Spanish grid also connects with Morocco, France, Andorra and Portugal. Spain and France experienced a major blackout on July 24, 2021, but it lasted less than an hour.
Previous power outages in Europe have been caused by technical problems, lightning strikes and damaged cables. In 2003, Italy faced a huge blackout because a tree was too close to a power line, resulting in a flashover, or a jump of electricity from the line to vegetation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced a temporary ceasefire for the war in Ukraine.
The Kremlin said the ceasefire would run from the morning of 8 May until 11 May – which coincides with victory celebrations to mark the end of World War Two.
In response, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called for an immediate ceasefire lasting “at least 30 days”.
While US President Donald Trump, who has been attempting to broker a truce between the two sides, said he wants to see a permanent ceasefire, the White House said.
The Kremlin announced a similar, 30-hour truce over Easter, but while both sides reported a dip in fighting, they accused each other of hundreds of violations.
Ceasefires have been attempted more than 20 times in Ukraine – all of them failed eventually, and some within minutes of going into effect.
The most recent one, over Easter, was very limited in scope and only resulted in a slight reduction in fighting, with both sides accusing each other of violating the truce.
In a statement on Monday, the Kremlin said Putin declared the ceasefire “based on humanitarian considerations”.
A translation of the statement said: “Russia believes that the Ukrainian side should follow this example.
“In the event of violations of the ceasefire by the Ukrainian side, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will give an adequate and effective response.
“The Russian side once again declares its readiness for peace talks without preconditions, aimed at eliminating the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis, and constructive interaction with international partners.”
Following its release, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Sybiha said: “If Russia truly wants peace, it must cease fire immediately.”
“Why wait until May 8th?” he wrote on X. “If the fire can be ceased now and since any date for 30 days—so it is real, not just for a parade.”
He said Ukraine is ready to support a “lasting, durable, and full ceasefire. And this is what we are constantly proposing, for at least 30 days”.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump was growing “frustrated with leaders of both countries”.
“He wants to see a permanent ceasefire.
“I understand Vladimir Putin this morning offered a temporary ceasefire. The president has made it clear he wants to see a permanent ceasefire first to stop the killing, stop the bloodshed.”
The latest announcement comes during what the US has described as a “very critical” week for Russia-Ukraine peace talks.
Washington has been trying to broker a deal between the two sides, but the Donald Trump administration has threatened to pull out if they do not see progress.
Putin is keen to create the impression that Russia is serious about seeking peace – and he is keen for Trump to hear that message given Ukraine has accepted Washington’s proposal for a more lasting 30-day ceasefire.
It comes after the US president expressed annoyance with Russia’s continued attacks on Ukraine.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, and currently controls about 20% Ukraine’s territory, including the southern Crimea peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014.
It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of people – the vast majority of them soldiers – have been killed or injured on all sides since 2022.
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