Disturbed by the resurgence spate of insecurity across the nation, the Nigerian Baptist Convention (NBC) has urged President Bola Tinubu to urgently convene a national security summit.

The proposed summit, according to the Convention, should bring together former Presidents, Heads of State as well as current and past security chiefs to chart a new course for tackling the worsening security crisis.

Speaking at a briefing ahead of the Convention’s 112th Annual Session and the 175th anniversary of Baptist missionary work in Nigeria, President of the Convention, Rev. Dr. Israel Akanji, said the proposed summit should include the Minister of Defence, Service Chiefs, the Inspector General of Police and heads of intelligence agencies.

He decried the deepening insecurity across the nation, citing recurring incidents of mass killings, kidnappings, and terrorist attacks in Plateau, Benue, Katsina, Zamfara, and Borno states.

He said: “The spate of mass burials in Bokkos, Barkin Ladi, Bassa, and other communities is deeply disturbing and unacceptable. This is not the time for lip service.”

He reiterated the Convention’s call for the creation of State Police, insisting that the current centralized policing model is inadequate for Nigeria’s security needs.

While noting some improvements in foreign investment inflow, he called on the government to intensify efforts to make Nigeria more attractive to investors.

Speaking on the convention with the theme: “Entering into Newness through Fasting and Prayer,” the NBC Convention President said the event will open Saturday, April 26 at the Baptist International Convention Centre along the Lagos-Ibadan Expresswayand and hosted by the Providence, Ethiope, and Anioma Delta Baptist Conferences.

Akanji also extended condolences to the Roman Catholic Church over the passing of Pope Francis, who died on Easter Monday, April 21, 2025, in Vatican City, a day after delivering his Easter message. “What a glorious exit,” he said.

The Nation reports that, the Nigerian Baptist Convention was established as a national body on March 11, 1914 during a meeting at First Baptist Church, Idikan Street, Ibadan.

Brazil’s former president Fernando Collor de Mello was arrested and taken to prison Friday to begin serving a nearly nine-year sentence for corruption and money laundering, the latest former leader to face jail time.

Collor de Mello, Brazil’s first democratically elected president after a decades-long dictatorship, resigned in 1992 after Congress launched impeachment proceedings against him for allegedly taking bribes.

His arrest stems from a conviction over bribes taken two decades later while a senator, part of the sprawling “Car Wash” corruption scandal.

The 75-year-old was detained in Maceio city in northeastern Alagoas state, where he served as a senator and governor, a federal police source told AFP.

In 2023, Collor de Mello was found guilty of having received 20 million reais ($3.5 million dollars) in bribes while a senator between 2010 and 2014 to “irregularly facilitate contracts” between a construction company and a former subsidiary of Brazil’s state oil company Petrobras.

On Thursday, Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes rejected Collor de Mello’s last-gasp efforts to have the arrest order annulled.

His lawyers told local media the arrest came as he was about to travel to the capital Brasilia to turn himself in.

Moraes ordered he be incarcerated in an individual cell in a “special wing” of Baldomero Cavalcanti de Oliveira prison in Maceio.

His lawyers said they would seek permission for him to serve his sentence under house arrest.

Collor de Mello is not Brazil’s first president to fall foul of the law.

Four of the seven people who have led the country since the 1964-1985 military dictatorship have either been convicted, jailed or impeached.

In the latest case, far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro has been ordered to stand trial over an alleged coup plot after losing the 2022 election.

While recovering in hospital this week from intestinal surgery, a court official handed the 70-year-old a summons giving him five days to submit his initial defense.

– ‘Car Wash’ fallout –

Current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who served two terms between 2003 and 2010, was among dozens of top businessmen and politicians in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America who were caught up in the Car Wash mega-probe.

The investigation uncovered a vast network of bribes paid by large construction companies to politicians in several countries to obtain major public works contracts.

Lula spent a year and a half behind bars before having his conviction overturned by the Supreme Court and winning a third term in October 2022.

Collor de Mello was heralded as a youthful non-conformist figure who promised far-reaching political and social reforms when he beat the leftist Lula to the presidency in 1989.

But his day in the sun did not last long.

Less than three years later he stood down as president as the impeachment process was nearly complete.

He returned to politics, after a period of ineligibility had expired, and in 2006 was elected senator for Alagoas, a seat he held until 2022.

In 2022, he campaigned for Bolsonaro who was seeking re-election but it was Collor de Mello’s old adversary Lula who triumphed. [AFP/CBS]

Several world leaders will attend the funeral of Pope Francis on Saturday, April 26.

Here is the list:

Africa
Angola – Joâo Manuel Gonçalves, President
Cape Verde – Jose Maria Neves, President
Central African Republic – Faustin-Archange Touadera, President
Democratic Republic of Congo – Felix Tshisekedi, President
Equatorial Guinea – Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, Vice President
Gabon – Brice Nguema, President
Kenya – William Samoei Ruto, President
Lesotho – King Letsie III
Madagascar – Andry Rajoelina, President
Morocco – Aziz Akhannouch, Prime Minister
Mozambique – Daniel Chapo, President
Nigeria – H.E Senator Godswill Akpabio Senate President
Seychelles – Wavel Ramkalawan, President
Sierra Leone – Julius Maada Bio, President
Tanzania – Philip Isdor Mpango, Vice President
Togo – Faure Gnassingbé, President
Zimbabwe – Constantino Chiwenga, Vice President
Foreign Ministers: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Mali, Namibia, South Sudan, Tunisia, Zambia

Asia
Armenia – Vahagn Khachaturyan, President
Bangladesh – Muhammad Yunus, Chief Adviser
China – Chin-Jen Chen, Former Vice President
Cyprus – Nikos Christodoulides, President
East Timor – Jose Ramos-Horta, President
India – Droupadi Murmu, President
Iraq (Kurdistan Region) – Nechirvan Barzani, President
Israel – Yaron Sideman, Ambassador
Lebanon – Joseph Khalil Aoun, President
Palestine – Mohamed Mustafa, Prime Minister
Philippines – Ferdinand Marcos Jr., President
Turkey – Numan Kurtulmus, Speaker of the National Assembly
Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Japan – Foreign Ministers
Jordan – King Abdullah II

Europe
Albania – Bajram Begaj, President
Austria – Christian Stocker, Chancellor
Belgium – Bart De Wever, Prime Minister; King Philippe and Queen Mathilde
Bosnia and Herzegovina – Zeljka Cvijanović, Chairman
Croatia – Zoran Milanovic, President
Czech Republic – Petr Fiala, Prime Minister
Estonia – Alar Karis, President
Finland – Alexander Stubb, President
France – Emmanuel Macron, President
Georgia – Mikheil Kavelashvili, President
Germany – Frank-Walter Steinmeier & Olaf Scholz
Greece – Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Prime Minister
Hungary – Tamas Sulyok & Viktor Orbán
Iceland – Halla Tómasdóttir, President
Ireland – Micheal D. Higgins & Micheal Martin
Italy – Sergio Mattarella & Giorgia Meloni
Latvia – Edgars Rinkevics, President
Lithuania – Gitanas Nauseda, President
Macedonia – Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, President
Malta – Myriam Spiteri Debono, President
Moldova – Maia Sandu, President
Montenegro – Jakov Milatović, President
Netherlands – Dick Schoof, Prime Minister
Poland – Andrzej Duda, President
Portugal – Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa & Luis Montenegro
Romania – Ilie Bolojan, Interim President
San Marino – Denise Bronzetti, Captain Regent
Serbia – Duro Macut, Prime Minister
Slovakia – Peter Pellegrini, President
Slovenia – Natasa Pirc Musar & Robert Golob
Sweden – Ulf Kristersson, Prime Minister; King Carl XVI Gustaf & Queen Silvia
Switzerland – Karin Keller-Sutter, President
Ukraine – Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President
United Kingdom – Keir Starmer, Prime Minister; Prince William
Liechtenstein – Prince Alois and Princess Sophie
Luxembourg – Grand Duke Henri & Grand Duchess Maria Teresa
Monaco – Prince Albert and Princess Charlene
Denmark – Queen Mary
Norway – Crown Prince Haakon & Crown Princess Mette-Marit
Leaders of Institutions (Europe-based): Bjorn Berge (Council of Europe), Ursula von der Leyen (European Commission), Roberta Metsola (European Parliament), Antonio Costa (Council of the EU), Kaja Callas (EU Foreign Affairs), Pia Kauma (OSCE Parliamentary Assembly)

North America
United States – Donald Trump (President) & Melania Trump; Joe Biden (Former President) & Jill Biden
Belize – Froyla Tzalam, Governor General
Canada – Mary Simon, Governor General
Mexico – Rosa Icela Rodríguez, Secretary of the Interior
Cuba – Salvador Valdés Mesa, Vice President
Dominican Republic – Luis Abinader, President
El Salvador – Félix Ulloa Garay, Vice President
Honduras – Xiomara Castro, President

South America
Argentina – Javier Milei, President
Brazil – Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President
Chile – Manuel José Ossandon, Senator
Ecuador – Daniel Noboa, President
Paraguay – Raúl Latorre, President of the Chamber of Deputies
Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela – Foreign Ministers

Oceania
Australia – Sam Mostyn, Governor General
New Zealand – Christopher Luxon, Prime Minister

International Organizations
United Nations – Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General; Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General
European Commission – Ursula von der Leyen, President
Council of the European Union – Antonio Costa, President
European Parliament – Roberta Metsola, President
European Union Foreign Affairs – Kaja Kallas, High Representative
Council of Europe – Bjorn Berge, Secretary-General
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) – Pia Kauma, President of the Parliamentary Assembly
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) – Álvaro Lario, President