OUTRAGED by an attack on Nigerian
troops and the death of one of them in
Darfur, the United Nations (UN) at the
weekend urged Sudan to begin an
investigation into the tragic incident.
News Content:
In a statement by the UN Secretary-
General Ban Ki-moon in New York, the
global body’s condolence was expressed
to the Nigerian government and the
family of the killed soldier, whose name
was yet to be publicly released as at
weekend.
Both the UN Security Council and the
Secretary-General issued statements at
the weekend condemning the attack,
which came after four Nigerian
peacekeepers in Darfur were killed last
October. In its comment, the United
Nations Security Council said the attack
was a targeted onslaught.
The statement also pointedly demanded
that the Sudanese government bring to
justice those behind the attack on the
Nigerian troops.
The United States (U.S.) Charge D’affaires
to Sudan, Joseph Stafford, also warned
that security in Darfur was worsening and
militias should be disarmed, condemning
the recent attack that killed the Nigerian
peacekeeper.
Stafford also expressed grave concern
“about the reports of civilian casualties
and deliberate targeting of civilians by
militias in Muhagiriya and Labado”, the
region where the Nigerian peacekeeper
died on Friday.
He told reporters it is not yet clear who
carried out the “deeply troubling” attack
against the base of the UNAMID near
Muhagiriya town in southern Darfur.
But he said there was an “urgent” need
for an investigation bringing those
responsible to justice.
“We’re worried about the deteriorating
security situation in Darfur and the
conflict between the government forces
and the militia”, Stafford said.
The UN Secretary-General “is appalled and
saddened by the fatal shooting of a
Nigerian UNAMID peacekeeper by
unidentified armed assailants during an
attack today on a UNAMID military
position in Muhajeria, East Darfur,” a
statement on Friday from the UN head
office in New York disclosed.
The statement added that “two
peacekeepers were also injured in the
incident.”
Ban condemned “in the strongest terms
those responsible for the attack and
called on the authorities to immediately
hold the perpetrators criminally
accountable.”
Forty-four international peacekeepers
have been killed so far in Darfur where
the UN deployed troops since 2007. A
good number of them are believed to be
from Nigeria, the country with the largest
contingent in the United Nations Mission
in Darfur (UNIMAD).
The UN Secretary-General expressed “his
deepest condolences to the government
of Nigeria and to the family and
colleagues of the fallen peacekeeper.”
Besides, the UN scribe expressed concern
about “ the restrictions imposed on
UNAMID and humanitarian actors by the
Sudanese authorities, which are
preventing the delivery of aid to civilians
affected by recent clashes between
Government and Sudan Liberation Army-
Minni Minawi forces in Muhajeria and
Labado, East Darfur.”
Ban “calls on the authorities to
immediately allow UNAMID and
humanitarian actors to have full and
unhindered access to civilians in need of
assistance.”
In a similar vein, the members of the
Security Council also “condemned in the
strongest terms the targeted attack by
unidentified assailants on UNAMID
(African Union-United Nations Hybrid
Operation in Darfur) peacekeepers at the
Muhajeria Base Camp in Darfur on April
19, which resulted in the death of a
Nigerian soldier and left two others
wounded.”
The council added that “the members of
the Security Council expressed their
condolences to the family of the
peacekeeper killed in the attack, as well
as to the Government of Nigeria and
UNAMID. They called on the Government
of Sudan to swiftly investigate the
incident and bring the perpetrators to
justice.”
The members of the Security Council
reiterated their full support for UNAMID
and called on all parties in Darfur to
cooperate fully with the mission.
IF nothing is done to bridge the capacity
gap that would arise from the retirement
of top civil servants starting from mid this
year to the end of 2013, the efficiency of
the Nigerian foreign service, and by
extension, her international enterprise
could be hurt.
This and other fears were expressed at
the weekend about the deeper, futuristic
implications of the administrative circular
that now mandates a certain cadre of
officers (directors) to step out of service
after eight years, irrespective of age or
overall service years.
Sources within and outside the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs have revealed that even
though the retirement age (60) and
service years (35) were in themselves
policies geared towards addressing service
issues, the “abnormal” manpower
deficiencies that have gone unaddressed
for years would catch up with the nation’s
foreign service, which could now lose
about 75 per cent of its well horned, top
level, resourceful and versatile officers.
Indeed, diplomats and advisory
statesmen had not too long ago
conceived a memo to draw the attention
of President Goodluck Jonathan to the
consequences of the disengagement
policy on the nation’s external interests.
Warning of the “obvious signs of paralysis
that would soon catch up with the
ministry,” which would further contribute
to the decline of Nigeria’s engagement
abroad, sources pointed at the “near
absence of coherent, systematic and
spread-out training scheme organised by
the Office of the Head of Service or
designated services to “address the
deficiency from our higher institutions to
guide new entrants up to the middle-level
cadre of the service.”
“The gap we are speaking about is gaping,
you can all see it. We do not want this to
happen and then we start complaining
after the damage,” a source said Sunday.
“Yes, this policy has been in use for about
four years now but its broad ranging
implications are about to catch up with
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which
unfortunately has not designed any
special human institutional memory
training to take care of the gaps now
being opened.”
Worse still, they dismissed as “ad-hoc”
the training scheme now being organised
by the Office of the Head of Civil Service
of the Federation, maintaining that it
“does not address the sustainability,
imperative necessity of a vibrant service,”
such as the foreign service.
According to them, the scheme does not
have the international best standards that
could “productively grow the service,” and
currently in Nigeria, only the Armed
Forces “can boast such systematic and
targeted results-oriented service, the
reason it is still sustainable and reliable.”
Nevertheless, the experts also thumped
down the operations of the Nigerian
Foreign Service Academy (FSA) in
Badagry, contending that the school has
not been able to bring about “remarkable
improvements” in the fortunes of the
foreign service in terms of “practical
aspects of the work of the foreign service
officers.”
The FSA, they stressed, only targets new
entrants to the exclusion of middle career
officers. The practical aspects of the
foreign service officers were identified to
include “complex issues such as analysis
of international events, negotiation skills,
writing of reports, speeches and
memoranda, to mundane ones as
classification of files and routine
minutes.”
However, the Foreign Affairs Minister,
Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru, told The
Guardian that there was no cause for
alarm over the gap that might be created
by the exit due to the retirement policy.
He insisted that rife as the gap might be,
the ministry was putting in place
machinery that could guarantee stability
in its manpower planning and
progression.
No comments:
Post a Comment