By John Ikani
Having reviewed most of the major stories from the past week, both locally and on the foreign scene, here are top quotes that tend to paint a vivid picture of what pressures the world is facing and perhaps give us a hint of some things we must expect in the coming days.
1. “The longer vaccine inequity persists, the more the virus will keep circulating and changing, the longer the social and economic disruption will continue, and the higher the chances that more variants will emerge that render vaccines less effective.”
– WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on the global danger posed by vaccines inequity.
2. “It is economic sabotage and we will pursue him, wherever he is, we will report him to international security agencies, we will track him, Mr Oniwinde, we will find you, because we cannot allow you to continue to conduct an illegal activity that kills our economy.”
– Nigeria’s Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele declaring manhunt for Mr Olumide Oniwinde, founder of Digital Forex Tracker – Aboki Fx for “illegally determining the value of the naira and manipulating exchange rate.”
3. “Our role as government is to maintain good enabling environments, protecting shareholders and consumers, while allowing for innovation. We expect you to keep challenging us in this role.”
– President Paul Kagame speaks on the convergence point between governments and the banking sector during the 14th Annual Banking and Finance conference organized by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) held in Abuja on Tuesday.
4. “We condemn the development in Guinea, and affirm that no matter how popular the grievance against an elected leadership may be. The forceful seizure of power is an unacceptable assault on the dignity of a free people and their right to freely elect their leaders. We nevertheless must strongly urge all ECOWAS Member States to respect the principles of democracy and the constitutions of our respective countries.”
– Nigeria’s Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on the recent coup in Guinea and the need for West African countries to ptrevent similar occurence in the future.
5. “Vaccine sharing is good. But we shouldn’t have to be relying on vaccine sharing. We want to buy from those same manufacturers.”
– African Union (AU) Covid-19 Special Envoy, Strive Masiyiwa on need for producers of vaccines to give the continent a fair shot at market access as opposed to waiting for donor-funded doses to arrive.
6. “The next President of Nigeria must come from the Southern part of Nigeria in line with politics of equity, justice and fairness.”
– One of the resolutions reached by Nigeria Southern Governors forum in Enugu State upon reviewing the state of the nation and the progress of implementation of the decisions reached in her previous meetings.
7. “G20 nations account for 80% of global emissions. Their leadership is needed more than ever. The decisions they take now will determine whether the promise made at Paris is kept or broken.”
– UN Secretary-General António Guterres on the need for wealthy nations to commit to tackling emissions. Else, the world will be on a “catastrophic pathway” to 2.7degrees of heating by the end of the century.
8. “Discussions with the Nigerian government have been respectful and productive – we look forward to seeing the service restored very soon.”
– Twitter spokesperson speaks about ongoing negotiations with Nigerian govt, as ban hits 100th Day.
9. “The ongoing conflict in northern Ethiopia is a tragedy causing immense human suffering and threatens the unity of the Ethiopian state. The United States is determined to push for a peaceful resolution of this conflict, and we will provide full support to those leading mediation efforts.
– US President Joe Biden voices concerns about Ethiopia’s Tigray war and the need for ‘all parties to the conflict in the northern Tigray region to negotiate a ceasefire.
10. “It was a mistake and I offer my sincere apology. As the combatant commander, I am fully responsible for this strike and its tragic outcome.”
– General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. Commander of U.S. Central Command admitting that its drone strike on a vehicle in August, killed 10 civilians including children who were not associated with ISIS-K terrorists.
