Atiku Abubakar, a former vice-president of Nigeria, has declared his bid to become president of Nigeria when elections are held in 2019. Atiku is seeking to run on the ticket of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a party he rejoined earlier this year. He left the PDP to join the ruling All Progressives congress (APC) which brought Muhammadu …

Despite unrelenting rain, around 20,000 people demonstrated in Munich on Sunday to protest the hardline immigration stance of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Bavarian allies CSU, three months before they face a tough election in the state. Demonstrators said they marched against a “politics of fear” of state premier, Markus Soeder, and CSU leader and federal interior minister, Horst Seehofer, whose …

Footballer Mesut Özil has quit the national team amid the fallout from meeting Turkey’s president and Germany’s World Cup exit. In a strongly worded statement, Özil said he would “no longer stand for being a scapegoat.” Matt Pearson reports. Mesut Özil said on Sunday he will no longer play international football for Germany following the fallout from his meeting with …

Wednesday 18 July marks the 100th birthday of Nelson Mandela. Events took place across the globe to mark the milestone, honouring an international icon for democracy, freedom and peace. It has been a century since South Africa’s anti-apartheid icon and the first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela, was born. South Africa on Wednesday marked the Nelson Mandela’s birthday with a …

Social media giant, Twitter Inc., has announced the appointment of Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to its board of directors. Also appointed is former World Bank chief, Robert Zoellick, as the microblogging site reshuffled its board, Twitter said Thursday. According to the Executive Chairman of Twitter, Omid Kordestani, Okonjo-Iweala would be an incredible asset for the company as …

Nigeria’s aviation minister announced at the Farnborough Airshow International, a biennial major trade exhibition for the aerospace and defence industries with a public airshow in the UK, that the country’s new national airline will be called Nigeria Air and will launch in December. He also explains how the country is planning against the failure of the new carrier. Minister of …

Ethiopia has appointed an ambassador to Eritrea for the first time in 20 years, the latest in a series of peace moves between the neighbours. “Redwan Hussein has been appointed as Ethiopia’s ambassador to Eritrea — the first for 20 years, the foreign ministry said,” according to Ethiopia’s state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporation. The announcement on Thursday follows a flurry of …

Nigeria-Austria Business Forum 2018 took place recently in Vienna and was attended by businesspeople from countries and Nigerian government officials, including Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State. The second Nigeria-Austria Business Forum took place on 28 June 2018 in Vienna, Austria, and it was dedicated to deepening trade ties between both countries. The event was jointly organised by the Embassy …

Germany’s federal cabinet wants to add three Maghreb states and Georgia to a list of “safe countries of origin.” But will the change pass Germany’s upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat, where it failed last year? Timothy Jones and Jefferson Chase report. The German government will put forward legislation declaring Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Georgia “safe countries of origin.” The …

A peaceful demonstration was held yesterday at the premises of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague where President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria delivered a keynote speech to mark the 20th anniversary of the court. The protesters, under the aegis of Nigerian National Association-The Netherlands (NNA-NL) who gathered outside the premises of the court, condemned the leadership of the …