News
China does not want a trade war with the United States but will defend its interests, a senior Chinese diplomat said on Sunday, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a plan to put tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.
Trump struck a defiant tone on Friday, saying trade wars were good and easy to win, a day after he said he intended to put duties of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminium products.
Trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies have risen since Trump took office in 2017, and although China only accounts for a small fraction of U.S. steel imports, its massive industry expansion has helped produce a global glut of steel that has driven down prices.
“China does not want to fight a trade war with the United States, but we absolutely will not sit by and watch as China’s interests are damaged,” Zhang, who is a spokesman for parliament and was formerly an ambassador to the United States, said.
“If policies are made on the basis of mistaken judgements or assumptions, it will damage bilateral relations and bring about consequences that neither country wants to see,” he said.
Trump believes the tariffs will safeguard American jobs, but many economists say the impact of price increases for users of steel and aluminium, such as the auto and oil industries, will destroy more jobs than curbs on imports create.
Nonetheless, there is growing bipartisan consensus in Washington, and support within the U.S. business community, for the U.S. government to counter what are seen as Beijing’s predatory industrial policies and market restrictions on foreign firms.
Trump has long sought a way to a more balanced trade relationship with China and is also considering potential trade sanctions against Beijing under a“Section 301” investigation into China’s intellectual property practices and pressure on foreign companies for technology transfers.
Diplomatic and U.S. business sources say the United States has all but frozen a formal mechanism for talks on commercial disputes with China because it is not satisfied Beijing has met its promises to ease market restrictions.
Reuters
Members of Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) have voted in favour of entering a coalition with Angela Merkel's conservatives.
The decision clears the way for a re-run of the "grand coalition" which has governed Germany since 2013 and hands the Chancellor a fourth term in office..
It also puts an end to five months of political uncertainty in Europe's largest economy - the longest the country has been without a government in its post-war history.
The centre-left SPD had furiously debated whether to extend the "grand coalition" for another four years after suffering a slump in last year's election.
In the end, 66 per cent of the party's 464,000 members approved a coalition deal.
Parliament is expected to meet next week to elect Ms Merkel as chancellor, confirming her position as one of Europe's dominant politicians.
Speaking at the SDP's headquarters iN Berlin, its acting leader Olaf Scholz said: "The vast majority of SPD members followed the party leadership's suggestion."
"We now have clarity: the SPD will join the next German government," he added.
On Saturday, Mr Scholz had said turn-out in the poll had been "very, very high" after an intense internal campaign that pitted the party's pro-coalition leadership against its more radical youth wing, which campaigned for "No".
Ms Merkel could be sworn in as Chancellor by mid-March.
Independent
Italians are heading to the polls today to vote in one of the most uncertain elections in years and one that could determine if Italy will succumb to the populist, Eurosceptic and far-right sentiment that has swept through Europe.
The campaign was marked by the primetime airing of neofascist rhetoric and anti-migrant violence that culminated in the shooting last month of six Africans.
The results of the vote, which are expected to be announced early on Monday, could re-establish Silvio Berlusconi, the conservative former prime minister and billionaire forced out of office in 2011 under a cloud of scandal, as the dominant force in Italian politics.
They might also reveal a surge in support for Italy’s two main populist parties, the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and the far-right La Lega, which are both Eurosceptic, anti-free trade, pro-Kremlin and opposed to mandatory vaccinations despite Italy being hit by a measles outbreak.
The centre-left, led by the former prime minister Matteo Renzi, sought on Friday to make a last-ditch appeal for moderation, calling on the significant number of undecided voters – about 30% – to “think carefully”.
While the centre-right coalition that capitalised on the anti-migrant sentiment led the polls last week, analysts predict the likeliest outcome is a hung parliament.
That will necessitate days and weeks of backroom haggling and horse trading to come up with a coalition government that can win confidence votes in parliament. Just which parties coalesce from among the three main blocs — the centre-right coalition, centre-left coalition and the Five Star Movement — will determine Italy’s course.
“It is very likely that, at the end of the day, none of these three groups will have an absolute majority and they will be forced to start talking to each other and see how to put together a coalition government,” said Franco Pavoncello, the dean of the John Cabot University in Rome.
More than 46 million Italians are eligible to vote from 7am to 11pm (6am-10pm GMT), including Italians abroad who already used postal ballots. Exit polls are expected after polls close, with projections sometime thereafter.
With unemployment at 10.8% and economic growth in the eurozone’s third-largest economy lagging the average, many Italians have all but given up hope for change. Polls indicated a third hadn’t decided or weren’t even sure they would vote.
“The situation is pretty bad,” said Paolo Mercorillo from Ragusa, Sicily, who said he had decided not to vote. “There aren’t candidates who are valid enough.”
The anti-establishment Five Star Movement hoped to capitalise on such disgust, particularly among Italy’s young, and polls indicated the grassroots movement launched in 2009 by comedian Beppe Grillo would be the largest vote-getter among any single party.
The Five Star candidates were not expected to win enough to govern on their own, and they have sworn not to form coalitions. The movement’s leader, Luigi Di Maio, recently suggested, however, he would be open to talking with potential allies.
Analysts predict the only coalition with a chance of reaching an absolute majority is the centre-right coalition anchored by Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party. The coalition includes the anti-migrant Lega and the nationalistic, neo-fascist-rooted Brothers of Italy party.
Berlusconi, 81, cannot run for office because of a tax fraud conviction, but he has tapped the European parliament president, Antonio Tajani, considered a pro-European moderate, as his pick if the centre-right is asked to form a government.
Lega leader Matteo Salvini is gunning for the top job too though, and some pro-European analysts envision a possible “nightmare scenario” of an extremist alliance among the Five Stars, the Lega and Brothers of Italy. The presence in Rome this weekend of Steve Bannon, the rightwing populist architect of Donald Trump’s White House campaign, was an indication of the stakes.
Roberto D’Alimonte, of Rome’s LUISS University, said such an outcome would be “catastrophic” for the markets. But he said the Five Stars will have to decide if they’re going to join the right or the left if they’re going to move from their longtime perch in the opposition to actually help govern.
“This will be the moment of truth,” he said.
The Guardian
Prof. Amos Sawyer, Head of the ECOWAS’ 55-member Election Observation Mission has appealed to Sierra Leone’s political actors and stakeholders to cooperate and ensure that all outstanding political and legal issues are resolved peaceful so as not to jeopardise the smooth conduct of the country’s crucial March 7 presidential, parliamentary and local council polls.
“These elections should be seen in the wider and broader context of advancing peace and stability in Sierra Leone and the ECOWAS region,” the Head of Mission said in Freetown on Saturday 3rd March after a meeting with the leadership of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), part of his continuing engagement with stakeholders ahead of the elections.
The major pre-election issues, which outcome could impact the elections, are the dual citizenship case involving two of the 16 presidential candidates pending and the restriction of vehicular movement in the District headquarter Towns on Election Day. There are three cases before the Supreme Court for determination.
Political and legal experts have expressed concern that the success of the March 7 elections could depend on mature handling of the court cases, especially those on the presidential candidature. Under the Sierra Leone constitution, a political party whose candidate is disqualified has seven days to produce a replacement.
Given that the elections are in a few days’ time, either going ahead with the polls or a postponement has a cost and credibility implications on the elections.
Consequently, Prof. Sawyer has continued to preach peace and the need for prompt resolution of the issues at meetings with the stakeholders, including the outgoing President Ernest Bai Koroma, the Chief Justice and members of the Supreme Court Bench, as well as Sierra Leone Police leadership and the NEC.
“Sierra Leone has come a long way from its civil war and what is required is the collective efforts by the citizens, the government, security agencies, the judiciary, civil society and the media to take the country to the next level,” declared the former Interim President of Liberia.
This is against the background of the fact that electoral disputes have triggered many a political conflict in the region and the continent resulting in huge human and financial losses and untold humanitarian catastrophe.
At the meeting with Prof. Sawyer, the NEC Chairman Mohamed N'fah-Alie Conteh assured that “on the whole, given the level of preparations, the Commission is confident that the elections will go well.”
He thanked ECOWAS, the ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions (ECONEC) and development partners for supporting the electoral process.
Before the deployment of observers, in line with its mandate to support member States holding elections, ECOWAS has also provided financial support after undertaking a pre-election fact-finding mission to Sierra Leone, and led a Joint ECOWAS/AU/UN High-Level Mission with the purpose of ensuring that all stakeholders are on the same page for credible elections and peaceful transfer of political power in the country.
Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, President of ECONEC governing board and Chair of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), Nigeria also led a Needs Assessment Mission to Sierra Leone in 2017, which resulted in the pledge of logistical support by Nigeria, towards ensuring successful March 7 elections and the consolidation of peace and democracy in the country.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has emerged as the arrowhead of a plot to coalesce all opposition parties and groups for the purpose of dislodging the All Progressives Congress (APC) from power in next year’s elections.
The party is already reaching out to such opposition parties and groups, The Nation gathered authoritatively yesterday.
Many power brokers across the land are said to be in support of the move.
“There is not going to be a divided opposition against APC. All opposition parties will coalesce to fight APC in 2019,” a highly placed source familiar with the plan said last night.
“We have discovered that unless we sink our differences and slug it out with APC, which is a common enemy, we cannot unseat the ruling party or defeat President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019,” the source said.
The PDP, he added, will not underrate the battle ahead, hence its determination “to reclaim power at the first ballot.”
Continuing, he said: “There are many talks/ discussions at various levels on the way forward for Nigeria in 2019, especially how to defeat APC.
“Some of these talks are at the level that people do not think about.”
Reminded about the exit of some PDP leaders to the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the source claimed that the SDP “cannot stand alone.”
He was confident that the PDP and SDP would “work together at the end of the day. So, we will all end up under the same roof.
“By the time we come out stronger, the battle would have been half won by the opposition.”
Meanwhile, fresh facts emerged yesterday on why some founding fathers like Prof. Jerry Gana and Prof. Tunde Adeniran left PDP for SDP.
A top source in PDP said: “We were aware that they were just aggrieved because their candidate did not win the chairmanship election at the National Convention of our party.
“They had been in control of the PDP and used to determine its affairs for a long time.
“They used to be in charge and they could not imagine themselves not calling the shots anymore.
“We are not bothered because some of those who defected from PDP to SDP have not even won councillorship seat or any election since 1999.
“They have been living on PDP like parasites. They have benefited from the party and they have dumped the party that has shot up their profile.”
Ex-Information Minister Jerry Gana and ex-Education Minister Tunde Adeniran are among the first set of PDP stalwarts to quit the PDP for the SDP.
The rest include a former Military Administrator of Katsina State, Sen. Joseph Akaagerger; Chief Mike Oghiadhome, who is a former Chief of Staff to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan; ex-Governor Saminu Turaki of Jigawa State; and ex-Minister of Defence, Dr. Olu Agunloye and a former Deputy Speaker of Ondo State House of Assembly, Dare Emiola.
Also teaming up with SDP are a former member of the House of Representatives, Dr. Junaid Mohammed; Sen. Bassey Ewa Hensaw; a member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Olamide Oni; Supo Shonibare (South-West Zonal chairman of SDP), Dipo Olaitan (a former leader of the Alliance for Democracy in the House of Representatives); a former Speaker, Oyo State House of Assembly, Kehinde Ayoola; Amb. Yemi Farounbi; leaders of the Middle Belt Forum; Mr. John Dara; the leaders of the National Intervention Forum led by Dr. Tafawa Balewa; and Amb Bejide; Shehu Gabam.
The SDP and the Gana-led team from the PDP on Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to work together.
Jointly signed by Falae (for SDP) and Prof. Gana (for Movement for a New Political Order), the MoU reads in part: “Whereas on the 12th Day of February 2018, a joint resolution was adopted at Sheraton Hotel Abuja, for working together to ensure the emergence of a new and credible political order to deepen democracy, good governance and genuine development, with peace, security and social justice. The said meeting also unanimously resolved to build:
- a) a restructured, balanced equitable and truly functional Nigerian Federation:
- b) a humane ,free, self-reliant and democratic society;
- c) a dynamic, productive, transformed and sustainable economy;
- D) a just, fair, egalitarian and peaceful nation
- e) a land of bright and full of opportunities for all Nigerians; and
- f) a national culture of raising good leaders through effective mentoring;
“Whereas, it was also agreed that the proposed movement shall be directed, driven and defined by such core values as: 1). Justice, fairness, equity and progress; 2). Democracy, good leadership, good governance and sustainable development; 3). Transparency, integrity, truth and honour; 4). Accountability and zero tolerance for corruption; 5). Respect for human dignity, human rights and sanctity of human life;; and 6). Peace, security, harmony, cooperative solidarity, within the rule of law; and 7). International cooperation for a common humanity within a secure and peaceful order.
” Whereas, the movement further resolved to be inspired and motivated by the ideals of social democracy, with great emphasis on: the triumph of social justice; the nobility of human dignity; the harmony of fairness and equality; the power of working together in solidarity; the excellence of good governance, driven by good leadership; the wisdom of reforms and transformation far beyond mere growth; the horror of poverty, demanding eradication; the dignity of prosperity; the imperative of democracy and the security of peace with justice
“Whereas with due reference to these objectives, core values, and ideals, a Strategy Committee was mandated to search for a suitable, popular, meaningful and widespread platform, with a name that already resonates with the people and to make appropriate recommendations; and
“Whereas, the Strategic Committee, comprising representatives from all the six geopolitical zones of the Federation, have met and submitted their report, unanimously recommending the adoption of Social Democratic Party(SDP) vehicle by the movement for a new political order:
“Therefore, we hereby resolutely agree to: (a) Fuse together into one political form; (b) adopt the Social Democratic Party(SDP) as the political vehicle for the fused political formation; (c) Convene a non-elective convention for Saturday, 14th April, 2018; (d) authorize the National Working Committee to serve as the Interim Management Committee until the said convention; Set up a National Steering Committee of 12 members to guide the Interim Management Committee during the transition period; Raise a Constitution Review Committee to consider all necessary amendments to the party constitution.”
Dr. Mohammed, speaking on the arrangement said: “Those involved in SDP are the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Peoples Salvation Party (PSP), the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and some elements of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). It was like a merger but we do not want to call it so because the All Progressives Congress (APC) has destroyed the concept of merger.
“I am an optimist. I believe SDP will make a great impact. The main reason I want to be associated with it is because it is ideologically driven. Even it was not ideologically driven before it has to be ideologically driven.”
A top source in the SDP said: “The SDP has been approached by the Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM) which has been founded by ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo. We are hopeful that our ongoing talks will be fruitful.
“We share common ideals with the CNM on how to move the nation forward.”
The Nation
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is to enter into strategic partnership with the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) for an effective distribution of materials and personnel ahead of next year’s elections.
The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Ebonyi State, Prof Godswill Obioma, at a meeting attended by representatives of the 29 branches of the NURTW and INEC officials in Abakaliki yesterday described transportation as a critical component of election involving timely movement of INEC personnel and electoral materials.
He lauded the union for the previous partnership with the commission in the area of transport arrangements.
“It becomes pertinent that adequate transportation arrangements are made to ensure that INEC officials and materials are moved to designated election centres on time,” Obioma said.
He said the meeting was in line with the directives from the commission’s national headquarters that state offices of INEC should hold meetings with its strategic partners on election planning.
The REC told members of the NURTW that the meeting was to enable the commission embark on early transportation planning.
He said that the initiative would also help the commission to overcome avoidable mobility challenges.
Obioma said that the meeting was a follow up to an earlier meeting held between the commission and the union.
“The main purpose of this meeting is to start planning early the transportation arrangements and it is also a follow up to the meeting held last month.
“We made some far reaching resolutions during the last meeting and it becomes even more urgent to partner with your union in making transportation arrangement now that our headquarters has given us orders to do so.
“We were told to go back and meet with our stakeholders in various aspects to begin arrangements in earnest for the elections.
“We have just met with the committee in charge of security called the Inter Agency Consultative Committee in Electoral Security,” he said.
Obioma explained that they had used the opportunity availed by the meeting to lay out strategic plans for security.
He said, “The Commissioner of Police is the chairman and REC is the co-chairman.”
The REC said that a nine-man joint sub-committee to work out the modalities for effective engagement of the transporters would be constituted at the end of the meeting.
He commended the union for attending the meeting and reassured its members of the commitment of the commission aimed at sustaining existing cordial relationship between it and NURTW.
Obioma also restated the commitment of the electoral body to conduct credible, free and fair elections in Ebonyi in 2019.
The state chairman of the NURTW, Chief Oko Ewa, said the union would support the commission to succeed in the areas of transportation.
Ewa, represented by the state secretary, Mr Sunday Ebude, said that NURTW would respect the partnership arrangement.
The Nation
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday led top government officials, diplomatic corps and business tycoons to witness the marriage ceremony of Fatima (Baby) Ganduje and Idris Ajimobi, daughter and son of governors of Kano and Oyo states.
Twenty two governors, Senate President Bukola Saraki and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju Bola Tinubu also witnessed the solemnisation.
Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna), Akunwunmi Ambode,(Lagos) Rauf Aregbesola , (Osun), Abdulaziz Yari, (Zamfara), Mohammadu Abubakar Badaru, (Jigawa), Kassim Shettima, (Borno), Abiola Ajimobi, (Oyo), Ibikunle Amosu,( Ogun), Rochas Okorocha, (Imo) and Yahaya Bello (Kogi) among others
Buhari, who stood as guardian to Fatima, received a dowry of N50, 000 from national leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who played the role of the guardian to Idris.
Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II, joined the couple at the Kano Central Mosque where the marriage rites was performed.
A large crowd thronged the Mosque to witness what has been described by many as a ‘marriage of national unity.’
Sanusi admonished the couple and urged them to live together according to the tenets of Islam.
The marriage was solemnised at exactly 12:30 pm by Sanusi assisted by Chief Imam of the mosque, Professor Sani Zarhadeen.
The emir said marriage is religious injunction which all believers must respect.
According to him: ”Allah has directed all Muslim adult who is gainfully employed or has a means of livelihood to marry a woman he loves and the two start up their home in love and harmony.”
The Emir also advised the couple to live together in peace as each of them has roles to play in the family to make it a success.
A colorful grand reception held at the Government House where guests were treated to different types of dishes, traditional songs and dance.
The event held under tight security as security men had hectic time controlling the surging crowd that besieged the Kano Central Mosque and Government House.
However, pick pockets had a field day as hundreds of people lost phones and money, including an agent of the Department of State Services (DSS) attached to Aso Rock.
He was dispossessed of his handset and other valuables to his chagrin.
The Nation