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Mexico, Iceland, list of other countries with female presidents

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ON Saturday, June 2, Mexico elected her first female president and Jewish leader, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, who will be succeeding the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Sheinbaum won against two other major candidates, Xóchitl Gálvez and Jorge Álvarez Máynez. This year’s Mexico election was also the first in the country’s history which the main contenders for the country’s presidency were women.

The election saw the death of multiple aspiring candidates for political office since January 2024, killing atleast 40. It led to the government providing all-round security for candidates and election officials. 

Claudia Sheinbaum will take office on October 1, 2024, serving  a six-year term before the next election. She is one of the few women in the world serving at the highest point of government.

So far there are over 10 women who are serving as president in the world with Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico and Halla Tómasdóttir of Iceland.  Tómasdóttir is the president-elect of Iceland in the elections held on June 1. She will become the 7th President of Iceland on August 1, 2024.

Below is a compilation of female presidents around the globe in power or about to take over:

Barbados: Dame Sandra Prunella Mason

Dame Sandra Prunella Mason is the first president of Barbados. She took office on November 30, 2021, after Barbados ceased to be a constitutional monarchy and became a republic. Prior to that time, the head of state was Elizabeth II, Queen of Barbados, who was represented on the island by a governor-general. Mason was also the also the eighth and last governor-general of Barbados from 2018 to 2021.

Dominica: Sylvania Burton

Sylvania Burton is 9th president of Dominica the first woman from the country to become president. She was elected on September 27 and sworn in on October 2, 2023. Before becoming president, Burton served as permanent secretary in various ministries since 2014 in the country and also held the position of development officer in the Ministry of Kalinago Affairs in the country.

Ethiopia: Sahle-Work Zewde

Sahle-Work Zewde is a politician and diplomat who has served as president of Ethiopia since 2018, being the first woman to hold the office. She was elected as president unanimously by members of the Federal Parliamentary Assembly on October 25, 2018.

Georgia: Salome Zourabichvili

Salome Zourabichvili is currently serving as the fifth president of Georgia. She assumed office in 2018 as the first woman to be elected as Georgia’s president in 2018, a position she will occupy for a term of six years. Following the result of constitutional changes in the country coming into effect in 2024, Zourabichvili is expected to be Georgia’s last popularly elected president. Future heads of state are to be elected indirectly by a parliamentary college of electors.

Greece: Katerina Sakellaropoulou

Katerina Sakellaropoulou  is a Greek judge who has been the president of Greece since March 13 2020. She was elected by the Hellenic Parliament to succeed Prokopis Pavlopoulos on 22 January 2020. Prior to her election as president, Sakellaropoulou served as president of the Council of State, the highest administrative court of Greece. She is the country’s first female president.

Honduras: Iris Xiomara Castro Sarmiento

Iris Xiomara Castro Sarmiento assumed office as the president of the country in January 2022, being the 56th president of Honduras and the country’s first female president. She had previously served as the first lady during the presidency of her husband, Manuel Zelaya from 2006 to 2009.

India: Droupadi Murmu

Droupadi Murmu was sworn in as president of India on July 25, 2022, making her the 15th president of the country and second female president after Pratibha Patil. Before becoming president, she was the Governor of Jharkhand and a minister in Odisha government in India.

Malta: Myriam Spiteri Debono

Myriam Spiteri Debono is Malta’s 11th President after winning the election on March 27, 2024, and sworn in on April 4. She is the first president to be elected using the country’s new constitutional reforms of 2020 including the new requirement of two-thirds of the parliament’s approval for the presidential nominee.

Moldova: Maia Sandu

Maia Sandu took office as president of Moldova on December 24, 2020. Following her victory in the nation’s election on November 15, 2020. In addition to being the founder and previous head of the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS), she served as Moldova’s prime minister from June 8, 2019, until the government fell on November 14, 2019, following a vote of no confidence. She served as Moldova’s Minister of Education from 2012 to 2015 and as a member of the parliament in 2019 as well.

North Macedonia: Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova

Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova was sworn in as the 6th president of North Macedonia on May 12, 2024. She was a candidate for the 2019 presidential elections, losing to Stevo Pendarovski in the runoff. She ran again in the 2024 presidential elections and defeated Pendarovski by a landslide in a rematch election. She is North Macedonia’s first female president.

PERU: Dina Boluarte

Dina Boluarte is a 62-year-old a Peruvian politician, civil servant, and lawyer who is the first female president of Peru. She was also the Peru’s first female vice president and was sworn in as president on December 7, 2022, after her predecessor, Former President Pedro Castillo was impeached and arrested.

Slovakia: Zuzana Čaputová

Zuzana Čaputová is currently serving as the 5th president of Slovakia after assuming officce on June 15, 2019. Čaputová is the first woman to hold the presidency, as well as the youngest president in the history of Slovakia, elected at the age of 45.

Slovenia: Nataša Pirc Musar

Nataša Pirc Musar is a journalist and lawyer who was elected as the first female president of Slovenia, succeeding President Borut Pahor. She was sworn in on December 23, 2022.

Trinidad and Tobago: Christine Carla Kangaloo

Christine Carla Kangaloo was elected as president of Trinidad and Tobago on January 20, 2023, and sworn in on March 23 of the same year, succeeding Paula Mae Weekes, the country’s first female president who served from 2018-2023. Kangaloo was the first vice President of the Senate to become the president of the senate as well as the first president of the senate, to become the president-elect of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

Tanzania: Samia Suluhu Hassan

Samia Suluhu Hassan is Tanzania’s first female president sworn on March 19, 2021. She ascended to the presidency following the death of her predecessor, John Magufuli after serving as the vice president from 2015 to 2021.

Man killed, run over by motorcyclists in Lagos accompanied officers on illegal duty – Police

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THE Lagos State Police Command said a man who was killed, and his corpse, run over by motorcyclists in the Aswani area of the state had accompanied two police officers to carry out illegal duty which led to his death.

Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the command, Benjamin Hundeyin, disclosed this in a post via his X handle on Saturday, June 22.

“Two police officers attached to the Lagos State Taskforce on Wednesday, June 19, 2024 went on illegal duty, taking some civilians with them to shore up their number. They came under attack from motorcycle riders, resulting in the death of one of the civilians,” he noted.

Hundeyin said the officers had been detained and police operatives were on the trail of their civilian accomplices.

A viral video had circulated on social media in which a corpse was seen lying on the road, while different motorcyclists, rode over it as though to crush it.

The video attracted several reactions from social media users who condemned the act and called the attention of the police to it.

Hundeyin also noted via X that investigations had begun to identify and prosecute the motorcyclists captured in the video.

“While disciplinary actions have commenced on the already detained police officers, and search is on for their civilian accomplices, investigations have commenced to identify, arrest and prosecute the perpetrators of this dastardly act,” he said.

One X user with username AduOmololu, who commented on the video said: “Is there a reporting portal where bystanders can report such incidents for a rapid response? We shouldn’t wait until this becomes the norm. The public should be educated on using their mobile phones to gather real-time information and share it with the nearest police post.”

The Nigeria Police Force launched an application, the ‘Rescue Me’ app in 2021, but data analysed by The ICIR in February 2024, showed that not up to one per cent of internet users in Nigeria had the application installed on their mobile phones.

Lagos traces cholera outbreak to unregistered tiger nut drink

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THE Lagos State Government has said its officials traced the current cholera outbreak in the state to the consumption of unregistered tiger nut drink sold in the Eti-Osa Local Government Area (LGA).

Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Health, Kemi Ogunyemi, disclosed this in an interview with PUNCH published on Saturday, June 22.

Ogunyemi said the discovery was made during investigations conducted by the Ministries of Health and Environment following the outbreak.

“We carried out a survey and found that the common denominator, which was one of the deadly factors, was a tiger nut drink. People who came to the hospitals all identified that they had drunk tiger nut drink. We couldn’t just take their word for it, so we had to take that drink and test it to see what was in it.

“We immediately sent people out to look for those selling it so we could take a sample. We found empty bottles with a name on them, but we discovered that it wasn’t even registered with the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, the regulatory body that ensures the safety of consumables,” Ogunyemi said.

She also disclosed that there were other contributory factors to the outbreak including open defecation and a lack of potable water.

Lagos Island, Eti-Osa and Kosofe LGAs had the highest number of persons who reported to the hospital upon noticing symptoms of cholera.

Ogunyemi said the first symptom of the disease is usually abdominal pain, followed by diarrhoea. Other symptoms may include fever, vomiting and muscle pain.

She warned Nigerians to desist from self-medication upon noticing such symptoms, but report immediately to a hospital.

Suspected cases, deaths increased after Eid celebrations

Suspected cases of cholera and deaths from the disease in Lagos, rose after the just concluded Eid festivities.

Ogunyemi stated that more people had shown up at hospitals with diarrhoea and vomiting following the celebrations, and some died as a result of a delay in getting medical help.

“However, we anticipated an increase after the Ileyah (Eid) celebrations, which indeed happened. Unfortunately, we also had an increase in deaths. That’s the unfortunate part. More people have died, and about three of them were already dead upon arrival from home.

“From our history, we realised they had diarrhoea and vomiting for the past two or three days, but they never came to the hospital. They were probably treating themselves locally, which we advise against. That’s how we know. We’re hoping for a decline as we continue our efforts in the community,” she said.

The ICIR reports that as of Saturday, June 21, the death toll from the disease stood at over 20 in the state and over 40 across Nigeria.

At least 30 of Nigeria’s 36 states are affected, with hundreds of cases since January.

Nigeria is one of the 13 African Countries battling cholera. The current outbreak has been ongoing since 2021, when the country reported 111,062 suspected cases, which include 3,604 deaths, according to data from NCDC.

Cholera, an endemic disease, is still one of the major diseases affecting Nigerians, particularly in the rural region of the country.

The disease, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), is an acute diarrheal infection characterised, in its severe form, by extreme watery diarrhoea and potentially fatal dehydration.

It is largely caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation.

On Thursday, June 20, the WHO declared a global resurgence of the disease.

 

 

Media coalition condemns police assault, detention of Kaduna journalist, demands sanction

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THE Coalition for Whistleblowers Protection and Press Freedom (CWPPF) has condemned the assault and detention of a journalist, Gabriel Idibia, in Kaduna State by some officers of the state’s police command.

The group demanded that those involved in his brutalisation and detention must be sanctioned.

This was contained in a statement by the coalition on Saturday, June 22.

Idibia was arrested by some police officers while taking pictures of a herd of cattle being led by police officers along the Kachia Expressway in Kaduna, resulting in traffic gridlock.

According to the statement, the journalist confirmed that he was detained at the Criminal Investigations Department of the Gbasawa Police Station in Kaduna, despite identifying himself as a journalist by showing the officers his identity card.

His mobile phone was seized along with his identity card after which he was taken into custody where he was detained from morning till late evening, and badly beaten up.

“Mr Idibia insists that the physical torture severely affected his eyes forcing him to access eye treatment. His allegations have been corroborated by media reports and an eye witness that was arrested along with him,” the statement read.

The ICIR reported that Idibia was forced to write a statement by the policemen, even though he struggled to see with one of his eyes after being beaten up by the officers. The images he took were also deleted from his phone by the police.

The coalition called on the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, to probe the conduct of the officers involved and sanction them appropriately.

“We find it rather disturbing that men of the Nigeria Police Force not only arrested Mr. Idibia unlawfully but also resorted to assaulting him for simply performing his constitutionally guaranteed duties as a journalist. This is certainly not a practice welcomed in a democratic state like Nigeria and it stands condemned in strong terms,” the statement read.

in 2023 alone, at least 39 journalists were harassed in the line of duty by both state and non-state actors.

Idibia is one of the journalists who were incarcerated and arraigned by the police in Kaduna following his report on the harsh living conditions within the Hajj Camp in the state.

The report also revealed a lack of basic amenities such as potable water and a proper waste management system at the camp, among other challenges.

Mongabay offers conservation reporting fellowship

MONGABAY is inviting aspiring environmental journalists from tropical countries to apply for the Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship.

The programme aims to provide opportunities for journalists to report on critical environmental issues, gaining valuable training, experience, and credibility that will help them advance their careers in journalism and communications.

During the six-month fellowship, fellows will work directly with the fellowship editor to produce six stories.

The organisers say “With the effects of environmental degradation becoming more apparent, high-quality environmental journalism is more important than ever. But like the journalism sector as a whole, environmental reporting has been affected by shifting business models that have reduced the availability of resources for reporting, shrinking press freedoms in many countries and a lack of early-stage career opportunities”.

“These issues are especially acute in places that bear the brunt of climate change, biodiversity loss, the destruction of nature and threats against indigenous peoples and local communities they added”.

The programme will support up to 18 fellows per year – six at Mongabay’s global English bureau, six at its Spanish-language bureau, Mongabay-Latam, and six at its French-language bureau, Mongabay-Africa. Work is remote.

Eligible applicants must be from a low- to upper-middle-income tropical country, as classified by the World Bank.

Fellows will receive a US$3,000 stipend.

The deadline for the submission of application is August 10, 2024.

Interested applicants can apply here.

CAF announces date for 2025 AFCON, WAFCON

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THE Confederation of African Football (CAF) has announced the dates for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) and the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON), to be held in Morocco.

The CAF president, Patrice Motsepe, on Friday, June 21, confirmed that AFCON would run from December 21, 2025, to January 18, 2026, adding that WAFCON would hold from July 5, 2025, to July 26 of the same year. Both games will be held in Morocco.

Expressing confidence in the success of both games, the Motsepe acknowledged the growth of women’s and men’s football in Africa.

“I am confident that the CAF AFCON Morocco 2025 will be extremely successful and the best AFCON in the history of this competition.

“The immense growth of women’s football in Africa is also impressive, and I expect the CAF Total Energies and WAFCON Morocco 2024 to be equally successful,” he said.


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After extensive discussions with stakeholders, due to complex international and domestic match calendars, the AFCON dates, originally scheduled for June and July 2025, were moved to avoid clashing with the inaugural expanded Club World Cup in the United States, to be held from June 15 to July 13 2025.

The CAF stressed its commitment to upholding the rights of African players participating in international leagues and cultivating positive connections with bodies including the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), and the European Club Association (ECA).

The Fédération Royale Marocaine de Football (FRMF) President, Fouzi Lekjaa, shared his vision, expressing hope that the CAF Total Energies AFCON Morocco 2025 would be a spectacular event honouring Africa, adding that Morocco would provide the best atmosphere to welcome all of Africa and the world.

Editor Cohort Training Programme for news leaders seeks entries

The ACOS Alliance is inviting entries to its first Editor Cohort Training Programme.

This initiative allows editors, news managers and senior journalists to complete an online course ‘The Fundamentals of Safe Commissioning’ and receive a tailored training experience.

Ten participants will be selected to participate in the programme.

The organiser says, “The objectives of the programme are to provide access to tailored safety training to editors and newsroom managers, to empower editors to adopt and implement best safe commissioning practices and create/improve safety protocols, with a focus on freelancers, and vulnerable and under-resourced journalists, to foster a culture of safety within news organisations and to foster the creation of editor’s networks who can share experiences and best practices in journalist safety”.

Applicants must be actively involved in commissioning stories and in the editorial decision-making processes within their newsrooms.

Editors, news managers and senior journalists in Sub-Saharan Africa can apply for a training programme.

This four-week online program will run from August 3 to 31, 2024.

The deadline for submission of application is July 12, 2024. interested applicants can apply here.

Otedola buys N18.95bn shares to regain FBN’s highest shareholding position

NIGERIAN billionaire businessman and chairman of FBN Holdings Plc, Femi Otedola, has acquired a fresh 863,180,810 units of shares at the value of N18.95 billion to reclaim the highest shareholding in the company.

The FBN Holdings, the parent company of First Bank Nigeria Limited, disclosed this in a corporate filing to the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) and the investing public on Thursday, June 20.

In the disclosure signed by the Acting Secretary, Adewale Arogundade, the company stated that Otedola paid N6.93 billion to acquire 316,506,776 direct shares at the rate of N21.91 per share.

He further paid N12.01 billion to acquire 546,674,034 indirect shares at the rate of N21.97 per share through his company, Calvados Global Services Limited.

The fresh acquisition of 863,180,810 units has now increased Otedola’s shares (direct and indirect) in FBN Holdings to 3,380,462,950 units, putting his stake at 9.41 percent.

A check on FBN Holdings’ 2024 first quarter financial statements, indicates that Otedola’s stake stood at 2,517,282,140 units or 7.01‬ per cent of the bank’s 35,909,873,609.13 units of shares

Otedola is now the highest shareholder in FBN Holdings having overtaken Oba Otudeko’s Barbican Capital Limited company which has 3,110,400,619 direct shares or 8.67 percent stake.

The ICIR reported in October 2023 that Otudeko’s name was completely missing in FBN Holdings structure despite his acquisition of 4.77 billion unit shares which put his stake to 13.3 percent and the bank confirming the acquisition to the investing public.

At the time, the purchase elicited reactions as some shareholders believed Otudeko was staging a “come-back” to reclaim control of the bank holding company.

The Central Bank of Nigeria had in April 2021, removed Otudeko as FBN Holdings’ chairman and sacked the board that served under him over noncompliance with regulatory control.

In February this year, The ICIR reported that FBN Holdings reinstated Barbican Capital Limited as having the highest equity stake in its shareholding structure amid the announcement of Femi Otedola as the bank’s chairman.

Some stakeholders told The ICIR that it appeared CBN disapproved of Otudeko’s acquisition reason his stake was not stated in the FBN Holdings’ third-quarter 2023 financial report, which would have automatically placed him in the position to become the board’s chairman again.

The high-wired boardroom politics that played out, however, saw Otedola appointed to FBN Holdings’ board and subsequently as the chairman.

The appointment came two years after the investor became the firm’s single largest shareholder in December 2021, when he increased his stake to 7.57 per cent.

A month after the appointment, FBN Holdings named Barbican Capital Limited as its majority shareholder, making Otedola the second major shareholder at the time.

NERC disburses N21bn to DisCos to close 7 million metering gap

THE  Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has approved the disbursement to 11 Distribution Companies (DisCos) N21 billion as tranch “A” to close the seven million metering gap nationwide under the Presidential Metering Initiative (PMI).

The NERC, which disclosed this through its Order “NERC/2024/072” on “Operationalisation of Tranche A of the Presidential Metering Initiative under the framework of Meter Acquisition Fund (MAF), said the meters will be distributed at no cost to the end users (Electricity consumers).

The NERC chairman Sanusi Garba and commissioner legal, licencing, and compliance, Dafe Akpeneye jointly signed the order dated 19, June.

The electricity regulator further explained that the N21 billion that it has apportioned to the DisCos according to their respective contributions, was obtained from MAF which has accrued as of the April 2024 market settlement cycle up to N21,864,851,725.00.

It regretted that despite several interventions in the past for metering end-use customers, the national metering gap persists which currently stands at more than seven million customers.

The NERC expressed optimism that the latest metering interventions would improve customer satisfaction with the distribution companies.

“The deployment of funds under the MAF scheme shall accelerate the deployment of meters and closure of the current metering gap thereby reducing commercial & collection losses to DisCos, enhancing quality of service, and improving customer satisfaction.

“While the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry-NESI is expected to leverage on the revenue stream under the MAF framework to raise substantial capital funding for metering, there is an imperative to accelerate closure of the metering gap for all customers currently classified under tariff Band A for revenue protection and facilitating demand side management for the affected customers, “NERC stated.

The regulator also disclosed that the funds accrued as of the April 2024 market settlement cycle and available for procurement of meters under the first tranche of the MAF scheme are in the sum of NGN21,864,851,725.00.

“The Commission hereby approves the use of a sum of NGN21,000,000,000 (twenty-billion Naira only) apportioned pro rata to contribution by the DisCos as Tranche A of the MAF scheme,”NERC stated.

NERC emphasised that all the meters under this scheme must be procured and installed under the MAF framework shall be at no cost to the customers of the DisCos.

The breakdown of Tranche A disbursement allocation for each DisCo for the purchase of end-use customer meters are as follows:
Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) N2,990,745,647, Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) N1,571,276,806, Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) N2,921,896,285, Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) N1,726,893,467, Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) N42,516,469,752, Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IE)
N4,358,122,421 and Jos Electricity Distribution Company (JEDC)
N521,905,774.

Others are Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company (KAEDC) N1,220,367,039 Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO)
$1,568,029,563, Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHEDC) N1,360,944,608 and Yola Electricity Distribution Company (YEDC)
N243,348,639.

The ICIR has reported that the distribution companies rely largely on unmetered customers to earn profits,with the Federal goverment’s mass metering intervention moving at snail’s speed.

Ministries of Youth, Sports website inaccessible, fail to update online platforms

THE Federal Ministries of Youth and Sports Development headed by Jamila Bio Ibrahim and John Eno respectively have failed to update their website and social media platforms for over five months, The ICIR can report. 

In November 2023, The ICIR reported how the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development kept portraying Sunday Dare as substantive minister six months after leaving office.

Subsequent findings showed that the website(http://www.youthandsport.gov.ng/) is now inaccessible. This is a development The ICIR observed has been ongoing since March. It might have started before then. As of the time of filling this report, it was still inaccessible saying “The site cannot be reached”.

The ministries had maintained joint social media platforms and a website under one minister before President Bola Tinubu split them into two and appointed Ibrahim as the minister of youth development and Enoh as the minister of sports development.

X handle taken over by Ministry of Youth development

The ICIR observed that the X handle (archived here) owned by the two ministries was taken over by the Ministry of Youth Development but a separate X handle and website have not been created for the Ministry of Sports Development. However, they still maintain a joint account on Facebook (archived here). The last time an update was shared on both their X and Facebook accounts was on December 28, 2023.

Facebook account still owned by both ministry of Youth development and ministry of Sports Development

In September, The ICIR reported that the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission’s (NUPRC) website showed former president,  Muhammadu Buhari as the country’s incumbent leader, nearly four months after he left office.


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The ministry replaced the image with that of the incumbent President Bola Tinubu on its website after The ICIR report. 

In 2024, the country participated in several sports activities including the 2023 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) and the just concluded African Games in Ghana but the ministry of sports did not give updates about these sports activities via its social media handles.

Similarly, many young Nigerians achieved laudable milestones in and outside the country but they were not publicly recognised by the ministry of Youth due to their online absence.

The Ministry of Youth and Sports website inaccessible. Screenshot taken June 22 2024.
The Ministry of Youth and Sports website inaccessible. Screenshot taken June 22 2024.