The Presidency formally reacted to last week’s report by London-based The Economist magazine which said the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration wasn’t doing enough to address several challenges confronting the country, especially the rising state of insecurity.
A statement from the presidency says the Buhari-led government had been busy addressing the four identified threats to the nation’s stability including terrorist attacks, kidnapping, herders-farmers clashes and activities of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra in the South-East zone.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, in a statement also emphasised that the resilience and fortitude of patriotic Nigerians would see the country through the current trying times

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is set to seek authorisation from the Pre-Trial Chamber of the court to open an investigation into cases of abduction of schoolchildren in several parts of Northern Nigeria.
A statement by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project says they will also be investigated the closure of schools, and the persistent failure of Nigerian authorities at both the federal and state levels to end the abduction.
The agency’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, says the ICC prosecutor’s decision followed a petition sent to the court by SERAP.
SERAP argued that the severe and lifelong harms that result from depriving children of the right to education satisfy the gravity of harm threshold under the Rome Statute.

President Muhammadu Buhari has launched the country’s digital currency, naira.
President Buhari says the adoption of new CBN digital currency is estimated to increase Nigeria’s GDP by $29billion over the next 10years.
The President says Nigeria becomes the first country in Africa and one of the first few globally to introduce a digital currency to its citizens after countries like China, Bahamas, and Cambodia.
The digital currency has two applications – eNaira speed wallet and eNaira merchant wallet, which were launched on the Google Playstore and Apple Store.

European Union leaders pressured a defiant Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki to fall back into line on recognising that EU law trumps national decision-making, hoping that dialogue will stave off a fundamental crisis in the bloc.
Morawiecki instead painted a picture of an overbearing union treating its 27 member nations as mere provinces, usurping ever more powers and feeling free to impose its values at will against the wishes of sovereign peoples.
He countered that Poland will not act under the pressure of blackmail.

NATO defence ministers have agreed upon a new master plan to defend against any potential Russian attack on multiple fronts, reaffirming the alliance’s core goal of deterring Moscow despite a growing focus on China.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says they continue to strengthen their alliance with better and modernised plans while also agreeing to a $1bn fund to provide seed financing to develop new digital technologies.
Officials stressed that they do not believe any Russian attack is imminent. Moscow has denied any aggressive intentions and said it is NATO that risks destabilising Europe with such preparations.

US President Joe Biden says the United States would come to Taiwan’s defence if the island were attacked by China, in comments that appeared to be a departure from a longstanding US policy of strategic ambiguity.
The White House told reporters that US policy on Taiwan had not changed.
A spokesperson says the US defence relationship with Taiwan is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act.
A spokesperson added that they will uphold their commitment under the Act and continue to support Taiwan’s self-defence.

The United Nations launched a funding programme aimed at preventing the Afghan economy from collapsing during the winter by getting cash flowing through the local economy again.
The UN Development Programme has set up a trust fund through which governments can channel finance via the UN to specific programmes on the ground, rather than sending money government-to-government, with Afghanistan now controlled by the Taliban.
UNDP chief Achim Steiner says they are not only witnessing a nation and a country in the midst of political turmoil but also witnessing an economic implosion.

Ethiopia’s military launched two airstrikes on what a government official said were rebel-held facilities in Tigray, capping a week of near-daily attacks in the war-torn northern region.
The strikes signalled the military was potentially widening its campaign of aerial bombardments which has drawn international rebukes and disrupted UN flights to the famine-threatened territory.
Government spokeswoman Selamawit Kassa says the same mission destroyed a separate facility in the northern town of Adwa used to manufacture military equipment as well as fake military uniforms used by TPLF combatants.
TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda says that the target in Mai Tsebri was a hospital and that the target in Adwa was a textiles factory that was looted in an earlier stage of the conflict by Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers.

The WHO says that 80,000 to 180,000 health care workers may have been killed by Covid-19 up to May this year, insisting they must be prioritised for vaccination.
The World Health Organisation says the fact that millions of health workers remain unvaccinated is an indictment on the countries and companies controlling the global supply of doses.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says health care workers needed to be among the first immunised against the disease.
He says data from 119 countries suggest that on average, two in five health and care workers globally are fully vaccinated.

The World Bank has warned that the rapid rise in energy prices seen in Europe and parts of Asia won't ease until the second half of next year, and it will have a knock-on effect on Africa.
It says the global economy is struggling to satisfy a growing demand for oil and gas as it emerges from the pandemic.
The Bank says those hardest hit will be those least able to afford food, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.
It predicts food poverty will increase by 25%, potentially leaving almost 41 million people at risk of shortages.