Cuban police forcibly broke up a pro-democracy demonstration and arrested several dozen activists on Sunday, just hours before Barack Obama was to arrive in Havana to become the first US president to visit Cuba in almost 90 years.
The protesters, from the Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White) and other opposition groups, were bundled into buses and police vans after a shouting match with pro-Castro supporters during their usual weekly demonstration near the Santa Rita church.
“My son and his wife are in jail now. They all are. The police were very violent,” Glavys Fernández, the mother of leading opposition figure Antonio Rodiles, told the Guardian. “It’s the same every week. The oppression is very high.”
Earlier in the day, her son, who helped form the Todos Marchamos (“We all march”) campaign, predicted what was to come as he addressed journalists before the protest.
“I have been arrested more than 50 times in the past year,” Rodiles said. “The police have broken my nose and my eardrum. There are many of them surrounding us again today. But we want to send a clear message to Obama. We need to show the reality we are living in.”
The protesters carried banners, proclaiming: “Obama’s trip to Cuba isn’t for fun. No to violations of human rights.” Others chanted, “Obama, we have a dream: a Cuba without Castros.”
Antonio Rodiles.
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Antonio Rodiles: ‘I have been arrested more than 50 times in the past year.’ Photograph: The Guardian
“I’ve been detained and beaten countless times,” said Eralidis Frómeta Polanco, an activist who turned up in the all-white clothes of the demonstrators, who march silently along 5th Avenue each week in protest at the lack of freedom of expression. “I have no hope at all of progress as a result of Obama’s visit. He doesn’t know what it is like to live in a dictatorship.”
A passing cyclist, Josoa Gomez, who said he was a university professor, accused her and the other protesters of being liars, mercenaries and ingrates who failed to recognise the benefits of Cuban society, including free education and healthcare. The tensions escalated up until the arrests.
The confrontation highlights what is likely to be one of the most contentious issues of the US president’s visit: human rights and pro-democracy reforms.
US-Cuba relations: timeline of a tangled history
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Many Cuban opposition activists complain the rapprochement process that started in 17 December 2014 gives the Castro government legitimacy and greater access to international credit. They say releases of hundreds of prisoners, which have been hailed as the most tangible signs of change since then, are illusory, because convictions have not been pardoned and the activists remain under a legal cloud.
Human Rights Watch said the situation for civil rights activists has not improved since the rapprochement began between Obama and Raúl Castro. They noted that during Pope Francis’s visit to the island last September, police detained between 100 and 150 dissidents. The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation reported more than 8,500 cases of arbitrary detention in 2015, and more than 2,500 in the first two months of 2016.
Democracy activists in the one-party state are pushing for a range of reforms, including free elections, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and an end to repression of activists. They want Obama to lobby on their behalf.
US officials say the president, who will meet civil rights activists and give a speech on Tuesday, is not in Havana to make demands, but to encourage reforms that have already begun, particularly in the area of economic liberalisation. However, they say he will talk candidly about human rights and the need for participation in decision making.
Rosa Maria Paya.
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Rosa María Payá: ‘I hope he will support the Cuban people and not just talk to the leaders and have his picture taken.’ Photograph: ZIPI/EPA
“The main message of his speech will be that Cuba’s future is for the Cuban people to decide. The goal is not to foster regime change,” said a state department official. “President Obama wants to show that the challenges Cubans face are not the result of US policy.”
No political conditions have been set for the visit and there is no expectation of a quid pro quo exchange from the Cubans for the US decision last week to relax currency and and travel restrictions. Change, if it comes at all, is more likely at next month’s Communist Party Congress.
One possibility is a referendum on the constitution that would allow Cuban voters to set the political direction for their country ahead of 2018, when Castro has said he plans to step down.
“There is the possibility of reform in April, but we must understand that the group in power for 57 years want to remain in power and keep their privileges,” said democracy campaigner Rosa María Payá, who has launched a petition calling for Obama to support the idea of a referendum during his visit to the island.
Obama’s Cuba visit is latest step towards ‘new alliance of the Americas’
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“He should ask for the specific tool of a plebiscite so that Cuban people can decide their future for the first time in 60 years,” she told the Guardian. “I hope he will support the Cuban people and not just talk to the leaders and have his picture taken.”
Payá wants the US president to make a symbolic gesture against impunity by laying flowers at the grave of her father, a leading democracy campaigner who died in mysterious circumstances in 2012. Cuban authorities say Oswaldo Payá died in a car crash. His family contends that government agents were following him and may have forced him off the road. They believe he is a victim of terror tactics used by the communist government to maintain one-party rule.
“We Cubans know what to do but we can’t do it alone because the Cuban government has weapons, and they are willing to use them – as we saw with the murder of my father,” Payá said. “We need the support of the international community.”
Before his detention, Rodiles argued Obama should stress political freedom and insist that the government in Havana ratify the United Nations Covenant on Human Rights.
“Raúl Castro has said he will move aside in 2018 and this has created the expectation of elections. But the real transfer is taking place right now so by the time Castro steps down, power will have already switched,” he said. “How can there be a proper referendum without freedom of expression, without access to a free TV and a free press? They will never allow me to go on television and debate the issues.”
Controversy As 300 Level UNILAG Student Dies From Insecticide
A 300 level University of Lagos (Unilag) student has died after ingesting the local insecticide popularly known as ‘Sniper.’
The student of Microbiology, Eniola Jacobs died after almost a day of battling for his life at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH).
Circumstances surrounding his death were unclear as at the time of filing this report as some sources claimed he wanted to commit suicide while others claimed he was forced by cultists to take the insecticide.
No official comment has been put forward by UNILAG authorities. The only statement from the Deputy spokesperson for the University, Mrs. Nonye Oguama was: “I have heard about it, but until I get to the office tomorrow (Monday), I cannot tell what really happened.”.
More details surrounding this tragic incident later.
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Rivers Re-run: Police Arrest Wike’s Aide, Four Others
Following Saturday’s legislative re-run election in Rivers State, men of the Nigerian Police have arrested one Cyril Dum Nwite, said to be the Special Adviser on Special Projects to the State Governor, Nyesom Wike.
He was reportedly arrested and paraded alongside four others for allegedly disguising on fake Police and Military uniform near INEC office.
Meanwhile, the Governor had earlier expressed his satisfaction with the security arrangement for the election.
Wike said, “I am impressed with the security arrangement for the election.”
2016 UTME Exercise Is A National Embarrassment, Says MURIC
The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has described the 2016 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) exercise as a colossal fiasco, a monumental scandal and a national embarrassment.
The group made this known in a statement on Saturday, by its Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola. He denounced the timing of the CBT examinations, noting that candidates were forced to start in their centres from 6.30 am in compliance with JAMB timetable.
He said, “This arbitrary timing is also responsible for the absence of a whopping 23,577 candidates on the day of the examination. In a country where power supply is epileptic and security of lives and properties cannot be guaranteed, this is strange, shocking, callous, insensitive and irrational. The examination body unnecessarily exposed our young ones and our future leaders to danger. Some candidates allegedly lost their belongings when they were attacked by hoodlums on their way to the examination ccenter,” he noted.
MURIC also condemned the banning of hijab by female Muslim candidates at the examination centres.
Akintola suggested that JAMB should consider giving extra 25 points each to all candidates across the board in view of the fact that undermarking is the major flaw in the last exercise.
His words: “Candidates should be given the option of taking computer-based or written tests using paper and pen. Ad-hoc staff must be properly briefed and must not stop religious profiling of hijab-wearing female Muslim candidates. JAMB results should be valid for three years. The examination body should co-opt security experts to its planning committees when preparing for examinations.”
The group also urge universities within the country to lower their cut-off points and rely more on their internally conducted post-JAMB examinations for admitting students into their various programmes.
Kano APC Suspends Chairman
Kano State chapter of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kano state has suspended its chairman, Haruna Doguwa, for alleged gross misconduct.
Also suspended was the party’s organizing secretary, Sunusi Suraj.
According to Abbas Sani-Abbas, the party’s secretary, while addressing a news conference in Kano on Saturday, the party took the decision in order to allow the seven-man disciplinary committee it set up to investigate the alleged misconduct.
He said the party had appointed Abdullahi Abbas, special adviser on political affairs to Abdullahi Ganduje, governor of the state, as the acting chairman.
Sani-Abbas said the suspension was endorsed by the former and serving members of the national assembly and all the chairmen of the 44 local governments in the state.
The suspension, he added, was equally endorsed by 30 out of the 39 members of the house of assembly, vice chairmen and secretaries of the local governments.
He said the committee had been given one week within which to submit its report to the executive committee of the party for further action.
“If the disciplinary committee establishes any evidence to the fact that the suspended officials were culpable or not, it is left to the executive committee to take appropriate action,” he said.
Sporadic Shooting In Port Harcourt
As the results of the federal and state legislative rerun elections are being expected in Rivers State, gunmen, believed to be political thugs Sunday, shot sporadically at Abonnema area of Port Harcourt.
The shooting which lasted for 40 minutes caused pandemonium around Mile 1 and Azikiwe as residents scampered to safety.
The Rivers state Governor Nyesom Wike visited the Mile 1 police station this morning.
The situation in Rivers is reportedly tense, according to residents.
CBN Secret Recruitment: ‘There Must Be Equal Opportunities For All Nigerians’
The Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), a coalition of over 400 civil society organizations, weekend, described the recent shady recruitment exercise conducted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as a grand betrayal of a change mantra of the Buhari’s administration.
The Chairman of TMG, Com. Ibrahim Zikirulahi, in a statement in Abuja, said that the scam is a clear manifestation that vestiges of the discredited and corrupt old guard still dominated the system in the country.
The group called on President Muhammadu Buhari to fish out the perpetrators and punish them according to the law of the land, adding that the reasons given by the apex bank to embark on secret recruitment exercise was not acceptable.
The statement reads: “TMG is dismayed by recent revelations of outright cronyism and favouritism in a shady recruitment exercise conducted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). It is indeed very strange that impunity of this magnitude would be associated with the nation’s apex bank at a time Nigerians are hoping that the change mantra of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, would translate into better ethical standards for conducting government business.
“TMG is not unmindful of the fact that this scandal is a clear manifestation that there remains within the system vestiges of the discredited and corrupt old guard, which would always be against a people centred philosophy of governance. For us, the recruitment scandal points to a culture of lax corporate governance, which has seen the CBN under the leadership of Godwin Emefiele canonize itself as a do-nothing institution in the face of criminal assaults on due process.
“The CBN which has elected to sacrifice openness, merit and fairness in its recruitment is the same institution, which silently conspired with looters and plunderers of the nation’s financial resources, during the locust years of the last administration.
“TMG is amazed that the current government has not deemed it a matter of utmost urgency to halt the desecration of an institution as vital as the CBN. On the basis of the litany of sleazes that were made possible by the acquiescence of the current CBN leadership alone, it is crystal clear that a clean sweep of leadership at the apex bank, is long overdue.
“TMG is unimpressed by the lame excuse the CBN spin doctors are adducing for deciding to embark on a secret recruitment drive. Even if ‘targeted’ employment or head hunting was the basis for making the process secret, there are thousands of young Nigerians who need jobs, who could have been targeted. But because the CBN was working towards a pre-determined outcome, it filled the list with names of children and relatives of prominent politicians, government officials and other influence peddlers.
“We insist this is not the proper way to do things; the outcome of the recruitment must therefore be immediately jettisoned.
“TMG calls on President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene and put an end to the attempts by well-heeled people in government to rubbish his efforts at rescuing Nigeria from the abyss of corruption, nepotism and favouritism.
“There must be equal opportunities for all Nigerians” TMG added.
