Nasir El Rufai’s threat has prompted European Union observers to emphasize they are ruled by a code of conduct that prevents them from interfering in elections.

Kaduna State Governor Nasir El Rufai was responding to a statement by Britain, the EU and US that the credibility of Nigeria’s elections could be compromised by President Muhammadu Buhari suspending the country’s Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen.

The opposition Peoples Democratic Party’s appealed to Western governments to ensure the ruling All Progressives Congress does not succeed in trying to rig the election.

Britain and the United State say they’ll deny visas to any Nigerian politician who tries to rig the poll.

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The Department of International Relations and Cooperation says peace in this west Sudan province is vital to national reconciliation and post-conflict recovery for that country.

The peace process in Darfur in what was once the world’s worst humanitarian crisis falls under the mediation of former President Thabo Mbeki.

The prenegotiation agreement signed in Berlin last week was financed by the so-called troika on Darfur: Britain, the United States and Norway.

The DIRCO statement pays tribute to the work of South African diplomat Kingley Mamabolo as the joint chief negotiator for the United Nations African Union Hybrid Mission in Darfur known as UNAMID.

DIRCO says Mamabolo played a vital role in building trust and instilling confidence in the peace process.

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It will allow access for humanitarian aid to civilians caught in the four years of fighting and free abducted women and children.

The ceasefire’s been hailed by African Union Commission head Moussa Faki and by the governments of Britain, Norway and the United States who are supporting South Sudanese peace efforts by the regional grouping IGAD.

The fighting has killed thousands and displaced millions.

Just this week hundreds of South Sudanese fled into the Democratic Republic of Congo when they were caught up in  government forces chasing rebels from their headquarters in Lasu town.

A ceasefire agreed in 2015 broke down within a year.

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This follows the refusal of the United States and other Western powers to sell weapons to the cash-strapped state to fight Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram.

The Western arms boycott against Nigeria is based on concerns of human rights abuses by the Abuja government.

Air Marshall Sadique Abubakar says Africa’s largest air force was driven to seeking hardware from other sources to wage the fight against Boko Haram.

Nigerian troops are being trained in Pakistan, China, the United States, United Kingdom, South Africa, Egypt and Russia.

Abubakar does not say how the oil-dependent state will pay for the planes with incomes from this commodity dramatically reduced by price decreases.

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The organizers of the air rally, which is heading down Africa to Cape Town, has elected not to speak about their ordeal until the planes are safely back in the air.

Allowed to leave Gambella airport near the border with South Sudan, the 40 people involved in the rally went to a hotel to await  take off this morning.

The Ethiopian authorities maintained the aircraft from the 20s and 30s did not have the proper clearance to fly over their country.

Diplomats from Britain, the United States and Ireland appear to have smoothed up matters.

The planes have 10 more countries to cross before arriving in Cape Town on December 16.

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by Jean-Jacques Cornish

One could be forgiven for rubbing one’s eyes and thinking it was an April fool’s joke.

A Nigerian president democratically unseated.

Unprecedented.

Ironic too, given that the last time the new leader Muhammadu Buhari came to power was via a coup.

I have covered elections in Britain where the arrival of the removal van at the backdoor of Number 10 Downing Street to collect the good of the defeated premier filled one with envy.

This was not the way things went back home in Africa.

We were lectured by US diplomats after Barak Obama’s presidential victory.

There was not mention of a power sharing agreement, they said, referring to the all-too-often solution brokered after African polls in Africa.

We simply had to swallow it.

On Tuesday night Goodluck Jonathan conceded defeat even before the official results of Nigeria’s election were announced.

On Thursday morning he promised Muhammadu Buhari a peaceful transition, saying: “Nobody’s ambition is worth the blood of any Nigerian.”

I delve into my store of expressions from those times when we idealistically believed the world could actually change and find: Right on!

Buhari may celebrate today, but he is under pressure to deliver.

He must defeat the Boko Haram insurgency.

He must shake loose the corruption hamstringing Nigeria.

He must take tough economic measures to balance the books skewed by the falling oil price.

An unenviably stacked in-box.

But one no has reason to believe that in a country now run by a military leader turned avowed democrat, anything’s possible.

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But observers say the closest presidential race in the nation’s history is far from over.

Counting of results from last Saturday’s Nigerian election will resume in a few hours.

The United States and Britain have warned of political interference in that process.

The voting exercise has got the thumbs up from regional and continental observers and an approving nod from the United Nations.

But there are now allegations of vote rigging in the count.

With six states still to be tallied, Muhammadu Buhari, who came two power 30 years ago via a military coup, has a lead of more than two-and-a-half million votes over Goodluck Jonathan.

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