President Bola Tinubu will not be present at this year’s 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The President has assigned Vice President Kashim Shettima the responsibility of heading Nigeria’s delegation.

President Tinubu, who arrived back in the country last Sunday following his visits to China and the United Kingdom, is prioritizing domestic matters and aims to tackle some of the nation’s pressing challenges, particularly in light of the recent severe flooding.

By Henry Umoru

President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, announced plans to modify the constitution to implement the Supreme Court judgment on local government autonomy.

Akpabio made this statement in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital, while receiving APC members loyal to Senator John James Akpanudoedehe.

“I thank President Bola Tinubu for seeking to grant local governments autonomy through the Supreme Court,” Akpabio said. “Under my leadership, the Senate will adjust the constitution to ensure the judgment is fully enforced without loopholes for exploitation.”

Akpabio reflected on his journey with the APC, noting that before joining in 2018, the party hadn’t won any councillorship seats in the state. He expressed gratitude for becoming Senate President with President Tinubu’s support.

“Change is life’s only constant,” Akpabio said. “I joined APC to connect with the center, and now I’m Senate President. God elevated me because I meant well for our people.”

Welcoming back APC members who never left the party, Akpabio prayed, “May God bless you and grant your progressive desires.”

Eteubong Alex Umoh, Obong Kufre Akpan, and Mrs. Roseline Eyang spoke on behalf of the returnees, affirming their loyalty to Akpabio and the APC. “We never left APC; we recognized you as our leader and refused to be used against you.”

The reunited group celebrated their unity, declaring the APC a single, united family.

Ukraine should be allowed to join Nato ‘now’, Boris Johnson has urged.

The former prime minister has said the move would be the ‘single biggest step’ the West could take to end Russia‘s war.

He admitted the United States and its allies would be alarmed about Ukraine joining the military alliance while fighting was ongoing.

It would mean all 32 Nato member states would have to commit to Ukraine’s defence.

But writing in today’s ­Spectator, he argues: ‘The risk is that we continue with the ambiguity and indecision over the future of Ukraine that has led to the worst war in Europe in my lifetime.

Ukraine should be allowed to join Nato ‘now’, Boris Johnson (left) has urged. Mr Johnson is pictured shaking hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (right) in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday, September 13, 2024

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (right) said after a summit in Washington in July that Nato had ‘confirmed Ukraine’s irreversible path to full membership’. Yet earlier this year, US President Joe Biden (left) said he was ‘not prepared to support the Nato-isation of Ukraine’. Sir Keir and President Biden are pictured together at the summit in DC on July 10, 2024

‘If we want peace, then we must put the Ukrainians in the strongest possible position, and this is how to do it.’

Ukraine has long sought membership of Nato and gained ‘aspiring member’ ­status in 2018, four years after Russia’s annexation of Crimea, but not all western leaders have been enthusiastic.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky stepped up the demand in the wake of Vladimir Putin’s invasion in early 2022. However, at a summit last year Nato leaders said Ukraine could join only once it had completed ‘democratic and security sector reforms‘.

At the time, Mr Johnson said there should have been a timetable for membership ‘as soon as victory is won’. Now the former foreign secretary goes further, arguing: ‘We could invite Ukraine to join before the war is even over.’

‘We need to get Ukraine into Nato now, and I mean now,’ he writes. He suggests the critical Article 5 security guarantee – which means an attack on one Nato member is seen as an attack on all – could be extended to cover territory currently controlled by Kyiv, while allies should also reaffirm the country’s right to its borders.

‘We could protect most of Ukraine, while simultaneously supporting the Ukrainian right to recapture the rest,’ Mr Johnson writes, adding: ‘This is the single biggest step we can take to bring this hideous war to an end.

‘We would send the crucial message to the Kremlin, the one Russians really need to hear. The message is: that’s it. It’s over. You don’t have an empire any more.’

A Ukrainian tank of the 110th brigade moves through a field as it returns from a position at the frontline on Pokrovsk direction, Donetsk region, Ukraine on Wednesday, September 18, 2024

A heavily damaged and partially destroyed house following a Russian attack on the village of Komyshuvakha in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya region on September 17, 2024

He admits the decision depends above all on the US. Sir Keir Starmer said after a summit in Washington in July that Nato had ‘confirmed Ukraine’s irreversible path to full membership’.

Yet earlier this year, US President Joe Biden said he was ‘not prepared to support the Nato-isation of Ukraine’.

Mr Johnson adds: ‘We would all have to commit to the defence of that Ukrainian territory. And of course that will mean anxiety and resistance.’

He also renewed his call for Mr Biden and the Prime Minister to allow Ukraine to fire western Storm Shadow missiles into Russian territory, after talks last week between the pair failed to lead to a breakthrough.

Read more