Niger’s military-led government has declared Hausa as the country’s new national language, replacing French, in another decisive step away from its former colonial power, France.

The national language is now “Hausa” while the working languages are English and French,” the junta stated in a new charter .

Hausa is Niger’s most widely spoken language, particularly prevalent in the regions of Zinder, Maradi, and Tahoua.

The language is understood and spoken by a large portion of the population in the country of 26 million.

By contrast, French is spoken by only about 13 per cent of Nigeriens — roughly three million people.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday moved to reinstate at least six recently canceled US foreign aid programs for emergency food assistance.

The quick reversal of decisions made just days ago underscored the rapid-fire nature of Trump’s cuts to foreign aid.

It has resulted to programmes being cut, restored then cut again, disrupting international humanitarian operations.

USAID Acting Deputy Administrator Jeremy Lewin, who has previously been identified as a member of billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, asked staff in an internal email to reverse the terminations.

Lewin also asked to restore awards to the World Food Programme in Lebanon, Syria, Somalia, Jordan, Iraq and Ecuador.

The administration has also reportedly resumed four awards to the International Organization for Migration in the Pacific region,

“Sorry for all the back and forth on awards. There are a lot of stakeholders and we need to do better about balancing these competing interests — that’s my fault and I take responsibility,” Lewin said.

Ekwutosblog reported on Monday that the Trump administration had ended life-saving aid programmes for more than a dozen countries including Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and Syria, totaling over $1.3 billion.

Stand Up For Aid, an advocacy group of current and former US officials said World Food Programme contracts canceled on Lewin’s orders last weekend for Lebanon, Syria, Somalia and Jordan totaled more than $463 million.

Many of the terminated programmes are said to have been granted waivers by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio following an initial round of cuts to foreign aid programs.

As of the time of filing this report, the State Department has not commented about restoring the awards.

By Omeiza Ajayi, ABUJA

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has disclaimed social media reports that its Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has been sacked by President Bola Tinubu.

A viral WhatsApp message had indicated that Mahmood was sacked and replaced with one Prof. Olamilekan.

“INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmud Yakubu has been replaced with Prof. Bashiru Olamilekan by President Tinubu,” the message, which had no attribution, read.

In response to a message from Vanguard, the Chief Press Secretary CPS to the INEC Chairman, Mr Rotimi Oyekanmi, simply said: “Please, disregard. It is not true.”

Yakubu, who is rounding off his second tenure in office, is expected to exit the system towards the end of the year.

The process of appointing an INEC chairman is the President nominating a candidate and forwarding his particulars to the Department of State Services, DSS, for profiling.

After such screening, the President thereafter takes the name to the National Council of State for its advisory review. Based on the outcome, the President sends the name to the Senate for screening and confirmation.

Presidency, too

The Presidency also debunked the widespread report claiming that President Tinubu has sacked Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the INEC chairman.

The Senior Special Adviser to the President on Digital and New Media, O’tega Ogra, described the news as false.