The Federal Government has reaffirmed its commitment to eradicating Peste des Petits Ruminants, a highly contagious viral disease affecting sheep and goats, by 2030, saying intensified surveillance, vaccination and cross-border collaboration remain central to achieving the target.

The assurance was given by the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development, Chinyere Akujobi, at the opening of a two-day Stakeholders’ Workshop on the Review and Update of Nigeria’s National Strategic Plan for the Control and Eradication of Peste des Petits Ruminants in Abuja.

The Deputy Director of Information and Public Relations at the ministry, Henrietta Okokon, disclosed this in a statement on Friday.

Akujobi described the eradication of PPR as both an animal health priority and a national development goal, noting that eliminating the disease would reduce poverty, improve rural livelihoods, increase livestock productivity and expand trade opportunities.

According to her, “Nigeria has remained fully committed to the global goal, under the leadership of the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Organisation for Animal Health, to eradicate PPR by 2030.

“We have implemented a range of interventions, including disease surveillance, laboratory strengthening, outbreak investigations, targeted vaccination campaigns, stakeholder engagement, and capacity-building programmes aimed at reducing the burden of PPR while improving disease reporting and response systems.”

She said small ruminants serve as the primary economic safety net for millions of households, making their protection critical to the Federal Government’s agricultural transformation agenda.

Akujobi noted that PPR remains one of the most economically devastating transboundary diseases affecting sheep and goats across Africa, Asia and parts of the Middle East.

“This disease continues to threaten livelihoods, reduce household incomes and constrain the growth of the livestock sector. Given that Nigeria has Africa’s largest population of small ruminants, estimated at over 200 million sheep and goats, and shares major transboundary trade corridors with Niger, Benin, Cameroon and Chad, strengthening our control measures is imperative,” she said.

She explained that the workshop was convened to develop an evidence-based National Strategic Plan for 2026–2030 that would integrate veterinary services with cross-border trade standards and risk mitigation policies.

Akujobi also commended development partners, regional technical organisations and national experts for supporting efforts to eliminate the disease, adding that the ministry would prioritise a fully costed implementation plan backed by a sustainable resource mobilisation strategy.

The statement also quoted the Chief Veterinary Officer of Nigeria, Samuel Anzaku, as saying the country had made significant progress in animal disease control but needed to update its National Strategic Plan to align with the Global PPR Eradication Programme, the Performance Monitoring and Assessment Tool roadmap benchmarks and ECOWAS regional coordination mechanisms.

According to him, the revised strategy should incorporate recent epidemiological and laboratory data, refine disease hotspot mapping, adopt risk-based vaccination strategies and strengthen laboratory-epidemiology linkages.

“This structural update is vital to advancing Nigeria into PMAT Stage 2 and beyond, ensuring that every public and private investment delivers measurable scientific progress towards achieving a PPR-free nation,” he said.

Also speaking, the representative of the African Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources, Dr Perdita Hilary Lopes, described the eradication of PPR as a strategic investment in resilient livestock systems, poverty reduction, women’s economic empowerment, youth employment, sustainable rural development and improved food systems across Africa.

She added that achieving a PPR-free Africa by 2040 would contribute significantly to the aspirations of Agenda 2063, the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme and the Sustainable Development Goals.

The renewed push follows earlier efforts by the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development to strengthen Nigeria’s campaign against PPR. In January, the ministry inaugurated a 33-member National Technical Working Group on the control and eradication of the disease to coordinate national response efforts.

At the time, the Minister of Livestock Development, Idi Maiha, described PPR as one of the most devastating transboundary animal diseases affecting sheep and goats, warning that it threatens the livelihoods of pastoralists and smallholder farmers, undermines food security and limits livestock trade.

Nigeria’s eradication drive aligns with the global campaign led by the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Organisation for Animal Health to eliminate PPR by 2030. As part of the regional effort, Abuja hosted a West African surveillance workshop in December 2025, where veterinary authorities and technical experts reviewed risk-based surveillance and cross-border coordination strategies aimed at accelerating progress towards the eradication target.

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Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has insisted that the Falkland Islands are “British” and accused Argentina of exploiting football to make a political statement after its players displayed a banner asserting the country’s claim to the disputed territory following their World Cup semi-final victory over England.

Her remarks came as FIFA confirmed its independent disciplinary committee was assessing match reports and the surrounding circumstances to determine whether Argentina breached its rules prohibiting political messages on the field of play.

Backing calls for an investigation, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government maintained that the Falklands’ status was not up for debate.

Downing Street said, “The World Cup might not be ours, but the Falkland Islands definitely are,” while Business Minister Peter Kyle described the banner display as “an egregious violation” of FIFA rules and said, “Politics needs to be separate from football.”

Reacting in a video posted on X on Friday, Badenoch said, “The Falkland Islands are British. The Conservatives will always defend them. We know that political messaging and slogans are banned by FIFA, so they absolutely should investigate. It was a very silly banner.

“The fact is the Falkland Island are British and the Conservatives will never stop defending the Falklands. We did it before and we’d do it again.”

Argentina’s players unfurled a banner reading “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” (The Falklands are Argentine) after their 2-1 victory over England in Atlanta, reigniting the long-running sovereignty dispute between Britain and Argentina.

The Falkland Islands, a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic, have remained at the centre of competing claims for decades. The dispute culminated in the 1982 Falklands War, a 74-day conflict in which 649 Argentines, 255 British servicemen and three islanders were killed.

Similar incident in 2014

FIFA has previously punished Argentina over a similar incident.

In 2014, the Argentine Football Association was fined after the national team displayed the same banner before an international friendly against Slovenia, with the governing body ruling that the act breached its regulations on political messages and team misconduct.

Badenoch also used the controversy to criticise the Labour government over its Chagos Islands agreement, arguing that the Conservatives would never take the same approach to the Falklands.

She said, “Unlike Labour who gave away British territory in the Chagos Island, we will never do that. That match was a great game watching our players, but very painful to watch.

“I have a nine year old who was utterly bereft at the loss, winning for so long and only to lose at the end.

“Winning a football match, I would say to Argentinians does not mean you can have the Falklands, so hands off.”

Badenoch’s criticism refers to the UK’s agreement to transfer legal sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius while retaining UK and US military access to Diego Garcia under a long-term lease.

The agreement, announced in principle in 2024, followed years of international legal and diplomatic pressure over Britain’s administration of the islands.

Whether Britain “gave away” the Chagos Islands depends on the perspective. Critics, including Badenoch, describe the agreement as surrendering British territory, while supporters argue it is a negotiated settlement that protects UK and allied security interests by preserving the strategically important Diego Garcia military base while resolving the long-running sovereignty dispute.

PUNCH Online reported in May 2025 that a British court paved the way for a government deal on returning the remote Chagos Islands to Mauritius, lifting a temporary ban that had forced an 11th-hour halt to an accord being signed.

Argentina await sanction

Meanwhile, the nation awaits FIFA verdict.

Also, AFP quoted Argentina’s President Javier Milei as describing the display “perfectly valid and legitimate.”

“It’s a feeling that exists within all Argentines,” he told El Observador radio station.

“The Malvinas are Argentine, we’re going to recover them, and we will do it through diplomatic means,” said Milei.

Argentina’s vice president, Victoria Villarruel, upped the tensions ahead of Wednesday’s kick-off by dubbing the English “usurping pirates”.

After the World Cup match, Argentina’s Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno said Buenos Aires had filed a formal protest over a British warship near the Falkland Islands.

Quirno voiced on X “the strongest rejection” of Britain’s HMS Medway’s “unconsulted and illegal” passage through Argentine territorial waters.

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The Federal Government has renamed the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway as the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Coastal Highway, with the Minister of Works, David Umahi, saying the decision was taken in recognition of the President’s long-standing vision for the project.

Umahi announced the development on Thursday during a media briefing in Abuja, where he also disclosed that President Bola Tinubu had approved a 400-kilometre extension of the Fourth Legacy Highway and the reconstruction of sections of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

According to the minister, the decision to rename the coastal highway was taken by the Ministry of Works after consultations with the ministry’s leadership.

“That (coastal) highway is named President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Coastal Highway. By the powers conferred on me as Minister of Works, in consultation with my Permanent Secretary, the Minister of State, directors and staff of the ministry, we decided to name it after him because of his dream for it.

“He had that dream about 27 years back as governor of Lagos State. It is one thing to dream and another thing to have the grace of God to actualise that dream,” he said.

Umahi described the first section of the 750-kilometre highway, stretching from Victoria Island to Lekki, as a major infrastructure milestone.

According to him, the 47.47-kilometre six-lane carriageway includes a 25-metre median reserved for a future railway line.

The minister also announced that Tinubu had approved an additional 400 kilometres for the Fourth Legacy Highway, extending the project from 700 kilometres to 1,100 kilometres.

He said the highway, originally designed to link Akwanga in Nasarawa State to Maiduguri in Borno State through Jos, Bauchi, Gombe and Biu, would now extend into Taraba State.

“The greatest story is that yesterday President Bola Tinubu approved the addition of 400 kilometres to our Fourth Legacy Road. That is an 800-kilometre road now extended to 1,100 kilometres, and that is unprecedented,” he said.

He added that the President also approved the dualisation of another 400 kilometres of the East-West Road, the reconstruction of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway using reinforced concrete pavement, the completion of the abandoned Ibi Bridge in Taraba State and the construction of the 5.76-kilometre Lao Bridge.

Umahi said the projects formed part of the Federal Government’s efforts to improve connectivity, stimulate economic activities and modernise critical transport infrastructure across the country.

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