OBIAKOR, NIGERIA'S GEN. GETS EXTENSION BUT UN INSISTS ON NEW MILITARY ADVISER Sunday Sept 5-Empowered Newswire- NEW YORK-Special for NigeriaWORLD.com
MORE FALLOUTS AND DETAILS ARE EMERGING OVER THE FATE OF Nigerian military officer and United Nations outgoing Military Adviser, Lt. General Chikadibia Isaac Obiakor even as he has now been offered an extended stay on UN staff for another 6 months, Empowered Newswire reports. UN sources revealed during the week that Nigeria's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Professor Joy Ogwu, had played an active role in persuading the UN Secretariat to grant Obiakor the extension, even though it will not be in the capacity of Military Adviser since a new replacement has already been announced by the UN. Late last month the UN Secretary-General announced the replacement of Lt. General Obiakor as UN Military Adviser with a Senegalese Lt. General Babacar Gaye. Obiakor is the only senior Nigerian official at the UN headquarters in New York, where he holds the rank of Assistant Secretary-General, which is two steps away from the Secretary-General's post. With the departure of Obiakor and the redeployment to Darfur of Professor Ibrahim Gambari, Nigeria has no ranking UN official above the rank of Director at the UN headquarters. Gambari, who is even a more senior Nigerian national at the headquarters of the UN-he is an Under Secretary-General, just a step from the Secretary-General, is now the UN-AU Joint Special Representative for UNAMID, the UN mission in Darfur. But according to a release by the UN Spokesperson office during the week the UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations, DPKO "is planning to retain the services of Lt. Gen. Obiakor for a few months in order to leverage his extensive knowledge of UN peacekeeping operations..." UN Secretary General's deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq confirmed that Obiakor will actually be retained for another half year. In the statement making the disclosure, the UN said the extension is because of the experience and knowledge the Nigerian Lt. General has "gained at both headquarters and in the field to conduct a scheduled review of the command and control policy on the basis of the experience gained in the restructuring of DPKO and establishment of The Department of Field Support (DFS)." Continuing the statement added that the review that Obiakor has now been asked to conduct "also responds to observations offered by member states and the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS)." During his half-year extention, it was added that Obiakor will also "continue to contribute to the Departments' work on a robust approach to peacekeeping." Efforts to keep Obiakor in the capacity of Military Adviser with the ranking of Assistant Secretary General was however abortive because the UN Secretariat was said to be intent on changing the guards with a new Military Adviser. A UN source said once the Nigerian Defence Attache at the Nigerian Mission to the UN Brig-General Garba Audu tabled the matter before Ogwu, she made "strenuous efforts" to the UN secretariat on the matter but was told that it was all about the need for "a change of guards" and the policy of mobility of top level officials at the UN, which is affecting several others at the Secretariat. Earlier, UN Secretariat inside sources had earlier said had Nigeria insisted fervently for Obiakor's retention as Military Adviser, it would have been granted, but the Nigerian diplomats clarified later that the request was indeed tabled to top officials of the Secretariat, who were only able to offer a short extention in a different capacity. By UN Secretariat's own admission, Obiakor, who has been receiving commendations all over the UN diplomatic community since his "retirement" was announced, is in the middle of several important UN assignments as Military Adviser which should have logically informed his retention as the Military Adviser for another one year. The position was said to have been initially contracted for a two -year tenure. But one UN observer insisted that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had the authority to make such an extension, if for instance Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan or the Foreign Minister Odein Ajumogobia had waded in and made a strong case for Nigerian to keep that office for another year. The source said such a big push from the Nigerian capital will have reinforced the efforts of the Nigerian Mission to the UN and weighed heavily, making it more difficult for the Secretary-General to say no. Confirming that he has indeed been asked to stay another 6 months, General Obiakor explained that one of his assignments in the period is that he will be working on how best the UN Peacekeeping can intensify and continue to implement the concept of a "robust peacekeeping." Robust peacekeeping is a concept that prepares the UN peacekeepers to be strong enough to dominate the situation on the ground where the mission is deployed so that spoilers to the peace agreement will observe the decisiveness of the UN mission. This includes the use of attack helicopters, special military forces, practice that had not been so prominent in UN peacekeeping missions in the last ten to fifteen years. Obiakor has himself served as UN Force Commander in Liberia before he was named in July 2008 to the office of UN Military Adviser. His successful completion of that role on the field is said to be influenced his appointment initially as the UN Military Adviser.
US HEALTH INSTITUTION HONORS NIGERIAN SCIENTIST FOR OUTSTANDING RESEARCH One of US government-owned leading health institutions, the Centers for Disease Control, CDC has honored a US-based Nigerian scientist who led a research study that won this year CDC's award for outstanding research, Empowered Newswire reports. Dr Joseph Igietseme, Nigerian-Born Bio-Medical Scientist, a top scientist and researcher at the Atlanta based, US federal government- owned Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) led others to win the this year's prestigious Charles C. Shepard Science Awards, which is to recognize excellence in science achievement by CDC scientists and authors of outstanding scientific papers, according to the CDC. His expertise in the US scientific research community is underscored by the fact that the American government through its agencies like the CDC and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) estimate about $20 million to support Igietseme's research over the last decade and he is also reputed to have over 200 peer-reviewed research publications, reviews articles and presentations as an academic scientist. The Shepard awards is named after Dr. Shepard, a former CDC scientist, whose career was marked by the pursuit of scientific excellence and given to authors of the most outstanding peer-reviewed research paper published by CDC scientists during the preceding year on an annual basis. According to the CDC, the awards which began in 1986 was presented to Dr. Igietseme by the CDC Director Dr. Thomas R. Frieden and President Obama's White House Senior Advisor on Science and Technology, Dr. John Holden at an impressive event in Atlanta recently. Igietseme's 2009 research paper, which was titled Role of T lymphocytes in the pathogenesis of Chlamydia disease, had other co-authors, including two other Nigerians Dr. Francis Eko and Godwin Ananaba, while Igietseme led the pack. While Eko is an Associate Professor at the Moorehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, US, Ananaba is also an Associate Professor from Clark Atlanta University, US. Igietseme who formed and led the team became a full-ranked US Professor in 2002. While Igietseme is from Edo State, Eko is from Cross River State and Ananaba from Abia State The other co-authors of the award-winning article which was published in the Journal of Infectious Disease, volume 200, include Dr. Qing He, Ms Kahaliah Joseph, Dr. Deborah Lyn, Ms Angela Campbell, Dr. Claudiu Bandea, and Dr. Carolyn Black, Dr. Igietseme was trained at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), where he earned his Bachelor's degree in Science and later got his PhD from Georgetown University, Washington, DC. Regarded in the CDC and the US as a seasoned Immunologist, Microbiologist and biomedical science expert, Igietseme was appointed after his training as Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at the University of Arkansas for Medical sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas from 1993 -1996. He was later promoted Associate Professor of Microbiology & Immunology at Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta Georgia from 1998-2002, and as Professor of Microbiology & Immunology at Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta Georgia in 2002. The ranking in main US universities for academics starts from Instructor to Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Full Professor rank is the highest. It takes several years in-between to attain the promotion. It was in 2002 that the CDC named Igietseme, its Chief of Molecular Pathogenesis Laboratory, while he still maintains a part-time Adjunct Professor position at Moorehouse School of Medicine Emory University Medical School, Atlanta. Dr. Igietseme is also a member of US Govt Expert Advisory panels and boards with expertise and skills in the development of biomedical science and research infrastructures and projects in medical schools, universities and agency (Govt/private) settings. Dr. Igietseme's current research focus is in Basic and applied immunology and microbiology, infection and immunity, vaccine development and unraveling the mechanisms of disease, pathogenesis. He is also an active member of the Nigerian Diaspora in the US. For he instance, Dr. Igietseme is a co-founder or member of several Diasporan Socio cultural and Economic Organizations, including: Nigerians in Diaspora Organization (NIDO), where he served as a Board Member, and the Arkansas Association of Nigerians (AAN), which he served as General Secretary.
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