Nigeria’s Malgovernance, Misgovernance, Bad Governance

 By Oseloka H. Obaze

A recent trending photo of the leaders of the BRICS nations hobnobbing and holding hands across-the-chest spoke eloquently to the group’s vital missing link and presumptive member. That photo brought to mind missed opportunities and lessons learned. It also brought to the fore, the fate of Nigeria: a country that is prima facie qualified to be the sixth member of that intergovernmental organization, but is not.

*Tinubu
Nigeria’s membership would have expanded the name of the group to BRINCS, expanded her sphere of global influence, market, acceptability and balance. Her exclusion from the BRICS expansion coincides with the imminent implosion of ECOWAS under her chairmanship.

May 25: Why Politics Matters For Africa’s Development

 By Obiageli Ezekwesili, Alioune Badara Fall and Adama Gaye

Sixty years ago, yesterday, May 25, Africa led the world in creating the first-ever pan-continental political body with the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). It was in 1963 when 30 leaders of Africa’s sovereign republics came together in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to sign the founding Charter of the new body. This is where the celebration of May 25 as Africa Day originated.

The OAU had, from its inception, a bold and transformational mission as it was set up to facilitate the attainment of economic development, social transformation, political freedom, and the completion of independence in the African countries still under the yoke of foreign actors while also launching the struggle to dismantle racists’ regimes in Rhodesia – later Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia.

The Surge of Extreme Hunger In Africa

By Agbaje Ayomide

Over the past years, immense efforts have been made by the governments, stakeholders, non-governmental organizations and reputable international bodies to end hunger crisis and curtail food insecurity most African countries are confronted with. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, about 153 million people suffered from severe food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa.

Millions of people especially in the rural areas have died as a result of chronic starvation, and putting others at great risk of suffering from the famine in drought-prone areas while many have been displaced and become refugees in faraway regions in desperate search for food and to secure their livelihoods.

What Does The President Carry In His Pocket?

By Banji Ojewale

There is this apocryphal tale that the president of the United States of America, said to be our planet’s most powerful country, travels carrying a bag that holds the key to war and peace in the world. It is claimed that the briefcase contains the code the US leader may unravel to release the huge atomic arsenal of God’s Own Country in the event of an attack.

*President Buhari

If he’s away from the US and he’s briefed on his hotline, all he does to enable a lethal hit-back is to go for the bag and probably a key in his pocket. But if he wants peace, he simply allows his pocket be at peace.

Early in 2016 however, sitting President Barack Obama spiked this story of one man playing  God, one man who upon a cryptic call thousands of kilometres from Washington, can decide the fate of billions of souls worldwide, can trigger a contest to destroy mankind. He told a YouTube interviewer that all he holds in the trousers pocket are harmless mementoes, none approximating a nuclear lock.

The gay broadcaster Ingrid Nilsen fired the question that laid all bare: what does President Obama carry in his pocket? The US leader dug into his right trouser pocket and out came an assortment of keepsakes: a rosary given to him by Pope Francis, a tiny Buddha, a metal poker chip he said he got from ‘a bald biker with weird mustache’ in 2007,a Coptic Cross from Ethiopia and a Hindu statuette of monkey god.

A strange collection for a head of state to carry! But he says when he feels tired or discouraged as he battles American and global headaches he reaches into the pocket for relief and mental refreshment. According to Obama, they inspire him and help him “get back to work”.

Now after thrilling myself with Obama’s revelation and observing the travels of our own President Muhammadu Buhari, I have begun to wonder what the Nigerian leader also takes along in the trousers under his flowing agbada. Surely Buhari, the leader of the world’s most populous black nation, would have run into numerous people and well-wishers who would deposit some gifts with him after each encounter.

New African Magazine August 2015 Out Now

AUGUST ISSUE OF NEW AFRICAN – OUT NOW! 
Monday, 10^th August/ London:

Ethiopia is increasingly in the spotlight for a number of reasons. As Africa's oldest independent country and the second largest in terms of population it has served as a symbol of African independence throughout the colonial period, was a founder member of the United Nations and remains the African base for many international organisations, most notably the African Union Commission. Most recently Ethiopia hosted thousands of delegates at third international conference on Financing for Development and played host to the US President Barack Obama during the first visit by a serving American president to that country. Addis Ababa will also be the venue for the forthcoming Africa Japan Business Investment Forum (http://ic-events.net/event/africa-japan/) at the end of August 2015.

The latest issue of New African magazine carries an exclusive, in depth and broad ranging interview with Ethiopian PM Hailemariam Desalegn. Topics covered include the PM’s views on democracy and the greater inclusion of opposition and other voices, good governance, employment creation and an overview of the country’s inclusive Growth and Transformation Plan with its focus on indigenisation, manufacturing and industrialisation, as well as broader issues impacting the Horn of Africa. We also get an insight into the life and times of Zimbabwe’s Vice President, Emerson Mnangagwa and the former Prime Minister of Namibia Nahas Angula.

Also in this issue – the cover story takes a futuristic look at Africa’s role in shaping its own developmental agenda, as Africa’s leaders and leading policymakers prepare to join other world governments at the United Nations in September in order to adopt the much-talked about new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the landmark Millennium Development Goals draw to a close.

Other features include ‘Kenya/Tech’, the Kenyan government's new startup craze; a look at development aid to Africa from a Nordic perspective; the rise of Venture Capital firms in Africa and a narrative on a new movement in East Africa to make motorcycle taxis, one of the most popular forms of transport, safer. Alongside these stories are the regular Opinion pieces, cultural reviews and sector reports,  

The August issue is out now and digitally available via http://www.exacteditions.com/newafrican. It is also available on Apple and Android app stores

Obama, Clean Your Own House First!

Young Africans Tell US President...

(pix:deverpost)

President Obama came to Africa to deliver a "blunt message" to its politicians. But young people in Kenya and Ethiopia had plenty to say to Mr Obama about the state of America.

"Tough love" has been a theme of President Obama's visit to East Africa.

The moments where he really came alive on this trip were not just when he talked of his love for Africa, but also when he spoke passionately about human rights.Standing beside the Kenyan president he likened the pursuit of gay rights in Africa to the civil rights struggle in the US. 

To an enthralled crowd in a stadium in Nairobi he talked of the importance of women in society.He talked of the need to eradicate corruption and treat fairly minority communities, including Muslims in Kenya."Progress requires that you see the differences and diversity of this country as a strength, just as we in America try to see the diversity of our country as a strength," he said.

"I always say that what makes America exceptional is not the fact that we're perfect, it's the fact that we struggle to improve. We're self-critical. We work to live up to our highest values and ideals."

Kenyans and Ethiopians were overwhelmingly enthusiastic, even fanatical, about their returning East African son, but there were many who felt America, even Barack Obama, was not in a position to lecture others on some of these points.

"Most Americans think about what needs to change in other countries but they need to solve their own problems," Shiferaw Tilahun, tells me in a coffee shop in Addis Ababa.

"They are interested in other people's problems but they don't care about black people in their own country," Shiferaw says. "Most of our black brothers and sisters are suffering in the US."

It was clear in both countries that the issue of race, more than any other, had damaged people's perceptions of the US."When I speak to my friends and family here in Kenya, their feeling about America is 'clean your own house first'," says Teresa Mbagaya.

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The World's Most Optimistic People Live in Africa

A farmer, left, accepts cash payment for his grain from a buyer in the

 village of Damo Dulele, Ethiopia, in February 2015. Growth in Ethiopia has beaten every sub-Saharan country over the past decade.  (Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg)

Emerging Nations Are Home To More Upbeat Consumers, While Advanced Economies See Dark Clouds

Sure, France has Paris, Provence and the Palace of Versailles. But when it comes to optimism about the domestic economy, the French have nothing on Ethiopians.

The three countries with the brightest prospects in the next year are all emerging or developing economies in Africa, while three with the bleakest outlooks are advanced economies, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted March 25 through May 27.

Nigeria tops the charts, with 92 percent of respondents seeing their economy improving in the next 12 months, compared with a net 5 percent who said it would stay the same or worsen. Residents in Burkina Faso and Ethiopia were similarly upbeat, with more than 80 percent of people in each country projecting economic progress.

On the other end of the scale, Poland was home to the smallest share of respondents seeing faster economic momentum in the next year, with just 16 percent holding that view. France — where almost half of those polled thought things would get worse — showed the weakest readings among advanced economies. See the best and worst here:  

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