John Ifediora. Editorial Commentary. A wise soul once said, “Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.” Another, perhaps lesser known, was known to have said, “You can fool many people most of the time, but you cannot fool all people all of the time.” Well, so much for adages, for clearly these wise souls never contemplated a phenomenon uncommonly known as the “Nigerian Syndrome;” an affliction so sudden and debilitating that it paralyses the victim with an acute sense of fear, helplessness, and the desire to flee. The “fight or flee” instinct imbued by nature…
Author: CASADE
The G5 Sahel military force created to counter Islamist armed groups in the Sahel region of Africa should fully respect international human rights and humanitarian law in its operations, Human Rights Watch said today. Governments supporting the five-nation force should also act to improve governance and the rule of law in the region. The participating countries – Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad – and key political and financial backers including France, Germany, the African Union, the European Union, the US, and Saudi Arabia met on December 13, 2017, in Paris to discuss financial, military, and political mobilization for…
John Campbell.* With his highly critical comments about NATO, the European Union, and the heads of government and chiefs of state of traditional allies, along with favorable comments about Russia and Vladimir Putin, one would think that President Donald Trump had little energy left for Africa. As president, he hosted a lunch for African leaders on the margins of the UN General Assembly, and he invited Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari for a working visit to Washington, but there have been no new Trump policy initiatives with respect to Africa. He has left unfilled important positions in his administration, such as…
As the world moves inexorably towards clean energy, and just as steadfastly sheds its dependence on fossil fuels, the pace at which policy makers and actors in the private sector are facilitating this transformation is agonizingly slow for millions in developing countries without access to electricity.But the recognition that the old top-down model or centralized supply of electricity is no longer serviceable is the first necessary step towards solving extant debilitating energy shortages, and building a 21st century energy system. An enlightening article on this topical issue by the Economist is worth taking note of by policy makers and private…
Review by Ed Crooks. It is a year ago this week that BP capped its Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, plugging the leak that had created the world’s largest ever accidental offshore oil spill, and already the disaster is passing into history. Most of the oil has gone – evaporated, digested by microbes, or collected by the army of clean-up crews – and most of the gulf coastline where the oil hit is now clear. Tony Hayward, BP’s chief executive at the time of the spill, who was cast as the villain of the drama by the US…
Victor Kgomoeswana, well known as an African business expert with a profile on radio and television, shares 50 stories of innovation and opportunity behind the business headlines of the last ten years on the African continent. From the introduction of M-pesa in Kenya to changing the image of Nigeria as Africa’s fraud capital, and from Rwandan coffee farmers to Ethiopian Airlines, and other remarkable stories in between, Kgomoeswana criss-crosses the continent to highlight the most fascinating business stories and their impact on the future of Africa. Africa is Open for Business contains a dynamic and different view of the opportunities…
Editorial Commentary. As Nigerians sweat-out the dry season, and sleep less hours every night because the houses they call home are too hot, and electricity is acutely in short supply, one of their own, one Mr. Kolawole Akanni Aluko is hiding from the US authorities in his $80 million yacht. Mr. Aluko is on the lam because the Nigerian Government and US authorities want to seize the yacht and his $50 million apartment in One57 located on 157 West 57th Street, New York. While the amount involved is staggering, Nigerians are accustomed to such outrageous behavior by the mammals that…
Anour Boukars. Persistent economic and social disparities between urban centers and outlying communities present an ongoing source of instability for countries in the Maghreb. HIGHLIGHTS The social and economic marginalization of communities in the periphery of each country of the Maghreb is an ongoing source of instability in the region. Security forces must distinguish between the threats posed by militants and ordinary citizens expressing grievances. A heavy-handed response is likely to backfire, deepening distrust of central governments while fueling militancy. Economic integration of peripheral communities is a priority. Such initiatives must deliver at the local level, however. Otherwise, perceptions of…
Editorial Commentary. The return of Ebola to the Congo is not only tragic but horrific; it now demands the full attention of the world. No responsible public official with policy making capacity can afford to assume that citizens confined in countries outside the Congo is completely immune from this deadly killer. It is not late to conquer this recurring turn on the side of humanity; it only requires a collective will to render appropriate medical technology to countries now at risk, and restrict movement of those infected. The World Heath Organization has taken the lead in this existential struggle between…
Richard J. Evans. There are more ways of destroying a democracy than sending troops into the streets, storming the radio stations, and arresting the politicians, as Adolf Hitler discovered after the failure of his beer-hall putsch in 1923. Ten years later, on January 30, 1933, when he was appointed head of the German government, Hitler was the leader of the country’s largest political party, the National Socialists. Even five years earlier, in May of 1928, he’d been a political nobody, with the Nazis gaining less than 3 percent of the vote in national elections. But in the elections held in…