Ken ofori-atta, Ghana’s finance minister, is fond of invoking scripture in speeches on the economy. Recently, as the country defaulted on its domestic debt, he found solace in the first book of Samuel saying “nothing will be lost, nothing will be missing.” Yet the Bible is a poor guide to macroeconomics. Holders of domestic bonds stand to lose a good chunk of money. Now foreign creditors are getting a buzz cut, too. On December 19th Ghana suspended interest payments to foreign creditors, in effect defaulting, pending talks. It has also appealed to the high priests of economic orthodoxy, agreeing to…
Author: CASADE
John Ifediora. Editorial Commentary. The fight against corruption is always a difficult one, especially when conducted against individuals and corporations with substantial resources to protect their interests. But the fight must go on; defeats and setbacks are inevitable as long as the effort remains steadfast, unwavering, and sustained by governments who adhere to rules of law and good governance. The recent setback to Nigeria’s anti-corruption battle against JP Morgan Chase should serve as a clear reminder that governments in Africa and their justice minsters must come prepared and ready when taking on adversaries with deep financial resources to fend-off legitimate…
Courtesy of Independent. President Joe Biden issued a memo Thursday instructing the federal government to elevate anti-corruption measures as a central U.S. foreign policy and national security issue. A report expected in about six months from an interagency review will recommend ways to strengthen corruption-fighting efforts. Biden’s memo directs agencies to identify how they can improve intelligence-gathering and combat illicit financial activities. It reaffirms Washington s commitment to sanction or pursue legal action against those involved in corruption, instructs agencies to work with international organizations to tackle the problem and emphasizes enforcement measures in foreign assistance programs. The memo is aimed at delivering on…
The systematic looting of African economies by Africans is not news. While it remains the primary source of the continent’s perennial economic woes and has caused millions of premature deaths, the West’s sanctions against Russian kleptocrats have renewed interest on how to effectively return stolen assets to African countries. The United Kingdom and the United States have been very helpful in this effort in recent years but more needs to be done through asset forfeiture programs and prosecution to discourage Africans from despoiling their respective economies. The article by Thorsten Benner and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira highlights and recounts this…
Editorial commentary. Recent events in Ethiopia, as horrific as they are, no longer shock or disturb the sensibilities of Africans. They are normal activities in their natural habitats; they are also egregiously unacceptable. That Africans now see these events as unavoidable costs of incredibly bad leadership that have shaped their collective state of affairs and their future prospects is dispositive. What is not so clear is what they can do about it. Only less than three years ago Ethiopia held out hopes that African countries may yet indeed give their citizens reasons to believe that personal security in a stable…
Editorial commentary. Like all nation-states before it, Nigeria is now confronted with stark existential choices — stay the current course of self-delusion or boldly grapple with deep-seated unresolved issues that threaten to disintegrate it. The idea of a unitary Nigeria is appealing, but it requires extraordinary self-less effort and sacrifices that both its people and leadership are unwilling or capable of rendering. It may very well be that the opportunities it had for course-correction to keep it whole are no longer available. An October 23rd article on Nigeria by the Economist, as presented below, is instructive. Africa’s biggest…
Article credit. WHEN THE Mutambaras’ first son was a about 18 months old they began to worry about his hearing. The toddler did not respond when asked to “come to Mama”. He was soon diagnosed as deaf, though no doctor could tell the Zimbabwean couple the cause. Several years later their second son was also born deaf. This time a doctor referred them to Hearing Impairment Genetics Studies in Africa (hi-genes), set up in 2018 by Ambroise Wonkam, a Cameroonian professor of genetics now at the University of Cape Town. The project is sequencing the genomes of Africans with hearing loss…
*Article credit. WHEN BANKS started to fail and protesters began filling the streets in 2019, Moussa Khoury resisted the temptation to leave his native Lebanon. After a massive explosion flattened part of Beirut, the capital, last year, he fixed his broken windows and stayed put. But in the end he could not withstand the collapse of Lebanon’s currency. Mr Khoury runs a startup selling vegetables grown in hydroponic planters. His customers paid him in liras, while his suppliers demanded hard currency. So in April he accepted an offer from an acquaintance who promised to invest in the business—if Mr Khoury…
By Illias Bantekas and Lutz Oette. This unique textbook merges human rights law with its practice, from the courtroom to the battlefield. Human rights are analyzed in their particular context, and the authors assess, among other things, the impact of international finance, the role of NGOs, and the protection of rights in times of emergency, including the challenges posed by counter-terrorism. In parallel, a series of interviews with practitioners, case studies and practical applications offer multiple perspectives and challenging questions on the effective implementation of human rights. Although the book comprehensively covers the traditional areas of international human rights law,…
Sarah Wild. Undercounting or ignoring cases of the disease on the continent could lead to new variants that might derail efforts to end the pandemic. Kenya and other African countries are reporting relatively few COVID cases, but studies suggest that the continent’s true burden of disease may be undercounted. Africa has suffered about three million COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic—at least officially. The continent’s comparatively low number of reported cases has puzzled scientists and prompted many theories about its exceptionalism, from its young population to its countries’ rapid and aggressive lockdowns. But numerous seroprevalence surveys, which use blood tests to identify…