At least 200 investors, companies, and entrepreneurs would have the opportunity to visit The Netherlands to discuss business opportunities.
Slated for September 28 to 30, 2022 this year’s Netherland-Ghana Business fair; is under the theme: “Our Digital Future: Ghana beyond 2022”.
The special guest of honour is the Vice President of the Republic of Ghana, Dr Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia, who will deliver a keynote address on digitalisation and its prospects for foreign investors, and businesses.
There will be, workshops, matchmaking and visitation to some companies and networking cocktails on various days of the fair.
A statement issued by the organisers in Accra yesterday said “This year’s objective is to bridge the gap between Dutch investors and businesses and Ghanaian businesses as well as provide an opportunity to know more about the changing trends in e-Commerce, digitalisation, data censoring and knowing the latest products and services in the business technology industry.”
The statement said representatives of authorities from both countries would have the opportunity to discuss Netherland-Ghana partnerships, trade and investments.
It said opportunities for business to government and business-to-business and matchings would occur during the period.
The annual event of the Netherlands-Ghana Business Fair will be carried out under the auspices of the AfroEuro Foundation in collaboration with the Embassy of Ghana in the Netherlands, the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) and the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI). Its goal is to create an atmosphere of partnerships and networks for many investors bilaterally and globally from the Netherlands.
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Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the last two years’ events were held virtually through an online conference with delegates from Ghana and Netherlands via zoom.
Notwithstanding the challenges, this year’s event will be held again in The Netherlands to host the attendance of participants, stakeholders, and partners.
The event seeks to target Dutch and Ghanaian businessmen and investors who are looking for expansion opportunities, knowledge partners, suppliers and buyers.
The Ghana trade delegation will comprise companies, business leaders, entrepreneurs, professionals and experts from various sectors (Agriculture, Housing and Real Estate Development, Digital (ICT), Water management, Sustainable businesses, Waste management, Made in Ghana goods etc.)
Ghana which is home to the administrative headquarters of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), gateway to West Africa and largely Sub-Sahara Africa, has great value and opportunities to offer Dutch investors and companies which would lead to successful partnerships and further deepening the economic cooperation between Ghana and the Netherlands.
French President Emmanuel Macron is in Cameroon to start his 3-nation Africa tour, where he is expected to discuss the African food crisis sparked by Russia’s war in Ukraine, the need for Cameroon to increase its agricultural production and the upsurge in insecurity in the country.
Macron is due to spend three days in Yaounde, Cameroon’s capital, before heading to Benin and Guinea Bissau.
The Cameroon government has given Yaounde a facelift for Macron’s visit, with bulldozers razing makeshift market stalls and shacks on the streets where Macron’s convoy will pass.
“They have destroyed my only source of livelihood,” said Solange Kemje, 28, among the several hundred stall owners affected.
Others welcome the visit of France’s leader, hoping that Macron will extend help in the face of rising insecurity from jihadi violence that has spilled over from neighbouring Nigeria.
The central African state is also battling a separatist conflict that has killed at least 3,300 people and displaced more than 750,000 in five years, according to the UN. Rebels are fighting for Cameroon’s English-speaking minority to have an independent country called Ambazonia.
Some hope that hope Macron will influence President Paul Biya to end the use of force as a solution to the separatist crisis in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, according to Capo Daniel, deputy defence chief of the Ambazonia Defense Forces, one of the separatist groups.
“One of our factions in our liberation movement called for a lockdown to protest Emmanuel Macron’s visit,” said Capo. “But other movements will be watching this event with the hope that Emmanuel Macron will push Paul Biya to choose the path of peaceful resolution of the war [of separatist violence] as an alternative to the current posture of the state of Cameroon to use war to resolve the problem with Ambazonia.”
Cameroon says France supports its military to fight separatists and the jihadi violence from Nigeria’s Boko Haram rebels but has given no details on how many weapons have been received from France.
Others hope that Macron will encourage Cameroon’s 89-year-old President Paul Biya, who has been in power for close to 40 years, to retire.
“The discussion should go around a peaceful transition of power in Cameroon and also the issues of human rights and democracy in Cameroon,” said Prince Ekosso, leader of the United Socialist Democratic Party.
Biya is accused of rigging elections in order to stay in power until he dies. But he maintains he always won democratic elections fairly.
Cameroon signed a defence treaty with Russia and agreed to let China carry out mining, both of which reduced the influence of France in the country, Prince Ekosso said.
For its part, Cameroon’s Consumers League says it wants Cameroon, Benin and Guinea Bissau to ask Macron to reconsider EU trade sanctions on Russia. The consumer advocacy group blames the EU sanctions for fuel and wheat shortages and rising food prices across Africa.
Opinion by Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Anis Chowdhury (sydney and kuala lumpur)
Inter Press Service
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Jul 26 (IPS) – Like so many others, Africans have long been misled. Alleged progress under imperialism has long been used to legitimize exploitation. Meanwhile, Western colonial powers have been replaced by neo-colonial governments and international institutions serving their interests.
‘Shithole’ pots of gold
US President Donald Trump’s “shitholes”, mainly in Africa, were and often still are ‘pots of gold’ for Western interests. From 1445 to 1870, Africa was the major source of slave labour, especially for Europe’s ‘New World’ in the Americas.
Anis ChowdhuryWalter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa noted “colonised Africans, like pre-colonial African chattel slaves, were pushed around into positions which suited European interests and which were damaging to the African continent and its peoples.”
The ‘scramble for Africa’ from the late nineteenth century saw European powers racing to secure raw materials monopolies through direct colonialism. Western powers all greatly benefited from Africa’s plunder and ruin.
European divide-and-conquer tactics typically also had pliant African collaborators. Colonial powers imposed taxes and forced labour to build infrastructure to enable raw material extraction.
Racist ideologies legitimized European imperialism in Africa as a “civilizing mission”. Oxford-trained, former Harvard history professor Niall Ferguson – an unabashed apologist for Western imperialism – insists colonialism laid the foundations for modern progress.
Richest, but poorest and hungriest!
A recent blog asks, “Why is the continent with 60% of the world’s arable land unable to feed itself? … And how did Africa go from a relatively self-sufficient food producer in the 1970s to an overly dependent food importer by 2022?”
Deeper analyses of such uncomfortable African realities seem to be ignored by analysts influenced by the global North, especially the Washington-based international financial institutions. UNCTAD’s 2022 Africa report is the latest to disappoint.
Jomo Kwame SundaramIt does not guide African governments on how to actually implement its long list of recommendations given their limited policy space, resources and capabilities. Worse, their proposals seem indistinguishable from an Africa-oriented version of the discredited neoliberal Washington Consensus.
With 30% of the world’s mineral resources and the most precious metal reserves on Earth, Africa has the richest concentration of natural resources – oil, copper, diamonds, bauxite, lithium, gold, tropical hardwood forests and fruits.
Yet, Africa remains the poorest continent, with the average per capita output of most countries worth less than $1,500 annually! Of 46 least developed countries, 33 are in Africa – more than half the continent’s 54 nations.
Africa remains the world’s least industrialized region, with only South Africa categorized as industrialized. Incredibly, Africa’s share of global manufacturing fell from about 3% in 1970 to less than 2% in 2013.
About 60% of the world’s arable land is in Africa. A net food exporter until the 1970s, the continent has become a net importer. Structural adjustment reform conditionalities – requiring trade liberalization – have cut tariff revenue, besides undermining import-substituting manufacturing and food security.
Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 24% of the world’s hungry. Africa is the only continent where the number of undernourished people has increased over the past four decades. About 27.4% of Africa’s population was ‘severely food insecure’ in 2016.
In 2020, 281.6 million Africans were undernourished, 82 million more than in 2000! Another 46 million became hungry during the pandemic. Now, Ukraine sanctions on wheat and fertilizer exports most threaten Africa’s food security, in both the short and medium-term.
Structural adjustment
Many of Africa’s recent predicaments stem from structural adjustment programs (SAPs) much of Africa and Latin America have been subjected to from the 1980s. The Washington-based international financial institutions, the African Development Bank and all donors support the SAPs.
SAP advocates promised foreign direct investment and export growth would follow, ensuring growth and prosperity. Now, many admit neoliberalism was oversold, ensuring the 1980s and 1990s were ‘lost decades’, worsened by denial of its painfully obvious consequences.
Instead, ‘extraordinarily disadvantageous geography’, ‘high ethnic diversity’, the ‘natural resource curse’, ‘bad governance’, corrupt ‘rent-seeking’ and armed conflicts have been blamed. Meanwhile, however, colonial and neo-colonial abuse, exploitation and resource plunder have been denied.
While World Bank SAPs were officially abandoned in the late 1990s following growing criticism, replacements – such as Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers – have been like “old wine in new bottles”. Although purportedly ‘home-grown’, they typically purvey bespoke versions of SAPs.
With trade liberalization and greater specialization, many African countries are now more dependent on fewer export commodities. With more growth spurts during commodity booms, African economies have become even more vulnerable to external shocks.
Can the West be trusted?
Earlier, G7 countries reneged on their 2005 Gleneagles pledge – to give $25 billion more yearly to Africa to ‘Make Poverty History’ – within the five years they gave themselves. Since then, developed countries have delivered far less than the $100 billion of climate finance annually they had promised developing nations in 2009.
The Hamburg G20’s 2017 ‘Compact with Africa’ (CwA) promised to combat poverty and climate change effects. In fact, CwA has been used to promote the business interests of donor countries, particularly Germany.
Primarily managed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, CwA has actually failed to deliver significant foreign investment, instead sowing confusion among participating countries.
Powerful Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development governments successfully blocked developing countries’ efforts at the 2015 Addis Ababa UN conference on financing for development for inclusive UN-led international tax cooperation and to stem illicit financial outflows.
Africa lost $1.2–1.4 trillion in illicit financial flows between 1980 and 2009 – about four times its external debt in 2013. This greatly surpasses total official development assistance received over the same period.
Africa must unite
Under Nelson Mandela’s leadership, Africa had led the fight for the ‘public health exception’ to international intellectual property law. Although Africa suffers most from ‘vaccine apartheid’, Western lobbyists blocked developing countries’ temporary waiver request to affordably meet pandemic needs.
African solidarity is vital to withstand pressures from powerful foreign governments and transnational corporations. African nations must also cooperate to build state capabilities to counter the neoliberal ‘good governance’ agenda.
Africa needs much more policy space and state capabilities, not economic liberalization and privatization. This is necessary to unlock critical development bottlenecks and overcome skill and technical limitations.
Nairobi — The United States Embassy in Nairobi now says delays in VISA processing was as a result of backlog caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
While stating that the earliest date for those applying for the US visitor visa interviews in Nairobi is from June 2024, the embassy indicated that this is a worldwide problem that is being addressed.
“As we work through the backlog of applications and address the high demand for services, we recognize that some applicants may face extended visa interview wait times. This is a worldwide problem,” a statement from the embassy indicated.
It pointed out that as a result of this, the embassy has doubled the number of daily interviews for visa applications and also increased its staff to cope with the increased capacity.
“This has necessitated the embassy to make some changes in the visa application process as the current visa interview wait times will now reflect on their updated page with emphasis on the nonrefundable fee to enable applicants to make informed decisions before submitting their applications.” It stated.
The embassy further explained that the consulate has also introduced a visa renewal process that does not require an in-person interview for those renewing visitor (B1/B2) visas and student visas (F category) whose visas expired less than a year.
It stated that it will consider urgent cases such as student visas and urgent medical care.
“We offer expedited appointments for emergency situations, including death of an immediate family member, the need to travel for urgent medical care and for students whose program starts in less than 30 days and who will suffer irreparable harm, such as the loss of a scholarship, if they cannot travel,” stated the Embassy.
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The consulate however assured Kenyans that it will take the necessary steps to reduce the visa interview wait time as soon as possible.
The embassy’s response follows a complaint by a Kenyan doctor who wrote an open letter to the US envoy to Kenya Margaret Whitman, over inordinately long periods the country’s embassy takes to consider visa applications.
Elizabeth Wala also expressed deep concern over the huge sums of money charged in visa applications fees that are forfeited by unsuccessful visa applicants or successful applicants who fail to utilize visas granted long after their purpose of intended travel to the United States.
Wala referenced an incident where one of her daughters was due to travel to the United States for a school competition only for her to be slotted for an interview in 2024 after paying the USD240 visa application fee.
“In June 2022, one of my daughters qualified to attend The World Scholar’s Cup Global Round in Dubai, a debate and creative writing competition. I scraped and scrounged, and she attended the competition. She, thereafter, qualified for the grand finale called the Theatre of Champions in Yale, USA to be held in November 2022,” she stated.
As of July 26, 2022, confirmed cases of Covid-19 from 55 African countries reached 12,055,243 while 353,449,054 vaccinations have been administered across the continent.
Reported deaths in Africa reached 255,673 and 10,124,392 people have recovered. South Africa has the most reported cases of 4,002,981 and 101,943 people died. Other most-affected countries are Morocco ( 1,258,018 ) , Tunisia ( 1,114,370 ), Egypt ( 515,645 ), Libya ( 503,611 ), Ethiopia ( 491,834 ), and Kenya ( 337,339 ).
For the latest totals, see the AllAfrica interactive map with per-country numbers. The numbers are compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (world map) using statistics from the World Health Organization and other international institutions as well as national and regional public health departments.
AllAfrica interactive map with per-country numbers.
KINSHASA, Jul 26 (IPS) – The writer is the International Project Leader for the Congo Basin Forest, Greenpeace AfricaFrom the fall-out of the pandemic to the interlocking cost of living and energy security crises currently gripping the world, it has been fascinating to see the world’s richest governments bending over backwards to help fossil fuel companies.
Meanwhile households are battling a cost of living crisis while the climate crisis is raging on, threatening lives and livelihoods everywhere – from north to south.
After oil demand and prices briefly fell during the lockdowns of 2020, we’re seeing Big Oil enjoying unprecedented war-time profits, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drives up prices. Recall BP’s boss Bernard Looney crassly comparing his company to a “cash machine”.
This latest boon for fossil fuel companies makes the pledges from last year’s COP26 climate talks in Glasgow seem like a distant memory. Indeed, a £420m ($500m) deal for the Democratic Republic of Congo has become increasingly useless in protecting its forests, with oil companies set to cash in and eventually paved the way for more forest destruction.
The DRC, home to most territory of the world’s second largest rainforest, prides itself in being a “solution country” for the climate crisis. However, the country, which already sees deforestation rates second only to Brazil, has already stated last year its intention to lift a 20 year ban on new logging concessions.
As of April this year, the DRC is set on trashing huge areas of the rainforest and peatland and – as of this week – it’s set to auction no less than 27 oil and three gas blocks.
Oil exploration and extraction would not only have devastating impacts on the health and livelihoods of local communities, but the oil driven “resource curse” raises the risk of corruption and conflict.
This auction also is sacrificing at least four parts of a mega-peatland complex, often labelled a carbon bomb, along with at least nine Protected Areas (contrary to denials by the Congolese Oil Ministry).
Following the enlargement of the auction this week, it also poses a direct threat (https://www.ft.com/content/5ea6f899-bb55-478f-a14a-a6dd37aae724) to the Virunga National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site made famous thanks to a Netflix documentary on a previous campaign to keep the oil industry out of it.
Instead of steering us into a climate catastrophe,the international community must stop serving as the handmaiden of Big Oil. Instead, let’s see them focus on ending energy poverty by supporting clean, decentralised renewable energies. Whether it’s the cost of living crisis unfolding on our doorsteps or climate destruction sweeping the globe – the solutions are the same.
Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi must abandon the colonial notion of development through extractivism and look at its legacy in Africa, which has only deepened poverty and hardship for Africans. It has only served to enrich a small and closed circle of local beneficiaries and foreign nations.
It is telling that Africa’s largest oil producer, Nigeria, is also the one with the highest number of people suffering extreme poverty (just behind India) and with the highest number of people without access to electricity. Instead of following an economic model that hurts both people and nature, the DRC should resist pressures from greedy multinationals and prioritise connecting 72 million of its people to the grid.
You can bet Big Oil is salivating at the chance to seize yet more profits from climate destruction. Yet shamefully, none of the eight members who are part of the Central African Forest Initiative that is paying £420m of taxpayers’ money to protect DRC’s forests – the UK, the EU, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, South Korea – have uttered one word against this prospective oil auction.
That’s not surprising, given the “forest protection” deal does nothing to prevent oil activity in peatlands or anywhere else.
As Boris Johnson approaches his final weeks in office, his own environmental legacy and that of the COP26 risk being all targets, no action. Speeches are made and press releases are disseminated, while the rights of vulnerable people everywhere are being run over by short-sighted extractive industries.
Instead, I would like to see donor countries like the UK government, as host of the COP26 and one of the chief architects behind the DRC forest protection deal, to work with my country to move beyond the model of destructive extractivism and leapfrog towards a future of renewable and clean energy for all.
Donald Trump returned on Tuesday to Washington for the first time since he left the White House after a failed attempt to overturn his election loss to Joe Biden.
Trump, increasingly teasing a bid to win back the presidency in 2024, is set to address the America First Policy Institute, a think tank run by allies.
He’ll be appearing in a city riveted by weeks of hearings held by a Democratic-run House of Representatives committee on the January 6, 2021 riot where Trump supporters stormed Congress, trying to stop certification of the election result.
The Republican continues repeatedly to push his lie in speeches that he was robbed of victory in 2020, but America First Policy Institute spokesman Marc Lotter said Trump would be looking ahead, rather than back.
“This is a policy speech he will be giving,” he told CNN.
However, Trump is unlikely to deviate too far from his typically incendiary blend of right-wing nationalism, anti-immigrant rhetoric and conspiracy theories about the election.
The Capitol riot hearings, which revealed harrowing details of the assault on Congress and also the attempt by Trump political backers to overturn the election through manipulation of the complicated US electoral system, are believed to have damaged Trump.
Biden, who at the start of his presidency went out of his way to avoid so much as mentioning Trump’s name, launched a blistering broadside Monday on the Republican’s failure to pull back his mob of supporters.
“Brave law enforcement officers were subject to the medieval hell for three hours, dripping in blood, surrounded by carnage, face to face with the crazed mob that believed the lies of the defeated president,” Biden told the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives Conference.
“For three hours, the defeated former president of the United States watched it all happen as he sat in the comfort of the private dining room next to the Oval Office,” he said.
– Trump in pole position –
Trump, 76, remains by far the most recognizable name in Republican politics. He is believed to retain an intensely loyal core of supporters, putting him in pole position if he decides to seek the party nomination.
Potential rivals are gaining ground as the negative publicity piles up.
All eyes are on the progress of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has not declared a bid for the presidency, but has growing stature on the right.
And a recent New York Times/Siena College poll showed that nearly half of Republican primary voters would vote for any Republican other than Trump.
Last week, the right-leaning editorial boards of two newspapers owned by the Murdoch family, the Wall Street Journal and New York Post, issued harsh critiques of Trump’s behavior during the January 6 calamity.
Trump showed he is “unworthy” of becoming president again, the usually friendly Post wrote.
However, both Trump and his portrayal of an America under attack by leftists continues to be boosted by enormously popular commentators on Murdoch-owned Fox News.
“Across American history, our era is easily among the most fraught — and the most alarming,” wrote the leaders of the pro-Trump think tank, including his former economy advisor Larry Kudlow.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is on an Africa trip this week. His itinerary includes Egypt, the Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Ethiopia.
In Egypt on Sunday, Lavrov told his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry that Russia would meet grain orders.
Many African nations are heavily dependent on imports of wheat and other grains from Russia and Ukraine, but supplies have been badly disrupted by the war in Ukraine, exacerbating the risk of hunger.
In June, African Union Chairman Macky Sall told Russian President Vladimir Putin that even though Africa was far from the theater of war, African people are “victims of this economic crisis.”
Military support for Africa
Lavrov’s visit is being seen as a push to rally the support of African nations, many of whom have strong historical ties with Russia, amid strong Western condemnation of the war in Ukraine.
In the months before his visit, Russia signed various political and military deals on the continent.
In early January, hundreds of Russian military advisors were deployed to Mali. The contractors from the controversial Wagner Group were invited to “help Mali train its security forces,” according to the Malian army.
This raised a few eyebrows: The assignment was of the European Training Mission to Mali (EUTM). After Colonel Assimi Goita overthrew late President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in the 2020 Malian coup — and was later sworn in as president following a second coup in May 2021 — he faced regional and international sanctions for extending a proposed timeline for presidential elections.
The junta regime responded by banning German military planes from Mali’s air space, expelling the ambassador of former colonial power France and calling for the immediate withdrawal of Danish forces.
Mali’s southern neighbor Burkina Faso witnessed its own coup in January. Like its counterparts in Mali, the Burkinabe military has defied calls to hand over power to a civilian government. It, too, has oriented itself toward Moscow.
A link between foreign training and coups
Sudan, Chad, Guinea Conakry and Guinea Bissau have also experienced coups in the past year. One thing they all have in common: Most of the soldiers behind the coups had received military training sponsored by Russia.
“The qualities that recommend them for foreign training are the same ones that make them effective coup leaders,” Judd Devermont, the director of the US-based think tank Africa Program for Center for Strategic and International Studies, told DW in late 2021.
The two Malians believed to be the chief architects behind the 2020 coup, Malick Diaw and Sadio Camara, each spent about a year at the Moscow Higher Military Command School. These same soldiers also took part in training missions organized by the US and the EU. Following the coup, Media Operations Branch Chief for AFRICOM, Kelly Cahalan, told DW: “The mutiny act in Mali is strongly condemned and inconsistent with US military training and education.”
Moscow reviving old Soviet ties
According to Irina Filatova from the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Russia aims to gain a foothold on the continent as a security broker in order to “confront the collective West” and project the image of a “defender of Africa” — an objective which the West has seemingly failed to achieve.
It’s far from the first time Russia has dabbled in African affairs: In the 1950s, the Kremlin backed liberation movements across the continent. At the time, Russia’s main export was light-to-medium range arms and ammunition.
And Moscow’s influence was welcomed by many. “Without the firm stand of the Soviet Union during the Cold War and the heyday of the anti-colonial struggle, many of our countries would never have seen the light of independence,” Obadiah Mailafia, a former deputy governor of Nigeria’s central bank, told DW.
But this support waned following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Over the past two decades, current President Vladimir Putin has tried to revive these independence-era connections and act as a foil of-sorts to the West’s neocolonial policies.
“Now that Russia is in a fairly strong position, Africa can benefit from mutually beneficial investments and trade cooperation,” said Mailafia.
Russia has officially remained silent on its policies for Africa. But, as Filatova sees it, Moscow is relying on private military companies like the Wagner Group to act as “door-openers.”
“Officially [the military groups] are not incorporated in the strategy at all, but what we see is that they always come first when there’s some instability and then they help secure those in power who have built relationships with Russia,” she told DW.
The Wagner Group is also active in the Central African Republic (CAR), where it has been accused of serious human rights violations. But the paramilitary fighters most notably drew attention after they starred in a locally-produced film, acting as defenders of the nation against CAR rebels. Thousands of people flocked to the main stadium in the capital Bangui to catch a glimpse of the premiere in May 2021.
Before this episode, the Wagner fighters had kept a comparatively low profile in the theatres of war on the African continent.
Back in business
For the most part, Moscow has been able to fly under the radar for the past two decades, quietly cutting nuclear power and arms exporting deals.
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Russia is currently the biggest exporter of weapons to the African continent. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s (SIPRI) annual 2020 report, Africa accounted for 18% of all Russian arms exports between 2016 and 2020.
The first arms deal to be made public took place in April 2020, when Russia’s only state-owned arms seller, Rosoboronexport, announced the sale of a Russian-made assault boat to an unnamed sub-Saharan African country.
A few months earlier in 2019, the first ever Russia-Africa Economic Forum was held in Sochi, with many big names in African politics in attendance. Russia used the occasion to elegantly tout its track record in Africa. By then it had made a name for itself as an ally of multiple nations as they battled against relentless insurgencies: In 2018, Mali, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mauritania all appealed to Moscow for help combating the so-called Islamic State and al Qaeda.
Beyond military services, Moscow has also carved a niche selling nuclear technology to developing nations. Zambia, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Egypt and Nigeria are among those in the market for Russian-built nuclear power plants.
While the details of its various policies and deals remain in the dark, at least one thing is clear: Russia is back in Africa — and it means business.
Terrorists attacked Nigeria’s Presidential Guards Brigade Monday, wounding three military personnel.
The attack occurred along Bwari-Kubwa road in the capital Abuja while the guards were on routine patrol.
The brigade provides security for the presidential villa, the nation’s capital and neighboring communities.
Three soldiers were wounded during the attack and have been evacuated for medical attention.
The spokesman for the brigade, Captain Godfrey Anebi Abakpa, confirmed the attack.
He noted that the ambush occurred within the general area of Bwari.
He said the wounded soldiers were immediately evacuated to the military hospital for immediate medical attention.
“Yes, they were attacked, and the attack was successfully repelled. We had a few wounded in action who have been taken to the hospital and are receiving treatment.
“At the moment, our troops are still combing the general area to get rid of the criminals that have been threatening the general area. It is advised that residents go about their lawful business and keep cooperating with us by giving us timely information to enable us to win the fight against the criminals,” he added.
The attack came barely 24 hours after terrorists in a video on Sunday named President Muhammadu Buhari, Malam Nasir Rufai and other government officials as the next targets.
Get right tools, more personnel, experts urge commission Come next Sunday July 31, the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise being undertaken by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will be rounded off. As the exercise draws to a close, more eligible voters are still trooping to registration centres to beat the deadline.
The electoral commission recently declared that it has registered more than 10million new voters. At no time in the past 23 years of Nigeria’s fourth republic democracy has the enthusiasm to participate in the electoral process been as high as the current dispensation.
A lot of factors could explain the surge of new voters, including innovations devised by the electoral commission and the socio-political consciousness among the otherwise lethargic youth population.
Investigation by The Guardian revealed that many Nigerians of voting age are yet to get registered, even as INEC has pegged the deadline for its ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) for July 31, 2022.
Some civil society organisations, particularly Like Mind4 A New Nigeria, are not impressed by the electoral commission’s attempt to stop registration of voters seven months to the 2023 General Elections.
In a statement by its national coordinator, Benedict Aguele, LikeMinds condemned the July 31 deadline, stressing that it amounts to “an attempt to disenfranchise millions of Nigerians.”
While insisting that it would be premature to end the CVR on July 31, the group said the exercise is being terminated too early before the country can reap its full benefits, just as they demanded that INEC reverse its decision and continue with it until November 2022, which will be 90 days before the General Election.
But, knowing the predilection of Nigerians to wait for the last minute, some commentators noted that the CVR should not be endless, especially against the backdrop that INEC had already indicated that those already captured would have to wait till about two months to the election to collect their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).
However, experts and members of the human rights community have called on INEC to deploy the right equipment and engage more ad hoc staff to ensure, not only the smooth registration of voters, but also that no Nigerian is disenfranchised in the 2023 election.
In the past, the Commission had decried the low number of voter registration since the Continuous Voter Registration exercise commenced in the last election, but with the sudden surge in voter registration, it seems that the electoral umpire was caught off-guard.
It is possible that INEC did not see it coming, not minding that it had planned for the CVR as part of its activities towards a successful 2023 general election. Nonetheless. The Commission did not envisage the surge in the number of mostly young people eager to participate in the exercise this time around.
It is based on this surge that Nigerians have urged INEC to deploy additional registration machines and workers to tackle the teeming numbers of prospective voters at some of the congested Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) centres in the country.
The convener of Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA), Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, told The Guardian that “The Independent National Electoral Commission has done the right thing by extending the periods of registration of voters.”
[FILE PHOTO] Emmanuel Onwubiko, National Co-ordinator OF HURIWA
“However,” he noted, “it is shocking that despite the huge amounts of money released to INEC that it still lacks the basic facilities to capture and register voters; and it is sad that now that prospective voters are ready to be registered and are energised to present themselves to obtain their permanent voter cards that INEC has so far not displayed a fair amount of positive and constructive response to the massive interests being shown by Nigerians who now want to get registered.
“It is also not a good idea for INEC to have started registration of voters within just a year before such a major election calendar instead of letting prospective voters who wish to be registered to do that at anytime of their chosen.
“INEC should ensure that the right kind of facilities and personnel are made available and then increase the numbers of their trained staff to carry out these activities including the engagement of ad hoc NYSC members to be involved in this and of course those who are deployed for these jobs must be patriotic and law abiding and must never be used for ethnic or religious agenda of either under registering or over registering prospective Nigerians. Those who are causing undue delay and sabotaging the ongoing registration of voters should be arrested, prosecuted, published, named and shamed.
“INEC should get the right kind of equipment to do this all important registration of voters because it is clear that INEC is now unable to match the influx of prospective voters that are now turning out to be registered and the complaints are also coming up of some malpractices of not actually carrying out the exercise in some places or that some persons from some ethnicities and religions are not being permitted to present themselves for registration.
“The law enforcement agents should be drafted and they must ensure that nobody in Nigeria is denied registration based on the person’s ethnic or religious affiliations. INEC should also look at strategies and ways to keep the registration open till when the elections are to take place, so nobody is disenfranchised.”
On his part, Public affairs analyst, Mr. Frank Oshanugo urged INEC to engage more efficient hands and set up more registration centres.
Oshanugo stated: “My take on the snail speed of the voter registration exercise is that INEC should engage more efficient hands and set up more registration centres in areas of large population. INEC staff should also be regular and punctual in attendance while security personnel should be deployed to engage in crowd control in densely populated registration centres.”
Also, a human rights crusader, Comrade Akaraka Chinweike Ezeonara, contended that the solution for the snail-pace registration is for INEC to hire some more ad-hoc manpower beyond their present day workers to quickly address the challenge of numerous unregistered eligible voters.
“INEC should not disenfranchise any Nigerian of voting age his/her civic engagement or responsibilities. My counsel to INEC regarding this is for it to vigorously defend its integrity as umpire. It should be proactive and objective with the issue of speedy registration/conduct of elections. They should ensure a hitch free, rancor free process so that they can be seen as real independent body established to conduct elections without bias.”
When The Guardian visited the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) INEC registration centre at Diplomats park, Area One, it was observed that prospective registrants were seated orderly for registration with all 10 machines deployed for the exercise in good use.
Narrating his experience, one Keziah Joseph, said: “I did not spend much time in processing of registration. I came on Friday and registered my name, when I came back on Monday my name was called and I went for the registration; it was very easy for me”.
Festus Okoye
Another candidate at the centre, Hassan Mohammed, commended INEC for extending registration date, saying it enabled him to register to vote for his preferred candidates come 2023.
From Mohammed’s remarks, it is obvious that the socio-economic situation in the country as well as improvements in the electoral system have motivated Nigerians to participate en masse in the electoral process.
An official of INEC at the centre, who pleaded anonymity, praised citizens for conducting themselves properly in the ongoing registration, adding that 10 registration Machines were made available to tackle the number. He disclosed that six machines were deployed specifically for new registrants, while four others were set aside for those that registered online and transfers.
It could be recalled that INEC extended the CVR exercise by two weeks following a Federal High Court order.
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and 185 other concerned Nigerians had approached the court praying for an order mandating INEC to extend the CVR beyond its earlier fixed June 30 deadline.
In a statement, the Commission’s spokesman, Festus Okoye, last Friday, disclosed that having run the exercise for almost two weeks after the initial date was fixed, the CVR will officially close on July 31.
Okoye stated: “The Court has affirmed that INEC is at liberty to appoint a date of its choice to suspend the CVR, provided it is not later than 90 days before the date fixed for the General Election as provided in Sec. 9(6) of the Electoral Act 2022.
“In compliance with the interim injunction of the Court pending the determination of the substantive suit, and to enable more Nigerians to register, the Commission continued with the CVR beyond 30th June 2022. For this reason, the CVR has already been extended beyond 30th June 2022 for a period of 15 days.”
He said the extension was expected to last till Sunday July 31, 2022, noting that that would bring the total duration of the extension to 31 days. Okoye explained that to accommodate many of the applicants, INEC made some adjustments in the CVR operation.
His words: “The exercise has been extended to include Saturdays and Sundays as against only weekdays spanning eight hours daily from 9.00am – 5.00pm instead of the former duration of six hours (9.00am – 3.00pm) daily.”
“We appreciate that the timeframe may be tight for many prospective registrants, but there is a lot that the Commission is required to do under the electoral legal framework in relation to voter registration and compilation of the register that will require time to accomplish.”
It is hoped that when the exercise comes to an end in this instance, more voters would have been added to the register.
