Vol 53 No 2 | GHANA The Accra boosters 20th January 2012 Foreign praise-singers try to justify aid but skate over the difficult choices facing President Mills before this year’s elections Western commentators and politicians are lining up to pour accolades on Ghana. Some are self-interested: they aim to show that their policies and aid budgets are working. Aid...
Vol 53 No 2 | SÃO TOMÉ & PRÍNCIPE Dragons in Eden 20th January 2012 Príncipe wants a tourist bonanza and fears that São Tomé may try to obstruct it The authorities are still tracking down protestors on Príncipe island who, at dawn on 8 December, burned the national flag in front of the Regional Government building in...
Vol 5 (AAC) No 3 | GAMBIA Fatou Bensouda 18th January 2012 Chief Prosecutor, ICC After heavy lobbying by the African Union, the International Criminal Court chose Fatou Bensouda of Gambia as the new ICC Chief Prosecutor. Her nine-year term begins in June,...
Vol 53 No 1 | NIGERIA A year of living dangerously 6th January 2012 Northern and Delta insurgents, oil companies and angry citizens threaten President Jonathan’s reform plans For a year that was meant to presage Nigeria’s great economic leap forward, 2012 could hardly have opened more inauspiciously. First came President Goodluck Jonathan’s declaration of a...
Vol 53 No 1 | NIGERIA How the economy defies politics 6th January 2012 Insulated from political chaos, this year’s budget assumes a gross domestic product growth rate of 7.2%. The International Monetary Fund reckons it may be just under 7%. Early...
Vol 53 No 1 | GHANA Great expectations 6th January 2012 The 2012 elections may delay, but will not stop, the resource-driven progress towards prosperity Once again, politics could shape Ghana’s economic future. The national elections due on 7 December 2012 will determine which party is to manage the transition to a medium-income...
Vol 53 No 1 | GHANA Getting the vote right 6th January 2012 The straight-talking director of Ghana’s Electoral Commission, Kwadwo Afari-Djan, and his team have organised five multiparty elections since 1992, each one more credible than the last. The 2012...
Vol 53 No 1 | CÔTE D'IVOIRE Smart money, prickly politics 6th January 2012 Tension will persist over attempts to integrate government armed forces and guerrillas, and to demobilise large numbers of soldiers Ex-President Laurent Gbagbo’s trial at the Hague may raise ethnic and political tension but if President Alassane Dramane Ouattara can keep the lid on this, the promising economic...
Vol 53 No 1 | SIERRA LEONE Votes, mines and money 6th January 2012 Koroma’s anti-corruption campaign has wavered with special deals for favoured companies. Whoever wins the elections will be short of cash The presidential and legislative elections due in November 2012 will be close-run, pitting President Ernest Bai Koroma and the All Peoples’ Congress (APC) against Julius Maada Bio and...
Vol 52 No 25 | NIGERIA Inside the security hierarchy 16th December 2011 Who's who in the line-up against Boko Haram?