Vol 43 No 18 | LIBERIA Paranoid or what? 13th September 2002 International pressure upsets President Taylor but brings peace no nearer With so many peace initiatives competing for the international community's scarce resources, Liberia's peace process needs to keep up its momentum, and President Charles Taylor's critics need to...
Vol 43 No 18 | NIGERIA Running on empty 13th September 2002 Is the money running out, or might an oil war happen in the nick of time? Iraq could yet rescue President Olusegun Obasanjo. The prospect of an United States invasion there is driving up the world price of oil, and oil contributes over 75...
Vol 43 No 18 | NIGERIA Impeachment 13th September 2002 Two weeks ago President Olusegun Obasanjo considered threats by the House of Representatives to impeach him if he didn't resign as 'a joke carried too far' by a...
Vol 43 No 18 | NIGERIA Strategic supplies 13th September 2002 West Africa in general - and Nigeria in particular - is suddenly gaining from a re-evaluation of global strategy in the United States following the 11 September 2001...
Vol 43 No 17 | GHANA Boom boom 30th August 2002 It was a 'boom' speech, so called because it suggests the guns will boom again and return him to power. Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings has form: he...
Vol 43 No 16 | BURKINA FASO Blaise wins again 9th August 2002 Both the President and the opposition seem to be aiming for respectability President Blaise Compaoré has a remarkable ability to cause tremendous trouble for his neighbours and still come up smelling of roses. Despite all his years of support for...
Vol 43 No 16 | NIGERIA Home made, world class 9th August 2002 Igbo entrepreneurs make lots of money and might make more but for the Feds The Igbo people of south-east Nigeria took a terrible battering in the civil war of the 1960s, and the region's businesses were almost all destroyed. The recent achievements...
Vol 43 No 16 | NIGERIA Eastward Ho! 9th August 2002 Igbo politics are boiling with preparations for next year's general elections. Since the dream of an independent Biafra was crushed in 1970, many Igbo have felt marginalised, and...
Vol 43 No 16 | GHANA Too good 9th August 2002 The government has raised eyebrows by contracting a $1 billion, low-interest loan from a group calling itself the International Finance Consortium (not to be confused with the International...
Vol 43 No 15 | GHANA I'm Sam, fly me 26th July 2002 Many African airlines have boomed since Air Afrique collapsed, but not Ghana Airways Sam Jonah resigned as Chairman of Ghana Airways on 2 July after the cabinet failed to approve his preferred rescue plan for the airline and the removal of...