Vol 57 No 25 | NIGERIA Things fall apart in Rivers vote 16th December 2016 Both parties are to blame for the rigging and killings that could weaken President Buhari's national standing No one emerges with credit from the violent fiasco of the elections that were re-run in Rivers State on 10 December. Nationally, the polls were a test of...
Vol 57 No 25 | GAMBIA Gambia at the cliff-edge 16th December 2016 Jammeh made history twice: first by conceding defeat and then by changing his mind. Presidents are trying to talk him down It would take a mere seven days for President Yahya Jammeh to pronounce the unthinkable and request the impossible. On 2 December, he appeared on television to tell...
Vol 57 No 24 | GHANA Jobs and corruption dominate election agenda 2nd December 2016 A late surge in campaigning has improved the opposition's chances of victory as the economy stutters A succession of bad elections this year in Africa – in Uganda, Gabon and Zambia – make the 7 December presidential and parliamentary elections in Ghana an important... READ FOR FREE
Vol 57 No 24 | NIGERIA Grandees test the water 2nd December 2016 The Ondo gubernatorial election was a proving ground for political rivals within the APC camp The victory of Rotimi Akeredolu, candidate of the governing All Progressives' Congress (APC) in the Ondo State governorship election on 26 November, has strong national resonance in the...
Vol 57 No 24 | NIGERIA Army's 'Biafra' overreaction 2nd December 2016 Five years ago, the movement for a separate Igbo nation, Biafra, seemed dead in the water of the Niger Delta. Fighting between leaders of the secessionist Movement for...
Vol 57 No 24 | MALI Sanogo finally on trial 2nd December 2016 The general who seized power in 2012 as Mali's army crumbled before advancing jihadists and Tuareg independence fighters, Amadou Haya Sanogo, goes on trial this week for the...
Vol 57 No 23 | NIGERIA Political schisms hit recovery and reform 18th November 2016 Economic stagnation and rising prices are eroding the regional alliances at the heart of Buhari’s government Arguments over the response to the country's worst recession for 25 years are threatening to split the governing All Progressives' Congress. The APC is a fragile alliance between... READ FOR FREE
Vol 57 No 23 | CABO VERDE Comradely disunity 18th November 2016 The party that once dominated Cape Verdean politics has had a disastrous year and faces a divisive power struggle In a speech delivered in Cuba in 1966, the father of Guinea-Bissau's and Cape Verde's independence movement, Amilcar Cabral, offered delegates an African saying: 'When your house is...
Vol 57 No 22 | GUINEA Rio quits Simandou 4th November 2016 Rio Tinto has finally called time on Simandou, one of the world's largest untapped iron ore deposits, by signing a non-binding agreement with its partner, the Aluminium Corporation...
Vol 57 No 21 | NIGERIA Buhari's kitchen cabinet 21st October 2016 President Muhammadu Buhari stirred a predictable hornets' nest when he dismissed, in a most patriarchal manner, criticisms his wife had made of his presidency. On 14 October Aisha...