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Published 27th April 2007

Vol 48 No 9

Nigeria

The dealmaking begins

The victorious People's Democratic Party wants to co-opt enough dissenters to put the rigged election furore behind it

Time is pressing President-elect Umaru Yar'Adua ahead of the planned inauguration on 29 May. By then, he will have to put together his government transition team from the rival factions of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), as well as bringing in the promised new and politically independent talent. He will also have to assuage his bitter opponents in the opposition parties who are furious at the high level of fraud in the 14 and 21 April elections. Just as important will be the messages sent to Western governments and investors about the disputed elections and risks to stability. Other leading investors from China and India seem unfazed by the election rumpus. South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki, who knew the Yar'Adua family when he lived in Nigeria in the 1970s, sent a formal note of congratulation to Umaru Yar'Adua on 25 April. Although tetchy in recent times, Nigeria's diplomatic and economic relations with South Africa are likely to improve as the new order in Abuja beds down. Many of the PDP's leading business backers have substantial commercial interests in Abuja.

The men from the south

Image courtesy of Panos Pictures

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Bayelsa State's head of security, Bola Igali, barked orders into his mobile phone. 'We have a security situation developing,' he told Africa Confidential, breaking off the interview. Shooting...

BLUE LINES
THE INSIDE VIEW

Africa needs to create 2.4 million more new jobs a year to meet even some of the Millennium Development Goals, said the International Labour Organisation in Addis Ababa this week. Despite Africa's upturn in economic growth, the 8.6 mn. jobs created each year fall short of requirements, says ILO Africa Director Regina Amadi-Njoku.

According to other estimates, Africa's biggest economies such as Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa each need to create more than 2 mn. jobs to make any...
Africa needs to create 2.4 million more new jobs a year to meet even some of the Millennium Development Goals, said the International Labour Organisation in Addis Ababa this week. Despite Africa's upturn in economic growth, the 8.6 mn. jobs created each year fall short of requirements, says ILO Africa Director Regina Amadi-Njoku.

According to other estimates, Africa's biggest economies such as Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa each need to create more than 2 mn. jobs to make any impact on their poverty rates.

A key cause of Africa's 'growth without jobs' syndrome is the wave of capital intensive investment, mainly in the extractive sector in Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa. The best hope for changing this would be a rapid boost to investment in the clothing and textile production that employs many more people than mining and oil companies and is better linked to the wider economy in sectors such as cotton cultivation.

China and India have been slow to move their African investment beyond the extractive sector. In coming oil and mining licence negotiations with Asian investors, more African governments are urged to put the continent's jobs crisis on the agenda.

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