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Published 19th February 1999

Vol 40 No 4


Nigeria

The General's election

Twenty years after he left power, Gen. Obasanjo looks set to return, this time with an electoral mandate

General Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria’s first military officer to hand power to an elected government, looks set - 20 years later - to become the first officer to win a presidential election. Having won the nomination for the People’s Democratic Party, which received the most votes in the local government and state elections, he has been further helped by disarray in the two rival parties, the Alliance for Democracy and the All People’s Party, which have been trying to agree on a common anti-Obasanjo presidential ticket.


It's the economy

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Amid the campaign razzamatazz, politicians are ignoring the looming economic disaster

In the party conventions and in the lobbies of Abuja’s smart hotels, the talk is of who should be the new civilian president - and of how to...


Pride and prejudice

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Both sides seem to be keen to fight to the death in one of the least explicable wars

On 6 February, Ethiopia launched the first of several attacks to test how deeply Eritrean forces were dug in along the disputed border areas which they had taken...


My enemy's enemy

Each side hopes to support the other’s dissidents - even when this means helping Khartoum’s National Islamic Front government, its Islamist protégés and its own enemies’ enemies. Eritrea...


Taylorland under siege

The victorious warlord hasn't made the transition to civilian politics

The voters’ mood, when they elected President Charles Taylor in July 1997, was summed up in a slogan: ‘He killed my ma, he killed my pa but I...


Spinning south

Conflicting reports have emerged about British former Trade and Industry Minister Peter Mandelson’s offer to help the African National Congress 1999 election campaign. The project doesn’t look particularly...



Pointers

Paris and the prince

Nomination by the ruling Rassemblement Populaire pour le Progrès on 4 February has formally set Ismael Omar Guelleh on the path to succeed Hassan Gouled Aptidon, who steps...


King's move

The political relaunch of a former Prime Minister, Obed Dlamini, could revive the antimonarchist opposition. This has been marking time since the 70,000-strong Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions...


Jet set and match

The latest leader to succumb to the need for personal air transport is President Mathieu Kérékou, who has secured three billion CFA francs to buy a second-hand personal...