Vol 3 (AAC) No 5 |
- GHANA
- SINGAPORE
former United Nations Secretary General and Professor, National University of Singapore
Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan is taking African advocacy directly to Asia, as he takes up his appointment as Li Ka-shing Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School o...
The reappearance of the President has worsened the political paralysis – and the splits in the PDP government
On 3 March, the state governors decided to block a vote that could have set in motion President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s enforced resignation on medical grounds. This has won his supp...
Wits in Abuja have taken to referring to First Lady Turai Yar’Adua as ‘Her Majesty’ and her coterie of apparatchiks as the ‘Secret Service’. She organised the clandestine return to...
The President’s grand development plans contrast sharply with partisan manoeuvres in Parliament and beyond
In a year’s time Ghana should be producing 150,000 barrels of oil a day and its economy should be growing at well over 10% a year (AC Vol 50 No 25 & Vol 51 No 1). Its party pol...
A bizarre series of fires at government buildings has led to a whispering campaign reminiscent of the spate of brutal murders before the 2000 election campaign, which Flight Lieut...
Vol 51 No 5 |
- CÔTE D'IVOIRE
No government, no electoral commission, no firm date for elections – the President has got what he wanted
Once again, President Laurent Gbagbo has driven democratisation off the rails. On 12 February, he used Article 48 of the Constitution, which allows him to take exceptional measures...
The officers who threw out President Tandja must quickly prove they’re serious about constitutional rule
So far, Niamey’s new military leaders have played by the new-model putschists’ book. They ousted controversial President Mamadou Tandja on 18 February, then promised a rapid restor...
Salou Djibou, commander of the main armoured unit in Niamey, led the assault on the Presidency which culminated in the capture of President Mamadou Tandja and his ministers on 18 F...
The putschists use former Pentagon officials to polish their image
Blamed for the massacre of over 100 civilians last September, the junta in Conakry is trying to improve its image via a United States-based public relations company run by two form...
From the surrealism of ‘missing president’ Umaru Yar’Adua, linked to the outside world via a ghostly voiced interview with the BBC, and with attendant disputes of legitimacy and sovereignty, Nigeria has solved the crisis in its own way, by effecting what some call a ‘democratic coup’. One by one, the elected institutions of state (the powerful governors’ forum and both houses of the National Assembly) and several non-elected regional councils met and agreed to support the handover to Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan.
Whatever the constitutional doubts that remain, the 9 February resolution by the National Assembly, citing the ‘doctrine of necessity’, to recognise Vice-President Goodluck Jonatha...