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Published 28th August 2009

Vol 50 No 17

Nigeria

After the boom, a purge

Image courtesy of Panos Pictures
Image courtesy of Panos Pictures

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A Central Bank audit has uncovered evidence of fraud and mismanagement which implicates some leading politicians and their business partners

Like a family of latter day Medicis, Nigeria's top bankers have been prospering thanks to their acute political instincts and abilities to exploit their dominance in a tightly controlled market; now it seems that some, again like the Medicis, have overreached themselves. The unruly political system they tried to influence has at last turned on them. The consequences for Nigeria's economy and politics will extend far beyond the careers of the half-dozen bankers helping police with their inquiries and the multi-billion dollar institutions they helped create.

A new economic team emerges

Image courtesy of Panos Pictures

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Facing a downturn and needing an oil strategy, President Mills picks his own experts

For his Council of Economic Advisors, President John Atta Mills has picked a team with wide experience of Western financial and academic institutions. They are academics, more used...

BLUE LINES
THE INSIDE VIEW

Presidential holidays in Africa now involve political calculation beyond the customary trip to the village to fire up the political base. Older leaders – such as Senegal’s Abdoulaye Wade – prefer to leave the continent; Wade holidayed in Switzerland, famed for its discreet physicians and private bankers. Fellow octogenarian Robert Mugabe took a break in Dubai, but his loyal retainers had to quickly dismiss reports of a presidential health crisis there as the work of ‘evil minds’. Cameroon’s Paul...
Presidential holidays in Africa now involve political calculation beyond the customary trip to the village to fire up the political base. Older leaders – such as Senegal’s Abdoulaye Wade – prefer to leave the continent; Wade holidayed in Switzerland, famed for its discreet physicians and private bankers. Fellow octogenarian Robert Mugabe took a break in Dubai, but his loyal retainers had to quickly dismiss reports of a presidential health crisis there as the work of ‘evil minds’. Cameroon’s Paul Biya, a mere septuagenarian, met French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris before a side trip to Bordeaux to see former Premier Alain Juppé, now trying to rebuild his career after a corruption conviction. Congo-Brazzaville’s Dénis Sassou Nguesso enjoyed a Spanish post-election sojourn. Nigeria’s Umaru Yar’Adua flew to Saudi Arabia for a check on his troubled kidneys. His Ghanaian neighbour John Atta Mills regularly flies to Lagos to see his inspirational Pastor TB Joseph at the Synagogue Church of All Nations at Okota. From neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire Laurent Gbagbo had a longish stay in Mohammed VI’s Moroccan kingdom where he may have come across his northern neighbour, Burkina Faso’s Blaise Compaoré, also seen holidaying in Morocco. But those leaders planning to fight contentious elections and unsure of the military’s support – such as Guinea’s Captain Moussa Dadis Camara and Niger’s Mamadou Tandja – extol the patriotic virtues of a domestic break.
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Greed, gold and grit

Mugabe and his party find new ways to thwart the MDC as both sides prepare for a month of by-elections

More arrests, more vexatious court verdicts against the Movement for Democratic Change, thanks to President Robert Mugabe's loyalists in the judiciary. The Zimbabwe African Nationa...

A return ticket for security chief Salah Gosh

The 13 August move of Lieutenant General Salah Abdullah Mohamed 'Gosh' from Director of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) to Presidential Security Advisor comes at a critical time for the National Congress Party (aka National Islamic Front) regime. President Omer el Beshir is fending off arrest for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court and the party's leading tacticians are determined to secure total victory in national elections and a referendum on the future of the South, both due in the next two years.

In the eyes of Western intelligence agencies, Salah Gosh was an important figure to cultivate. He was, according to British, French and United States officials, a source of valuabl...

Suing the messenger

Jacob Zuma rarely hides his distaste of journalists - particularly those who ridiculed his presidential ambitions and his political commitment - and his supporters rail against med...

The commissioners of the TJRC

On 3 August, the government swore in nine commissioners for its Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission, including six Kenyans and three foreigners.

An American road to Khartoum

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Who (if anybody) will try the killers?

A fair trial for murderous politicians seems as unlikely as ever, despite the latest proposal

The effort continues to keep the post-election violence of 2007, and those responsible, out of the International Criminal Court. One favoured way of doing that is to set up a Kenya...

Shiri salutes, sort of

The military parades and razzamatazz over the Heroes and Defence Forces weekend in August dovetailed with Vice-President Joseph Msika's state funeral and saw the junta on its best ...

So far, so Zuma

Economic downturns, rising joblessness and a wave of strikes and protests fail to dampen the rising popularity of the new President

The standard criticism of Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma was that he was a populist, seeking the presidency mainly to protect himself against prosecution for corrupt enrichment in South...

Mixed messages and sanction threats

Western governments responded swiftly when last month Kenya failed to set up a special tribunal to try those responsible for the 2007 post-election violence and suggested it might ...

Pointers

Haunting Museveni

The return of former United Nations Under-Secretary General Olara Otunnu to Uganda this month after 23 years in exile could galvanise the country's fractious opposition parties aga...

Sweet freedom

Congolese former warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo could soon be freed by the International Criminal Court. The ICC will meet on 7-14 September with governments that might host him: ...

Let my people go

Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) will ask the United States to release a Somali terrorist suspect from Guantánamo Bay. Ismail Mahmoud Mohamed was a friend of ...

Trafigura in court

Swiss-based oil trader Trafigura will have an eventful September before it goes on trial on 6 October in Britain's largest class action lawsuit. At the centre of this is the ship P...

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