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Published 22nd October 2010

Vol 51 No 21

Nigeria

The gangs of Port Harcourt

Image courtesy of Panos Pictures
Image courtesy of Panos Pictures

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After the Abuja bombings, the political process turns back to the Niger Delta, where militants are frustrated by the aftermath of the amnesty deal

Bomb blasts in Abuja on 1 October killed twelve people. They could foretell more trouble to come and it is still not clear who was responsible, despite an e-mail purporting to come from a loose affiliation of militant groups in the Niger Delta (AC Vol 51 No 20). President Goodluck Jonathan, who is from the Delta, faces calls for his impeachment from northern rivals for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential nomination. National and state elections, due in January, are expected to be delayed until April, giving candidates more time to fill their war chests.

Ready for change in the Niger Delta

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If the amnesty fails and the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta resumes its armed struggle, figures from the past and future of Delta militancy will take charge. Some...

Everyone wants a vote

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President Mugabe defies the agreement with the MDC while Morgan Tsvangirai ponders his declining power

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is staying away from cabinet meetings in protest at President Robert Mugabe’s move to extend the tenure of the ten provincial governors without con...

BLUE LINES
THE INSIDE VIEW

It has been a bad week for Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo: the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation has politely turned down his offer of a US$300,000 prize for research scientists whose work improves the quality of life. Wide-ranging protests that Obiang had improved the quality of his own life by stealing his country’s oil money and gaoling opponents prompted UNESCO’s refusal, it seems. However, at least one former inmate of Obiang’s ga...
It has been a bad week for Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo: the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation has politely turned down his offer of a US$300,000 prize for research scientists whose work improves the quality of life. Wide-ranging protests that Obiang had improved the quality of his own life by stealing his country’s oil money and gaoling opponents prompted UNESCO’s refusal, it seems. However, at least one former inmate of Obiang’s gaols is standing by his captor. Enter Simon Mann: released from detention in Equatorial Guinea last November, just 18 months into a 34-year sentence for plotting a coup, he reported that he had been treated more like a guest than a prisoner in Malabo’s notorious Black Beach gaol. Mann’s flame-haired wife Amanda declared that President Obiang was a ‘lovely, lovely man.’ But how far has the love between these former foes developed? Mann was seen back in Malabo a few weeks ago. According to one official, he has been acting as a special advisor to Obiang. A business source in Johannesburg said he was helping to resolve a longstanding contractual dispute with South African creditors.So, how to explain this tropical Stockholm syndrome? Could it be that Black Beach has rehabilitated a repeat offender? That is harder to judge since Obiang will take no credit for Mann’s change of heart and his officials are unwilling to make further comments about any formal appointments.
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Battle of the plans

Rival ideas and personalities obstruct a promised plan for growth and the President will not pick a winner between the ideological factions

Jacob Zuma notched up a success when the Hawks, the special crime investigation unit, abandoned its inquiries into the arms deal in which it had been alleged that he was corruptly ...

Kikwete marshals his troops

The political parties expected to do best in the 31 October general elections are the governing Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM), with Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema) probably...

Northern opposition faces increasing duress

Khartoum plays the national unity card to crack down on its many opponents in the North as a new movement is launched

The prospect of independence for Southern Sudan after the referenda due in January is sharpening the cleavages in the Northern opposition. Many Northern oppositionists say their m...

Counting on growth

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, now in his fourth consecutive term, uses his claimed economic policy prowess to counter critics

Just before May’s general elections, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi attributed his expected victory to seven years of double-digit growth. Yet the figures are controversial and pose q...

Murder again

The death in detention of another critic illustrates the government’s arbitrary power as its reputation declines at home and abroad

The official story is that Armand Tungulu Mudiandambu killed himself on 1 October with a cloth he was using as a pillow. He had been detained by President Joseph Kabila’s National ...

Challenging the CCM

The rise of the opposition Chadema party will not threaten the CCM’s majority but it will make the election battles fiercer

The majority of the governing party, Chama cha Mapinduzi, is unlikely to be overturned at the 31 October election. There are nevertheless widespread expectations of good results fo...

El Baradei’s boycott falters

As elections approach, the Muslim Brotherhood may be the only challenger to President Hosni Mubarak

The campaign by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohamed el Baradei for a mass boycott of the general elections on 29 November is in disarray after several opposition groups, including ...

Pointers

Coup-makers fall out

Having seized power in a relatively popular coup, vowed to hold elections and tackled a food crisis, Niger’s military junta, headed by Major Salou Djibo, looked to be sitting prett...

A rope for Ruto

The suspension of Higher Education Minister William Ruto, 43, from cabinet on 19 October marks the second phase of the Kalenjin leader’s political isolation. Although State House s...

Oil joy, debt worry

Former Finance Minister and chief statistician Joe Abbey has added his voice to those warning the Accra government to take action over spiralling debt liabilities ahead of the coun...

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