Category: Politics

{Former Education Minister, Oby Ezekwesili, has blamed President Muhammadu Buhari for the current economy recession.}

Ezekwesili, who stated in a whatsApp message last night, said: “I still find it funny that most people don’t know why Nigeria economy went into recession. They love the incompetent lies of Lai Mohammed about the past government ruining everything.

‘’It’s also myopic to think that if Jonathan were to still be in power, we would be worse off. ”

The truth about Nigeria’s recession is this; it was caused by the president’s unguided rhetoric and uncultured body language.

‘’Firstly, there is nothing we are buying today that we weren’t buying five years ago, therefore it’s not our purchase that put pressure on Naira but withdrawal of funds by foreign investors.

‘’After the election, the President created instability with his statements about how everyone is corrupt and how everyone is going to jail.

‘’The instability made foreign investors to liquidate their investment and change their money to dollars. In the process of trying to flee, they were willing to buy dollars at any price, which lead to high exchange dollar rate.

‘’Even though some of them were not ready to run away, but want their money in dollars to save their investments from devaluation, the president gave a bad signal by banning deposit of foreign currency into domiciliary accounts.”

‘That was enough for free market believers to see the draconian handwriting on the wall, that was the beginning of dollar rush.

‘’To make matters worse, the President came up with another outrageous policy of rationing dollar to certain sectors and blocking many sectors out. That was the nail in the coffin which facilitated the emergence of free fall.

{The opposition in the Seychelles has won parliamentary elections for the first time in four decades.}

Official results give the opposition coalition, the LDS, fifteen seats in the new National Assembly, five more than the People’s Party of President James Michel.

Before the result was announced, Mr Michel promised to work with the new assembly.
The opposition had been expected to win the election.

“My hope is that this spirit of consultation continues in the new National Assembly, where we all work together for the common good of our nation,” he said.

The LDS (Seychelles Democratic Alliance) consists of the main opposition party, the liberal SNP (Seychelles National Party) and four smaller opposition parties.

The SNP had refused to take part in the 2011 elections claiming they would not be fair.

Mr Michel’s People’s Party has been in power ever since the return of multi-party democracy in 1991, and before that during almost 16 years of one-party rule.

{The US ambassador to the United Nations and the State Department on Saturday strongly criticised South Sudan’s government for its reported harassment and intimidation of independent activists.}

In separate but simultaneously issued statements, UN Ambassador Samantha Power and State Department spokesman John Kirby accused the government of seeking to “silence” the civil society.

Ambassador Power, who recently met with civil society representatives during a UN Security Council visit to South Sudan, said on Saturday she was “outraged to learn that the South Sudanese government harassed and threatened civil society actors following the council’s visit.”

“The United States condemns any attempts by governments to silence [the] freedom of expression, and we condemn all restrictions on civil society actors who organise peacefully and provide constructive criticism,” Ambassador Power added.

“The voices of civil society must be elevated, not silenced,” she declared.

The State Department struck an almost identical note.

“The United States is deeply concerned by the South Sudanese government’s increasing efforts to silence South Sudanese civil society actors,” said the statement by spokesman Kirby.

{{Free,vibrant civil society }}

He cited “violence, intimidation and threats to shut down civil society groups and to seize their assets.”

“A free and vibrant civil society is the cornerstone of any democracy,” Mr Kirby said.

“As South Sudan seeks an end to the conflict, organisations must have the freedom to operate unhindered by government intimidation, and the South Sudanese people need to be free to voice their opinions in order for there to be a lasting return to peace.”

The unusual double salvo of criticism dramatizes a new willingness on the part of the Obama administration to focus its rebukes directly on the government headed by President Salva Kiir.

The US had previously offered calibrated responses to negative developments in South Sudan, generally blaming both the government and armed opposition in equal measure.

Last week, however, in written comments to a US congressional panel, Special Envoy Donald Booth aimed a barrage of criticisms specifically at President Kiir.

Ambassador Booth said that the government has told as many as 40 non-governmental organisations to cease operations.

News organisations as well as the UN Mission in South Sudan have cited instances of activists being threatened following their meetings with Ambassador Power and other members of the Security Council delegation.

{Opposition leader Ping says judges must choose between stability and instability when weighing call to nullify result.}

Libreville, Gabon – Gabon’s opposition leader has warned of further instability if judges do not heed his call to recount votes after a closely-fought presidential election.

Jean Ping’s warning came after he filed a petition challenging the election results, and after two weeks of sporadic violence.

“I fear that if they [judges] make a wrong judgment, Gabon will be unstable,” he said at opposition headquarters in the capital Libreville. “They have to choose between stability and instability. It’s a heavy responsibility but I hope they make judgment that is beyond passion.”

Ping lost the August 27 presidential election to incumbent Ali Bongo by just 6,000 votes.

In his court petition, Ping requested a recount of votes from President Bongo’s home province of Haute Ogooue, and the election result to be nullified.

His supporters celebrated his decision to file a petition. Gathering in Libreville as they awaited his arrival at the headquarters, dozens cheered and chanted pro-opposition slogans.

The atmosphere, though, turned hostile when a journalist who works for the national broadcaster turned up,. underlining the tension that still exists.

The opposition and some rights groups have said dozens were killed in violence between protesters and police after the vote. Hundreds went missing in a crackdown on dissent, they have said.

Government leaders contest those figures, saying that at least four people were killed and more than 1,000 people were arrested.

“There’s alot of news from politicians that say 50 people have been killed, but you need to verify this information by going to hospitals and mortuaries,” said interior minister Pacome Moubele Boubeya, as he addressed journalists. “I’m surprised to hear this figure. Give me a list of names and I’ll look into it.”

President Bongo and his ministers have said there were election irregularities in opposition strongholds that must be investigated.

Judges at the constitutional court have two weeks to either throw out the opposition’s complaint or invalidate the election results.

{Gabon’s opposition leader has lodged a challenge to the presidential election result at the constitutional court.}

Defeated presidential candidate Jean Ping has complained of fraud, pointing out that in one province incumbent Ali Bongo won 95% of the vote.

Former African Union chair Mr Ping lost the election by less than 6,000 votes.

The European Union has said there were “clear anomalies” in last month’s poll – charges denied by Mr Bongo, who in turn accused Mr Ping of fraud.

The official election result, announced on 31 August, gave Mr Bongo a second seven-year term with 49.8% of the vote to Mr Ping’s 48.2%.

Mr Ping criticised results in Mr Bongo’s home province of Haut-Ogooue, where turnout was 99.93% and 95% of votes were for the president.

Turnout in the other provinces was between 45% and 71%, according to Gabon’s interior ministry.

On Monday Gabonese Justice Minister Seraphim Moundounga resigned in protest.
The EU has also questioned the legitimacy of the election results.

But Mr Bongo retaliated, telling France’s RTL radio “some of the EU observers overstepped their mission”.

When the election results were announced people took to the street in protest.

The Gabonese authorities say three people have died and 105 have been injured following violent clashes and more than 800 arrests.

Mr Ping puts the death toll higher – saying dozens of his supporters have been killed and that a presidential guard helicopter bombed his headquarters.

{{Gabon election: Bongo v Ping}}

Mr Bongo took office in 2009 after an election marred by violence

He succeeding his father Omar Bongo who had come to power in 1967 and was
Africa’s longest serving leader

Veteran diplomat Mr Ping had served as chair of the African Union

He had been a close ally of Omar Bongo and had been his foreign minister

He had two children with Omar Bongo’s daughter, Pascaline

{Rebel leader Riek Machar should not return to the post of first vice-president of South Sudan, President Obama’s special envoy to the country told the US Congress on Wednesday.}

“It is not for us to tell South Sudan who its leaders should be,” Ambassador Donald Booth cautioned, but added: “Given all that has happened we do not believe it would be wise for Machar to return to his previous position in Juba.”

Dr Machar is currently staying in Khartoum, Sudan, after fleeing what Ambassador Booth described as President Kiir’s “egregious action of militarily pursuing his first vice-president out of South Sudan.”

The US special envoy went on to present unusually blunt criticisms of South Sudan’s head of state.

Ambassador Booth’s litany of complaints marks a shift in the US stance toward the leadership of a country that Washington had helped achieve independence in 2011.

“President Kiir and those around him bear much of the responsibility for the extent to which the Transitional Government has failed to become the representative body it needs to be,” Ambassador Booth said in prepared remarks to a US House of Representatives panel.

PRIVILEGED DINKA GROUP

He cited President Kiir’s “unilateral implementation of his 28 states decree from December 2015, stoking grievances in many parts of the country and among various tribes for the way it privileges his own Dinka ethnic group.”

After installing Taban Deng Gai, another opposition figure, as Dr Machar’s replacement, President Kiir demoted politicians from the Nuer tribe who are loyal to Dr Machar, Ambassador Booth recounted.

The president “has facilitated a zero-tolerance policy toward dissent both within the government, from fellow politicians, and without, from civil society and the media,” the special envoy charged.

Ambassador Booth also accused the Kiir-led army of carrying out human rights violations.

“One particularly upsetting aspect of the current crisis is the conduct of South Sudanese government forces,” he said.

“We continue to receive reports of civilians being targeted, including with brutal sexual violence. Recent reports indicate a new campaign by government commanders to recruit child soldiers.”

In separate testimony to the same House panel on Wednesday, Ambassador Booth’s predecessor as special envoy to Sudan and South Sudan warned that Dr Machar’s ouster will not bring about unity in the fractured country.

CONFLICT CONTINUES

“Taban Deng does not command the loyalty of all those forces that have been fighting the government of Salva Kiir,” said former Ambassador Princeton Lyman.

“Without broad-based participation in a transitional government,” he added, “conflict will surely continue.
Indeed, conflict continues now in several parts of the country.”

Ambassador Booth stepped up US pressure on the African Union to move forward “expeditiously” with creation of a hybrid court that would pass judgment on war crimes committed during South Sudan’s nearly three-year-long civil war.

The AU should establish an office of prosecutor and hire staff to administer the envisioned court, he said.

The US is “on the verge” of providing the AU with a $3.3 million grant to help clear away obstacles to putting the court in place, Ambassador Booth added.

He said the US will support imposition of a United Nations arms embargo on South Sudan if the government does not fulfill its stated commitment to accept deployment of a supplemental UN force of 4,000 troops drawn from East African countries.