AFRICA

The Federal Government of Nigeria has summoned Bobby Moroe, the South Africa High Commissioner to Nigeria, following the latest xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals, including, Nigerians living in South Africa. Moroe was summoned by Geoffrey Onyeama, Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, to his office in Abuja on Tuesday. The action, in diplomatic practice, is a form of expression of displeasure …

Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, Gambia’s first post-independence president who led the small West African country for 24 years before being deposed in a 1994 coup, has died at the age of 95, the Gambian presidency said on Tuesday. The office of President Adama Barrow, whose election in 2016 brought an end to the rule of the army officer who toppled …

The physical assault on Senator Ike Ekweremadu on 17 August in Nuremberg while the Nigerian frontline politician was attending the 2nd Annual Igbo Cultural Day continues to generate controversy in Nigeria. Kinsmen of Senator Ike Ekweremadu, for example, have called for the thorough investigation, arrest and prosecution of the people, alleged to be members of the separatist Indigenous People of …

President Muhammadu Buhari swore in the members of his cabinet for his second term in office today and assigned portfolios to the new ministers. The full list is below: Dr. Ikechukwu Ogah (Abia State) – Minister of State, Mines and Steel Development Mohammed Musa Bello (Adamawa State) – Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom State) – …

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved a change of name for the Federal University of Agriculture Makurdi in Benue State. The new name for the institution is Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University, Makurdi. The approval follows the president’s decision to sign a bill amending the law that set up the university. Mr Buhari also approved a separate bill that changes the name …

Every day, young Africans out of sheer desperation endanger their lives in their quest to cross the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean Sea for a better life in Europe. More than 20,000 have drowned in the past seven years while many more are even believed by experts to have perished in the desert. The main factor pushing young people to leave …

Deon De Swardt, Principal Consultant, Mercer, a global consulting leader in talent, health, retirement, and investments, writes on Africa’s most populous nation can harness the full potential of its booming population. According to the World Economic Forum, 70 percent of Africa’s population is under the age of 30, signalling a significant opportunity for the growth and advancement of the continent. …

Nigeria is currently undergoing a serious crisis as nomadic Fulani pastoralists seek to establish permanent settlements all over the country by violently dispossessing the original inhabitants of their land through ethnic cleansing. Since 2014, thousands of rural dwellers, especially farmers and their families, have been killed by the rampaging herdsmen, while hundreds of thousands have been driven off their land. …

Colonialism Reparation, a Berlin-based organization, has welcomed the recent UN decision on the continued British occupation of the Chagos Archipelago, a territory that belongs to the African nation of Mauritius. The United Nations General Assembly recently confirmed that the process of decolonisation of Mauritius in 1968 was not lawfully completed, giving the United Kingdom six months to withdraw its colonial …

The Lagos State Government has promised to bring Nigerians in Diaspora from around the world to the state to support capacity in education and youth development and empowerment. This was stated by the Senior Special Assistant (SSA), to the Governor of Lagos State on Diaspora Affairs, Mr Jermaine Sanwo-Olu, while declaring open a 2-day teachers training programme for teachers in …

Nigerian government praises its citizens living in the diaspora for the money they regularly send home, which in 2018 amounted to US$25 billion. The administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, however, would like Nigerians abroad to still do more as the Secretary to the Federal Government throws new challenges at them at the National Diaspora Day in Abuja. The Secretary to …

The Federal Government has set aside July 25 of every year as National Diaspora Day in recognition of the contributions of Nigerians living outside the country towards homeland development. This was disclosed in Abuja on Tuesday by the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM). The Media Coordinator of the Commission, Abdul-rahman Balogun, in a statement, explained that NIDCOM was hosting the …

According to a newly-published survey by Transparency International, most Africans think corruption is getting worse in their countries. The Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) – Africa, released by the Berlin-based anti-corruption organisation, reveals that 53 per cent of citizens surveyed in 35 African countries think corruption is getting worse while 23 per cent say the problem is getting better. More than …

As I write this article, 44 migrants, mostly Africans, who were rescued in the Mediterranean by the humanitarian organisation Sea Eye off the Libyan coast on Monday, are desperately looking for where to be allowed to disembark in Europe. The migrants’ dilemma follows the Sea-Watch 3 controversy in June, when the rescue boat forcibly docked in the Italian port of …

Six members of Cameroon’s President Paul Biya’s security staff have been convicted by Swiss judges investigating a reported attack on a journalist in Geneva on 26 June. The arrests took place last Tuesday, according to a statement by canton Geneva’s justice department. Four of the guards were given a four-month suspended prison sentence, and two were given a three-month suspended …

Cameroon’s President Paul Biya has been privately visiting Switzerland for a long time. The Hotel InterContinental in Geneva with its swimming pool and view of Mont Blanc is the residence of choice for the Cameroonian presidential couple. A report by the Wall Street Journal in November 2018 said that since Biya became head of state in 1982 the hotel is …

Brain drain is a major challenge facing the Nigerian health system, leading to a dramatic reduction in the number of doctors in the country. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Nigeria is one of the three leading African sources of foreign-born physicians. Olayinka Stephen Ilesanmi, Lecturer, Department of Community Medicine, University of Ibadan, explains why doctors are …

Yohannes Gedamu, scholar and university teacher, explains how Ethiopia’s federal system is responsible for the political turmoil in the country despite Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s efforts to liberalise the democratic space. For almost three decades Ethiopia’s federal structure – enshrined in the country’s 1994 constitution – has been defended by the ruling coalition, the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front. It’s …

Participants from different walks of life gathered for two days (24-25 May) in the western German city of Dortmund to commemorate the 2019 Africa Day. The Day marks the anniversary of the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (now African Union) on 25 May 1963. The event, celebrated in the city by AfricanTide Union for the ninth year, brought …

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) has won South Africa’s parliamentary elections with 57.5 percent of the vote, the electoral commission has announced. The ANC finished ahead of the Democratic Alliance (DA) on 21% and the radical Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) with 11%. The election result, which gives the ANC 230 seats in the 400-member parliament, means that President Cyril …