How Abdoulaye Wade Lost The Mo Ibrahim Prize

Abdoulaye Wade, the decrepit president of Senegal, has just lost the Mo Ibrahim Prize. Having promoted the idea of African Renaissance and built a huge statue in his country to this effect, Wade began to appear as a president who might be different from other African leaders - until now. Now, Wade has discovered that he, too, like other African dictators, is also the savior of his country. He has recently realized that without him, there will be no one to rule his country. So, like all the other dictators, he has decided to extend his stay by seeking a third term in office. This is threatening to throw his relatively peaceful country into chaos. Like all African dictators, he does not care - all he needs is to prolong his stay in power. The man is becoming a disgrace to the continent now. However, there is still time for him to leave without taking his country down the disastrous road that he seems intent upon taking them right now.

Following the Money In Equatorial Guinea

It is being reported that the son of the  president of Equatorial Guinea has handed the sum of 1 million dollars to the national soccer team for winning matches in the current African Nations Cup being held in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. Given that the president and his son are noted for grand theft of the country's wealth, the son must declare where the one million dollars he has just handed out as gift comes from. That is a lot of money and we must not let the current euphoria sweep the important matter of the source of the money under the rug.

Tahrir Square: One Year After

African Nations Cup: Openning Ceremony

The openning ceremony was in Equatorial Guinea although the tournament will be played in both Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

Student Failed For Criticizing Paul Biya, Dictator Of Cameroon

By Ze Ekanga
CameroonPostline.com -- The end of course dissertation in Journalism of Jean Robert Fouda, a reporter at a French language weekly, Repères, has been given a fail mark by a jury of visiting examiners to the Siantou Higher Institute of Learning in Yaounde for analysis deemed subversive to the person of the President of the Republic of Cameroon. Jean Robert Fouda was not granted a chance to defend which focused on the role of the President of the Republic since Cameroon’s independence, in view of the award of a professional Bachelor’s degree in Journalism.
Presented in 70 pages, Jean Robert Fouda’s work describes what is termed an ‘irresponsibility’ of the role of President of the Republic, head of the executive, who has a stranglehold on other organs of the State like the judiciary and the legislature and has maintained a gridlock on the electoral system.

To Patrice Mbianda, head of the examining jury and charge de mission at the Presidency of the Republic, the candidate’s analysis of the “very sensitive” subject is simply unpardonable. Without subjecting the candidate to the usual question-answer brainstorming session, Patrice Mbianda and Frederic Tchouakam from the University of Dschang and Nloga, another juror from the Democratic Republic of Congo charged out of the examination hall to the utter dismay of the candidate and his family.
A few minutes later, one of the jury members entered the hall and declared that the candidate had earned a score of 8/20 chipping in that “in the DRC, you don’t talk of the President of the Republic in this way”.
“This is a scandal. I was looking forward to having an intellectual exchange with the jury not this. I am disappointed,” the humiliated candidate lashed out after the departure of the jury. Jean Robert Fouda regretted that after speaking for just about 3 minutes, the president of the jury interrupted that he didn’t see the link between the presentation and journalism. The candidate highlighted that shortly before the defense, the president of the jury challenged that “he hoped this Fouda would convince” him.

Although the jury asked the candidate to change the topic and submit for another defense in a month, Jean Robert Fouda’s supervisor denied decrying the spiteful attitude of the jury towards his work. “They have nothing to say as to the quality of the work and the methodology applied,” Joseph Djeukou jibed.
To the administration of the Siantou Higher Institute of Learning, there is no such thing as a taboo subject in academic research. “We cannot accept this,” Mesmin Kanguelieu, director of the institution told journalists.

In Solidarity With Web Protest

See more here.

People Power In Nigeria: Is A New Day Dawning?

See more here.

World's Ten Most Expensive Cities: Two In Africa

Find out which cities they are here.

Roman Catholic Bishops And Political Corruption In Africa

One would have thought that the church would be the place where the brazen political corruption in Africa would be clearly recognized and denounced. However, it is only in rare cases that such recognition and denunciation occur. This is especially evident in the responses of the bishops of Africa to political corruption. It is only very rarely that these leaders, who are supposed to be pastors, raise their voices against the oppression of their people. We recently saw how the bishops of Cameroon blessed Paul Biya's stolen election in the church as the whole country goes down under the Biya dictatorship. However, the bishops of the Democratic Republic of Congo have denounced the machinations of Joseph Kabila for the treachery that it is. In the corrupt and corrupting politics of many African countries, one would have hoped that bishops would be at the forefront of seeking better life for their peoples. However, many of them have too often played the role of accomplices. It is a sad state of affairs.

African Nations Cup To Begin Without Celebrated Teams

Cameroon, Nigeria, Egypt, are among the celebrated names that failed to qualify for the African Nations Cup that begins January 21, 2012.

Nigerians Are Tired Of Corruption

Some African ruling elites have legitimized corruption on the continent as it has become the popular means of buying off each other. This nefarious practice has spilled over into all manner of criminality in some societies, doing maximum damage on the general populace. Now, Nigerians seem to be tired of the phenomenon; they want it to end. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a new day, a new African spring, in which the general outcry against corruption will bear good fruits.

Debating Witchcraft: Early Modern Europe And Contemporary Africa

Below is a Yale University lecture on witchcraft in early modern England. It has intriguing implications for our understanding of witchcraft in contemporary Africa. As you listen to it, try to see how the understanding of witchcraft in early modern Europe is similar to that of contemporary Africa. Also listen for why witchcraft accusations spiked and why they declined in certain periods. The lecture is 46 minutes.

Against Boko Haram And Their International Supporters In The Islamic World

Flourishingafrica condemns in the strongest possible terms the barbarous exploits of the Islamic fundamentalist group, Boko Haram, which has been massacring people, mostly Christians, in Nigeria. The recent targeting of Christians in Nigeria indicates that this group intends to establish a monolithic society that is basically against African and global reality. Groups like this give religion, especially the Islamic religion, a bad name and all people of good will must unequivocally condemn the group. Because the group seeks to establish an intolerant society, it must be suppressed by the Nigerian government. Africa has too many problems to confront even without the devilish machinations of this benighted group.

Poverty Is Like An Octopus - It Has Many Arms

Why are some regions in the developing world digging themselves out of poverty while others are not? Recent economic analyses continue to shed light on that. Excerpt from books reviewed:

Economists have been better able to understand poverty thanks to growing access to micro-level data and new decision-making models that incorporate psychological factors. Three engaging new books showcase these microeconomic advances: Poor Economics, by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo; More Than Good Intentions, by Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel; and Portfolios of the Poor, by Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford, and Orlanda Ruthven. Written in language sure to appeal to a general reader, they all focus on the micro level of poverty and on the human conditions that underlie it. Their authors make extensive use of vignettes -- an unusual move for economists -- ­introducing readers by name to real people whose stories illustrate broader concepts.

Informed by extensive experience in the field, their understanding of poverty is refreshingly bottom-up. Only by figuring out what happens on the ground, their thinking goes, can they unlock the bigger picture. The problem with such focused efforts, however, is that the authors largely set aside the role of politics and in so doing neglect much of the bigger picture. After all, some of the greatest successes in raising living standards have come about not by altering individuals' choices but by altering decisions made by governments. [. . . ]

Economists have also become more interested in the impact of social constraints on behavior. A profession that was once suspicious of the power of culture and social structures to explain economic phenomena now routinely builds these factors into its models. This development has led to new insights, such as the idea that people do not save in part because they face social pressure to spend or support their relatives. Seemingly irrational expenditures on lavish weddings or funerals, for example, make more sense when one takes such demands into account.

The Politics Of Football In Africa

Football (soccer) is arguably the most popular sports in much of Africa, from Alexandria, Egypt, to Cape Town, South Africa. Whole countries are known to have observed public holidays after a big win or experience convulsive protests after a big loss. Football is therefore politically charged in much of Africa. However, while for some countries, like Cameroon, football may serve as an opiate of the masses (a la Marxist description of religion), for others, like Egypt, football is a means to bring about political transformation. This is no where more glaring than in the recent developments in both countries. In Cameroon, the general public is going berserk because their star player, Samuel Eto'o, has been suspended for fifteen matches due to the buffoonery of the national football federation. In fact, it has led to a situation where the dictator of the country, Paul Biya, has stepped in to order the national football federation to revisit and revise the Eto'o case. In Egypt, however, national football fans have rallied around the importance of football in the country to form a political party that seeks the transformation of their country. Rather than being an end in itself, for Egyptians, football seems to be a means to an end. Not so for Cameroonians who have been trained by the dictator to live to watch football. One love, different ways of loving.

African Leadership Academy

Was Plato right about the importance of philosopher-kings in evolving a just and prosperous society? One bright African mind appears to think so, sort of. That seems to be part of the story behind the African Leadership Academy that hopes to develop future African presidents, entrepreneurs, and others. Hear its founder:
"And when I talk to them, I realise I'm talking to a future president of a country, I'm taking to a future CEO, I'm talking to the African Bill Gates of the future, and it feels incredibly rewarding to see this vision come to life even better than I had imagined it."