Abuja Declaration: broken promises African nations have largely defaulted on a 2001 pledge to commit at least 15% of their annual budgets to healthcare Africa has so far seen controversial and even dramatic policy measures in response to the coronavirus crisis. From Tanzania withholding infection and fatality data as the government pushed conspiracy theories, to Egypt’s clampdown on citizens disagreeing with the government’s handling of the pandemic, to Madagascar’s promotion of a botanical brew as an antidote without following the standard scientific approval steps, the continent has had its share of the blunders that have helped exacerbate the crisis globally.…
Ini Ekott
African leadership: the golden age The continent’s current crop of leaders is more acquiescent than their post-colonial predecessors in dealing with external attempts at unwarranted interference Former Nigerian military leader Yakubu Gowon had a telling exchange with US President Richard Nixon in 1971. Invited for a state visit, Gowon, according to a recently declassified American diplomatic cable, said he was too busy administering his country. The army general promised Nixon he would consider a possible future visit – but never did. Gowon never visited the US during his nine-year tenure and is the only Nigerian leader not to have done…
Nigeria’s hope of reforming its capital market using a new corporate governance system is haunted by endemic corruption By Ini Ekott The Nigerian Stock Exchange won plaudits last November for launching a new set of rules designed to curb corporate misdeeds and reform a market weakened by years of corruption and poor oversight. Nigeria’s former finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, and other industry players endorsed the move. Dealing with poor corporate practices, especially in the public sector and listed companies, would boost foreign direct investment and enhance local participation in the capital market, said Mr Dangote,…
One of Nigeria’s most dramatic episodes of judicial corruption happened in January 2013. The country’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had charged six officials with pilfering 32 billion naira [$204m] from the Nigerian police pension fund. One of the accused, John Yakubu Yusuf, a deputy director in the police pension service, had admitted pocketing two billion naira ($12.7m) in exchange for a two-year prison term as part of a plea bargain. In the event the judge was even more lenient, offering him the option of a 750,000 naira ($4,776) fine as an option and letting him walk out of…
Within the first nine months of his administration Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari has travelled 26 times to 23 countries. His incessant foreign travels have attracted many comments from the nation. In March, a poster from a 2003 election campaign emerged in which Mr Buhari promised not to “spend over 110 days in a year globetrotting”. It was a jab at former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who at the time faced crushing criticism for his many trips. Yet, 13 years later, Mr Buhari — like Mr Obasanjo a former general — is being denounced for the same travel habit. Critics say the…
Nigeria: fighting corruption Africa’s intensified effort against corruption has neither prevented billions of dollars from being stolen nor improved its image By Ini Ekott Billions of dollars that should provide healthcare and education to some of the world’s poorest people continue to be stolen, but a new class of African leaders is giving a flicker of hope that things could change on the continent. In January 2016, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari and his Kenyan counterpart, Uhuru Kenyatta, agreed that graft was the first of three “obstacles to development” they must jointly confront. Terrorism and radicalisation came next, according to a…
Boko Haram: fight or talk? Last year, the Nigerian military persistently denied media reports of an upsurge in attacks by Boko Haram in the country’s northeast. Then, in November 2018, the Islamist militant group raided an army base near the border with Niger and Chad and killed over 100 soldiers, according to Reuters news agency. The army admitted the attack in the town of Metele, but said the death toll was 23. But even that relatively lower figure represented a devastating turn for the Nigerian military. Three years earlier, it had put the group on the back foot…
Recent conflicts between pastoralists and farmers are prompting some African countries such as Nigeria to seek to curtail the Fulani’s ancient itinerant culture As a boy growing up in rural Taraba state in north-east Nigeria, Mohammed Bello recalls roaming the bushes with his father in search of fodder for the family’s herd of cattle. Each day, Bello and his brothers started the morning by checking the animals for ticks, before trekking distances to feed them. For centuries, people of the Fulani have befriended and sometimes even settled into the communities through which they herd their livestock. In communities they visited,…
Nigeria: behind Abuja’s facade Locals displaced by the creation of Nigeria’s capital are still waiting for just compensation Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, is one of Africa’s most expensive cities to live in, according to a 2013 Economist Intelligence Unit report. But behind its expansive roads and upscale neighbourhoods housing Nigeria’s rich and powerful, Abuja is home to some of Nigeria’s poorest slums. These shanty communities—tucked in between gleaming mansions and office blocks—are the face of a four decades old land rights controversy pitting the government against a dozen small ethnic groups that were living in the area when the capital was…
