SOUTH Africa and Nigeria are Africa’s biggest economies and hold some of the brightest prospects for the continent. They have also given Africa two strong leaders: Nelson Mandela and Muhammadu Buhari who, in their old age, held sway in their countries. Both were generals: Mandela, the Commander-in-Chief of the South African insurgent army, the Umkhonto we Sizwe, and Buhari, a General in the Nigerian Army.

NIGERIA became a besieged country in this year’s general elections. It is like the Republic  is at war. Even the wars against terrorism, banditry and criminality, have taken   a back seat. One main campaign leading to the  elections, is that all voters must get their Permanent Voter’s Card, PVC. Even to be seen walking on the streets on election days which have been decreed ‘No Movement’  days, can invite dire consequences.  But you can be saved arrest if you prove with your PVC that you are on your way to vote. 

I WAS one of four African  trade unionists who observed the 2002 Zimbabwean Presidential elections under the African Union Observer Mission. The international observers including those from Nigeria, led by former Head of Interim Government, Chief Ernest Shonekan, met daily at the Sheraton Hotel to compare notes. There was a consensus that the elections in which President Robert Mugabe had 54 per cent and opposition leader,  Morgan Tsvangirai had 40 per cent, were free and fair. It was, therefore, a shock when the Commonwealth Observer Mission led by former Nigerian Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, had a contrary report; one that was not based on observed facts.

ONE of the  most memorable  events for me in our  2019  Elections is the unearthing of one of the fossilised ancestors of military impunity. Some ethno-regional  organisations  had jointly endorsed the candidacy of Abubakar Atiku of the Peoples’ Democratic Party , PDP.  The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, organised its own endorsement; Retired General Paul Chabri Tarfa was resurrected to lead a hitherto unknown ethno-regional body, the Kungiyar Dattawan Arewa Initiative (KDAI).

IN the continuous European game of shifting blames over rescuing African migrants floating in European waters, angry Italy lashed out at self-righteous France. Mr. Luigi Di Maio, the Italian Deputy Prime Minister said: “France is one of those countries that by printing money for 14 African states prevents their economic development and contributes to the fact that the refugees leave and then die in the sea or arrive on our coasts.”