AFRICA was virtually absent in the League of Nations which was founded on January 10, 1920 following the First World War.

THIS January was filled with activities and reminiscence of what officially was said to be the fiftieth commemoration of the first coup in the country; the five Majors coup of January 15, 1966. There were speeches and the newspapers were clogged with all sorts of features and advertorials.

IMMEDIATE past president of Cote d’ Ivoire, Laurent Gbagbo was on January 28, 2016 hurled before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague charged with crimes against humanity. He had already spent five years in jail awaiting trial by a court that ordinarily has no jurisdiction to try him as the ICC is not the court of first instance. The ICC is a court of last resort trying only cases national authorities cannot or will not prosecute. This is not the case with Gbagbo whose wife, Simone has already been tossed into a 20-year jail, and son, Michel, to five years imprisonment. If Ivorian courts could try and sentence the Gbagbo family, they can try him also.

BEKO Ransome-Kuti was the unarmed general of the people who led them in countless campaigns against the perpetuation of military rule and for the enthronement of democracy. In the course of those struggles, he was dragged from his office or the streets and detained, several times. Imprisoned in the Kirikiri Maximum Prison, charged to court countless times, and when he remained unbowed, the Abacha regime decided on a final solution; his elimination. So he was charged with coup plotting; he did not get the death penalty but was awarded life imprisonment. He survived the harshness of the Kaduna Prison.

THE African Union (AU) 26th Session which closed in Addis Ababa on January 31, held a lot of promise for a continent brought to its knees by insecurity and violence; some of it self-inflicted. The expectations were high and the organisation’s leaders were on point in their opening speeches. Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the Chair of the African Union Commission which runs the Secretariat, told the world that Africa is committed to “silencing the guns”. Explaining why the theme of the Session was “African Year of Human Rights with particular focus on the Rights of Women”, Zuma declared that the continent has refused to be indifferent to violent extremism, gender-based abuses and suffering due to conflicts.