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Category: Politics
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Nigerian President, Mohammadu Buhari, has taken an early lead in the presidential election which held on 23rd February.
The country’s electoral body started announcing the election results in Abuja today.
Out of 10 states announced so far, the president won seven. His closest rival, Atiku Abubakar of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, has won in three states. There are 26 more states to be announced
The European Union observer group has commended the election even though there were pockets of violence in some parts of Nigeria when elections held on Saturday.
The chair of the opposition, PDP Secondus has, however, raised queries about the credibility of electoral process.
Announcement of the results of the remaining 26 states is ongoing.
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Senegalese voters headed to the polls Sunday for an election President Macky Sall is expected to win after strong economic growth in his first term, although rights groups criticize him for squeezing out rivals.
Senegal’s small fish-exporting economy expanded more than 6 percent last year, one of the highest rates in Africa, driven by an ambitious reform and development plan that included the construction of a new railway.
The 57-year-old told thousands gathered for his final rally in Dakar on Friday that he would deliver universal health care and better access to education in a second term.
Results due next month.
About 6.5 million people are registered to vote at polling stations that opened at 8 a.m. (0800 GMT) and close at 6 p.m. Official results are due Friday with a run-off for the top two March 24 if no one secures a majority.
Continue reading “Senegalese vote in Presidential elections”
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Ghanaians in the National Democratic Congress executives in the USA have congratulated John Mahama successful election as the flag bearer of the party.
The executives assured John Mahama a hundred percent support to ensure that wins power come 2020.
This comes after John Mahama polled 213,487 votes representing 95.23 percent of the total valid votes cast with the other six contenders managing with about 4 percent.
In a press statement, the executives said
“The NDC party has demonstrated civility and maturity in the face of all planned attempts to subvert and throw this election into disarray by the saboteurs who do not want anything good for the NDC. The NDC USA stands prepared to work, campaign as hard as we can in aiding the NDC win victory in 2020.The future of our country looks brighter in the hands of H.E John Dramani Mahama, who has consistently demonstrated the knowledge and experience required to lead Ghana to prosperity”.
Below is the full statement:
Continue reading “Party faithfuls in US congratulate Mahama over election as flag bearer of Ghana’s NDC”
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Nigerians voted for a new president on Saturday after a week-long postponement that has raised political tempers, sparked conspiracy claims and stoked fears of violence. Delays in the delivery of some materials and deployment of staff force to the nearly 120,000 polling stations forced an extension to voting past a 2:00 pm (1300 GMT) cut-off.
Results are expected from early next week, with the winner gaining control of Africa’s most populous nation and leading oil producer for four years. President Muhammadu Buhari was one of the first to vote, and emerged from the polling booth in his home town of Daura, in the northwest state of Katsina, to say he was confident of victory.
“So far, so good,” he told reporters. “I will congratulate myself. I’m going to be the winner.” His main challenger, Atiku Abubakar, 72, voted in Yola, in the northeastern state of Adamawa Shortly before polls opened, one soldier was killed and 20 others injured as Boko Haramfighters tried to infiltrate the northeastern city of Maiduguri.
Continue reading “Nigeria votes for a new president after delay”
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The Trump Administration’s new Africa Strategy is based on three tenets.
The first is advancing U.S. trade and commercial ties with nations across the region to the benefit of both the United States and Africa.
The second is countering the threat from radical Islamic terrorism and violent conflict. ISIS, al-Qaeda, and their affiliates all operate and recruit on the African continent, plotting attacks against American citizens and targets.
Third, the U.S. will ensure that U.S. taxpayer dollars for aid are used efficiently and effectively. The United States will no longer provide indiscriminate assistance across the entire continent without focus or prioritization.
This was revealed by in a new report by Heritage Foundation after a session with John R. Bolton, the U.S. National Security Advisor at a session at the Heritage Foundation in Washington DC.
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The Nigerians In Diaspora Organisation says it is looking forward to a credible and peaceful conduct of the rescheduled presidential elections in Nigeria.
Some members of the organisation, led by the Chairman, NIDO Americas Board of Trustees, Obed Monago, said this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Wednesday.
They called on all stakeholders, especially the political actors, to put the nation’s interest above their personal ambitions and work towards strengthening the nation’s democracy.
Monago said about 45 NIDO members from various locations around the world were currently in the country as accredited international observers and voters in the elections.
He decried the blame game that followed the postponement of the elections, saying that focus should be on how to address the challenges that led to it before the new dates.
Continue reading “Nigerian Diaspora Seeks Credible, Peaceful Elections”
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The United States of America has injected $40 million towards boosting Ethiopia’s health sector to provide quality and affordable healthcare services to its citizen.
With an estimated population of over 105 million people since 2017, the Horn of Africa country would greatly benefit from the finances.
The US, Ethiopia’s largest bilateral donor in the health sector has already invested over $4 billion in development and humanitarian assistance to Ethiopia over the past five years.
Health service delivery in Ethiopia is characterised by an inadequate number of well-trained health providers, limited health infrastructure and shortages of finance, equipment, and supplies, which on the flip side has offered opportunities for investors.
Continue reading “United States invests $40 million in Ethiopia’s health sector”
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An opinion piece by Herman J. Cohen former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs (1989-1993), U.S. ambassador to Senegal and The Gambia (1977-1980), a National Security Council member (1987-1989) and a 38-year veteran of the Foreign Service.
President Trump likes to overturn his predecessor’s initiatives, but so far the US-Africa relationship has been defined by policy continuity—a rare bipartisan bright spot among domestic and foreign turmoil. Yet there are clouds on the horizon. Public statements by senior American officials, including President Trump himself, foreshadow potentially troubling moves which threaten to undermine decades of mutually beneficial relations.
The first half of President Trump’s term has been good news for Africa. His first Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Tibor Nagy, is an expert diplomat and the right man for the job. Work continues apace at President Obama’s two signature programs, Power Africa and Feed the Future; at George W. Bush’s Millennium Challenge Corporation, and at PEPFAR, the hugely successful U.S. initiative to fight HIV/AIDS. Every year, more African nations are taking advantage of unilateral free-trade privileges under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
The military’s U.S. Africa Command continues to provide assistance and advisors to nations fighting Islamist terrorism and other threats to regional stability. These programs are working. But there are a few indications that the Trump administration could pull the rug out from underneath.
Continue reading “TRUMP MAY BE ABOUT TO UNDERMINE OBAMA’S AFRICA POLICY |”
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As I headed home on the plane, my mind was abuzz. The engines steadily hummed in the background, dulled only by the even louder thoughts that raced through my mind. The plane lights were dim. Snores ebbed and flowed around me, my neighbors nothing but still heaps piled under blankets. Meanwhile, I sat wide awake, staring ahead into space, unable to settle down.
I was on my way back to the US after a 3-week span of conferences and research project work in East Africa. This exercise isn’t new to me, however. I am a penultimate example of the “reverse diaspora,” where a particular area of expertise (my academic research) which is focused in Kenya has landed me there for increasingly more frequent stints every year for the past several years. While I was born in America to Kenyan immigrant parents, I was raised in Kenya from a young age.
I went on to pursue secondary education in America, and now hold a faculty appointment at a US institution. In some shape or form, I knew that I’d return some day.
Continue reading “Bridging the gap: Africa’s science landscape and the African diaspora”
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By Landry Signé and Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield
This year’s Black History Month is being celebrated with a higher sense of African pride, given the unprecedented enthusiasm generated by Marvel’s “Black Panther” last year and increased conversations about a better representation of minority groups.
“Wakanda”—a fictitious, prosperous, “futuristic, powerful, and proud African nation”—salutes black culture by “shedding light on black excellence.” After the movie’s release, many in black America—and across ethnicities—and around the world are wondering how to turn this fiction into reality.
During the hype of “Black Panther,” we both were giving talks on how to unlock Africa’s potential to African-American professionals, community, and business leaders. Many of them asked us how they could help make Africa as successful as the imaginary Wakanda. In other words, where are the opportunities to develop mutually beneficial relations between Africa, African Americans, and the United States?
We propose strategies focused on three themes: tourism in Africa; trade and investment in and with Africa; and knowledge, innovation, and technology sharing to improve U.S.-Africa relations.
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U.S. President Donald Trump intends to nominate luxury handbag designer Lana Marks as the new ambassador to South Africa, the White House said, almost two years after the last ambassador left under Barack Obama. The nomination comes at a time of frayed relations between the two countries after a tweet in August in which Trump asked his secretary of state to study South African “land and farm seizures”.
Continue reading “Trump set to announce South African-born bag designer as ambassador to SA”
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The number of Sudanese-Americans holding elected public office in the United States has doubled – there are now two. Mohamed Seifeldein won a city council seat on November 6 in Alexandria, Virginia, a suburb of the capital, Washington. He follows in the footsteps of Mazahir Salih, who was elected to a city council seat in Iowa City, Iowa in 2017. according to this report by John Tanza of the VOA Continue reading “Sudanese-American elected into council in Virginia”
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History was made in the US mid-term election when Ilhan Omar, became the first Somali-Muslim- American to be elected to Congress. But there were two other African-born American politicians who also won seats. One from Ethiopia and the other from Eritrea. All three are democrats. Continue reading “Ethiopian, Eritrean and Somali win in US Mid-term elections”
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Congresswoman-elect Ilhan Omar, the first Somali-American elected to the U.S. Congress, says she wants to make the United States more welcoming to immigrants and refugees. Continue reading “Omar is first Somali-American elected to Congress”
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Anger with policies of US President Donald Trump has fired up Somali-Americans in Minnesota to vote in droves in the mid-term elections.
Continue reading “Somali-Americans in Minnesota take their anger to the polls”
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Nigeria and Canada recently resolved to deepen bilateral relation in the areas of Trade and Commerce, education, security as well as Science and space technology.
The Canadian Gov.-General, Julie Payette, disclosed this when she addressed newsmen after a closed door meeting with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, in Abuja, Nigeria. But at the same time the Canadian government has adopted new immigration policy that spells trouble for Nigerian migrants. As reported by Samson Toromade in The Pulse. Continue reading “Nigeria, Canada hold talks despite new measures against migrants”
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Trump’s spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, gave a statement to The Associated Press Monday confirming that the first lady is looking forward to meeting African children and exploring Africa’s history and culture.
“This will be my first time traveling to Africa and I am excited to educate myself on the issues facing children throughout the continent, while also learning about its rich culture and history,” the first lady said in the statement. “We are a global society and I believe it is through open dialogue and the exchanging of ideas that we have a real opportunity to learn from one another.”
The planned trip is significant because it’s Trump’s first solo international trip as first lady, but also because of the destination: The president was sharply criticized around the world in January after his private comment about “s—hole countries” in Africa was leaked to journalists.
Some on Twitter could not resist joking. “Melania Trump just announced that she is going to Africa on her first solo trip. I think she picked Africa because she knows it’s a place Trump will never follow her to,” snarked radio host/columnist Dean Obeidallah.
Specifics about the dates for the first lady’s trip and which countries she will visit have not yet been announced.
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Rising political star, Ilhan Omar has become the first Somali to win a primary election victory to represent Minnesota’s 5th District in the U.S. Congress in Minneapolis. This report by K. Farabaugh of Voice of America gives more details. Continue reading “Somali Refugee Wins Primary Election for US Congress”