The Voice news magazine

ISSN:2588-8807

ISSN:1571-3466

Motto: Actuated towards Africa’s advancement

Volume 21. NO. 200 December 2020

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First complete African magazine published in The Netherlands since August 1999

Ghana Decides 2020 Nana Addo or Mahama?

AFRICA SHAME

Ethiopia: A country at war with itself www.thevoicenewsmagazine.com

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GET YOUR COPY NOW....

Getting to know you written by Pastor Elvis Iruh Pastor Felix Asare wrote the foreword

Coming out soon Title: Getting to know you Author: Pastor Amb. Elvis Iruh About the book Whether you’re preparing for marriage or want to enjoy a deeper union with your partner, this guide will help you enjoy a relationship built on solid Christian values.

Elvis Iruh, a licensed minister with Victory Outreach International, highlights simple principles that too many take for granted. Learn how to: • Get to really know a love interest before deciding to marry; • Avoid mistakes that lead to divorce; • Appreciate the sanctity of marriage; • Forgive your partner when they make mistakes.

Before you even think about getting married, you should take the necessary steps to really get to know your partner.

Your past should not contain any surprises—and your values must be aligned.

Filled with practical exercises partners can carry out with each other as well as guidance for pastors and church leaders who need help advising couples, this guide will help couples enjoy marriages built to last.

By studying God’s word, you can prepare for marriage, choose the right partner, and enjoy a great life with your

spouse and children.

This is my contribution to add value to the institution of marriage as a Godly foundation to build a family and prosperous family union. AuthorHouse Publisher in United Kingdom is publishing the book. It is now available worldwide and on my website: www.elvisiruh.com ***** About the Author ELVIS IRUH, a native of Delta State, Nigeria, attended numerous schools in Nigeria, including the Nigeria Institute of Journalism, Lagos, Nigeria, before continuing his studies in Europe and earning a degree in theology from Victory Education & Training Institute.

He worked for several media organizations in Nigeria and has been the publisher and editor-in-chief of The Voice news magazine since August 1999. He is a licensed minister with Victory Outreach International, serving as an associate pastor at Victory Outreach Almere, The Netherlands.

Pastor Elvis Iruh

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The Voice magazine

THE VOICE MAGAZINE TEAM

The Voice magazine is editorially independent although we enjoys the support of our readers, subscribers, advertisers, non-­governmental organizations and in­ dividuals of like minds; however the magazine publishers are in no way af­filiated to any of these bodies or to any other ­ publishing institution or political interest or group.

The Voice magazine strives to foster awareness among the African audience and bridge the widening gap between Africans and the rest of the world in news gathering and dissemination.

The Voice is published digitally online except on demand, we print hard copy..

If you want to receive a copy, send us your email address.

On the Editorial board are Pastor Amb. Elvis Iruh, Jonathan Mgbejume, Sandra Iruh-Monsels, and Henry Oduenyi READ THE VOICE ON LINE AT www.thevoicenewsmagazine.com Our Affiliate partner: www.thenigerianvoice.com Registration NO: (Kvk. Nr. 34.110.928) TAX (BTW) NO: NL806215809B01 ISSN: 1571-3466 (For Print edition) ISSN: 2588-8807 (For Digital edition)

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Editor-in-Chief Pastor Amb. Elvis Ndubuisi Iruh elvisiruh@thevoicenewsmagazine.com Founding/Contributing Editor Edward Idahosa Ogbee apexbest2000@yahoo.co.uk Managing Editor Henry D. Oduenyi (Nigeria Office) henry@thevoicenewsmagazine.com Project Coordinator Ifeyinwa Ezeagabu i.ezeagabu@thevoicenewsmagazine. com BUREAU CHIEFS Femi Ikutiyinu (London) afpaprint2000@yahoo.com Middle East Vice- President Amb. Laila EL Aftani Rahhall CORRESPONDENTS ABROAD Barrister Eze Eluchie (Nigeria) paddingr@yahoo.com Kehinde Aig-Imoru (Nigeria) aigimoru@yahoo.com Project Editor (Nigeria) Rev. Tammy Abusi (Port-Harcourt) t.abusi@thevoicenewsmagazine.com

Principal Photo Editors: Handy Tims Azeez Badris fatim_26@hotmail.com PA to Publisher Lilian Akintokun (Mrs) raven_lilian@yahoo.com Magazine Designer David Banjoko MEDIA CONSULTANT Jonathan Mgbejume Abeka Salmin Abdallah Mildred Kleinbussink Pastor Duncan Spier Engr. Barry Igbeare You can as well contact our Office Address: Stichting Paddi Europa Inz The Voice Jeroen Boschplantsoen 82 1318 HH Almere, The Netherlands Land Line: +3136-8801341 Tel.: +31 (0)6-48519292 Mobile: +31 (0)6-84999548 E-mail: info@thevoicenewsmagazine.com Websites: www.thevoicenewsmagazine.com www.thevoiceachieversaward.com

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OUR MISSION STATEMENT

The Voice magazine is published in the Netherlands by Stichting Paddi Europa and it is p ­ ublished online since 2016 around the world. It is registered at the Chamber of Commerce Amsterdam. The Voice aim to serve as a vital link among African readers in the Diaspora and we ­provide ­objective information and organizes opinion exchange among African people both in the ­continent and abroad. Thus it strives to foster and enhance complete understanding of ­developing c­ ountries problems and bring information to help address those issues. You can support this project now with as much as one euro a month to help keep publishing our digital copy for you.

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Volume 21 www.thevoicenewsmagazine.com

NO 200 December 2020

Contents Get fast results by advertising with us.

Others are doing, join us today. Call us on +31684999548 or +31648519292 E-mail: info@thevoicenewsmagazine.com Page 6- Editorial: Ghana Heads to the Polls: What Matters in this Election?

Page 8 - BOOK REVIEW: The Other Side of Fear Pages 12-15 – FEEDBACKS: Your letters to the Editor and opinions Pages 16 & 17 – Trump administration officially begins transition to Biden after weeks of delay Pages 18- 21 – Interview with Dr. Adekanmbi Martins on state of Nigeria Pages 22 & 23 – Pretoria’s relations with new Malawian President Chakwera get off on wrong foot.

Pages 24 & 25 – Late President Jerry Rawlings, a showman President of varied ideologies: You hate to love him Page 26 – Burundi tells UN to close local office by January 2021 Page 27- Column – by Eva Nakato - ‘The unusual Christmas’ Page 28 - Bushiri doesn’t care about lost house, says ‘my life is more important’ Page 29 - Business as usual after Bushiri hosts live church service Pages 34-37 – Our diversity should be our strength and not divisive in Nigeria says Comrade Sunny Ofehe.

Page 38 - Oil trader Vitol silent about its activities in high-risk Nigeria Pages 40 & 41 - Bloodbath in Uganda ahead of Presidential polls.

Page 42 - Large Kenyan agribusiness under fire for assault and rape British supermarkets ban Kenyan avocados Page 43 – 25 years Gone: HOMEF Calls for Exoneration of Ken SaroWiwa and 8 Ogoni Leaders Pages 44 & 45 – The Gambia – Lured into return by Yahya Jammeh, Black Africans Dazed with rejection of draft constitution Pages 46 & 47 Tanzania: Magufuli denounces UN human rights report, Tundu Lissu flees the country Pages 48 - 50 – Nigerians returned from Europe face stigma and growing hardship Pages 52- 53 - Dutch news in focus Page 54 - USA suspend visas to Sierra Leone nationals Page 55 – Murder and mayhem: How South African farming became a ‘full-scale war’ Page 57 – Dutch launch criminal probe, freeze assets of Isabel dos Santos-linked firm Page 58 – South Sudan: “We will be the ones to build our country” Page 59 – Russian Plan to Dig Biggest Zimbabwe Platinum Mine Advances Pages 60 & 61 – Tanzania opposition turns to ICC for probe into rights violation, electoral misconduct * Kenya to host pan-African conference of chief justices on climate change Pages 62 & 63 – Obi Efeizomor 11 of Owa Kingdom: The Modernist Pages 64 - 66 – Nigeria government versus CNN! Who do you believe? * Nigerian army admits soldiers deployed to Lekki tollgate protests were given both live and blank bullets.

Page s 68 & 69 – Ethiopia- A nation at war with itself

The Voice Magazine Volume 21. No 200 December 2020 Edition

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E D I TORIAL:

Ghana Heads to the Polls: What Matters in this Election?

On December 7, 2020, incumbent President Nana AkufoAddo, 76, of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) faces challenger and former President John Dramani Mahama, 61, of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). This is the third time in a row the two will be pitted against each other, in what has been a series of closely contested races. In 2012, Mahama narrowly defeated Akufo-Addo in the 2012 presidential race, winning 50.7 percent of the vote. But then, in 2016, AkufoAddo beat Mahama with 53.8 percent of the vote. In fact, since 1992, the presidency has repeatedly changed hands between the NPP and NDC, Ghana’s two main political parties, via largely peaceful and transparent elections. This has cemented the country’s democratic consolidation and enhanced its reputation as West Africa’s “shining democratic star.”

Akufo-Addo’s 2020 running mate is current Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia. Former President John Mahama made a historic choice with his vice presidential running mate Jane Naana Opoku-Agyeman, who will be the first woman on the ticket of a major Ghanaian political party. Opuke-Agyeman, 69, is a former education minister and academic. She was also the first female vice-chancellor at the University of Cape Coast.

Mahama has touted Opoku-Agyeman’s personal traits and experience, calling her “God-fearing, a distinguished scholar, a conscientious public servant and a role model”.

So what outcome will the December 7th election deliver?

Historically close elections, and a range of economic concerns coupled with worries over Covid-19 and pervasive corruption, mean it is anyone’s guess. Fighting corruption was one of the main campaign platforms of the current NPP government.

In fact, Akufo-Addo claimed the “war of graft” was his top priority, urging citizens to step up to help expose corruption and misuse of public funds. The NPP government recently created the Office of the Special Prosecutor, an independent agency in charge of investigating and prosecuting allegations of corruption. But the agency lacks teeth, and has had very limited success, due to “wanton disregard of statutory requests made by the office for information and production of documents to assist Pastor Elvis Iruh in the investigation of corruption Editor-in-Chief and corruption-related offences”.

Corruption remains pervasive, 6

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and Ghanaians are hesitant to report it: only one-third (34%) of Ghanaians believe they can report incidents of corruption without fear of retaliation or other negative consequences.

Trust in the current president has declined by 15% since 2017, and this may influence election results this December.

Voters are also faced with widening cracks in the Ghanaian economy, resulting in negative impacts on their own lives.

Thus, they could punish incumbent President Addo by voting against him. The most important issues for Ghanaians include unemployment, infrastructure and roads, education, and health.

Yet GDP is projected to grow only 0.9% this year, the lowest growth rate since 1992, due to the pandemic. And Ghanaians citizens are increasingly expressing dissatisfaction with government’s economic performance, and their own personal living conditions. In fact, the most recent Afrobarometer survey reveals troubling data.

Approval ratings on indicators of government economic performance have declined sharply since 2017. Only one third of Ghanaians describe the country’s economic conditions as “fairly good” or “very good”, which is a 35% decline from 2017. A majority say the government is performing “fairly badly” or “very badly” in narrowing income gaps (66%), improving living standards of the poor (56%), and creating jobs (54%). Ghanaians personal circumstances are suffering as well: only 37% feel their personal living conditions are “fairly good” or “very good.”

The election may also be a referendum on how AkufoAddo handled the Covid-19 crisis. Addo took immediate action, closing the country’s borders and instituting a partial lockdown in major urban centers from mid-March to midApril. The NPP government also closed schools, banned public gatherings, and enforced enhanced public hygiene measures.

Major economic relief measures include the Coronavirus Alleviation Program, which focuses on strengthening public health systems and providing Covid-19 treatment. The NPP response seems to be working: borders have recently reopened, and case counts and deaths remain extremely low.

Thus, citizens may reward incumbent President Addo by reelecting him.

While the outcome of the 2020 Ghanaian presidential election remains difficult to predict, what is clear is that voters have serious issues to weigh as they head to the polls.

Enjoy the last edition for the year and wishing you all the best of the end of your season. See you in 2021 and prayerfully a better year for us all. This is edition is loaded so take your time to read through and drop us a comment.

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Since you’re here... Support the Voice magazine so we stay publishing for your reading pleasure…..

Happy New month to you our readers and our followers. We have a small favour to ask. More people, like you, are reading and supporting the Voice magazine since we stopped the hard print copy in 2016. We have continued to serve you the magazine in the same format with all production cost covered like editing, page designs, photography and digital distribution via online channels where we have to pay. The Voice magazine has been an independent organization, we do not receive any form of subsidy except the support of our readers and friends. We made the choice to keep our reporting open for all, regardless of where you live or what you can afford to pay. Our advertising drive continue to grow. You can support us through that medium as well, promote your businesses and services with us as your way of support.

Our editorial independence means we set our own agenda and voice our own opinions. You are free and welcome to contribute both commercial and political independent articles for our reading audience without bias. We want to continue to give a voice to those less heard, explore where others turn away, and rigorously challenge those in power.

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BOOK REVIEW

The Other Side of Fear Uncertainty, anxiety and fear: only fictitious superheroes are exempted from this all-too human sequence. The trouble is that fear is paralyzing because it feeds our minds with negative thoughts. In a second, fear can turn the idea of courage into one of recklessness, and then it’s all downhill to a point where determination is put aside in favour of ‘playing it safe.’ Sadly, fear can stop you from doing anything slightly risky. It’ll keep you locked up in the prison of the comfortable and predictable where you’re more likely to die of boredom than might from any of the dangers you fear. So, what’s to be done? The simple answer is that risk-taking and adaptability are as much part of our human heritage as uncertainty-inspired fear. It’s finding a balance that matters most. Fear is a useful tool for making better life-directing decisions, but fear must never be allowed to control the direction of your life. That way you lose the opportunity of reaching your true potential. I hope this book will inspire you to transcend your fears and achieve all of your dreams.

The greatest prison you can live in is the prison of your own fears. Nothing of value can be achieved when we allow fear to control our life. Grab a copy of “The other side of fear” be inspired to live above your fears. You can purchase E-book & paperback on amazon.

First and foremost, I want to thank God for guiding my every step towards completing this project and to every other

person who contributed to this. I’ve learned that if we can find the courage to begin something, God will empower & enable us to complete the task. There’s nothing we cannot accomplish if we are determined enough. I was inspired to write this book because fear has kept a lot of people locked up in the prison of comfort.

Too many people are living in a self-made prison of their own fears, they are stuck, unable to move forward and achieve their meaningful dreams. Fear has the power to limit your greatness, and blind you from seeing the opportunities that lies ahead of you. Everything you desire is on the other side of your fear, don’t stay trapped behind the walls of your fear for the rest of your life. It’s time to move towards your fears instead for trying to avoid them. I can confidently tell you that this book will inspire and challenge you to transcend your fears. And also provide principles to help you on the journey.

Grab a copy of this book to bless yourself, a friend or a loved one. You can read online, download, & order hard copies of this book online click on the link. www.amazon.com/Other-Side-Fear-M-K-Slim-ebook/dp/ B088RKSDW7/ref=sr_1_8?

Thank you

By M.K. Slim

About M.K. Slim For much of my life, I’ve been fully committed to my music career, but I’m also an entrepreneur and a budding writer. I’m very motivated and mentally resilient: a genuinely optimistic person who believes that anything can be achieved if I’m determined enough. I strive to create a positive impact in the lives of those around me and I believe the highest of human acts is to inspire others to reach their potential.

I strive to inspire as many people as I can. I’d like others to say of me, “Because you didn’t give up, I can do the same.”

That’s the legacy I hope to leave behind when I die.

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Victory Outreach Church Almere is a Pentecostal Church, a Bible based believing people in the trinity of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

What would you like to know? Our vision?

Which activities we organize? Or would you like to hear testimonies about how we follow God? One thing is certain, we would like to get to know you and therefore you are more than welcome to visit one of our services in this new year 2020. You can visit us every day of the week as there is a Resident Pastor available to your demand.

You may have been a believer for many years already.

Or you might still be searching for the meaning of life and asking yourself whether or not there is God. Within Victory Outreach Almere we would like to help you find the answer. We will gladly teach you through the help of the Holy Spirit the exact meaning of “a living faith�.

With us you will truly see

and experience the supernatural power of the living God. You can always count on love and comfort when you need it. You will discover that we have a wonderful diversity of people with lots of different backgrounds, characters and personalities. But there is one thing we have in common. We all follow the same God, Jesus Christ.

In that diversity and love for God, we are a family where you are more than welcome.

We personally hope to meet you during one of our services. God bless you as you come in Jesus Christ name. Amen Signed: Pastor Roel & Ida van Rooij Senior Pastors Victory Outreach Almere.

Barbeelstraat 12, 1317 PZ Almere The Netherlands.

Telephone: 036-8417007; Telephone: 036-7505571 E-mail: info@voalmere.nl Website: www.voalmere.nl

Join our church service every SUNDAY in church and also online service via FACEBOOK

Victory Outreach Almere

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Feedback

YOUR LETTERS ARE WELCOME

Twitter Account: The Voice News Magazine @voicenewsmag Link with us on latest news

Write to the Editor - Email: info@thevoicenewsmagazine.com Kindly follow our policy on letter to the Editor for your letter to stand the chance of being published in our magazine.

Your letter must include the writer’s name, address, email and contact number. Also keep your letter short, concise and precise to the point. We are also allowed to edit where necessary. All details will be kept confidential. The views written in the Letters to the Editor do not necessarily reflect the views of our magazine therefore we do not take any responsibility for the views stated by those who write to the Editor. The Voice magazine also reserves the right not to publish letters that we find offensive to others please.

Thank you for your usual cooperation.

TV Management.

Why is age the problem in African politics?

Dear Editor, I was wondering why we Africans think that the problem of leadership has to do with age particularly in Africa? All I hear now is that the youths should be given the chance but in advanced countries, the problem does not seem as age.

For instance in the American presidential polls that took place very recently, the two major Presidential candidates are 74 and 77 years respectively.

Their Senate Majority leader (Mitch McConnell) is 78yrs old and has been in the senate for 35yrs. Their House is led by an 80 years old woman (Nancy Pelosi) and she’s been there for 31yrs. Nigeria’s problem is not age but

*mentality*: “turn by turn”, “chop-I-chop”, “Yahoo Yahoo is brain at work”, “cheating is smartness” etc.

No nation becomes better until they change their mentality, it does not matter the age you vote them in. Nigerian has had a couple of young people under 40 years of age in power,

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what came out of their elections or opposition t h e y occupied.

For instance we had D i m e j i Bankole at 34 become National H o u s e Assembly speaker; Ya h a y a Bello becoming Governor at 40, Anyim Pius Anyim elected Senate President in August 2000 at the age of 39 among the long list of names. What indelible marks would you say Dimeji left as speaker being a young man? Or any of these other names mentioned? Our problem is not the age of aspirants or candidates but our mentality; the likes Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu was 29 when he already saw the problems ahead and took action. Those who benefited from his sacrifice started ruining the country from their youths and some of them are still around and their children are beneficiaries of those struggles.

Those shouting *’Not too young to rule*’ must also remember *’NOT TOO YOUNG TO STEAL*. Our problem is not age, sex, qualification, tribe or religion but lack of determination and commitment to serve. It’s about being ‘God FEARING AND POSSESSING LEADERSHIP QUALITIES’ like AHMADU BELLO, AWOLOWO, ZIK and others but very few in the context of Nigeria. They were also youthful when they came on board. So, it is NOT just about their AGE. They just were determined to serve. May God help our country, Nigeria.

FEEDBACK SARS IS WORST THAN CORONA VIRUS IN NIGERIA

Dear Editor, I can confirm that Nigerians are more scared of the police or the unit formerly called SARS than they fear the outbreak of the coronavirus.

These member are thugs in uniform and allowed to carry guns, they were worse than terrorists, all you need to experience them is to fall a victim of their raid or search; they make ridiculous demands, someone on a motorbike called keke, you demand for a bribe of 50,000 naira; where do you expect such a person to get such amount of money? When you are detailed by them, you need to source 100,000 naira, they call money as if they print it themselves. It does not matter what name the government calls it, SWAT or SARS, it is the same people. Let the government work on reform of the entire police force and its associated agencies, the traffic control officers also behave in a similar manner. I hope the government is listening to the cry of the people, the police structure as it isn’t proud of what is good for Nigerians. I salute the few good elements in the force but the rot is too much that it spoilt the whole force.

Thank you Eliab Adeboye Lagos, Nigeria.

The BBI: Satisfying two different classes As we embark on launching the BBI at the Bomas of Kenya and creating the basis for the conversations addressing challenges we face as a nation, it is not lost on me that from where I sit, the BBI is meant to satisfy two different classes; the Common Mwananchi and the political class. If we as a nation are honest with ourselves, you must be alive to the fact that the BBI offers some form of good/benefit to each of these two classes. While it is true that there needs to be more streamlining of the report to be more comprehensive

on several matters......It is a starting point....a starting point to shift discussions to be more ideological based. It might take us five years, 10 years...50 years, but I have hope that we will get there...we will get to a nation that is united as one. That is the audacity of Hope!!!!

By Nesta Louis Nairobi, Kenya

Who are the real looters? Politicians or hungry citizens?

Dear Editor, What is above my imagination is that Nigeria Governors, Assembly members, ministers, top ranking politicians, and kings were hiding food meant for the poor masses during the lockdown and no prominent Nigerian is blaming this extreme wickedness in the land, but arrested people who went to recover their stolen food and labelled them as looters. In a sane society the people who kept those relief materials will be in jail and not the so-called looters. It is the biggest shame on earth that Nigeria’s so called big men and women are stealing food from the poor masses.

The most irritating thing about it is that Nigeria security officers arrested the hungry poor Nigerians who went to recover their stolen food by Nigeria government at all levels.

I appealed with humility that all Nigerians arrested for looting by attempting to recover their stolen food by the government at all levels should be released with immediate effect with no charges or fines. Any judge that tries to sit on these cases without refusing the hearing on the basis of lack of merit will receive the anger of almighty God upon themselves, family, and generations unborn starting this moment.

Please and please to people in authority, what you’re doing right now in arresting poor hungry people you stole their food is an abomination unto the almighty God. Please, let as many as you have arrested for the stolen food be set free before natural disasters fall on Nigeria for wickedness Thank you for your time and support.

By Joachim Okhai Lagos, Nigeria 14

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President Trump is his own enemy!

Dear Editor, The only reason why Trump was not reelected was simple, he was too polarising.

I’ve always said HE is his own worst enemy.

His inability to show empathy at the end cost him his position as President of the United States of America. The people have chosen and decided that they have had enough of him, this is how democracy works. President Obama was in office 8 years, how many times did he visit Nigeria? Not once, why is that? What was his African policy? You do realise that the Islamic ban that Trump initiated when he entered office was actually instilled by his predecessor. As I write, many black males

are sitting in prison due to the wonderful 1994 crime bill, do you know the author of the bill? The future president sounds a bit hypocritical but I pray for a smooth transition.

Remember these guys are all millionaires and have no idea how the common man survives. They turn up once every 4 years and promise heaven on earth. 4 years ago the people chose Trump, now they have chosen Biden. It is the people right! They have spoken, it should be carried out. Now it’s his turn to lead and time will tell as the proof they say is in the eating. My hope is that Biden and Harris carry out the peoples mandate at the end, my support is for the common man.

By Armstrong Okobia The Netherlands

President Trump Presidency ends

Dear Editor, Having watched the American Presidential 2020, I am not surprise at the arrogance of African leaders who are copying the west form of democracy, my argument is not if Trump lost the election but the manner with which the election was conducted was obviously faulty and nobody is complaining about the electoral system. My appeal to African leaders is that we should come up with what is suitable for us during our elections instead of copying this western system that is complex for them to understand themselves.

Azuka Edozie Florida, USA

My short story journey from Freetown, Sierra Leone to The Netherlands.

I fled Sierra Leone during the civil war in 1997 to the Netherlands and asked for an asylum. It took me 7 years to be granted a refugee status. The Dutch language was a challenge, but I thrived. I worked low paid jobs from one factory to another and sometimes jobless. I knew I had to do something to change my status. I first learned the language as a tool to succeed if I ever get the chance to empower myself.

Being a sport lover in fitness and Martial arts back home (Freetown), I enrolled myself (2009) in sport education which eventually led to medical fitness and completed my education in 2015.

In the year 2012, I had already made up my mind to return home after I have gained enough experience in my career of choice (therapy/training). In 2015, my wage changed from low paid jobs to earning €80 an hour (self-employed) and in 2017, my status changed from a refugee to a Dutch citizen. Finally in 2019 I return home to the motherland, Sierra Leone.

I did not return home with a load of cash, but a load of courage, determination and a firm focus to face the challenges, take the chances and make use of the opportunities.

Another thing I have learned in life is that you will have to do it yourself and stop the blaming. Success is in all of us. Make up your mind and thrive towards your goals.

THE ALMIGHTY IS IN CONTROL.

By Alphah Jalloh Freetown, Sierra Leone

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Trump administration officially begins transition to Biden after weeks of delay

P

resident-elect, Joe Biden called President Trump’s unwillingness to concede the presidential election an “embarrassment” but said it wouldn’t impede his White House transition, despite a standoff with the administration that is preventing the president-elect’s team from accessing key

resources.

The Trump administration hasn’t issued a typically routine technical designation that would allow Mr. Biden’s staff to view detailed classified information, send representatives to embed with government agencies and have the State Department...

After nearly three weeks of delay, General Services Administration chief Emily Murphy told President-elect Joe Biden that the Trump administration is making federal resources available for his transition into office.

The letter from Murphy is the closest indication that the President is admitting he has lost his bid for reelection to Joe Biden. The Trump administration’s clearest acknowledgment of defeat in the Nov. 3 election was revealed minutes

before President Donald Trump tweeted that he approved the move. But President Trump has still refused to explicitly concede the race to Biden, who is projected to win 306 Electoral College votes to Trump’s 232.

President Trump has falsely asserted that he won the election “by a lot,” and has promoted a variety of conspiracies that allege widespread electoral fraud without evidence. That effort made his supporters to continue to press for recount of the results in many battle grounds which has been done and yet it has increased the lead of Joe Biden, making him the most popular candidate in America political history to gain close to 80 million public vote in any presidential elections beating President Obama;s record under whom he served twice as VicePresident of United States of America.

Lawyers for the Trump campaign, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, have lodged lawsuits in many of the key swing states that helped put Biden over the top in the election.

Most of them, which in some cases have asked judges to block states from certifying their final vote tallies, have been rejected.

Murphy’s letter followed the latest series of setbacks in Trump’s efforts to overturn the projected outcome of the election, including another court loss in Pennsylvania and the certification of the vote totals in Georgia and Michigan.

Murphy said in her letter to Biden that her decision frees up more than $7 million in federal funding for his transition. Biden’s team was already fundraising in the wake of Election Day and had been on track to achieve its fundraising goals.

America in Transition “Today’s decision is a needed step to begin tackling the challenges facing our nation, including getting the pandemic under control and our economy back on track,” the Biden transition team said in a statement.

“This final decision is a definitive administrative action to formally begin the transition process with federal agencies.”

Under federal law, the head of the GSA held the power to free up millions of dollars that are allocated toward presidential transition spending. After withholding those funds for weeks despite news outlets projecting Biden’s victory, the low-profile agency was thrust into the spotlight.

Murphy had become the target of intense criticism and pressure from the public and lawmakers alike, who insisted that she immediately make the ascertainment of Biden’s win and allow his team to make use of the funds. House Democratic committee leaders last month demanded that Murphy brief them personally on the funding hold up.

In the letter to Biden, Murphy strongly defended her actions and pushed back on her critics, who in some instances accused her of acting with political motivations.

“I have dedicated much of my adult life to public service, and I have always strived to do what is right. Please know that I came to my decision independently, based on the law and available facts. I was never directly or indirectly pressured by any Executive Branch official - including those who work at the White House or GSA — with regard to the substance or timing of my decision,” Murphy wrote.

“To be clear, I did not receive any direction to delay my determination. I did, however, receive threats online, by phone, and by mail directed at my safety, my family, my staff, and even my pets in an effort to coerce me into making this determination prematurely. Even in the face of thousands of threats, I always remained committed to upholding the law,” Murphy wrote.

“Contrary to media reports and insinuations, my decision was not made out of fear or favoritism,” she added. “Instead,

I strongly believe that the statute requires that the GSA Administrator ascertain, not impose, the apparent president-

elect. Unfortunately, the statute provides no procedures or standards for this process, so I looked to precedent from prior elections involving legal challenges and incomplete counts.”

Trump, in a pair of tweets following the release of the letter, thanked Murphy by name “for her steadfast dedication and loyalty to our Country.”

“She has been harassed, threatened, and abused – and I do not want to see this happen to her, her family, or employees of GSA,” the president tweeted.

Trump maintained that his legal efforts continue “STRONGLY,” adding, “I believe we will prevail!”

But he added: “Nevertheless, in the best interest of our Country, I am recommending that Emily and her team do what needs to be done with regard to initial protocols, and have told my team to do the same.”

Biden’s team has been preparing for the White House throughout the post-election period, despite the lack of federal funding. The transition has already unveiled some of the key officials who will populate Biden’s Cabinet, including the announcement earlier that he has chosen former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen to be Treasury secretary. And many other announcements including that of John Kerry.

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Interview with Dr. Adekanmbi Martins Dr. Adekanmbi, Martins had his first degree, BSc (Ed) Physics in University of Lagos, Second degree, MSc Solid State Physics, in Rivers State University of Science and Technology and bagged his PhD in Solid State Physics in the University of Port-Harcourt.

He currently lectures in Physics at Ignatius Ajuru University of Education Rivers State where he handles undergraduate and Postgraduate students. He is currently the Head of the Department of Physics and he is the brain behind Physics Workshop where students can graduate with extra skills in welding, Auto Mechanics, Electronics and Electrical Technology.

The Voice magazine London Bureau Chief, Gbenga Okunlola pinned him down despite his very tight schedules to arrange this interview for our magazine. Congratulations on a job well done, kindly enjoy excerpts from their conversation.

TV: In brief, tell us about the journey that shaped you as a scientist/lecturer?

Dr. Adekanmbi: I have always loved science though I didn’t know what it was about. Then there was a Medical Practitioner called Dr. Anna, a white man, working in Maria Asumpta Hospital Ado-Ekiti, my home town.

Whenever I was taken there, I always talked to him, so he was like my mentor and model. I desired so much to be a medical Doctor just because of Dr. Anna. I took science courses and passed my West African School Certificate Examinations in Ado Grammar School in 1986, as one of the best science students. My mates were already in the Universities and my parents had to make me go and read Physics at the Faculty of Education in University of Lagos under the tutelage of Prof Michael Oke Akande who became my academic mentor. That was how I left off the pursuit of being a Medical Doctor and took on the teaching line. I loved shaping my surroundings with my knowledge of sciences hence the pursuit of Physics to the terminal degree.

TV: Nigeria’s police have long been an object of irritation and a focal point for petty corruption.

Ordinary Nigerians have suffered at the hands of the infamous SARS unit, what is your take on policing in Nigeria?

Dr. Adekanmbi: Police men are part of the Nigerian Society which has become so capitalistic that people can do

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anything to attain a rich status. The SARS went extra mile in becoming a law unto themselves hence the reports of extra judicial inimical activities. Despite all the obnoxious activities of some policemen, there are still some that are highly professional with ethical and moral values. There is however a general need for a societal paradigm shift which would invariable affect the Policing of Nigeria state.

TV: Like the Black Lives Matter movement in the US, protests’demands extend beyond civil rights to investigation and prosecution for crimes of state violence. Would you say the lack of accountability laid bare by President Buhari’s fumbling response thus far – can be traced to elite bargains of the 1999 transition, and the architecture of authoritarianism planted by Buhari in the 1980s?

Dr. Adekanmbi: Nigeria Problem seems to be spectacular. We need to trace back the negotiations before Nigeria was amalgamated in 1914.

There were the southern, Northern and the Eastern protectorates; the fundamental problem emanated from the shady deals that led to the formation of Nigeria. The philosophies of the respective regions were different including their culture; so the amalgamation was a mere association of birds of unlike feathers. During the agitations for independence, we learnt from history that the northerners did not want independence because the southerners were much more frontal intellectually and economically.

However, the powers that be convinced them and

“The mentality of Nigerians that are joining the police force is in dare need of change”.

relinquished power to them eventually with unwritten agreement that gave them a fake superiority complex over others hence the “Born to rule” mentality. Ever since, the Northerners have been involved in a lot of amorous practices to clinch the power of the state. So, it is not a surprise when the 1999 constitution tended towards unitary kinds of governance making the federal government (if it is Federal) the centre of governance instead of regional government that was negotiated for ab-initio. It is not surprising if President Buhari continued with the programme that has been initiated by his predecessors and what they did during operation “Araba” after the Ezeogwu coup of 1966. Buhari is just acting the script and you could not blame him much because the “course” is beyond him as the first lady announced before his second term election. He couldn’t have shown much responsibility and accountability.

TV: As peaceful protests against police brutality have turned deadly in Nigeria, with several demonstrators killed by security forces, what is your analysis of the situation in Africa’s most populous country?

Dr. Adekanmbi: It was quite unfortunate the way the protest turned out. The people that started the protest were elite youths and professionals dissatisfied with the way and manner the leaders were “ruling”. Police brutality was just the ice on the cake or the last straw that broke the camel’s back.

Improperly oriented youths took over the protest which led to looting and manners of irresponsible attitude that the army used as acclaimed, to shoot at protesters though they are still

denying shooting with life ammunitions. I was highly displeased and exasperated when I heard that people holding Nigerian flags and protesting peacefully were shot at! Where is patriotism amongst our so-called security officers that were supposed to protect the lives and properties of the citizens and also our territorial integrity?

TV: SARS has been dissolved since the protests erupted; the clamour for wider reforms in the police force is undiminished. Would you say that a new police unit, Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) will essentially replace SARS as a new tool for oppression?

Dr. Adekanmbi: You don’t change the personality of a person by changing their clothes. The mentality of Nigerians that are joining the police force is in dare need of change. Ask the reason an average Nigerian wants to join the police force and you will hear manners of reasons that summarise into getting rich quick and oppression of others. How can any group formed under such a mentality offer a good service to humanity? The rebranding of the unscrupulous elements in the police would only lead to a worse situation.

TV: What would you consider as important takeaways from this protest? Don’t you think that criminals have taken over the protests and have declared war on ordinary citizens of the country?

Dr. Adekanmbi: The leaders should take the protest as a warning sign. The Nigerian populace of over 250 million people could rise up one day and cause a mayhem that might lead to an unwanted situation. The society created miscreants that took over the protest and perverted the genuine intentions of the original protesters and many innocent people suffered as a result.

TV: President Muhammadu Buhari urged protesters to stop demonstrating and instead engage with the government “in finding solutions”. He made no mention in the speech of the shooting of protesters in Lagos?

Dr. Adekanmbi: Not mentioning about the shooting was part of the irresponsibility of the government. It could also be interpreted as government culpability in the shooting of the peaceful protesters. However, the gesture that a round table be created for discussion is a step in the right direction if the government has a good intention.

TV: Looking at the security architecture of the country, do you support state policing?

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Continued from Page 19

Dr. Adekanmbi: State policing has its Pros’ and Cons’.

Currently, with the jihadist operations, herders marauding alongside of accusations of ethnic cleansing, I will side in with state policing despite the possibility of it being hijacked to perpetuate oppression and intimidation of state opponents.

TV: Do you think it is time for security to be separated from politics? There is this suspicion that every crime has a political undertone.

Dr. Adekanmbi: In actual fact, for us to have it good in Nigeria, we should make the security independent of politics. The police need to be a serious arm of the judiciary while the soldiers become more professional concentrating on the defence of our territorial integrity.

TV: Let’s look at restructuring, what is your stand on this?

Dr. Adekanmbi: Restructuring is a definite way of fostering the unity of Nigeria and a means of allowance to make all sections to grow independently a n d competitively.

Before the advent of the oil based economy, the west was growing on the productions of Cocoa, cocoa products and timber.

The East was on oil palm majorly and the North on Groundnuts, yams and the likes. The economy was manageable then with relative peace in all the sections. With the advent of the oil based economy, some sections started venturing into the space of others, exploiting others, making one sided laws that are inimical to the detriment of other sections of the nation leading to lack of development and abject greed of the bourgeois. Every section of Nigeria is blessed with Natural resources that can be independently exploited leading to greater development. With restructuring, there will be relative peace as everyone would concentrate in 20

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developing their section and restricting would also affect security management and all other things. It will not give room to racial or tribal discrimination and will also disturb anything called ethnic cleansing.

TV: Would you say ‘Operation Amotekun’ is a needless controversy and the most important is to secure the lives and property of the people living in Yoruba land?

Dr. Adekanmbi: Operation Amotekun was necessitated by the unscrupulous and dastardly act of the Fulani herdsmen combined with uncurbed utterances of MiyettiAllah. It seems as if the Fulani led administration of our current president was condoling the massive killings and ethnic cleansing of the criminals and the Yoruba’s being wise, had to protect themselves, the citizens leaving on Yoruba soil and their properties when there was no protection coming forth from the Federal government.

TV: Gender based violence is a common social problem in Nigeria especially in the Northern parts of Nigeria. There has been an increase in the cases of domestic violence, sexual exploitation, forced early marriage, and rape of minors since the spate of Boko Haram insurgency?

Dr. Adekanmbi: Before the Advent of Boko Haram, there have been all these vices in Nigeria except early Child marriages peculiar to the Northern Part of the country. Recently, there were laws promulgated to protect the female gender since they seem to be the major victims of these vices. The Nigeria Populace frown at the increase of these obnoxious acts and efforts are being made by sincere government agencies, NGO’s and individuals to reduce if not totally obliterate the menaces.

TV: Can corruption ever be eliminated in Nigeria? Dr. Adekanmbi: Yes through proper orientation and reduction in capitalism. The laws preventing civil servants from contesting elections by mandating them to resign their appointment

before contesting should be repealed. Civil servants that want to contest election could obtain a leave of absence to do so; when he is through, he could come back to his job and finish his service obtaining his pensions at the end. This will reduce or ultimately eradicate corruption!

TV: What do you think of the current concepts of equity and equality?

Dr. Adekanmbi: Though, these concepts are enshrined in our Policy of education and or codes in Nigeria, in practice, it is not. Saliently we know some people have been brainwashed that they are superior to others and they can have things easily where others fail. The issue of the quota system allows for cheating and inequality in the system.

TV: What do you think are the main causes of inequalities?

Dr. Adekanmbi: Sectional value system, lack of proper education and the entrenched quota system that eradicate wholesome and healthy Competition.

TV: What are your key recommendations for policy makers to promote equity?

Dr. Adekanmbi: Eradicate Quota system, review the policy of Education, review educational curriculum to inculcate skill based subjects, increase proper interstate relationships and repeal the laws that prevent the civil servants to participate actively in Politics.

TV: Best Regards Rev Dr. Adekanmbi Martins. Fcai, Sipm JP Dr. Adekanmbi: Thank you for this interview

By: Gbenga Teejay Okunlola London-Bureau-Chief teejayok@gmail.com

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Pretoria’s relations with new Malawian President Chakwera get off on wrong foot

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outh Africa’s relations with Malawi’s new President Lazarus Chakwera have started badly, clouded by suspicions that he helped a fugitive escape South African justice and complaints that Pretoria damaged his dignity by delaying his departure from South Africa.

At first, Lazarus Chakwera’s visit to South Africa, the regional superpower, was going really well. Malawi’s newly elected president had a good meeting with his counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, in Pretoria last Friday, and signed an important economic co-operation deal.

At about 1pm, Chakwera returned to the Sefako Makgatho presidential guest house to rest before his flight home on a chartered Malawi Airlines Bombardier Q400.

He was as usual by a delegation that accompanied President Chakwera on his flight into South Africa, and was at Waterkloof Air Force Base with Malawi’s advance delegation when things started to go wrong.

Chakwera’s excitement, and that of his entourage, turned first to anxiety and then to outrage as they learned that the advance delegation had been accosted by policemen at the airport, and denied access to the plane.

The police were looking for controversial self-proclaimed “prophet” Shepherd Bushiri, reputed to be among the wealthiest religious figures in Africa. Bushiri and his wife were charged in South Africa with fraud, but were released on R200 000 bail.

They had disappeared that morning.

Bushiri is one of Malawi’s most famous sons, and the police thought that Malawi’s president might be helping to smuggle him out. They were willing to break diplomatic protocol to check if Bushiri was on the plane.

As it happened, the police were wrong. At that point, the Bushiris were already in Lilongwe; later, they would announce their escape to the world. “Our coming to Malawi … is a tactical withdrawal from the Republic of South Africa, solely meant to preserve our lives,” said Bushiri in a statement. “We have to be alive to testify.”

After a delay of nearly 10 hours, Chakwera and his team were finally allowed to fly back to Lilongwe. Chakwera was furious.

His diplomatic triumph had turned into a major diplomatic

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incident; and, once again, he found himself at odds with Bushiri, despite their shared background in Malawi’s evangelical community.

Shepherd Huxley Bushiri was born on 20 February 1983 in Malawi’s northern district of Rumphi. Growing up, he was an average student, but he was always driven by his Christian faith.

One of his former teachers at the Moyale Barracks community day secondary school said that Bushiri did not pass his high school exam at the first attempt. “He was too much into SCOM [Students Christian Organisation of Malawi] activities,” the teacher recalled. “He was staying with his brother Misheck and was a member of the CCAP [Church of Central Africa Presbyterian] church. How he became a prophet is a mystery.”

A childhood friend, who asked not to be named, said that he remembers Bushiri as being secretive, creative and prone to prayer.

“Of course, Bushiri was always a prayer man, such that he can leave you concentrating on books and he goes out for a prayer arrangement. You could tell he was so much into religious things. Behaviour-wise I don’t think I remember him picking

a fight with anyone, apart from if friends provoked him. However, you could not trust him fully because he appeared very secretive,” said the friend.

Bushiri began his ministry in Mzuzu, the country’s third-largest city, and he made a name for himself among university students for his spiritual counsel on love and relationships.

Even then, however, he seemed to attract scandal, and was accused of impregnating a woman in his congregation. These accusations were later dismissed by a court.

From these beginnings, Bushiri built one of the largest, most influential and most lucrative ministries in Africa — the Enlightened Christian Gathering.

This growth was fuelled by the “miracles” he claimed to perform: curing people of HIV, making the blind see, uplifting the impoverished and, on at least one occasion, walking on air.

At the same time, he was accumulating enormous wealth, investing the tithes from churchgoers into everything from hospitality and real estate to transportation and mining. Bushiri’s net worth is thought to be more than R1-billion, and, unlike Malawi’s president, he has his own private plane.

But controversy was never far behind. Bushiri was in the headlines in 2017 after the Botswana government imposed visa restrictions on him, because the local branch of his church had failed to submit audit accounts. He has been repeatedly implicated in adultery, and in 2019 he was accused by two churchgoers of rape (allegations that he strongly denies).

Question marks also surrounded how he was able to grow his fortune so quickly. One notable critic is Lazarus Chakwera’s son. In 2017, Nick Chakwera sharply criticised Bushiri on social media for exploiting his congregation to make a profit.

Both Chakweras are major figures in Malawi’s evangelical church movement, and Bushiri did not take kindly to the rebuke. “My warning is going to [Lazarus] Chakwera because I expected him, as a man of God and also a politician, to realise that his son has made a mistake,” said Bushiri at the time. “He should tell his son to leave me alone.”

It was in South Africa that Bushiri’s controversial commercial activities appear to have finally caught up with him. After a yearslong investigation, the Hawks — the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation - arrested Bushiri and his wife Mary last month. They were charged with fraud and money-laundering worth more than R100-million.

In a statement, one of Bushiri’s alleged victims, Felicia Sibeko, said she had invested R130 000 in Bushiri’s gold, forex and commodities scheme. “I got the money from selling my taxi, which used to put food on the table for my family. Ever since the investment, my life has been ruined. He has made me and

many others promises with huge returns, something which didn’t happen,” she said. “Instead, I got nothing but lies and promises day after day with the last excuse from him being that money was frozen. I invested to better my life and that of my family.

Instead I have become a laughing stock in my community. When people see me they laugh, and say I believed and prayed with Papa Bushiri and he took my money.”

Bail for the couple was posted at R200 000 each. Apparently, it should have been even higher. Undeterred by losing R400 000 between them, Shepherd and Mary Bushiri fled the country last Friday. It is still not clear how exactly they were able to cross South Africa’s borders — although we can rule out Chakwera’s jet.

But if Bushiri was expecting a warm reception at home, he may have miscalculated. On Monday, Malawi’s police issued a warrant for the arrest of Bushiri and his wife. On Tuesday, they raided their house, but did not find them. On Wednesday, having run out of options, the Bushiris turned themselves in. They will oppose South Africa’s anticipated request for extradition, although have not yet stated on which grounds they intend to do so.

“We don’t know which treaty they will use. For now, it will be preemptive to cite the grounds [on which] we will challenge extradition, but we will definitely challenge it,” said their lawyer, Wapona Kita.

This means the case could drag on for some time, if the example of another high-profile extradition saga is anything to go by. It took six years of protracted legal battles before Malawi was able to extradite Misozi Chanthunya from South Africa; the case went all the way to the Supreme Court of Appeal. In the end, however, justice was served, and Chanthunya was convicted of murder.

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Celebration OF life

Late President Jerry Rawlings, a showman President of varied ideologies: You hate to love him.

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rom violent beginnings, escaped death by future and he helped shape and secure Ghana’s middle income status and allowed democracy to take root and today after Kwame Nkrumah, the most admired and spoken about President of Ghana is Jerry Rawlings who suddenly passed away at the age of 73. His story is inspiring to young Ghanaians who are made to believe they can also dream of becoming anything they desire in their homeland, Ghana.

As he departs, he leaves Ghana with many questions.

One, what is the future of Ghana with the departure of a charismatic former leader who was still very present in the day to day life of Ghana?

Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings leaves a trail of contradictions that will divide African opinion for years to come. Ghana’s longest serving head of state, he shaped the country’s fortunes, first as head of a military junta and then as an elected president who sealed the country’s transition to democracy and greater prosperity.

En route, and with characteristic flamboyance during his two decades in power, Rawlings straddled ideologies leaping from populist revolutionary to market realist as well as styles, discarding his air force boiler suit for traditional gonja smocks.

Yet Rawlings, who has died aged 73 reportedly of Covid-19 complications, may be best remembered for how he came to prominence in a bloody 1979 coup, arrested, tried, set free by his fellow associates and rules with a strong fist. The execution of three former heads of state by firing squad was out of character for Ghana. Yet, for some, that “Rawlings moment” was a necessary corrective that resonates still

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among West Africans frustrated by corrupt and self-serving elites.

To sympathisers of the victims and several hundred disappeared in ensuing years - it was a terrifying time and its scars are yet to heal. The son of a Ghanaian mother from the coastal town of Keta, who died this year at the age of 101, and a Scottish pharmacist who never recognised him, Rawlings went to Ghana’s premier school, Achimota, where he met his future wife Nana Konadu, with whom he would have four children. On graduation, he joined the air force, becoming a star pilot before being sprung to power, aged 32, by junior officers who were similarly revolted

by Ghana’s decline at the hands of its ruling generals.

“His humility, his air of sincerity and his consistent declarations on behalf of the poor and oppressed, provide an embarrassing contrast to the arrogant pomp and circumstance of conventional elitist politics in Ghana,” wrote Barbara Harrell-Bond, an American anthropologist, after interviewing him at the time.

These characteristics contributed to

Rawlings’ enduring appeal among the urban poor. Rawlings always maintained the executions were necessary to appease public anger. Only weeks later, he handed power to an elected government, but returned by force in 1981, in a second coup. He set up popular defence committees, championed grass roots democracy, and aligned himself with the likes of Fidel Castro, Muammer Gaddafi and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua. But price controls emptied the shelves, shortages became chronic, and captains of industry fled. By 1983, the country was at rock bottom. None of his revolutionary friends came forward with material help. So Rawlings went to the IMF and World Bank instead.

In came an alphabet soup of development programmes and a tough structural adjustment.

This moulded the country’s evolution and previewed the economic austerity that would come for other indebted African countries.

Currency devaluation hit the poor very hard.

Redundant civil servants emigrated, draining Ghana of its best brains and economic working force. The economy stabilised and began to grow, but remained hampered by its dependence on gold and cocoa for export earnings.

In the words of Joe Abbey, once his finance minister, Rawlings controlled a country trundling down the runway that never quite took off. As a mercurial showman, Rawlings may have been uncomfortable with this, but he retained his populist touch.

He honed the art of the stunt - clearing gutters and appearing on his motorbike to admonish policemen who extorted money. Meanwhile, Ghana developed. At the dawn of this century, more Ghanaians had access to electricity than any

other African pupil of the World Bank. The foundations for the country’s middle income status had been laid. Nor had Rawlings become the tyrant that his volatile nature suggested he might.

In 2001, he stood down as president and handed over power to an elected member of the opposition. This strengthened a democratic transition favourably tested in a 2008 presidential vote decided peacefully by fewer than 42,000 votes. Having eschewed ostentatious wealth, Rawlings died humbly in a state hospital. A wistful friend commenting this month on his death suggested that Rawlings’ pragmatism had served Ghana well.

But he blamed the former fighter pilot for never showing remorse to his victims and for falling short of his foremost goal. “He certainly loved his country and in his own way did his best. But if his legacy was supposed to be ridding society of corruption, he failed.”

The world pulse and wait when this illustrious son of Ghana will be buried. Whatever side of the coin you are, Rawlings would forever be remembered not only in Ghana for the rest of Africa and the world in general.

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Burundi tells UN to close local office by January 2021

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urundi has told the United Nations secretary general that the office of the organisation’s special envoy must shut by the end of the year. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres recently asked that the office remain in operation for one more year owing to a “fragile” situation in the country but the Burundi government does not accept the recommendation and requested that the office be closed by the end of this year.

The envoy’s office was established in 2016 to track tension in Burundi, which had plunged the country into a political crisis a year earlier when then President Pierre Nkurunziza ran for a disputed third term.

In a notice seen by the press and confirmed by a senior Burundian diplomat, the foreign affairs ministry notified Guterres of “the formal closure and liquidation of the office of the special envoy to Burundi on December 31, 2020.”

UN officials in New York said the body did not intend to comment immediately.

The UN sought to extend the envoy’s mission by a year despite a positive change on the part of new President Evariste Ndayishimiye, who took office after Nkurunziza died in June 2020, describing the situation in Burundi as still “fragile”.

The foreign affairs ministry replied by commenting that a UN “political presence” was no longer “pertinent” given that the situation was now “calm and stable” and a recent election had led to an “historic political transition”.

“Our decision is sovereign and irrevocable, we no longer need an office that fosters the idea of a crisis that exists only in the minds of certain foreign powers,” ministry source said. The source was likely referring to the European Union and some western countries.

A UN diplomat said on condition of anonymity that Burundi’s decision was possibly aimed at “negotiating a more flexible political relation with the UN.” In its note, the Burundi foreign ministry said that “socio-economic development is the only leading domain that requires assistance” from the UN.

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COLUMN Column:

‘THE UNUSUAL CHRISTMAS’

By Eva Nakato

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ittle boys chase after a couple of chicken, proceed with them to the kitchen after ‘arresting’ them. The older boys return with stems of pine tree and immediately move to decorate them.

There is so much life and activity in this seemingly large family homestead. New clothes, glittery decor, irresistible aroma of African cuisine, not forgetting the endless laughter of the adults who are sharing a drink in the backyard.

On this particular day, everything seems to be in perfect condition.

As a Christian family, this was a time of the year we had spent the better part of the year waiting for. Yeah you guessed right, Christmas day!

Even when we turned into adults, it was family tradition for all of us to converge at our grandparents’ home for Christmas celebrations. Ours is such a large extended family with over 50 members.

So this time of the year was utilized as a family reunion of sorts.

However, this year’s Christmas is going to be a strange one for me. First, my grandmother is no more. She passed on a few months ago (not due to COVID-19 though). I don’t remember ever celebrating any single Christmas without her around.

Secondly, our family reunion is not going to take place. We are trying to protect our lovely grandfather by minimizing physical contact with him. His advanced age makes him very vulnerable to Covid-19. This implies that most of us won’t spend Christmas with him. I can’t imagine spending Christmas while away from Grandpa!

Also, it won’t be possible for me to go for an outing by

the lakeside as I have always done for the better part of my adult life. This is due to the restrictions on gathering in certain public places in order to curb the spread of

Covid-19.

Sounds pretty difficult, right?

Well, this is not going to be the first bizarre Christmas in my life. In fact, I had given up on the idea of ever celebrating Christmas in my life.

Back in 2013, my mother had been ill and bedridden for close to a year with an unknown illness. On the 24th of December, doctors suggested that we take her home for Christmas just to let her celebrate it with family since she had been hospitalized for the better part of that year.

I immediately called my grandmother and informed her of the good news. She was overjoyed.

The following day was Christmas day. Back home, preparations had been made and everyone was eagerly waiting for my mother’s return.

At around 1pm as my sister and one of my aunties had headed out to get some necessities, I was in the room with my mother when she breathed her last!

At my grandparents’ home, what was supposed to be a happy Christmas celebration turned into a vigil! That was the most terrific time of my life.

My mother was finally laid to rest the following day, and that was the last time I ever celebrated Christmas with my family until last year, 2019.

This year’s Christmas was supposed to be another one for me to celebrate but well, I and you already know that this is not going to be possible due to the reasons I revealed to you earlier on.

Anyways, regardless we move. Christmas being that special time of the year, give it the honour it deserves. Make some time for yourself, family as well as friends. Dedicate this year’s Christmas to love and gratitude.

And, please keep safe. Covid-19 is still much present.

Merry Christmas and a prosperous new year 2021! Wishing you joyful celebrations.

Eva Nakato is a Ugandan based writer and she wants to read from you so write her through info@thevoicenewsmagazine.com www.thevoicenewsmagazine.com

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Bushiri doesn’t care about lost house, says ‘my life is more important’

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he couple fled to Malawi last month because of ‘safety and security issues’ which they claim has been on since 2015. It would be recalled that the leader of the Enlightened Christian Gathering (ECG) church, Shepherd Bushiri says he doesn’t care about the Centurion property he forfeited to the South Africa government after failing to appear in court at the end of October 2020 after he was granted bill and he seem to have escape from the country.

He said in a statement after the court ruling: “I am informed that some of my assets in South Africa have been confiscated by authorities to which I say: ‘My right to life is more important than any asset in this world’.”

Reports have it that the property is situated in Midstream Estate, Centurion valued at R5.5 million. This was forfeited along with the couple’s combined bail money of R400, 000. The court took the decision after it was made known by the press that the couple violated their bail conditions and they have left the country without being noticed and fled to Malawi.

Bushiri and his wife, Mary, appeared before a Malawian court in mid-November after handing themselves to Malawi police

for what they call protective arrangement rather than being arrested as claimed by the African press.

In his ruling, the magistrate ordered their unconditional release, saying their arrest was illegal. “Whatever has happened today, I don’t see it as our victory nor our lawyers. God has won.

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Tomorrow is better than today,” said Bushiri.

Bushiri, his wife, and the three other accused were arrested in October in connection with fraud, money laundering and theft worth more than R102 million. The couple fled to Malawi because of “safety and security issues since 2015” – matters which got worse after they were granted bail, they said in a statement.

“There have been clear and evident attempts to have myself, my wife and my family killed and despite our several attempts to report to authorities, there has never been State protection. Our coming to Malawi, hence, is a tactical withdrawal from the Republic of South Africa solely meant to preserve our lives.

“These attempts have been heightened with recent spates of arrests and detentions that we felt the only way for us to clear our names before the law is to ensure that our lives are preserved.

My wife and I strongly believe in our innocence but this cannot be proved if our lives are not preserved. We have to be alive to testify to our innocence.

“Against this background, we have come to a painful conclusion that what my wife and I have faced in the Republic of South Africa, since 2015, is purely persecution not prosecution,” said Bushiri.

Business as usual after Bushiri hosts live church service

The Enlightened Christian Gathering leader and his wife Mary are now considered fugitives by South African authorities, after fleeing to Malawi but despite violating his bail conditions, self-proclaimed prophet Shepherd Bushiri took to online to hold his first virtual church service since fleeing to Malawi last month which was well attended by his followers around South Africa and other places in Southern Africa.

Although they face fraud, theft and money laundering charges to the tune of R102 million, and were granted bail of R200, 000 each. South African authorities are now pursuing an official extradition process to return the pair to stand trial for their alleged crimes in South Africa.

It is still not known exactly how they managed to leave South Africa.

Bushiri said he would approach the Malawian government for assistance, and reportedly has a number of demands for the South African government to meet before he and his wife returned to stand trial.

Bushiri voiced “safety and security issues” for he and his wife, saying the threats escalated when they got out of jail. He also said they were in Malawi temporarily.

In another development, a Malawian government official has declared that the Malawian government will handle the extradition with care and would not be pressured to hand over its citizens.

Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Ronald Lamola has revealed that the South African government expects to send documents of the extradition process of fugitive pastor, Shepherd Bushiri and his wife, Mary, as prescribed by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) protocol.

“We expect them to send the extradition papers in two weeks instead of the 30 days set by SADC. “It’s date we have set ourselves as the central authority because we understand the urgency of the matter and upon sending the document we will communicate with our colleagues in Malawi with the requests that have been mentioned in the documents,” he said This came after a Cabinet meeting was held on 18 November.

The Bushiris violated their bail conditions by skipping the country to Malawi.

Speaking to the media, Lamola said Cabinet was “satisfied”

with the manner in which the justice, crime, prevention and security cluster had handled the Bushiris’ matter. However, the minister added that it had not yet been established how the couple escaped the country.

“Cabinet was also briefed on the issue of Mr. Shepherd and Mrs. Mary Bushiri, who fled to Malawi while out on bail following charges of fraud and money laundering.

“I don’t want to fuel any further speculation on how they fled South Africa, but warrants of arrest have already been issued and they have been reflagged by international organization Interpol in the process. After that then the provisional arrest will be able to kick start the extradition process under SADC protocols.

“They will without a doubt be back in South Africa so they can stand trial and we assure them that the legal process will be fair, as it has always been.

“We are confident that the Malawian government will handle the extradition, and the matter overall, with care. We believe that the Malawian judiciary is robust and capable of withstanding pressure on any matter,” he said.

The Bushiris were due in court on the matter in January 2021. The first warrant of arrest was issued for the couple last month, while a second warrant of arrest was issued by the North Gauteng High Court early this month.

They were each required to regularly present themselves to authorities as part of complying with their bail conditions and that they have failed to do.

Compiled by Nica Richards

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Our diversity should be our strength and not di

C

omrade Sunny Ofehe is a Nigeria-born; Dutch environmental rights activist and political activist whose activities focus on the environmental degradation in the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria and in extension the general condition of the people of Nigeria. He does not shy away from expressing his opinion on matters of national interest from time to time.

He has lived and settled in the Netherlands since 28th November 1995 after he fled the country under the late military dictator, Sani Abacha.

Comrade Ofehe founded a non-governmental organization called Hope for the Niger Delta Campaigns (HNDC) headquartered in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in 2005. HNDC has focused on bringing the plight of the people of the Niger Delta to international awareness. The HNDC facilitates dialogue with all concerned from community to governmental level, such activities have exposed his life to danger several times but according to him, it is a price worth paying to see his people treated fairly and justly in sharing and distributing of natural resources of the country. He has taken his fight to the door steps of the Royal Dutch Shell in The Hague and brought them to court.

He started a publication - Niger Delta Diaspora magazine called “Inside Niger Delta Magazine”, all as part of his efforts to expose the plight of the people in the Niger Delta region.

In 2017, Ofehe joined the political race to become Governor of Delta state of Nigeria, an adventure that we are sure he has not abandoned but for a later date. Now he is involved in promoting the interest of the people of Nigeria to his vast international networks and bringing development to his people and reducing the dependency on the government to solve all the nation’s problems.

Despite his very busy schedule we pinned him down for this exclusive interview on the state of the nation and most recently the global cry of Nigerians to end SARs and restructure the country. We wanted to hear his take on this national matter and he did not disappoint us.

Listen and read excerpts from the interview.

TV: Northern leaders recently met in Kaduna where they accused the EndSARS protesters of seeking to dismember the country. What is your opinion on this?

Comrade Ofehe: On the accusation of the EndSARS protesters by the Northern elders that the protesters are seeking to dismember the country, I consider this accusation preposterous and lacking any iota of merit.

This presumption is rather a baseless accusation.

We must remember that the matter of SARS and Police brutality in the country has been a public discussion for a long time. There is hardly any Nigerian today that has not experienced some form of police brutality even including people from the Northern part 34

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of the country. It shouldn’t surprise anyone and we must not play any form of politics with it. Like I said earlier, it’s a matter that affects us all.

The sad reality is that successive governments have failed to take a proactive action to end police brutality. So the recent actions from them towards innocent citizens generated public anger that led to the recent violent protests across the country.

Though, I must admit that some of the protests turned violent with wanton destruction of public and private properties and looting. This is usually expected when hoodlums hijack or infiltrate any peaceful protests.

ivisive in Nigeria says Comrade Sunny Ofehe The protests were not targeted towards any part of the country, as the composition of persons that took part in the protests, cut across all the geographical and ethnical section of the country including the North.

We saw protesters from all tribes, religion and varying age groups coming together in one of the most sophisticated forms of peaceful protests not seen in any part of the world. Despite being peaceful, people came together to show the world that we could be our neighbor’s keeper. It was more like a carnival with sharing of food, drinks and medical materials.

To brand such a peaceful and well-coordinated action by the protesters dismembering of the country by a supposedly elite group of Northern leaders undermines the protesters rights to peaceful assembly.

People have the right to demonstrate peacefully and Governments should respect international law and let them do so.

TV: They also called for censorship of social media.

What is your perspective on this?

Comrade Ofehe: It is a fundamental human right for people to gather to celebrate or to air grievances, in public spaces and online. The UN Human Rights Committee, whose experts monitor how countries implement the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights advise that Governments cannot block internet networks or close down any website because of their roles in organizing or soliciting a peaceful assembly.

Governments cannot prohibit protests by making generalized references to public order or public safety, or an unspecified risk of potential violence, by using the reason to censor the social media. The rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, extends to digital activities, this protection of the right to peaceful assembly extends to remote participation, including online assemblies.

Though, activities of social media users can actually be alarming. Fake news spreads quickly with social media, which is not peculiar to Nigeria alone. We must admit that some stories and pictures shared on the ENDSARS protest were founded on falsehood. These actions by a few unscrupulous groups must

not be allowed to diminish the overwhelming powers and advantages of social media usage. The right to peaceful assembly extends to online activities. Therefore, the governments should not block or hinder Internet connectivity in relation to peaceful assemblies. Some tyrannical countries have censored social media activities in their countries but it never helped in any way. Remember, the matter social media censorship has already been taken care of, when Nigerians overwhelmingly rejected the bill at the Senate.

TV: The Inspector General of Police and the Senate president also attended that regional meeting.

What in your opinion are there implications of a security chief and the nation’s number 3 person attending a regional meeting?

Comrade Ofehe: Let us look at it this way, both the Inspector General of Police and Senate President are from the Northern part of the Country.

Considering the caliber of personalities attending such events, it is not out of place for both parties to attend if invited.

It is usually the practice to invite dignitaries from one’s area to attend such a forum. Don’t forget that the Presidency also requested cabinet Ministers to go back to their various States and meet with their constituents at the peak of the protest. So there is nothing wrong with attending such meetings. Though some persons from the North seem not to agree with disbanding SARS, there is no intentional bias to take side with one’s people as against other regions.

TV: Are you not scared that the police are virtually on strike and the president is not ordering them back to work?

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Continued from Page 35 Comrade Ofehe: The EndSARS protest has two-dimensional effects on the Nigerian Police. The first is that it exposed the police brutality suffered by many Nigerians while at the same time exposing the poor condition suffered by our brave police officers in uniform.

At the beginning of the protests the police were drafted to maintain peace and order while at the same time protecting private and public properties until the protests were hijacked by hoodlums, the police and their stations became targets of attacks. We even saw how prisons were taken over and prisoners freed in some states across the country.

In the aftermath of the protests turning violent, the police officers became victims. There were horrible videos and pictures circulated on social media showing police officers being beaten and some even burnt alive. When you have a situation where your workstations become targets of arson and officers wearing uniforms are attacked on the street then you have to take precautions. The precautions some of the officers have taken are to go to work not wearing the uniform.

This has made most police officers virtual on the street.

Though the whole protest is for the overall benefit of the police.

The President has ordered a judicial review of what happened and most importantly has agreed to look into the welfare of police offices. The both arms of the National Assembly have also agreed to push for police reform while ready to approve meaningful police reform bills.

As for the President not ordering them back to work, that has always been the man’s style of handling issues of National discussed. Calm and relaxed in the face of National outcry, this method as applied by Mr. President doesn’t translate into taking sides. It is just a style of leadership approach adopted by him, though Nigerians don’t seem to like it.

TV: There are issues around IPOB causing unease in the South South, what is your take on their agitation and the method they’ve adopted?

Comrade Ofehe: The protest took more prominence in the South/South and South/West region of the Country. IPOB agitation has been on for long, but their recent disturbance is taking advantage of the ENDSARS protest to drag the South/ South region to sympathy with their course. They wanted to impress the militants to probably take up arms and this is the hijacking the Government is talking about, that the genuine course by the ENDSARS Protestants has been hijacked.

Everyone who knows me and what I stand for can testify to the fact that I am a strong proponent of a united Nigeria. In our nation’s diversity, I see a lot of strength and that has been shown in the cause of our nascent history. What Nigerian needs to benefit economically from our diversity is patriotic leadership.

Countries like China, Russia and India are global economic players because of the population and diversity. These are part of the many characteristics that make up Nigeria. So we must not allow the greed of politicians and agitators divide us with ethnicity and religion. The June 12th Presidential election that offered our country Muslim-Muslim tickets, yet we all came 36

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together to make it the freest and fairest election in our history is the hallmark of our strength.

Therefore, I am not in support of the IPOB agitation and the violent method they adopt. Self-determination as the IPOB agitation can be categorized denotes the legal right of people to decide their own destiny in the international order. As we know Self-determination is a core principle of customary international law, which is also recognized as a general principle of law, enshrined in several international treaties. However, the general approach must be peaceful and diplomatic.

TV: There are fears that the country may be heading towards a major conflict.

What in your opinion can be done to avert this calamity?

Comrade Ofehe: On the issue of the country heading towards a major conflict. YES! People are now becoming more paranoid, especially as current economic hardship seems to be more prevalent on the people. Now they are taking it on their elected representatives in various tiers of government. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in a report about poverty and

inequality from September 2018 to October 2019, said 40% of people in Nigeria live below the poverty line. In Nigeria, poverty can be traced to low or declining levels of economic growth, income inequalities, unemployment, corruption, bad governance, diversion of funds into non-developmental projects, fund embezzlement, inappropriate macroeconomic policies, inadequate endowment of human capacity. There are structural issues bothering on governance and system failure as well. These issues should be looked into and addressed

as a matter of urgency. Issues such as the large remuneration given to government officials, agitations of restructuring, resource management, devolution of power to the Federating units, State and regional policing vis-Ă -vis true Federalism and recommendations of past national conferences should be looked into. We saw a lot of looting during the demonstrations and this can be attributed to the high rate of poverty among the

people in the country. Once the government can address these issues I have mentioned, the people will enjoy the benefits and the impending calamity can be avoided.

TV: How do you assess the war against terror in Nigeria against the backdrop of the recent rescue of an American by the United States’ special forces on the soil of Nigeria?

In all honesty, I am personally disappointed in the way the country has managed the war against terror. It is very disturbing when we hear how the Boko Haram terrorist group has overrun our military in the North East. We should not forget that the Nigerian military has had a very good reputation internationally and our strength and capacity made us the pride of Africa. The Nigerian military have led so many international peace missions in countries like Liberia and Sierra-Leone. To now see that we have not been able to declare full victory over our home terror group calls for national concern.

There is no sincerity in fighting the war against terror in Nigeria. There is a connivance of certain people at the top with the terrorists and sabotage of government sincere efforts in fighting terror. Government should therefore do more in the area of intelligence gathering so as to outsmart these terrorists.

Modern warfare now uses intelligence and unmanned drones to flush out enemy targets, our fight against Boko Haram should shift to this direction.

The United States successful operation in Nigeria soil points in that direction, and this is one approach being adopted in the modern day war against terror. So information gathering should be given more attention, as against moving troops to troubled zones, without proper fighting hardware and aerial backup.

TV: Some people feel that Nigeria has never been as divided as it is presently. What or whom do you think is responsible for this and how do we pull back from the brink?

Comrade Ofehe: Our country has never been more divided as it is today. This is the sad reality and it should give every

Nigerian serious concern. As I earlier said, our diversity should be our strength and not divisive.

Though the issue of division has always been there, however, the political class is more responsible in dividing the Nation further. Politicians have either played the ethnic or religious cards while seeking elective office. Rather than divide us with their rhetoric, they should use their campaigns and office to unite us as a people.

Religious differences also play a key role in this, but politics of concentrating more resources, developmental projects and appointments on one region, particularly where the President hails from to the detriment of other regions, contributes greatly in dividing the Nation.

So, a fair resource allocation, even distribution of projects and carrying the whole country along on the issue of political appointments and employment will unite us. As the saying goes, injustice somewhere, is seen as injustice everywhere.

TV: Some people talk Resource Control, some talk restructuring, some talk separation while some feel the country is just fine as it is. Where do you stand here?

Comrade Ofehe: Resource Control, Restructuring, Devolution

Comrade Ofehe with his business partner & friend, Prof. Dr. Ernest Franzek of Power etc are all elements of the Federal system of Government that we are professing to be practicing. However, what we practice is not true Federalism, as too much power is still concentrated in the center.

I strongly believe in true Federalism. Once we practice true federalism, every other mentioned element like resource control, restructuring will be embedded in our day governance.

Maybe then those who agitate for separation will embrace our newfound system of governance.

The journey to a prosperous Nigeria requires each of us to work together in harmony. This way we can achieve the dreams of our founding Fathers.

TV: Thank you for your frank discussion and wishing you success with your future endeavours.

Comrade Ofehe: Thank you too for the opportunity and let us continue to promote the unity of Nigeria, as we have no other country we can truly call our own. www.thevoicenewsmagazine.com

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N

Oil trader Vitol silent about its activities in high-risk Nigeria

ew report criticises Swiss-Dutch oil giant for lack of transparency and calls for mandatory due diligence.

Oil trader Vitol is one of the world’s biggest companies, yet its operations have largely remained under the radar. A new report by SOMO and CISLAC sheds light on Vitol’s activities in the high-risk oil sector of Nigeria, questions the company’s lack of transparency and failure to comply with international standards for responsible business conduct, and calls for new legislation to hold companies like Vitol accountable for the impact of their activities abroad.

Public information about Vitol is scarce. As a privatelyowned company, the global oil trader shares very little information about its activities, ownership and human rights policies compared to stock-listed companies of similar size such as Apple, and much less than is expected by international

standards.

High risks This lack of transparency is problematic given the high risks

associated with oil trading. In many oil producing countries, oil revenues comprise a significant portion of the government budget and, in some cases, are the country’s largest revenue stream. This is true in Nigeria, where oil sales are also notoriously opaque. This combination of very high potential gains and opacity surrounding oil sales has proved conducive to corruption and fraud. Vitol and other oil traders have been named in relation to various controversial practices. Vitol denies involvement in these controversies, but the company also chooses not to disclose information that could improve transparency and accountability in the sector.

Vitol’s lack of transparency also extends to how it addresses human rights and environmental impacts in its supply chain. This is a serious concern, as the Nigerian oil sector is frequently associated with severe social and environmental impacts.

Chinedu Bassey, Programme Manager at the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC): “In Nigeria, people are confronted with the grim realities of the oil industry on a daily basis, whether because of the pollution during exploration, or because of the corruption that deprives the Nigerian state of the necessary funds for healthcare, education and other essential services.”

Saskia van Drunen, Senior Researcher at the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO): “The international normative framework for responsible business conduct stipulates that companies operating in high-risk sectors and contexts, should have particularly stringent due diligence procedures in place, including enhanced, proactive communication about how they address human rights and environmental risks associated with their activities. Vitol fails to do so.”

Urgent need for binding due diligence legislation. The case of Vitol, a company with Dutch roots currently headquartered in Switzerland, highlights the urgent need for legislation both in the Netherlands (where Vitol was founded) and at the European level to make robust, risk-based due diligence mandatory for companies.

Concrete legislative proposals for mandatory due diligence are currently being discussed in the EU and in various national parliaments, including the Netherlands. Also, negotiations for a UN treaty on business and human rights will start again next week. In the meantime, governments should step up their efforts to ensure that companies domiciled in their territories abide by the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

Contact: Camiel Donicie, c.donicie@somo.nl Tel: +31 20 6391291

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Bloodbath in Uganda ahead of Presidential polls.

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ganda presidential elections would not be held until 2021 but already bloodshed is taking place right now and the world is watching with amaze fear that it would get bloodier in the coming weeks and months before the polls.

Uganda is not unfamiliar with electoral violence and

accusation of electoral malpractices but this time around, the President is being challenged by a much younger opponent who is gathering momentum among the younger population and adults who are tired of the one party rule of President Museveni who is contesting as President after being in power since 1986. His biggest challenger is a 34 year old former musician turned politician, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, known by his stage name Bobi Wine, is a Ugandan politician, singer, actor, and businessman. He currently serves as Member of Parliament for Kyadondo County East constituency in Wakiso District, in Uganda’s Central Region. The government has tried to use all tactics in the book and outside of the book to stop his candidature but to no avail. He would be on the ballot but there is rumour of plant to assassinate him and blame it on other opposition parties to the President party. As at press time, he was adopted during a political rally with his supporters and he was alleged to have violated the covid-19 protocols.

His whereabouts are known and protests by his 40

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supporters were met with violence reprisal from the military forces being used by the ruling party to intimidate opponents, many people were reported to have been shot and killed and their bodies removed by the military and taken away.

The military authority through the son of the president had threatened in the past that they would stop him at all cost if plans to disrupt the electoral process but the question is why would he want to do that as he plans to wrestle power off the long-time president at the polls. His only chance is to ensure that there is a free and fair election in Uganda. That desire is under threat as things continue to degenerate.

It would be recalled that long-time rival of the President, Dr. Besigye pulled out of the race on the grounds that the elections would not be free nor fair as President Museveni would not have a fair playing field. Those signs are emerging as his party continues to campaign across the country and the opposition is forbidden to campaign and where they tried to force their way through, they are met with violence attacks and killings by the armed forces being used by the government.

The senior Presidential Adviser for Special Operations, Lt. Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the son of the President has warned Robert Kyagukanyi (Bobi Wine) against jeopardizing peace saying he will be defeated. “I told you my younger brother that you can never intimidate us. We are much

stronger than you can ever imagine to be. If you want to fight we will simply defeat you. We want peace but if you attempt to fight us then bring it on�. Lt. General Muhoozi posted in a tweet recently.

In another statement, the police spokesperson confirmed they have arrested Bobi Wine and that if the allegations for which he is being held is uphold that he blocked the President convoy, he make face death penalty by hanging if found guilty. There are all sorts of attempts to stop the popularity of this young politician that is spreading as wildfire across Uganda. Museveni in his youth, fought through the powers of the gun to seize power and become President but he is under threat now with removal through political ballot and not gun. Time would tell if this young man and his coalition partners would succeed where many others failed.

Some citizens in Kampala accused the authorities of deliberately shooting and killing innocent citizens on the excuse of seeking opposition thugs aligned to Bobi Wine.

The people are angry and believe this is a sign of things to come before the elections in 2021. “The government wants to prevent the opposition by targeting the citizens and bring fear into them to abandon their voting rights and they can cook up their figures for the elections. It is not the first time they did it with Dr. Kizza Besigye but we would not fall into their tricks this time around�, a taxi driver in Kampala was quoted saying.

Mr. Bobi Wine was arrested accused of blocking the president convoy; the president himself has angrily said Bobi Wine does not have any right to abuse him and should be punished for that, according to the President he

calls me names; he has no right to do that. Well if that is the case, should his supporters be shot with live ammunition and killed?

The tension is high because a rumour has it that other opposition candidates are considering to support the young man, Bobi Wine who seems to be gaining a monitor that could unseat the President but the government would fight dirty to stop such moves.

A candidate needs to secure more than 50% of the vote to avoid a run-off with the second-ranked contender.

Ugandans are also voting in parliamentary elections, it is becoming a contest of young versus old, political elite versus inexperienced youths and opposition alliance versus the government political party and the establishment. We all cross our fingers to see how this contest plays out in Uganda in 2021. The battle and the heat is on already from 2020.

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Large Kenyan agribusiness under fire for assault and rape British supermarkets ban Kenyan avocados

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Kenyans have filed a lawsuit against the British agromultinational Camellia, the parent company of the Kenyan company Kakuzi. The latter is accused of having committed systematic human rights violations against workers and villagers living next to and on the plantation.

SOMO has been investigating the company since 2016, and helped bring the lawsuit in the UK. The court case was filed in June last year (2019) by people living on and around the Kakuzi plantation, including (former) employees.

“The Kenyan company owned by Camellia Plc is alleged to have committed systemic human rights abuses over many years to villagers who live next to their plantation. Having breached its duty of care, it should provide the victims with remedy, and act swiftly to prevent any further human rights issues” said Daniel Leader, who leads Leigh Day’s team of lawyers that handle this complaint. The case was served upon Camellia in July of this year.

Mary Kambo of the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) says: “Kakuzi workers and host communities have known nothing but terror in the last 50 years. As if pushing them out of their fertile ancestral land is not enough, Kakuzi is reported to rape, maim and kill. The company continues to make a complete mockery of what constitutes responsible business conduct even when it claims to contribute to advancing social practices in Kenya. It is baffling how Kakuzi behaves as if it is a law unto itself.”

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In reaction to this development, B r i t i s h supermarkets stop selling Kakuzi avocados.

It should be noted that Kakuzi grows avocados for British supermarkets such as Tesco, Sainsbury and Lidl.

Following the court case, and a front page article in the Sunday Times news paper, these supermarket chains decided last month to stop selling Kakuzi avocados.

Lydia de Leeuw is a Researcher with SOMO, says: “It is good news that they are now taking this seriously. As buyers they have a responsibility to make sure human rights are respected by their supplier. Instead of doing a “cut and run”, they should use their leverage to ensure that further human rights abuses are prevented and past abuses are remedied. So that in May, at the start of the new avocado season, Kakuzi’s avocados are not tainted with human right abuses.”

The human rights body would continue to work and monitor the situation and they would be up dating the press in the coming weeks or months if there is a change of attitude from the company towards the Kenyan community.

For more information about this case, or the long read, please contact Jenny Pannenbecker, j.pannenbecker@somo.nl, +31 20 6391291

25 years Gone: HOMEF Calls for Exoneration of Ken Saro-Wiwa and 8 Ogoni Leaders

H

ealth of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) has called for the exoneration of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the eight Ogoni leaders (Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel and John Kpuine), who were killed in 1995 by the Nigerian State on false murder charges tried by a kangaroo military tribunal.

These Ogoni activists who were members of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people were accused and executed under the Military dictatorship of Gen. Sani Abacha.

The accusation of complicity in the murder of four Ogoni chiefs was directly tied to the activists’ strong and unflinching stand against the polluting activities of the Royal Dutch Shell oil company known for their atrocious ruination of the Niger Delta.

Years later, even after the witnesses recounted their statements, admitting that they were bribed to bear false witnesses against Ken Saro-Wiwa and the others, there still has not been justice for the masterminded killing of these men. The execution of these men brought sanctions on Nigeria from the international community and led to Nigeria’s suspension from the Commonwealth of nations. The cause for which these men fought and were killed was validated by the August 2011 report of the Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland

by UNEP which revealed the depth of destruction of the soil, waters and air in Ogoniland.

It has been 25 years since the gruesome execution of Ken SaroWiwa and the 8 Ogoni leaders. HOMEF, in a statement called on the Nigerian government to exonerate Ken Saro-Wiwa and the 8 others as a step towards bringing the gruesome history to a close.

Nnimmo Bassey, the director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation, stated that “exonerating Ken Saro-Wiwa and the other Ogoni leaders is the least the government can do to acknowledge the travesty of justice against the victims, the Ogoni people and humanity.” He also

called for the recognition of these men by the Nigerian government, as heroes of environmental justice. Bassey added that “exonerating these men will bring a sense of recognition to the environmental struggles of the Niger Delta people and highlight the needed accountability on the part of the government and companies operating in the region while also showing the world that Nigeria is no longer a state that criminalizes dissent.”

HOMEF believes that if Ken Saro-Wiwa were to be alive today, the demands captured in the Ogoni Bill of Rights of 1990 would still form the bedrock of demands for the respect of environmental rights, cultural dignity and re-source democracy. He would not be silent in the face of continued ecological degradation. And we must not be silent, because as Saro-wiwa wrote, Silence Would be Treason.

By Ogechi Okanya Cookey Communications ogechi@homef.org

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Gambia – Lured Into return By Yahya Jammeh, Black Africans Dazed with Rejection of Draft Constitution

By Kebba Ansu Manneh

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n 2010, Yahya Jammeh made a spectacular pronunciation offering citizenship to all Black African descents in the Diaspora willing to resettle in The Gambia. Hundreds of returnees have since stayed in the Gambia though Jammeh’s pronunciation has never backed legally. With the rejection of the draft constitution last month, the dreams of these Black African returnees to be Gambians have now vanished.

When in 2010 former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh offered citizenship to all Black African descendants willing to resettle in the country, dozens arrived in The Gambia to fulfill the dream of a “Return to ancestral roots”. But

resettlement into the local Gambian communities by these Black African descents became quasi impossible.

They consequently formed a pressure group called Africa Diaspora Returnees Association (ADRA), to help in obtaining legal documents for its members, with little headways made so far.

Home-comer Shakina Chinedu owns a consultancy firm in The Gambia and is equally Head of Legal Affairs, ADRA. She has been in the forefront of the campaign to acquire citizenship for the disillusioned candidates to citizenship in The Gambia.

obtaining citizenship and resettlement in The Gambia quickly proved to be a station of the cross for this small community in the making.

Shikina Chinedu, Head of Legal Affairs, ADRA

“In 2010, we were lucky to acquire ten citizenship for Home-comers during the Roots Home-coming Festival from the previous administration. However, we realized that legally this type of pronouncement is not sustainable any longer” says Shakina Chinedu, a returnee living in The Gambia for 15 years, now resident of Brusubi.

Though the number of African home-comers kept growing since 2010, obtaining citizenship and

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“In 2018, we decided to work with the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC), by presenting our suggestion paper on an exceptional clause for descendants of the enslaved to be given automatic citizenship in the country but all these efforts have been shattered by the National assembly members’ rejection of the draft constitution,” said Shikina Chinedu.

The Home-comers obtained that the draft Constitution guarantees the acquisition of citizenship to this minority group that is frequent victim of stigmatization, alienation and discrimination occasionally springing from security agents and local people in The Gambia.

According to Shikina Chinedu, the Constitutional Review Commission did its part of the job to address the issue by incorporating part of the ADRA position paper.

“Our biggest disappointment came from the National Assembly Members who rejected the much awaited Draft Constitution. Section 188 of the Gambian constitution is

asking for 15 years before returnees can be able to acquire citizenship in The Gambia. Obviously, waiting for So many years might be quite difficult for returnees above 50 years of age. What we are suggesting is reducing this 15 years to a shorter period of 4-5 years so that those above 50 years can be captured. This will allow them to contribute their quota to national development initiative”, said ADRA Legal Officer.

Jeanette Brown, the Secretary General of ADRA

Africa Diaspora Returnees Association (ADRA) now counts over 300 members. In the wake of contributing to the draft Constitution, Jeanette Brown, the Secretary General of ADRA was all the way busy scheduling meetings and engaging local and State authorities. She told The

Chronicle that obtaining Gambian citizenship and resettlement for Black African Returnees is more of an illusion than the reality.

“Most people we talk to will only offer sweet and pleasing words but no real action is taken to offer citizenship to returnees. We have been engaging various stakeholders including the CRC but at this moment, we have little or no hope after the rejection of the draft constitution. We have been very disappointed that the draft Constitution has been rejected by the National assembly. We will not relent in our

efforts to obtain citizenship for our members most of whom are over 50 years and cannot wait for 15 years to become Gambians”.

Keisha Daniel, Media officer for ADRA disclosed that her organization is our to give support to Returnees who want to resettle in The Gambia, create a smooth bridge for repatriation of returnees, establish business and homes, engage in charity works and helping residents on information, relative business registrations and taxations as well as lobbying for citizenship.

Keisha Daniel, Media officer for ADRA

“We started here and we are demanding to return here, resettle and reconnect with our ancestors who were forcefully taken away from here to other parts of the world. We are not only expecting to return and fold our hands but also to giving back to our communities for the opportunities to rebuild our lives in The Gambia”.

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POST-ELECTION FALLOUT:

Tanzania: Magufuli denounces UN human rights report, Tundu Lissu flees the country

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he head of Tanzania’s largest opposition CHADEMA, Tundu Lissu, has fled Tanzania for fear of reprisals against opposition figures in the aftermath of the country’s questionable general election that saw John Magufuli re-elected for a second term.

Pictures on social media on 10 November show Lissu at Julius Nyerere International airport in Dar es Salaam waving before boarding a flight to Germany, and then onwards to Belgium – his final destination his lawyers confirmed to the press. .

His departure comes as Tanzania denies any claims of moving to terminate the opposition that proved to be a strong force in the leadup and during the elections that were called out by the international community and observers for violations, including fraud and intimidation.

Lissu and his family had spent a few days at the German Ambassador’s residence in Dar es Salaam on claims of asylum. He says he had received credible information of plans to threaten his life.

But the government has denounced those claims of Lissu and other opposition: “I don’t know why opposition are claiming their lives are in danger, this is a free nation that respects the rights of all citizens,” says Hassan Abbas,

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a government spokesperson who also serves as permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information.

Lissu told International media that threats against him have increased after he challenged the re-election of President John Magufuli.

A fierce critic of Magufuli, he has returned to Belgium, where he had been living for three years before his return to run as a presidential candidate in the election.

The prominent lawyer survived an assassination attempt in 2017 while attending parliamentary session in Dodoma, where he was shot 16 times.

The Magufuli administration has intensified arrests of opposition politicians barely a month after the president was sworn in for a second five-year term on 5 November.

On Sunday 8 November, the former Arusha Urban Constituency MP Godbless Jonathan Lema was arrested at Kajiado County after attempting to flee to neighbouring Kenya.

Kenya’s media reported that Lema, accompanied by his wife Neema and their three children, had crossed over at the Namanga border. They have all been released.

“The police pursued and intercepted us at Ilbisil, where they took us to the local police post. I did not want them to lock up Lema in Ilbissil, owing to its proximity

to the Tanzanian border,” his lawyer George Luchiri Wajackoyah told Kenyan media.

Other prominent opposition facing arrests include: • Freeman Mbowe who is Chadema chairperson, • Isaya Mwita, former Dar es Salaam mayor • Boniface Jacob, former mayor of Ubungo municipality The opposition have been demanding that the election be repeated, citing irregularities and calls for massive protests; an unlikely move given Magufuli has been sworn-in and is quickly steering the country out of discussions of voting day.

“Elections have passed, elections have passed, elections have passed, it’s a right time to unite and bring development to our country,” Magufuli said last month at his inauguration address in Dodoma.

While members of the opposition continue to face difficult conditions, Magufuli’s government has rejected a report released

by UN the human rights commissioner Michelle Bachelet who condemned the escalation of human rights in Tanzania.

In her report, Bachelet, says she is disturbed by reports of continued intimidation, harassment and arrests of opposition following the election. “I urge the Tanzanian authorities to respect and facilitate exercise of the rights to freedom of expression and of peaceful assembly,” she adds.

Bachelet goes on: “The tense situation in the country will not be diffused by silencing those who challenge the outcome of the

elections but rather through a participatory dialogue.”

The report highlights that in the aftermath of the general election on 28 October, at least 150 opposition leaders and members have been arrested in mainland Tanzania and in semi-autonomous Zanzibar.

While most have subsequently been released, at least 18 reportedly remain in custody, she notes. But Sifuni Mchome, Tanzania’s Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Constitutional and Legal Affairs has rejected UN claims.

“It’s possible that they are speaking about Tanzania but it is also possible that these are just rumours,” Mchome told reporters on Wednesday 11 November in Dar es Salaam.

Since the general election, events unfolding are a rude wakeup call for Tanzanians who see their country slipping further away from a democratic state as it falls under the sole control of the ruling party the CCM.

By Abdul Halim, in Dar es Salaam

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Flashback

Nigerians returned from Europe face stigma and growing hardship

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igerians returned from Europe face stigma and growing hardship ‘There’s no job here, and even my family is ashamed to see me, coming back empty-handed with two kids.’

The EU is doubling down on reducing migration from Africa, funding both voluntary return programmes for those stranded along migration routes before they reach Europe while also doing its best to increase the number of rejected asylum seekers it is deporting.

The two approaches serve the same purpose for Brussels, but the amount of support provided by the EU and international aid groups for people to get back on their feet is radically different depending on whether they are voluntary returnees or deportees.

For now, the coronavirus pandemic has slowed voluntary return programmes and significantly reduced the number of people being deported from EU countries, such as Germany.

Once travel restrictions are lifted, however, the EU will likely resume its focus on both policies.

The EU has made Nigeria one of five priority countries in Africa in its efforts to reduce the flow of migrants and asylum seekers. This has involved pouring hundreds of millions of euros into projects in Nigeria to address the “root causes” of migration and funding a “voluntary return” programme run by the UN’s migration agency, IOM. Since its launch in 2017, more than 80,000 people, including 16,800 Nigerians, have been repatriated to 23 African countries after getting stuck or having a change of heart while travelling along often-dangerous migration routes connecting subSaharan Africa to North Africa.

Many of the Nigerians who have opted for IOM-facilitated repatriation were stuck in detention centres or exploitative labour situations in Libya. Over the same time period, around 8,400 Nigerians have been deported from Europe, according to official figures.

Back in their home country, little distinction is made between voluntary returnees and deportees. Both are often socially stigmatized and rejected by their communities. Having a family member reach Europe and be able to send remittances back home is often a vital lifeline for people living in impoverished communities. Returning – regardless of how it happens – is seen as failure.

In addition to stigmatization, returnees face daily economic struggles, a situation that has only become worse with the 48

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coronavirus pandemic’s impact on Nigeria’s already struggling economy.

Despite facing common challenges, deportees are largely left to their own devices, while voluntary returnees have access to an EU-funded support system that includes a small three-month salary, training opportunities, controversial “empowerment” and personal development sessions, and funds to help them start businesses – even if these programmes often don’t necessarily end up being effective.

Many of the voluntary returnee and deportation flights land in Lagos, Nigeria’s biggest city and main hub for international travel. On a hot and humid day in February, before countries imposed curfews and sealed their borders due to coronavirus, two of these flights arrived within several hours of each other at the city’s hulking airport.

First, a group of about 45 people in winter clothes walked through the back gate of the cargo airport looking out of place and disoriented. Deportees told TNH they had been taken into immigration custody by German police the day before and forced onto a flight in Frankfurt. Officials from the Nigerian Immigration Service, the country’s border police, said they are usually told to prepare to receive deportees after the planes have already left from Europe.

Out in the parking lot, a woman fainted under the hot sun.

When she recovered, she said she was pregnant and didn’t know where she would sleep that night. A man began shouting angrily about how he had been treated in Europe, where he had lived for 16 years. Police officers soon arrived to disperse the deportees. Without money or phones, many didn’t know where to go or what to do.

Several hours later, a plane carrying 116 voluntary returnees

from Libya touched down at the airport’s commercial terminal.

In a huge hangar, dozens of officials guided the returnees through an efficient, well-organised process.

The voluntary returnees queued patiently to be screened by police, state health officials, and IOM personnel who diligently filled out forms. Officials from Nigeria’s anti-people trafficking agency also screened the female returnees to determine if they had fallen victim to an illegal network that has entrapped tens of thousands of Nigerian women in situations of forced sex work in Europe and in transit countries such as Libya and Niger.

“It’s a well-oiled mechanism. Each agency knows its role,” Alexander Oturu, a programme manager at Nigeria’s National Commission for Refugees, Migrants & Internally Displaced Persons, which oversees the reception of returnees, told The New Humanitarian.

Voluntary returnees are put up in a hotel for one night and then helped to travel back to their home regions or temporarily hosted in government shelters, and later they have access to IOM’s reintegration programming.

Initially, there wasn’t enough funding for the programmes.

But now almost 10,000 of the around 16,600 returnees have been able to access this support, out of which about 4,500 have set up small businesses – mostly shops and repair services – according to IOM programme coordinator Abraham Tamrat Desta.

The main goal is to “address the push factors, so that upon returning, these people don’t face the same situation they fled from”, Desta said. “This is crucial, as our data show that 97 percent of returnees left for economic reasons.”

Six hours drive south of Lagos is Benin City, the capital of Edo State.

An overwhelming number of the people who set out for Europe come from this region. It is also where the majority of European migration-related funding ends up materializing, in the form of job creation programmes, awareness raising campaigns about the risks of irregular migration, and efforts to dismantle powerful trafficking networks.

Progress is one of the beneficiaries. When TNH met her she was full of smiles, but at 26 years old, she has already been through a lot. After being trafficked at 17 and forced into sex work in Libya, she had a child whose father later died in a shipwreck trying to reach Europe. Progress returned to Nigeria, but couldn’t escape the debt her traffickers expected her to pay. Seeing little choice, she left her child with her sister and returned to Libya.

Multiple attempts to escape spiraling violence in the country ended in failure. Once, she was pulled out of the water by Libyan fishermen after nearly drowning. Almost 200 other people died in that wreck. On two other occasions, the boat she was in was intercepted and she was dragged back to shore by the EU-supported Libyan Coast Guard.

After the second attempt, she registered for the IOM voluntary return programme. “I was hoping to get back home immediately, but Libyans put me in prison and obliged me to pay to be released and take the flight,” she said.

Back in Benin City, she took part in a business training programme run by IOM. She couldn’t provide the paperwork needed to launch her business and finally found support from Pathfinders Justice Initiative – one of the many local NGOs that has benefited from EU funding in recent years.

She eventually opened a hairdressing boutique, but coronavirus containment measures forced her to close up just as she was starting to build a regular clientele. Unable to provide for her son, now seven years old, she has been forced to send him back to live with her sister.

Ruth Evon Idahosa, founder of Pathfinders Justice Initiative – an NGO that seeks to eradicate sex trafficking and the exploitation of women and girls in Nigeria – in Benin City in 2020.

Progress isn’t the only returnee struggling due to the impact of the pandemic. Mobility restrictions and the shuttering of non-essential activities – due to remain until early August at least – have “exacerbated returnees’ existing psychosocial vulnerabilities”, an IOM spokesperson said.

The Edo State Task Force to Combat Human Trafficking, set up by the local government to coordinate prosecutions and welfare initiatives, is trying to ease the difficulties people are facing by distributing food items. As of early June, the task force said it had reached 1,000 of the more than 5,000 people who have returned to the state since 2017.

Jennifer, 39, lives in an unfinished two-storey building also in Benin City. When TNH visited, her three-year-old son, Prince, stood paralysed and crying, and her six-year-old son, Emmanuel, ran and hid on the appartment’s small balcony.

“It’s the German police,” Jennifer said. “The kids are afraid of white men now.”

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Continued from Page 49 Jennifer, who preferred that only her first name is published, left Edo State in 1999. Like many others, she was lied to by traffickers, who tell young Nigerian women they will send them to Europe to get an education or find employment but who end up forcing them into sex work and debt bondage.

It took a decade of being moved around Europe by trafficking rings before Jennifer was able to pay off her debt. She got a residency permit and settled down in Italy for a period of time.

In 2016, jobless and looking to get away from an unstable relationship, she moved to Germany and applied for asylum.

Her application was not accepted, but deportation proceedings against her were put on hold. That is until June 2019, when 15 policemen showed up at her apartment. “They told me I had five minutes to check on my things and took away my phone,” Jennifer said.

The next day she was on a flight to Nigeria with Prince and Emmanuel. When they landed, “the Nigerian Immigration Service threw us out of the gate of the airport in Lagos, 20 years after my departure”. She said.

Nine months after being deported, Jennifer is surviving on small donations coming from volunteers in Germany. It’s the only aid she has received. “There’s no job here, and even my family is ashamed to see me, coming back empty-handed with two kids,” she said.

Jennifer, like other deportees TNH spoke to, was aware of the support system in place for people who return through IOM, but felt completely excluded from it. The deportation and lack of support has taken a heavy psychological toll, and Jennifer said she has contemplated suicide. “I was sent here to die,” she said.

Without a solid economic foundation, there’s always a risk that

people will once again fall victim to traffickers or see no other choice but to leave on their own again in search of opportunity.

“When support is absent or slow to materialize – and this has happened also for Libyan returnees – women have been pushed again in the hands of traffickers,” said Ruth Evon Odahosa, from the Pathfinders Justice Initiative.

IOM said its mandate does not include deportees, and various Nigerian government agencies expressed frustration to TNH about the lack of European interest in the topic. “These deportations are implemented inhumanely,” said Margaret Ngozi Ukegbu, a zonal director for the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons.

The German development agency, GIZ, which runs several migration-related programmes in Nigeria, said their programming does not distinguish between returnees and deportees, but the agency would not disclose figures on how many deportees had benefited from its services.

Despite the amount of money being spent by the EU, voluntary returnees often struggle to get back on their feet. They have psychological needs stemming from their journeys that go unmet, and the businesses started with IOM seed money frequently aren’t sustainable in the long term.

“It’s crucial that, upon returning home, migrants can get access to skills acquisition programmes, regardless of the way they returned, so that they can make a new start and avoid falling back in the vicious circle of trafficking,” Maria Grazie Giammarinaro, the former UN’s special rapporteur on trafficking in persons, told TNH. Name changed at request of interviewee.

Palliatives drama in Nigeria!

Suddenly food stuffs and other household essentials now called palliatives started appearing in different warehouses, even church buildings, mosques, abandoned properties, uncompleted buildings, residential homes of politicians and private individuals. A country of class drams! How did these items, goods get to those places? Who hid them away from the public or masses of Nigeria while many begged for food and went hungry? During the lockdown, Nigerians have been calling for help and no one to hear them. Why do I call it drama? A politician and member of Lagos State House of Assembly claimed the palliatives found in his personal warehouse and property were meant to be distributed to members of his constituency on the celebration of his birthday. What a joke? Donations given to alleviate the suffering of the people during this lockdown pandemic of Covid-19! Clearly written on the packs, not for sale! He planned to share it out during his birthday as a gift to the people. This to me is the highest level of irresponsibility, selfishness, greed, egoism, and insensitiveness to the need of the people. He is worthy to hold an elective public office talk less of a legislator. Even having the effrontery to say that to the media is an insult to the good people of Lagos State. Under any civilized society such a person by now should have resigned 50

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out of shame and buried his face in the sand but not in Nigeria.

The other palliatives discovery scenes should be treated as crime scenes because these items are meant to be given out to the people and they are kept away in private properties across the country.

Those who discovered the loot are called looters; I dare to ask what do we call those who kept the goods away from the people who are supposed to benefit from it?

Your reactions would be welcomed please.

Thank you.

TV Management.

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Dutch Cali cartel member arrested in Spanish villa

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panish police have arrested a Dutch national working for the Cali cartel, one of Colombia’s most notorious drug syndicates, following the raid on a villa in the coastal town of Marbella. The man, a Dutch national of Colombian descent, is said to represent the cartel in Europe, particularly in the UK and the Netherlands, Spanish media report.

The man, accused of large-scale money laundering, had been on the Interpol wanted list for years, La Razon said, and had fled the Netherlands to hide in a luxury villa in Marbella.

The raid on the house, following a twoyear investigation into an international gang operating in the province of Málaga, netted €85,000 in cash, expensive watches, computers and mobile phones and over 15 credit cards – some of them giving access to crypto currency accounts.

It is thought the man may have laundered over €6m using the

digital currency.

Some $170,000 dollars were also found at his home in Delft

by Dutch police, who assisted in the operation.

Defence minister reprimanded, loses three months’ salary for giving ANC delegation a free flight to Zimbabwe President Cyril Ramaphosa has reprimanded the Minister of Defence, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, for transporting ANC leaders on an SA Air Force (SAAF) jet to Zimbabwe.

She will also suffer a three-month salary penalty, which will be paid into the Solidarity Fund established to address needs arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. The Presidency said in a statement that the sanction imposed on the minister “demonstrated the seriousness with which the president viewed the minister’s error of judgment given her high position in government”. Mapisa-Nqakula was castigated for having transported a high-level ANC delegation on 8 September to Harare to engage with the ruling Zanu-PF to discuss the crisis in Zimbabwe. The ANC has agreed to repay the cost of the transport less the costs that the minister would in any event have incurred on her approved trip to Zimbabwe. However, DA defence spokesperson Kobus Marais said the “slap on the wrist” was not enough and the minister should be fired. He pointed out that this was not Mapisa-Nqakula’s first offence as she had previously been accused of having smuggled Michele 52

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Wege, the girlfriend of her late son, Chumani Nqakula, on board an air force jet.

Man jailed for three months for threatening princess Amalia on Instagram A court in Zwolle has sentenced a 32-year-old man, who was obsessed by the royal family, to three months in jail and psychiatric prison for threatening princess Amalia.

Wouter G was arrested at the end of January 2020 and has been remanded in custody since then.

G sent the princess, who is first in line to the throne, messages via Instagram which were of a ‘violent, sexual and frightening’ nature, the court was told during the hearing last month.

A friend of Amalia’s, named Brent, was also threatened.

G has a history of psychiatric problems and may have schizophrenia, experts said during the hearing. The court decided to sentence G to a maximum of four years of psychiatric prison in an effort to get him to complete a course of treatment.

There’s now a Direct High-Speed Train from Amsterdam to London

Eurostar has launched a new 4-hour rail service between the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Since October 26 2020, travelers can hop on a high-speed train for a four-hour journey from Amsterdam to London.

Eurostar has launched a new direct connection between the capital cities of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom that starts from £40 (US$50) each way. The train also stops in the Dutch city of Rotterdam (which is a three-and-a-half-hour journey to London) and Brussels (two hours to London) along the way.

Prior to the introduction of this new Amsterdam-London

route, rail passengers had to take a high-speed Thalys train from Amsterdam to Brussels and then transfer to a Eurostar train from Brussels to London. There is no longer any need to transfer. A direct Eurostar train from London to Amsterdam has been available since 2018- this is the first time the direct Eurostar service is available in the direction of Amsterdam to London.

Tickets can be booked up to six months in advance. In light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Eurostar is allowing passengers to exchange tickets with no fee up to 14 days prior to departure for all bookings made through December 31, 2020.

Dating back to 1994, Eurostar is the only high-speed rail option that links the U.K. to France, Belgium, and the Netherlands via the Channel Tunnel that travels beneath the English Channel.

Eurostar trains depart and arrive at St. Pancras International station in London and at Amsterdam Centraal station in Amsterdam.

During the pandemic, masks are required on board Eurostar trains and at the train stations (except for when eating and drinking), seating has been adjusted to allow for social distancing on board, and enhanced cleaning measures are being carried out on the trains and at stations (trains are being deep cleaned between each journey).

Eurostar also reminds travelers to remain up to date on travel restrictions and advisories throughout Europe during the pandemic. The United Kingdom currently requires those arriving from countries that are not exempt to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival. As of October 25, the Netherlands was not on the list meaning arrivals from Amsterdam must quarantine. www.thevoicenewsmagazine.com

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USA suspend visas to Sierra Leone nationals

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he United States of America has stopped issuing visas to Sierra Leonean nationals, after the government of Sierra Leone reneged on an agreement to allow Sierra Leoneans deported by the USA to return to Sierra Leone.

The governments of the USA and Sierra Leone in 2017 entered into a repatriation agreement, whereby the government of Sierra Leone will issue travel documents to Sierra Leonean nationals that have been declared ‘persona non grata’ by the US government to return to Sierra Leone.

It is not clear whether the US government has made cash payments to the government of Sierra Leone in return for receiving and rehabilitating or resettling those deported to Sierra Leone by the US government, as such matters are usually not made public.

What is clear is that the US government usually charters flights that take deportees back to Sierra Leone, accompanied by armed US marshals.

But this arrangement came under immense strain a few months ago, when two deportees arriving in Sierra Leone claimed they were forced to go to Sierra Leone despite protesting to the US government that they are not Sierra Leonean nationals but Caribbeans.

The US government denied responsibility for that fiasco, instead blaming the government of Sierra Leone whose responsibility the US government says it is to check the

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nationality of all deportees before issuing them with travel documents to Sierra Leone.

The argument between the two governments over the repatriation of Sierra Leoneans from the USA , and the government of Sierra Leone’s role in facilitating the process, came to a head a few months ago when the government of Sierra Leone stopped issuing travel documents to deportees.

In response, the US government slapped a ban on Sierra Leoneans travelling to the USA with a Sierra Leonean passport, bringing to a complete and devastating halt the possibility of Sierra Leoneans being able to obtain US visas.

But some policy analysts believe that this sudden decision by the US government may not be unconnected to the private visit to Hezbollah controlled Lebanon over a month ago by the president of Sierra Leone – Julius Maada Bio, where it is alleged he met, dined and discussed investment opportunities with some of the most powerful and rich Lebanese tycoons, whom the US government frown upon as ‘unsavoury characters’ – involved in arms dealing and international money laundering.

The US Ambassador to Sierra Leone – Maria Brewer, was speaking on local radio 98.1 FM last month about the US government’s decision to suspend issuing visas to Sierra Leoneans. No one know yet how these impasse would be resolved between the United States of America and the tiny African country of Sierra Leone.

Murder and mayhem: How South African farming became a ‘full-scale war’

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hen armed men broke into their farm in Free State province last month, Mark Regal and his wife were already on high alert. Just the day before, their neighbour and fellow farmer Eddie Hills had died in hospital, a week after being stabbed in a robbery in which his father was tied up and shot. Aware that they too could lose more than just their property, Mrs Regal returned fire and killed one of the intruders, police said. But Mr. Regal, 50, was overpowered

White farmer killed by gang of robbers in South Africa.

and killed, the seventh farmer to be murdered in the province in six weeks.

The spate of killings has inflamed racial tensions in South Africa, with the Free State’s white farming community accusing the ANC-ruled government of doing little to help.

Trouble first flared with last month’s grisly murder of farm mechanic, Brendin Horner, 21, whose body was found tied by a noose to a fence near his cottage. When two suspects appeared in court a week later in the tiny town of Senekal, a white mob stormed the building, attempting to avenge Mr. Horner’s death on the spot.

At the following hearing, the protesters – some wearing “Boer Lives Matter” T-shirts – also faced off against the Economic

The widow of Horner killed by attackers of their farm house

Freedom Fighters, a black political party led by the radical politician Julius Malema.

Moderates among the farmers have appealed for calm, arguing that the real problem is unchecked criminality, which affects black farmers as well as white. But either way, more than just racial harmony is at stake.

Such killings are fuelling a steady exodus of whites from the farming sector, prompting fears that it could go the same way as Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe. Here, the problem may be crime rather than state-backed farm invasions, but with around fifty farmers murdered every year, the effect is similar.

Farmers block the main road as they stand off against Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) during the bail application for two men accused of murdering young farm manager Brendin Horner The 30,000 white farmers in South Africa are just a third of the number in pre-apartheid times, many emigrating for safer pastures in Canada and Australia. “Being a farmer is a dangerous career,” said Pierre Vercueil, a prominent member of farming organization Agri SA.

By Peta Thornycroft

www.thevoicenewsmagazine.com

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Dutch launch criminal probe, freeze assets of Isabel dos Santos-linked firm

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rosecutors say they are looking into a controversial loan agreement detailed by ICIJ in Luanda Leaks.

By Douglas Dalby Dutch prosecutors have begun a criminal investigation into how a company owned by Sindika Dokolo, the late husband of billionaire Angolan businesswoman Isabel dos Santos, managed to acquire a lucrative shareholding in the Portuguese oil and gas firm, Galp.

The Public Prosecution Service has also frozen the assets of the company, Exem Energy BV pending the outcome of the probe, which it says was prompted in part

by Luanda Leaks, an investigation led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists into how dos Santos made her fortune.

Luanda Leaks details how in 2006 Angola’s state oil giant, Sonangol, bankrolled Exem’s purchase of its Galp shareholding for $99 million, agreeing an up-front payment of just $15 million with the rest to be repaid at a later date.

Sonangol has never explained why it agreed to sell the stake to a company owned by the then-president’s son-inlaw. Although the shares are now trading at around half of their January value, the stake is still worth around $400 million.

Dokolo told ICIJ that the outstanding loan amount was repaid in full to Sonangol in 2017, when his wife was in charge of the company.

Only months after being fired following her father’s ousting as Angola’s president in 2017, dos Santos’ successor at Sonangol had rejected the deal on the basis that payment in Angolan currency, rather than euros, was a breach of contract.

The Angolan state claim there is a balance of $75 million outstanding and is seeking to recover it through the Enterprise Chamber corporate appeal court in Amsterdam. The Netherlands was a key conduit for dos Santos’ transfer of wealth from Angola.

A Dutch Public Prosecution Service spokesperson told ICIJ partner Karlijn Kuijpers, an investigative journalist who collaborated on Luanda Leaks that it was focusing on the Sonangol share deal.

“We are investigating the acquisition of these shares.

The suspicion is that the shares were acquired by fraud or embezzlement of the Angolan state. The company is a suspect in a criminal investigation by the Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service led by the Functional Public Prosecutor’s Office.”

The action mirrors similar orders on dos Santos’ corporate assets in Portugal and Angola, where the freezing orders also extend to personal wealth, including bank accounts.

Dos Santos has consistently denied wrongdoing, and has instead claimed to be the target of a “witch hunt.”

Exem Energy BV confirmed the investigation, which was first reported last month by the Dutch newspaper, de Volkskrant.

The company’s London-based public relations agency, Powerscourt, which also represents dos Santos, said it welcomed “the opportunity to make the facts known and to clarify various falsehoods and unfounded allegations.”

“Exem paid 11.5 million euros at the signing of the contract and 64 million euros plus interest, was paid in October 2017 in [Angolan] kwanzas at the exchange rate at the time. As a result, Exem no longer owed anything to Sonangol,” it said in a statement to ICIJ. All of these were going on when the news of the sudden death of the main accused person, the husband of Isabel was reported dead in the press. He was said to have died as a result of a swimming accident in Dubai. www.thevoicenewsmagazine.com

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South Sudan:

“We will be the ones to build our country”

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avid, 22, fled from South Sudan to Uganda in 2014.

Now he’s studying computer science and plans to go to university in Kampala to pursue his dream of becoming an engineer. Young people who have been forced

by violence despite achieving independence in 2011.

“My country is not stable in terms of security,” he explains.

“There are no good structures or infrastructures. I have a dream of becoming an engineer. We will be the ones to build our country.”

Adau, 24, fled from South Sudan in 2014, together with her mother and sister. She was out of school for five years but has now completed NRC’s computing training course and hopes to study at Kampala University. “Education is important to me because it is the key of life,” she explains.

Like David, Adau wants to work towards a brighter future for her home country. “After my studies, I want to go back to South Sudan and help to build the country,” she says. “I want to do computer science.

Without technology the country can’t become perfect.

You protect the country by using networking and technology.”

to flee often struggle to get the education and training they need. Only 3 per cent of young refugees have access to education after finishing school, compared to 36 per cent of young people across the world.

The course has proved highly popular among the young people of Nyumanzi settlement. “It is a course that the young people are very interested in,” explains Ulrika Blom, country director for NRC Uganda. “We have more applications, more youth that want to participate than we can actually provide for.” “By investing in skills opportunities for young people, we help them to grow and fulfil their dreams.”

For David, the course is a vital stepping-stone on his educational journey. “If we finish successfully,” he says, “then we will be able to change our country.”

Adau, 24, fled from South Sudan in 2014, together with her mother and sister. Photo: Ingrid Prestetun/NRC “The computer skills training course has opened many possibilities,” says David.

Photo: Ingrid Prestetun/NRC

David is one of the lucky ones. A resident of Nyumanzi refugee settlement, he completed high school at a local school in Uganda. He went on to enrol on a computer science course run by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in partnership with Arizona State University (ASU).

Dream of becoming an engineer

“The computer skills training course has opened many possibilities,” he says. “I am now enrolling in university. It is very important to have that certificate.” David has big plans for his home country of South Sudan – a nation still plagued 58

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Russian Plan to Dig Biggest Zimbabwe Platinum Mine Advances

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project that aims to develop Zimbabwe’s biggest platinum mine has cleared a significant hurdle, with the African Export-Import Bank completing a due diligence study allowing it to proceed with a $500 million syndicated funding program. While some work has started on the mine, with $100 million spent to date including exploration costs, a significant amount of investment will now be needed if Great Dyke Investments, owned by Russia’s Vi Holding and Zimbabwean investors, is to complete the $2 billion project.

“The project funding structure envisages participation of various types of equity investors as well as lenders,” Alex Ivanov, GDI’s chief executive officer, said in response to emailed questions. “The specific stake to be acquired by potential investors would largely depend on their overall appetite for the project.”

Ivanov confirmed the completion of the due diligence program and said he expects the funding to be in place by year end. Humphrey Nwogo, Afreximbank’s southern African chief operating officer declined to comment, citing client confidentiality. The so-called Darwendale project, which lies 65 kilometers (40 miles) from the capital Harare, is central to the Zimbabwean government’s plans to revive its stagnant economy. The country has the world’s thirdlargest platinum reserves after South Africa and Russia Still, the country is struggling to attract foreign investment.

It’s unable to pay its debt to multilateral organizations such as the World Bank and has been criticized by potential lenders for its poor economic management and human rights abuses.

Even so, the activity at the mine site is a rare sign of potential investment in a country that sees its currency collapse and inflation surge to more than 700%.

On a recent visit some workers were seen drilling for ore samples while others constructed roads needed for earthmoving equipment. Training of crews to operate that equipment was also taking place.

Commissioning of the mine could begin in 2023 if funding is forthcoming, Ivanov said. When complete it is expected to produce 860,000 ounces of platinum group metals and gold a year.

If successful, GDI will join South African companies Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. and Anglo American Platinum Ltd. in producing the precious metal in the company. Karo Mining Holdings Ltd., a Cypriot company, is also planning to develop a large platinum mine in Zimbabwe.

Platinum, along with gold and diamonds, is a key source of foreign exchange for Zimbabwe.

By Godfrey Marawanyika www.thevoicenewsmagazine.com

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FALL OUT

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Tanzania opposition turns to ICC for probe into rights violation, electoral misconduct

he International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, has confirmed receipt of two formal letters alleging human rights violations by the Tanzania government in the wake of the October 28 election and its aftermath.

The Alliance for Change and Transparency (ACTWazalendo), one of the main opposition parties and Maria Sarungi Tsehai, an independent human rights activist, have separately written to the court, requesting an official ICC inquiry into their claims of atrocities committed against Tanzanian citizens in opposition and those who are disputing the election’s conduct and results.

The ICC prosecutor’s office said although the court was by law ‘’duty-bound’’ to protect the confidentiality of information received on alleged crimes, “in this instance we can confirm we have received the communications as the senders have made that fact public.”

THE ROME STATUTE “We analyse material submitted, as appropriate, in accordance with the Rome Statute which established the court and with full independence and impartiality,” the office said. The first step would be to assess whether the communication concerns “matters that are manifestly outside the jurisdiction of the court. As soon as we reach a decision on the appropriate next step, we inform the sender and provide reasons for our decision,” it added.

ACT-Wazalendo leader Zitto Kabwe told the media on November 8 that the party had already submitted evidence

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to the ICC, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

“We have also written to the Commonwealth and the AU asking them to investigate the October 28 elections and oversee the holding of new elections. We refuse to recognise this election and will continue to protest peacefully for a return of democracy,” Mr Kabwe said.

Ms Tsehai, the director of the independent Kwanza Online TV station and founder of the #ChangeTanzania social movement, tweeted on November 9 that she had also canvassed the ICC, though she was not available for

comment on the content of her letter by the time of going to press.

“I used my skills, training as a journalist to fulfil my duty and submit to the ICC evidence of crimes against humanity in Tanzania,” she tweeted.

At least two prominent members of the main opposition Chadema party, one being its presidential candidate Tundu Lissu, have fled Tanzania over the past week, citing persecution by state authorities and threats to their lives, allegations denied by government spokesperson Hassan Abbasi as unsubstantiated.

POLITICAL ASYLUM “Those opposition leaders who are running away on the pretext of having had their lives threatened should tell us who threatened them, when and where. It is those same leaders who just completed 60 days of election campaigning during which they were given non-stop state security and we heard no complaints about that.

Now after losing they start complaining about being threatened,” Dr Hassan Abbasi said.

Mr Lissu left for Belgium aboard an Ethiopian Airlines

flight last month after a week holed up at the German embassy in Dar es Salaam, while Chadema’s longtime Arusha Urban

legislator Godbless Lema has been granted political asylum in Kenya with his family.

Both cited security threats for leaving. Mr Lema is one of several Chadema opposition heavyweights who lost their parliamentary seats to CCM newcomers. Another Chadema former MP, Lazaro Nyalandu (Singida North), was also reported to have tried to flee to Kenya but was denied exit by immigration officials at the Namanga border post for lacking proper travel documentation.

Dr Abbasi said he was not worried by negative perceptions being created by the action of fleeing opposition leaders.

“The international community is sensible and doesn’t just believe any Tom, Dick and Harry’s claims for asylum on grounds of persecution.

But that is their prerogative. Most of them still respect the 1951 Refugee Convention, Article 1 which offers clear definition who deserves to be a refugee,” he added.

By Bob Karashani

Kenya to host pan-African conference of chief justices on climate change Kenya’s Judiciary said it will host a three-day pan-African conference for chief justices in December on the role of courts in combating climate change in the continent.

The Dec. 1-3 conference, whose theme is Greening Judiciary 2020, is a continent-wide initiative that focuses on building the capacity of judges to apply and enforce environmental laws and to promote the rule of law in environmental matters.

“The judiciary leaders will also discuss constraints that

hinder effective adjudication of climate change claims,” the Judiciary said in a statement issued in Nairobi.

It said the symposium, which will be held in Nairobi, targets chief justices, senior judges, judicial educators, heads of education institutions, practitioners and experts from the continent.

“Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the delegates will have the option of attending physically or virtually,” the Judiciary said.

Kenyan Chief Justice David Maraga will host a special session that will interrogate and provide guidance on how judiciaries and other key actors should promote climate-change-related adjudication in Africa, focusing on collaboration between the three arms of government.

According to the United Nations, climate change is one of the most pressing problems in Africa that pose serious health and economic challenges.

The region is warming faster than the global average, with projections of a rise of 34 degrees Celsius this century and climatesensitive diseases such as cholera, meningitis, malaria and Rift Valley fever likely to spread faster.

The continent is severely affected by climate change as most African economies rely heavily on climate-sensitive economic sectors that are exposed to climate variability, droughts and floods. www.thevoicenewsmagazine.com

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OBI EFEIZOMOR II OF OWA KINGDOM:

THE MODERNIST

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is Highness, Obi of Owa Kingdom, Dr. Emmanuel Efeizomor was born on the 10th day of March 1938.

At his early age he surmounted all odds, impediments, difficulties and obstacles to attain great heights. The postcolonial era coincides almost precisely with his ascension to the ancient throne of Owa Kingdom as the 17th Obi of Owa on the 6th day of September 1959. He studied in Sapele, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, Britain and United States of America (USA).

His exposure and experience equipped him with a clear vision and mission to transform Owa into a kingdom of civilized people and modernized structure.

As a result of his wealth of knowledge acquired through aggressive reading and learning, Obi (Dr.) Efeizomor II (JP) OON put in place a formidable administrative structure that attracts followership. He has the kind of character that civilizations have sought in their good rulers. He endeared

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himself to very many well-meaning people because he works diligently at whatever assignment he is entrusted. His total commitment to the cause of his people, his determination and perseverance to succeed, his democratic leadership style, his advocacy for gender equality, and his intellectual prowess and utilization of the ball pen to earn an enviable living are worthy of emulation.

Obi (Dr.) Efeizomor II is seen as a monarch of towering stature. He is one of the most accomplished traditional rulers in Nigeria. His achievement during the past sixty years in office is a testimony of his ability to adapt to ever changing social, economic and political situations. He is an icon of compassionate fatherhood whose values would continue to be a good reference point long after his reign. His achievement covers the areas of educational development of himself and his subjects, mobilization of Owa Communities for self-help and Community Development, and active support for government to develop Owa kingdom. Obi (Dr.) Efeizomor II formed, revived and mobilized several community organizations of Ndiowa. Notable among these are Owa Patriotic Union, Owa development committee, Owa Youths Association and BojiBoji Owa Community Development Committee among others.

He put forward a developmental philosophy of “Heaven helps those that help themselves” By his self help approach many earth roads and markets were built and expanded. He ensured that educational facilities are made available in his domain. Thus in collaboration with the Christian Missions and government; the following Secondary Schools were founded. i. Ika Grammar School, Boji-Boji Owa in 1960 ii. Owa Grammar School, Owa-Oyibu in 1979 iii. Owa-Alero Secondary / Commercial School, Owa-Alero in 1979 iv. Owanta Grammar School, Owanta in 1980 v. Owa-Alizomor Grammar School, Owa-Alizomor in 1980 Right from the time of his coronation in 1959, successive governments and other well-meaning organizations have never failed to acknowledge Obi (Dr.) E. O. Efeizomor’s immense contributions towards the peace, unity and development of Owa kingdom and beyond. He was a member, Western Regional House of Chiefs 1960 to 1963, member Mid-west Region leaders of thought during the civil war, member Delta State Government delegation to several Northern States of Nigeria from 1971 to date, member old Bendel State Traditional Rulers Council 1967 to 1991; Director, Nigeria Cocoa Board 1979, Managing Director Toprest (Nigeria) Limited, Insurance Brokers and firm of Building Contractor 1976, member Governing Council, Institute of Journalism, Benin City 1988 to 1990, member Delta State Traditional Ruler’s Council, Representative on WAEC State committee 1996 to 2004 and member, Committee on

misuse of title, Delta State 2000 to 2006 among others. Obi Leaders Council of Nigeria 2001 to date, Merit Award for (Dr.) Efeizomor II was Chairman Ika and Asaba Divisional Examination Ethics by Ministry of Education of Delta State Income Tax Review tribunal 1961, Chairman panel on ways 2004, Millennium Excellence Award by front line news media of improving / increasing government Tax collection in Ika Lagos as the most worthy traditional Ruler for the year 2003, in Division; Chairman Ika Divisional Education Board 1973 to 1975, Chairman National Freedom from Hunger campaign Bendel State 1974 to 1976, Chairman State Advisory Committee on Education for citizenship 1977, Chairman Land use Allocation Advisory committee in Ika Local Government Area; Chairman Police Community Relations Committee 1985, Chairman Zonal Police Public Relation Committee, Ika, Ndokwa, Aniocha and Osimili Local Government Areas 1987 to 1992; Chairman EPI, ORT implementation committee Ika Local Government area 1987, Chairman Ika MAMSER implementation committee 1987 to 1992, Chairman Committee on land Dispute in Gbariagolor, Alidinma Scheme 1977 and Vice Chairman Presidential Panel on Warri Crisis 2003 among others.

Other awards and positions held by Obi (Dr.) The Voice Publisher, Pastor Elvis Iruh during his visit to His Royal Majesty, Efeizomor II include Grand Patron of Owa Obi of Owa at his palace in Owa-Oyibu, Delta State.

Patriotic Union 1959 to date, Patron of Bendel East Cultural Association 1988, patron Izu recognition of his contributions to the social-economic development of Nigeria 2004. The Voice Achievers Award in the Diaspora recognized him for his traditional leadership in Africa in 2016.

Obi (Dr.) Efeizomor II was listed in Africa year Book “Who is Who� in 1977. In Delta State, His Majesty, Obi (Dr.) Efeizomor II was the immediate past Chairman of Delta State Interim Advisory Committee of Traditional Rulers (2002-2006).

He is presently the chairman of Delta state traditional rulers council. 61 years on the throne and the Obi is not ready to slow down yet, he continues to watch over his community and ensure that the right development gets to them.

Congratulations to His Royal Majesty, Obi Dr. Solomon Umunna Cultural Association of Nigeria Jos Plateau 1989, Efeizomor and wishing him long life in Jesus Christ name.

Grand patron, English and Literary Students Association, Edo Amen State University (now Ambrose Ali University Ekpoma 1990 Contribution by Solomon Omojie-Mgbejume to 2003; Grand Patron, the Institute of Farmers of Nigeria Ikaworld 1994; Life Patron, Ika Media Practitioners Association of (Source: Owa Kingdom) Nigeria (MPAN); Fellow, the Institute of Farmers of Nigeria Photo Credit: Elvis Ndubuisi Iruh Ibadan 1994; National Patron, National Traders and Market www.thevoicenewsmagazine.com

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Nigeria government versus CNN! Who do you believe?

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igeria threatens CNN with sanctions but provides no evidence Lekki toll gate investigation is inaccurate.

A Nigerian minister lashed out against CNN saying the network should be sanctioned over its investigation, which uncovered evidence that the Nigerian army and police opened fire on unarmed protesters on October 20 2020. CNN’s investigation focused on a demonstration against police brutality, led by the largely peaceful “#EndSARS” movement but turned violence with the shooting at Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos, Nigeria. Until the time of this report, the Nigerian government continued to deny their role and involvement.

Even the Minister for Information and Culture Lai Mohammed last month dismissed the CNN investigation as “fake news” and “misinformation,” repeatedly denying the military used live rounds against protesters.

“Like everyone else, I watched the CNN report. I must tell you that it reinforces the disinformation that is going around, and it is blatantly irresponsible and a poor piece of journalistic work by a reputable international news organization,” he told reporters at a press conference in Abuja, in the most significant federal government response so far to the October 20 violence.

“This is very serious and CNN should be sanctioned for that,” he said.

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CNN stands by its investigation, a company spokesperson said.

“Our reporting was carefully and meticulously researched, and we stand by it,” the spokesperson said via email.

The report was based on testimony from dozens of witnesses, and photos and video obtained and geolocated by CNN. It painted a picture of how members of the Nigerian army and the police shot at the crowd, killing at least one person and wounding dozens more.

CNN verified photos and videos acquired from multiple eyewitnesses and protesters using timestamps and other data from the video files. Video footage shows soldiers who appear to be shooting in the direction of protesters. And accounts from eyewitnesses established that after the army withdrew, a second round of shooting happened later that night or early hours of the morning.

Prior to publishing the report, CNN tried multiple times to elicit comment from the Nigerian army and police. A Lagos State police spokesman declined to comment because of an ongoing investigation. While a statement from the Lagos State government said that there would be no comment while a judicial tribunal was underway.

According to Lai Mohammed, the National Economic Council (NEC) directed the “immediate establishment” of a state-based

judicial panel of inquiry on October 15 before the Lekki toll gate incident, but after protests against violence had begun - to investigate complaints of police brutality and extrajudicial killings.

Eyewitnesses have since told CNN that the government’s comments are “lies,” making them feel as though they had “hallucinated the whole event.” “Haven’t they hurt us enough? I still close my eyes and see the blood and hear the screams,” another eyewitness said.

During the press conference, Mohammed said the federal government continues to be “very satisfied” with the role played by security agencies especially the military and police throughout the protests.

Report by CNN’s Stephanie Busari, Nima Elbagir, Gianluca Mezzofiore and Katie Polglase.

Nigerian army admits soldiers deployed at October 20 Lekki toll gate protests were given both live and blank bullets Nigerian army admits soldiers deployed at October 20 Lekki toll gate protests were given both live and blank bullets, despite previous denials Despite the denial by the Federal Minister of information, the Nigerian army admitted to the panel of inquiry that soldiers were given both live and blank bullets when they were deployed to protests at Lekki toll gate on October 20.

The admission seems to confirm a key finding of a CNN investigation into the shooting.

“The soldiers were both given live and blank bullets. In this particular case, we saw that these protests had been infiltrated by some hoodlums,” Brig. Gen. Ahmed Taiwo said in his testimony to the Lagos Judicial panel of inquiry into the incident.

“You had peaceful protesters no doubt. But there were also hoodlums who sought to take advantage. That is why they were armed (with) blank bullets in addition to the live (bullets) they were carrying.” The question would be how do you differentiate both groups in the dark of the night?

This is the first time the Nigerian army has admitted having live rounds at the Lekki toll gate. The army statement also contradicts previous statements about the incident including from Taiwo himself who told the judicial panel previously that the soldiers were firing in the air and firing blank ammunition.

In the aftermath of the shooting, the army denied any involvement, describing reports of the incident as “fake news,” before backtracking and saying that soldiers were present but fired their weapons in the air and used blanks, not live rounds.

The CNN investigation included evidence that bullet casings from the scene matched those used by the Nigerian army when shooting live rounds, according to current and former Nigerian military officials.

Two ballistics experts also confirmed with CNN that the shape of the bullet casings indicate they used live rounds, which contradicts the army’s previous claim they fired blanks.

CNN’s report was based on testimony from dozens of witnesses, and photos and video obtained by CNN. Continued on Page 66 www.thevoicenewsmagazine.com

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Continued from Page 65

The Nigerian army did not respond to numerous requests for comment prior to the broadcast and publication of CNN’s story.

The police would not comment to CNN, but did deny ever shooting at protesters in a tweet.

The admission by the Nigeria Army that live rounds were deployed is yet another in a series of constantly changing narratives as to what happened on October 20 at Lekki toll gate, where protesters had gathered to demonstrate against police brutality.

A US State Department spokesperson told CNN that they were “closely following the Government of Nigeria’s response” to the events at Lekki Toll Gate and said, “We urge that the investigation be thorough, impartial, and appropriately transparent and that perpetrators be held accountable.”

Addressing reporters, Lai Mohammed insisted that “the military did not shoot at the protesters at the toll gate” but fired blank ammunitions into the air, blaming looters for the violence which broke out on the night of October 20. “Six soldiers and 37 policemen were killed all over the country during the crisis,” Mohammed said.

“CNN relied heavily on unreliable and possibly doctored videos as well as information sources from questionable sources to reach these conclusions,” he continued.

He did not provide any evidence the videos were doctored.

While the Minister for Information and Culture asserted that “not a single family” has reported the death of relatives or missing persons during the protest on October 20, the Chief Coroner of Lagos State has since issued a public call for all those who have “lost loved ones between 19 -27 October 2020” to come forward and provide evidence which could assist in the “identification exercise.” During his press briefing, the Minister denied reports of fatalities at the protest.

“As I said earlier, what started as a peaceful protest against police brutality quickly degenerated into incredible violence despite an immediate response to the demands by the government,” he said.

“While we await the Judicial Panel in Lagos to unravel what transpired at the Lekki toll gate, what we can say, based on testimonies available in the public space, is that the world may have just witnessed, for the very first time ever, a massacre without bodies,” he added. By the time of this report, at least two persons were still missing according to their families; they have not been seen or heard from since the night of October 20.

On November 14, 2020 at the AGM of NIDOE the following were elected NIDO Europe continental officers: 1) Chairman - Dr. Bashir Olalekan Obasekola 2) Vice Chairman - Mr. Issa Abdullahi 3) General- Secretary - Barr. (Mrs.) Georgian Opara 4) PRO/Deputy General-Secretary - Mr. Fidel .O. Wilson 5) Finance Officer - Mr. Adedotun Adegbesan 6) Treasurer - Mr. Rex Essenowo 7) Welfare & Social Events Officer - Mr. Godson Azu 8) Liaison Officer (EU & other related Agencies) - Dr. (Mrs.) Monica Emmanuel 9) IT Officer - Mrs. Laura Ikeobi 10) Officer without Portfolio 1 - Mr. Christopher Okuonghae 11) Officer without Portfolio 2 - Mr. Adeyemi Aderemi We thank the former Chairman, Hon. Kenneth Gbandi and all the other former officers for their services and wish them all the best in their future endeavours

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Face masks become compulsory and testing open to those without symptoms in Holland

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ace masks become compulsory in all indoor public places in the Netherlands from Tuesday, and the measures will be valid for three months at least.

The rules apply to everyone over the age of 13 and those caught without a face mask face a fine of €95. Medical masks remain reserved for healthcare workers but people should ensure the masks they wear cover both nose and mouth. ‘By choice, use a mask bought from a pharmacy or supermarket,’ the justice ministry instructions state. Scarfs and plastic shields are not considered to be acceptable.

In addition, from Tuesday, people who are alerted via the CoronaMelder app or a health official that they have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for coronavirus will be able to get a test without having symptoms. Public spaces Face masks have to be worn in all public indoor spaces, such as shops, museums, petrol stations, restaurants and bars (if open), theatres, cinemas and concert halls. Once people are seated at their table in the restaurant or in the theatre auditorium they can take the mask off but if they go to the toilet or leave it has to go back on. Places of worship, such as churches, temples, synagogues and mosques, are exempt from the rule. Face masks were already compulsory on public transport but will now have to be worn inside railway station buildings and at airports as well. Schools and universities Students, teachers and support staff will all have to wear a face mask when

moving around the school building. The mask can come off during classes when everyone is seated but teachers who talk while walking around the classroom will have to wear one. Face masks won’t have to be worn during PE classes, theatre or singing classes and in some forms of vocational education. Contact professions and healthcare Hairdressers, driving instructors and nail stylists and others in the so-called contact professions will have to wear a face mask, as will their clients.

Healthcare professionals such as family doctors and physiotherapists are exempt from the rule but healthcare institutions have their own rules and both professionals and patients will have to follow those. Exceptions: People who have health problems which would make wearing a face mask difficult are exempt but will have to make this clear to police or street wardens who may confront them. The rules do not specify how they should do this.

Face masks need not be worn during sport activities, acting, rehearsals or shows and during television or radio interviews. The Netherlands is one of the last countries in Europe to impose the wearing of masks following pressure from the public and MPs. The Dutch health institute RIVM which advises the government still maintains that face masks do not significantly lower the risk of infection. Retail chains, such as Ahold, which comprises Albert Heijn, Etos and Gall & Gall, have already said they will ‘inform customers about the obligation but not refuse non-wearers’.

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ETHIOPIA – A NATION AT WAR WITH ITSELF

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istory has shown that Ethiopia’s problems cannot be resolved by or through bloodshed – a civil war would be unwinnable. Only the commitment to inclusive dialogue, consensus-building and reconciliation can give Ethiopia a chance of progress.

A simmering feud between Ethiopia’s Federal Government and leaders in the Tigray region has escalated into armed confrontation which threatens to turn into a civil war, with long-term repercussions for stability across the Horn of Africa region. Urgent intervention is needed to reduce tensions and commit both parties to a cease-fire and negotiations.

Ethiopia stands on the precipice of a devastating internal conflict less than three years after the emergence of a new leader in Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali – a Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2019 – and the evolution of a political transition that promised so much in terms of institutional reforms, inclusivity and freedoms. The possibility of civil war not only calls into question the unity of Africa’s second most populous nation, but threatens any possibility of the Horn of Africa and Red Sea region moving beyond decades of cyclical conflict towards stability and integration.

Intensified military action was justified by the prime minister as a response to armed provocation and perceived intransigence from leaders in Tigray, a region in Ethiopia’s north-eastern highlands which is home to seven million of Ethiopia’s 110-million population.

Relations have been fraught for some time, particularly since the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF)’s departure from Ethiopia’s ruling coalition in 2019. Both parties have worked hard to delegitimize the other short of open armed conflict in recent months. The postponement of national elections in August due to COVID-19 complicated the crisis, with the lack of inclusivity and consultation around the process resented in Tigray.

This resulted in the TPLF holding a unilateral and unconstitutional election and refusing to recognise the Federal Government’s legitimacy. In turn, the prime minister denounced the Tigray elections, cut ties with the regional administration and withheld federal budget subsidies, accusing the TPLF of stoking violence across the country.

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Clashes began on 4 November, with government claims of an ambush by regional forces on the federal Northern Command base near Tigray’s capital Mekelle. In truth, preparations for a larger confrontation were already underway, with federal troops amassing on Tigray’s borders and the government swiftly imposing a six-month state of emergency in the region.

The House of Federation also approved a resolution to replace the TPLF with an interim administration. Amidst a connectivity blackout in Tigray, Prime Minister Abiy has largely controlled the narrative around developments, asserting that the military action being taken by the sovereign government to extract the rebellious TPLF is a law enforcement measure.

The situation is rapidly evolving with federal airstrikes on alleged artillery installations, much of the early fighting concentrated in Western Tigray close to Sudan and Eritrea and the number of reported casualties rising. There are conflicting accounts on the status of the Northern Command, with the TPLF claiming that it has allied itself with the regional government.

Prime Minister Abiy may be calculating that an incisive and intense military offensive will pressure Tigray’s leaders into a climb-down, in order to avoid a fullscale conflict and the undoubted heavy losses that would incur, thus giving Addis Ababa the upper hand in subsequent negotiations.

A more worrying scenario is the Federal Government following-up on its intent to remove the TPLF from Mekelle. Given the TPLF’s military history, organisational sophistication and firepower, this is a frightening prospect. More than half of Ethiopia’s armed forces and armaments are located in Tigray, with much of the country’s military equipment in TPLF hands. Even if Prime Minister Abiy wins the initial battle it would be much more difficult for him to win a protracted and punishing war, or the support needed from the majority of Tigrayans.

The consequences of growing instability spread far beyond Tigray. Hundreds, if not thousands, have been killed in the past three months in incidents of identity-based violence in Oromia, Benishangul, and the Southern region. Vast areas in Western Ethiopia are under the control of Oromo militants.

Many believe the conflict with Tigray is being used partly to deflect public attention from the government’s inability to stop this recurrent violence. Public trust has been eroded by the

exploitation of tragedy for political gain by different groups, including the government’s inability to present credible evidence of its accusations against the TPLF and other political opponents in the federalist camp (like prominent Oromo Jawhar Mohammed), and the limited respect for due process and decisions taken by the courts.

The involvement of Amhara militia and special forces in the fighting in Tigray alongside the federal army will exacerbate the historical competition between Amhara and Tigray elites and tensions between their ethnic communities. This could hasten the fracture of the armed forces along ethnic lines.

Regional implications The crisis also risks seriously destabilising the entire Horn of Africa, a region still feeling the aftershocks of the 1998-2000 Ethiopia-Eritrea war, which killed up to to 100,000 people and led to a regional proxy war that lasted for two decades.

Tigray borders Eritrea (see above map) and the TPLF was at the forefront of the fighting, cementing an enmity between Tigrayan and Eritrean leaders that continues today.

The 2018 peace agreement between Ethiopia and Eritrea – which won Abiy his Nobel Prize – has only been partially implemented without the inclusion and support of Tigray.

TPLF officials accuse the prime minister and Eritrean president of collaborating to destabilise Tigray and tarnish the legacy and successes of the TPLF dominated era.

Sudan shares a border with northern Ethiopia and is experiencing its own delicate transition. Elites within its civilian-military government have links with Addis Ababa, Mekelle and Asmara. Sudan partly closed its eastern border and deployed troops to the region following discussions between Lt-General Abdel Al-Fattah Al-Burhan and Prime Minister Abiy, and there are indications that Tigray has established a corridor to import weapons and supplies through Sudan.

Sudan’s Prime Minister, chair of the regional bloc IGAD, has also tried to convince his counterpart to stabilise the situation.

A prolonged conflict could lead to hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing to Eastern Sudan, a region already experiencing significant inter-communal turbulence. As well as Ethiopians, there are almost 100,000 Eritreans living in

refugee camps in Tigray. Such flows could strain Sudan’s transition and exacerbate existing tensions between Sudanese

and Ethiopian communities along the border.

Ethiopia is also one of the largest contributors to peacekeeping missions with thousands of troops across the Horn, including in Somalia. Reports indicate that Ethiopia has already begun removing its non-AMISOM troops from Somalia, which could weaken support for Somali forces and provide opportunities for al-Shabaab to retake territory and implement attacks, especially during the upcoming Somalia elections.

The need to prioritise dialogue From a regional security and diplomatic perspective, Ethiopia is too big to fail. Prime Minister Abiy has so far allayed considerable international concern, but the UN, AU and EU should ramp up coordinated diplomatic efforts and demands for an immediate cessation of hostilities – as should the US and UK – two of Ethiopia’s largest bilateral donors.

A strong message from president-elect Biden, with bipartisan backing, would be influential and begin to reverse the damage done to US-Ethiopia relations under President Trump. International actors need to be clear that there will be meaningful accountability for attacks on civilians and push for the establishment of a humanitarian corridor.

Both sides need to pull back from the abyss and moderate their extreme demands to secure a truce. South Africa’s ANC and the Chinese Communist Party could potentially play a bridging role to help narrow differences towards reaching a negotiated settlement. The UN and AU should also appoint an envoy to Ethiopia, preferably a respected senior African statesperson, to oversee a cease-fire and facilitate a locally initiated and genuinely inclusive mediation.

Discussions would seek to overcome the constitutional dispute that partly sparked the conflict, reach consensus on the role and responsibilities of political forces moving forward, as well as agreement on the election modalities and timetable.

In the current climate, there is little possibility of holding peaceful, let alone free and fair elections in 2021.

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