Category: Issues

The governor of Colorado recently signed three bills aimed at protecting access to abortion and what transgender activists have tagged “gender-affirming care,” even as other neighbouring states are beginning to clamp down on the practice.

Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, signed three bills relating to the procedures just as Republican-led states are passing laws which limits access to abortions and placing restrictions on gender transition surgeries and other related treatments, including the use of puberty blockers, for minors.

“Here in Colorado, we value individual freedoms, and we stand up to protect them,” Polis tweeted. “I’m proud to sign these bills today to further Colorado’s reputation as a beacon of freedom and choice.”

One of the bills would prevent the state from recognizing any prosecutions or lawsuits related to anyone who receives or assists in abortions or so-called “gender-affirming care.” Another would require insurance companies to cover abortions in full, with an exception for those who object on religious grounds.

The third bill blocks what pro-abortion activists and Democrats view as “deceptive” practices by crisis pregnancy centers, which encourage mothers to choose options other than abortion. Critics of pregnancy centers claim that the facilities misrepresent themselves as offering abortions, but then do not provide them.

The Colorado bills come as Wyoming and Oklahoma have passed abortion restrictions in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe vs. Wade, while Utah prohibits puberty blockers and gender-related surgeries for those under 18. Other states have put additional limits on abortion and other treatments, including barring traveling to states to access such procedures. It comes amid a broader national debate about not only abortion, but whether it is ethical to provide puberty-blocking drugs and surgery to minors who may be experiencing gender dysphoria.

Meanwhile, New Mexico recently signed abortion protections that shield those who get abortions or gender-related treatments — and those who assist them — from interstate investigations.

In Colorado, multiple reports state that visits to abortion clinics have increased by about a third since the Supreme Court ruling, and an increase in wait times for transgender-related procedures is expected.

The governor’s office was filled with lawmakers and other supporters for a celebratory ceremony with loud applause and call-and-response chants.

“We see you and in Colorado, we’ve got your back,” Democratic state Sen. Julie Gonzales said during the ceremony.

Religious and pro-family groups have opposed the legislation, saying that it restricts the First Amendment rights of those professionals and centers who do not provide such services. They also argue that the limits on crisis pregnancy centers “censors” the good work they do. The bill also bars medical professionals from prescribing abortion pill reversal treatment, making such conduct “subject to discipline.” One such clinic has already filed a lawsuit challenging the legislation.

“[The bills] remove the ‘choice’ for women to choose life and violate the First Amendment rights of all Coloradans, healthcare providers, employers, and pregnancy centers,” The Colorado Catholic bishops said in a letter that was penned recently.

The bishops, led by Denver Archbishop Samuel Aquila, say the bills violate the Constitution by “forcing all Coloradans to pay for abortion in their insurance premiums, violating parental rights by removing parental notification if their minor receives an abortion or abortion referral, and forcing private employers to pay for and medical centers to perform abortion and so-called ‘gender-affirming care.’”

According to the United Nations special representative to Sudan, at least over 185 people have been killed and a further 1,800 injured in five days of fighting between the Sudanese army and the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces across Sudan.

The power struggle has pitted General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the armed forces commander, against General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group. Fighting broke out after bitter disagreements between al-Burhan and Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti, about the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army – a key condition for a final deal aimed at ending a crisis that has been continuing since the 2021 coup.

Their ongoing power struggle has derailed a shift to civilian rule which many fear may never happen and raised fears of a wider conflict.

Hopes of relief were raised three days after the fighting broke out when a 24-hour ceasefire was agreed after US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, separately telephoned Hemedti and Burhan to express “grave concern” about civilian deaths and to urge them to agree to a ceasefire.

However, hours after the ceasefire had purportedly come into effect; various sources say fighting was still ongoing. Khartoum residents reported they still heard loud gunfire and explosions in different parts of the capital, particularly around the military’s headquarters and the Republican Palace.

Millions of people have been trapped in their homes or wherever they could find shelter since hostilities began, with supplies starting to run low in many areas. Emergency services have been stopped at Al-Shaab Hospital and Al-Khartoum Hospital after they were bombed on April 17. Al-Shaab Hospital near the army command building was subjected to continuous shelling that has left a lot of staff and patients severely injured.

Has the fighting has raged on, hundreds of people have died many more injured and more than 150,000 people have been displaced. An An estimated 100,000 internally displaced people remain “at the mercy of relentless violence, with settlements once again being reduced to ashes all over the country.

It has also been reported that water and electricity cuts as well as the inability of those injured to reach hospitals is fast creating a humanitarian crisis.

The power struggle has its roots in the years before a 2019 uprising that ousted the dictatorial ruler Omar al-Bashir, who built up formidable security forces that he deliberately set against one another. When an effort to transition to a democratic civilian-led government faltered after Bashir’s fall, an eventual showdown appeared inevitable, with diplomats in Khartoum warning in early 2022 that they feared such an outbreak of violence. In recent weeks, tensions have risen further.

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) was founded by Bashir to crush a rebellion in Darfur that began more than 20 years ago due to the political and economic marginalization of the local people by Sudan’s central government. The RSF were also known by the name of Janjaweed, which became associated with widespread atrocities.

In 2013, Bashir transformed the Janjaweed into a semi-organised paramilitary force and gave their leaders military ranks before deploying them to crush a rebellion in South Darfur and then dispatching many to fight in the war in Yemen, and later Libya.

The RSF, led by Hemedti, and the regular military forces under Burhan cooperated to oust Bashir in 2019. The RSF then dispersed a peaceful sit-in that was held in front of the military headquarters in Khartoum, killing hundreds of people and raping dozens more.

A power-sharing deal with the civilians who led the protests against Bashir, which was supposed to bring about a transition towards a democratic government, was interrupted by a coup in October 2021. The coup put the army back in charge but it faced protests on a weekly basis, renewed isolation and deepening economic woes. Hemedti swung behind the plan for a new transition, bringing tensions with Burhan to the surface.

A central cause of tension since the uprising is the civilian demand for oversight of the military and integration of the RSF into the regular armed forces. Civilians have also called for the handover of lucrative military holdings in agriculture, trade and other industries, a crucial source of power for an army that has often outsourced military action to regional militias.

Another point of contention is the pursuit of justice over allegations of war crimes by the military and its allies in the conflict in Darfur from 2003. The international criminal court is seeking trials for Bashir and other Sudanese suspects.

Justice is also being sought over the killings of pro-democracy protesters in June 2019, in which military forces are implicated. Activists and civilian groups have been angered by delays to an official investigation. In addition, they want justice for at least 125 people killed by security forces in protests since the 2021 coup.

The global interest in the ongoing war in Sudan isn’t particularly surprising considering the fact that Sudan is in a volatile region bordering the Red Sea, the Sahel region and the Horn of Africa. Its strategic location and agricultural wealth have attracted regional power plays, complicating the chances of a successful transition to civilian-led government.

Several of Sudan’s neighbors – including Ethiopia, Chad and South Sudan – have been affected by political upheavals and conflict, and Sudan’s relationship with Ethiopia, in particular, has been strained over issues including disputed farmland along their border.

Major geopolitical dimensions are also at play, with Russia, the US, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other powers battling for influence in Sudan.

The Saudis and the UAE have seen Sudan’s transition as an opportunity to push back against Islamist influence in the region. They, along with the US and Britain, form the “Quad”, which has sponsored mediation in Sudan along with the UN and the African Union. Western powers fear the potential for a Russian base on the Red Sea, which Sudanese military leaders have expressed openness to on several occasions.

The African Union Peace and Security Council (AU-PSC) during an emergency meeting convened recently feared that the situation in Sudan has “reached a dangerous level and could escalate into a full-blown conflict, thereby undermining the progress made towards a peaceful transition to democracy and stability in Sudan.”

It condemned the fighting and called for a ceasefire as it urged countries of the region and other concerned parties to support ongoing efforts to return the country to the transition process towards a constitutional order.

In a similar meeting, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) called on the two parties to immediately par and unconditionally cease hostilities; de-escalate tensions; and allow unfettered humanitarian access and ensure Sudanese citizens observe the holy month of Ramadan in peace.

The group agreed to send a high-level delegation led by Salva Kiir Mayardit; President of the Republic of South Sudan; and composed of William Ruto, President of the Republic of Kenya; and Ismail Guelleh, President of the Republic of Djibouti; to Khartoum at the earliest time possible to engage the two leaders to resume negotiations on all outstanding issues including security and military reform, and report back to the Assembly.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will be meeting with the heads of the African Union, Arab League and other relevant organizations to discuss the situation. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.

People in Sudan are running out of food, fuel, and other vital supplies. Many urgently need medical care,” Dujarric said.

Gunmen have targeted hospitals and humanitarian workers, with reports of sexual violence against aid workers, the United Nations said. Most hospitals are out of service and health charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said armed men raided a warehouse of supplies it operates in the west of the country.

Even before the conflict, around a quarter of Sudan’s population was facing acute hunger. The World Food Programme halted one of its largest global aid operations in the country on Saturday after three of its workers were killed.

It may sound new to many but in December 2013, the United Nations Organization General Assembly adopted a Resolution that established 2015 to 2024 as the “International Decade for People of African Descent”. The aim then was to encourage people to take part in global conversations on the realities faced by people of African descent. It was also to enable the exploration of the challenges faced by people of African descent due to the pervasive racism and racial discrimination engrained in several societies all around the world.

The decade, which started on January 1, 2015, and ends on December 31, 2024, was launched at the United Nations Headquarters, in New York in September 2014  by representatives of the UN member states, international civil society, and other stakeholders. The objectives of the resolution are to respect, protect, and fulfill all human rights and fundamental freedoms by the people of African descent, as recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It specifically recommends promoting greater knowledge of and respect for the diverse heritage, culture, and contribution of people of African descent to the development of societies. It also proposes adopting and strengthening national, regional and international legal frameworks on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and to ensure their full and effective implementation.

The seeds of the International Decade for People of African Descent were sown in 2001 with the third World Conference against Racism, which led to the adoption of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action. The Durban Declaration, in addition to stating that the people of Africa had been victimized by slavery and continued to suffer as a result, called for states to adopt specific steps to help combat racism and xenophobia and to protect its victims. As the decade wears on, the UN has called for these efforts to intensify.

To its credit, the program has been well-received by countries around the globe. In 2017, the Accompong Maroons of Jamaica launched the Door of Return Initiative in cooperation with Ghana and Nigeria, for which Nigeria unveiled the first symbolic monument during its Diaspora Festival in Badagry, Lagos. The initiative involved erecting a series of monuments across Africa to signify the openness of Africa towards the diaspora and was intended to bring new investment to the continent in areas of tourism and sustainable infrastructure development.

On January 30, 2018, the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, announced that the Government of Canada would officially recognize the International Decade for People of African Descent. Trudeau was in fact the first government official in North America to formally announce that his government would support this initiative. In 2018, the government of Canada “committed $9 million over three years for the Department of Canadian Heritage to enhance local community supports for Black Canadian youth and $10 million over five years to the Public Health Agency of Canada to develop research in support of more culturally-focused mental health programs in Black Canadian communities, for a total of $19 million.” In 2019, the Canadian government also pledged to provide an additional “$25 million over five years to Employment and Skills Development Canada for projects and capital assistance to celebrate, share knowledge and build capacity in Black Canadian communities”. To date, the Canadian government remains the only western government that has invested several million dollars to improve the lives of individuals of African descent locally.

In 2018, the Bank of Canada released a new 10-dollar note that featured ” a portrait of Viola Desmond, a Black Nova Scotian businesswoman who challenged racial segregation at a film theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, in 1946″. According to the bank of Canada’s website Viola Desmond’s “court case was an inspiration for the pursuit of racial equality across Canada. Viola’s story is currently part of the permanent collection at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights”. Viola’s “act of defiance happened nine years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on an Alabama bus”.

In September 2018, Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo launched “Year of Return, Ghana 2019”. The intent of this initiative was to encourage individuals of African descent to go to Ghana in order to settle and invest in the country and the continent at large. Several prominent individuals, including but not limited to Idris Elba, Boris Kodjoe, Naomi Campbell, Steve Harvey, Cardi B, T.I., Ludacris, Akon, Rosario Dawson, Diggy Simmons, Jidenna, and Nicole Ari Parker, visited Ghana during the first Essence Full Circle Festival in Ghana in 2019. The initiative appeared to give the tourism sector a boost as Ghana issued 800,000 visas in 2019 for visitors mainly from the Americas, Europe, and other African countries.

In 2019, Jamaica’s observance of the International Decade for People of African Descent was launched by Prime Minister Andrew Holness in Kingston, Jamaica. The Jamaican Prime Minister alongside his Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta who was in attendance jointly announced their commitment to work together to activate initiatives that form part of the declaration. It’s been unfortunate though that not much has happened in both countries to honor that pledge.

The Decade was officially launched in Berlin, Germany in July 2016. The launch which was jointly organized by the Central Council of African Communities in Germany, the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency, and Engagement Global has as its theme “Human Rights in Practice: Experiences of People of African Descent in Germany”. The event which had speakers in attendance speak about the plight of people of African descent in Germany saw an admission from German speakers regarding the institutional hardships faced by citizens of African Descent.

In collaboration with the Central Council of African Communities in Germany, the Initiative of Black People in Germany, and other civil society groups, the Kaneza Initiative for Dialogue and Empowerment coordinates the activities for the implementation of the Decade in Germany.

The United Nations Organization on its part has organized activities, events, and forums and created various bodies in observance of the International Decade for People of African Descent. In 2021 it created the Permanent Forum of People of African Descent and in December last year,  the forum had its first session in Geneva, Switzerland.

The meeting, which was the first time members of the Forum, created in August 2021, were able to come together and talk about how government policies across the world are affecting people of African descent, focused on strategies to combat systemic racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance.

An ecumenical delegation composed of five members from the National Baptist Convention USA Inc, the United Methodist Church; the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the United Church of Christ also attended the first session of the Permanent Forum for People of African Descent.

On the margins of the forum, the ecumenical group had private meetings with UN leaders to raise issues of concern in relation to racial justice and affirm the ecumenical movement’s readiness to collaborate in future work. Rev. Dr. Angelique Walker-Smith, WCC president from North America, reflected on the importance of accompanying all UN mechanisms to eradicate racism, xenophobia, and related discrimination.

Several church members from around the world from South Africa, Solomon Islands, Cameroon, Jamaica, Nigeria, Angola, Portugal, the Netherlands, and the USA, attended online and sent their comments and statements to the forum.

At the end of this year 2023, forum representatives will be submitting a report and raising issues with U.N. governing bodies about methods for tackling some of the issues Black people face throughout the world.

It’s been a shame though that the U.S., French, Australian, and UK governments up till this moment have made no plans to observe this decade or even acknowledge it. On the flip side, it shows the readiness of the world to move on critical issues without the input of the so-called “major players”.

While the International Decade for People of African Descent will be coming to an end at the end of 2024, it behooves Black people of African Descent around the world to continue to strive for the very best in their respective societies. While the process that has brought people of African Descent to this point seems torturous, tasking, and thankless, the end game is to ensure that Black people no longer have to live in a world where they are treated as second-class citizens.

The United States has long considered Egypt a strategic partner and a major non-NATO ally and in recent times there seemed to have been little justification for such designations.

The United States established diplomatic relations with Egypt in 1922, following Egypt’s independence from its protectorate status under the United Kingdom and both have since shared a strong partnership based on mutual interests in Middle East peace and stability, economic opportunity, and regional security.

Egypt has received billions of dollars’ worth of US economic and military aid over the past 40-plus years, chiefly as a reward for Cairo’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel, Washington’s historically close ally in the region. Egypt was a leader in the region in the 1950s and 1960s when Gamal Abdel Nasser was president. His Arab nationalism and Arab socialism inspired an entire generation, though not always for the better. His approach to economic development through state-controlled enterprises was widely imitated even though it remains an obstacle to growth in many countries till date.

The influence of Egypt in the Middle East made it a no-brainer for The United States not to take Egypt on board as an ally. Its human rights abuses and restrictions of freedoms in recent years had placed the most populous country in the Arab world in a controversial position. Fierce Western condemnation of its human rights record caused President Al-Sisi to turn elsewhere for allies, especially within the region where there is less sensitivity about human rights. In 2021, trade between Egypt and other Arab countries increased by nearly 20%.

At the beginning of the year 2022, the U.S. withdrew $130 million dollars in military aid to Egypt, which undoubtedly harmed relations between Cairo and Washington. The U.S. administration has been vocal against President Al-Sisi’s repression of liberties and human rights violations, but President Al-Sisi seemed unbothered by his cooling relationship with the U.S.

Well, there is optimism all that may be about to change very soon as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a visit to Cairo in January met with President Al-Sisi and other top government functionaries in a bid to smoothen and forge a stronger alliance.

Blinken, while calling on Cairo to do more on its human rights record, emphasized the strategic ties binding the two nations. Citing the numerous times both countries have cozied up together to achieve common goals.

The United States and Egypt have begun cooperating closely to de-escalate conflicts and promote sustainable peace, including by supporting UN mediation to enable elections in Libya as soon as possible and restoring a civilian-led transition in Sudan through the Framework Political Agreement.

There is no doubt that the U.S.-Egyptian relationship has served the two sides well. Two decades of military cooperation and training have moderated Egypt’s military establishment, the most powerful institution in Egypt, and made it a reliable U.S. partner. During the Gulf War, Egypt’s support was central to Arab participation in the war against Iraq; Egypt’s willingness to keep open its canal in a period of crisis and allow overflight and refueling cannot be taken for granted. These ties remain central to the U.S. ability to project and protect its strategic interests in the world’s most volatile region.

Despite the continued condemnation of its human rights record, Washington seems to be in the know of what the Middle East would look like without a strong U.S.-Egyptian relationship. A nuclear-inclined or -armed Egypt, ambiguous on the issue of terror, uncertain on peace with Israel, and disinclined to negotiate would drastically recast the management of the Middle East.

According to several diplomats who have served in Washington over the past three decades, Middle East peace remained and will always remain much more consequential to Egyptian-American relations than anything related to democracy or human rights. This, they freely admit, is a cross-partisan practice.

In the spring of 2021, US President Joe Biden had two consecutive phone calls with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi over a few days when Egypt was mediating a ceasefire to put an end to the Israeli aggression on Gaza. The phone call came at a time when the disagreements on human rights and democracy practices in Egypt were still unresolved, following an election cycle in the US where Biden had made an issue of referring to the human rights situation in Egypt.

As things stand today, Egyptian government officials insist that notwithstanding the fact that other regional players have become involved in promoting Arab-Israeli peace, Egypt remains a quintessential player in this respect.

The US on its part is still providing “considerable support to Egypt on many fronts,” including Egypt’s water security and economic stability.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a joint news conference with Sameh Shoukry, his Egyptian counterpart when he visited in January said the US intended to contribute $600 million to the construction of an underwater telecom cable that would serve Egypt and the Horn of Africa region.

Another $50 million will be given to Egypt to support agriculture in the most populous Arab nation. The countries have also decided to form a joint economic committee to promote cooperation between the two allies and the annual US military aid to Egypt currently runs at $1.3 billion.

Additionally, the U.S. government has invested $604 million to grow and digitalize Egypt’s telecommunications sector; imported $5.9 billion in U.S. commodities to construct, expand, and modernize Egyptian infrastructure; offered $350 million in scholarships and exchange opportunities to more than 23,000 Egyptian and American students and mid-career professionals; and provided $100 million to conserve Egypt’s cultural heritage.

Total bilateral trade in goods between the United States and Egypt stood at $9.1 billion in 2021, the highest level ever. Egypt is the United States’ largest export market in Africa. U.S. exports to Egypt include wheat and corn, mineral fuel and oil, machinery, aircraft, and iron and steel products. U.S. imports from Egypt include apparel, natural gas and oil, fertilizers, textiles, and agricultural products.

Several sources also refer to the current support that the US is giving Egypt for its demand for a fresh loan from the IMF to help overcome economic difficulties coming as a result of long economic slowdown due to the pandemic and the war on Ukraine.

These sources say that there was always room for disagreements between Egypt and the US be it on governance, Israel or other foreign relations issues like Egypt’s decision not to denounce Russia’s war in Ukraine. However, they add that what is at stake is a lot more significant. What is at stake, they say, is the stability of one of the most consequential countries in the Middle East/Mediterranean regions and the stability of these regions and that of East Africa.

There are lots of advocates in the United States, in Washington in particular, that have sought to leverage U.S. assistance to Egypt to pressure Egyptian governments on the issue of human rights. In all honesty, at no time has that worked in achieving or furthering the objective of human rights as they see it in Egypt.”

Egypt on its part has made attempts in the last two decades to improve on its questionable human rights record and open its economy to competition and greater private sector leadership.

Needless to say, Egyptian-American relations took center stage, with special emphasis on working together to avoid escalation in the occupied West Bank, the reaffirmation of the two-state solution, economic relations, and American support for a negotiated deal between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia concerning the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, a deal that would take into consideration the interests of the three parties.

There is no other way to put it. The relationship between The United States and Egypt is a mutually beneficial one and both countries would do well to bear that in mind going forward.

Officials and leaders from the African Union and some African nations recently arrived in the Tigray region of Ethiopia to launch a joint monitoring and verification mechanism for a peace deal signed in November 2022 to put an end to the two-year war.

In November 2020, global attention turned to the outbreak of conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region between Ethiopian government forces and its allies against Tigrayan forces. The fighting followed a year of growing political tensions between the Ethiopian federal government and Tigray’s regional authorities, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

By July 2021, the conflict had spread to Tigray’s neighboring regions of Afar and Amhara and has seen thousands of people dead, displaced and on the run.

The mediating team led by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, as well as African Union representatives and diplomats from various countries are keeping a very close eye on the cease-fire’s progress.

The warring factions have agreed to a joint African Union monitoring team to ensure that the peace agreement is being implemented and that no cease-fire violations are occurring.

The visiting delegation was welcomed by Tigray region president Debretsion Gebremichael and will be monitoring the full implementation of the peace agreement, part of which calls for the restoration of all services, the provision of adequate aid to the needy population, the disarmament of rebel groups, and the withdrawal of foreign forces and other militia groups from the region.

The delegation’s visit comes as the Tigray rebel group prepares to disarm and surrender the region to the federal government. The Tigray rebel group is hesitant to accept the move because they accuse Eritrean troops of attacking the population and obstructing humanitarian aid, as well as the presence of militias from the Amhara and Afar regions.

The government restored telecommunication services to more towns this week, and Ethiopian Airlines flew to Mekele for the first time in nearly two years last week, which allowed families to reconnect.

Former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta who is an African Union Commission High-Level Panel Member, said while he was happy that both sides have agreed to a joint AU monitoring team to ensure that the peace agreement is being implemented, he was looking forward to the day when all hostilities would cease in the region for good.

Antony Blinken, secretary of state of the United States, praised the launch of the AU-led disarmament team. “The signing and launch of the AU-MVCM in Mekelle is another important step towards securing lasting peace for the people of northern Ethiopia,” he said in a statement issued last week.

He commended the AU and its High-Level Panel for facilitating agreement on the AU-MVCM.  And said that the United States looks forward to working with AU panel members and all relevant parties to expedite full implementation of the COHA that leads to lasting peace for the benefit of all Ethiopians. He also said that the United States will also continue to support the AU’s mandate to prevent, manage, and resolve conflicts and promote peace, security, and stability on the continent

The news no doubt must have come as a relief to the U.S. government has President Joe Biden had renewed sanctions imposed on Ethiopian officials involved in the Tigray conflict in September last year, pointing out that the situation in the Horn of Africa continues to pose a threat to U.S. national security and foreign policy.

The move at the time was intended to impose sanctions on certain officials responsible for blocking food aid deliveries, or for taking other actions to fuel the civil war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.

Since the conflict in Ethiopia’s northern region broke out in November 2020, international human rights organizations and aid groups have documented atrocities, widespread sexual violence, forced displacement, and attacks on civilian infrastructure by Ethiopian federal government forces and their allies, including Eritrean government forces.

Tigrayan militia forces have also been implicated in killing and raping Eritrean refugees.

Ten military experts from different African countries, including South Sudan and Kenya, make up the MVCM team, which has already begun to observe the collection of heavy weaponry held by the TPLF at Agula, which is located close to Mekelle, the capital of Tigray.

When the disarmament is fully implemented, Eritrean and Amhara forces are expected to withdraw from the Tigray region, according to officials of the federal government. Reports say that Eritrean troops have already started to leave the region.

Regional elections will be conducted in Tigray after the region is fully stabilized. An interim government will be formed in Tigray, comprising the TPLF, the federal government, and opposition parties in Tigray, according to Redwan Hussein (Amb), security advisor to the Prime Minister. He stated this while briefing members of the opposition party at the African Leadership Excellence Academy on December 28, 2022 in Addis Ababa.

Ethiopian Airlines began flights to Mekelle, with plans to resume Shire flights and triple Mekelle flights beginning Monday, January 1, 2023. Ethio telecom has also resumed its connection to Mekelle and 28 other towns in the region after repairing more than half of its 1,800 kilometers of fiber-optic cable in the conflict areas. Electricity, transportation, and banking services are also resuming, while banks are facing liquidity problems as fresh injections are required into their branches in Tigray.

By December 29, 2002 over 106,000 metric tons of humanitarian aid and 1,400 metric tons of medicine had been provided to Tigray since the peace agreement was signed on November 2, 2022.

“We have walked the talk,” Olusegun Obasanjo said during the MVCM launch in Mekelle last week. After being assigned by the AU 17 months ago to find a way out of the deadly conflict between the federal government and TPLF, he traveled to Mekelle for the 10th time.

“The suspicion and the heated debate eventually led to the peace agreement. An agreement that will be implemented slowly. The trust building is really crucial,” said Uhuru Kenyatta, who also hopes to see the celebration of the completion of the peace progress in Addis Ababa by the time the Ethiopian Christmas arrives, which will be on January 7, 2022.

However, officials from both the federal government and Tigray state say there is still a lot of work to be done to end the war.

Heads of state and leaders from across the African continent converged in Washington D.C., USA on the 13th to 15th December 2022, for the United States-Africa Leaders’ Summit hosted by the office of US President. The goal of the historic summit was to build and expand vital political, economic, and strategic partnerships with Africa.

It is worth remembering that the first U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit was held in 2014, under President Obama’s administration, announcing and engaging new private sector commitments to invest and partner with African countries on initiatives in energy, financial services, climate change, food security and health care, among other areas.

This year’s summit with President Joe Biden, also prioritized similar issues, while placing an even greater emphasis on bilateral trade and investment initiatives that had been eroded during the Trump administration.

The summit’s agenda was quite engaging and robust. It highlighted the United State’s efforts to increase sustainable food production, strengthen health systems, provide humanitarian assistance, respond to climate crisis, reinforce democracy and human rights ideals, boost U.S.-African trade, advance peace and security, and even enhance space research and cooperation on the continent.

The summit also included a new initiative to increase U.S. engagement with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Almost two years since trading commenced under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), signed by 44 of the African Union’s 55 member states, the United States’ commitment to the project has been questioned.

While the US has provided technical support in the form of workshops and orientation programs, there has been no evidence of US funding for activities specifically supporting the AfCFTA’s development and implementation, according to an August report by the Congressional Research Service, a public policy research institute of the United States Congress.

By contrast the EU has been a major donor to the initiative, providing approximately $79.9m from 2014-2020. The Biden administration clearly recognized its failings on this aspect as it has given the EU an edge in trade relations with Africa and used this summit to correct that gaffe by fully committing to AfCFTA.

The US put to rest all doubts about its commitment to the intiative by signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat on the first day of the summit, which the White House said will create a continent-wide, $3.4-trillion market.

The forum also included interactions with the civil society, multilateral meetings between President Biden and African Heads of state, secretary and cabinet-level meetings for trade, energy and diplomacy, and a collection of industry-focused meetings under the purviews of the U.S.-Africa Business Forum.

That the summit happened at the end of a year when Biden had engaged other regions of the world with trips to visit US allies in Asia, Europe and the Middle East says a lot about how serious they need Africa onside. Biden, who till date is yet to visit Africa since assuming office, viewed the summit as an opportunity to take a comprehensive look at the complicated nature of the continent’s relationship with America.

The Biden administration has been pulling out all the stops in trying to repair relations with African nations after President Donald Trump largely ignored them and famously disparaged some in a White House meeting in 2018.

American officials have been visibly concerned about Chinese and Russian influence on the continent, as well as the widespread instability caused by famine, climate change, epidemics and wars. 

U.S. officials say they also want to help African countries create economic opportunities for their growing youth populations and at a forum on Tuesday on outer space, Nigeria and Rwanda became the first African nations to sign onto the Artemis Accords, an agreement that aims to establish guidelines for space exploration.

The president of Botswana, Mokgweetsi Masisi, said at the Brookings Institution on Tuesday morning that many African nations were wary of the intentions of world superpowers and sought to exert some agency over those larger countries’ policies.

“The world has not been extremely kind to Africa,” he said. “It’s almost as if the carving out and colonization of Africa assumed a new form without the labels of colonization — but some measure of conquest. And we’re trying to move away from that and engage so that they work with us and not on us and through us.”

U.S. President Joe Biden announced a $15 billion trade and investment partnership deal with Africa on the second day of the summit. The deal includes a $500 million memo of understanding between U.S. and African Export-Import banks to support diaspora engagement and a new “Clean Tech Energy Network” that’s valued at $350 million.

Vice President Kamala Harris made new commitments to advance women’s economic participation in Africa, the White House said. The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation announced $358 million of new investments for women’s initiatives and the State Department will launch a program for green jobs for women with an initial $1 million investment.

Critics of the U.S. on the continent called the decision of the Biden administration to exclude five countries from the U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit a disgrace.

According to the U.S. State Department’s Office of African Affairs, 49 African governments and African Union (AU) dignitaries were invited to attend the three-day summit. However, five countries were excluded from the invitations: Mali, Guinea-Conakry, Burkina Faso, Eritrea and Somaliland.

Justifying the exclusion, Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council, Judd Devermont, said the State Department “wanted to respect the decisions of the African Union and did not invite countries the AU has sanctioned, as is the case of Mali, Guinea-Conakry and Burkina Faso. On the other hand, Eritrea and Somaliland were excluded because they currently don’t have diplomatic relations with the U.S.”

“We continue to work separately with those countries to encourage a return to a democratic transition, to move to a democratic track, so we’re in a better position to have a strong partnership with those countries,” Molly Phee, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said in a briefing with reporters on Dec. 7.

The criticism leveled at the U.S on the exclusion of those countries was quite puzzling, given that the U.S. really needs the African Union as allies. Doing anything to aggravate your relationship with your potential new ally was definitely a no-brainer.

A major highlight of the summit was the Leaders Day which was scheduled for the last day of the summit. The Leaders Day featured government meetings and events for various African leaders that included President Macky Sall of Senegal, President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia, President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt amongst others.

President Biden who was pleased with the outcome of the summit declared that he was looking forward to building on the foundations of the summit and continue working with African governments, civil society, diaspora communities across the United States, and the private sector to continue strengthening our shared vision for the future of U.S.-Africa relations. 

Overall the summit has shown that it is vital for the US to convince the continent that it is interested in forging a long lasting partnership with it and not just going to forget it for another eight years. A failure to do that might see the African continent decide to forget Washington.

An increasing number of countries in Africa are starting to cut long-standing security ties with France out of disappointment with Paris’ handling of issues important to the continent.

Africa seems to be finally awake to its grossly unequal relationship with France. African countries that were colonized by France are deciding to cut ties with Paris, turning instead to the British-led Commonwealth. Local populations have held protests demanding the departure of French troops and clamoring for Russian Wagner commandos instead.

Parallel to this development, other world powers have been attempting to increase their influence on the African continent. Turkey is strategizing to become a favored party to carry out infrastructural work all over sub-saharan Africa and they are ready to offer competitive prices. You may recall that a Turkish company built the new airport in Dakar. China is investing in most African countries via financial institutions created for this purpose, in particular the Exim Bank and the China Development Bank. Brazil, India and Pakistan are also trying to develop closer economic ties with African countries.

France has lost the privileged relations it had 30-40 years ago. This is a result of movement and trade liberalization, but also the outcome of clumsiness and serious mistakes on the part of the French authorities – for example, ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy’s disastrous 2007 speech in which he declared that “the African has not fully entered into history.’’

More recently, President Emmanuel Macron was reduced to discussing the future of Africa with associations and students in Montpellier instead of doing so with African heads of state. For a long time, the Africa-France summits were the traditional platform where all the presidents of French-speaking Africa met with the French president, where relationships were forged among the participants, where burning issues could be discussed and solutions found. Gone are these privileged meetings.

A serious mistake was made during the 2011 Arab Spring with the intervention in Libya, organized by former President Sarkozy against the advice of African leaders, which led to the overthrow and death of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi. The upheaval caused total anarchy in Libya. Armed Tuareg soldiers who had been mobilized by Qaddafi returned to the Sahel region and joined jihadist or rebel movements.

According to observers on the continent, It was also a mistake to have allowed a former foreign minister of Rwanda, Louise Mushikiwabo, to be appointed Secretary General of the International Organization of the Francophonie (OIF). Rwanda has renounced French as a first language, has joined the Commonwealth and has been conducting a relentless propaganda campaign against the French army for more than 20 years.

Unfortunately, this succession of errors has gradually created a climate of mistrust and even violent ruptures between France and French-speaking African countries. The Central African Republic (CAR) and Mali have requested the departure of the French ambassador and French troops – troops that had been called in to help and who fought and died to contain the jihadist threat. Bangui and Bamako turned to Russia, welcoming Wagner commandos on their territory. They now provide security for government authorities, certain localities or provinces and are paid through the exploitation of mines, notably gold in Mali and diamonds and uranium in CAR.

Even countries where France is still considered an ally are beginning to have doubts. Togo and Gabon joined the Commonwealth last July. Niger and Chad are paying a high price for the implosion of Libya. Libyan militias and armed gangs are pouring into their territory and destabilizing local politics.

Worse, a few years ago, allies such as the United Kingdom and the United States intervened in the French-speaking world, often after consultation with Paris. Since the war in Rwanda and the violent troubles in Kivu, a rich province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a gap has widened between France and the Anglo-Saxon countries. Washington and London still strongly imply that France was complicit in the monstrous 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

As it stands today, voices are being raised in France to try to shed light on this region of the world where a war is being fought over the exploitation of crucial raw materials, like coltan and cobalt. Human beings, especially women and children, are being trafficked there with full impunity and to the greatest benefit of Anglo-American, Canadian and South African financial and mining companies.

The economic stakes are high; these metals are necessary to produce semiconductors, cell phones and communication networks as well as military systems and missiles. The issue is so vital that the U.S., which has long been closely linked to the Rwandan and Ugandan governments, became directly involved to the point of concluding, during the first Kivu war, the secret agreements of Lemera with the Congolese rebels. This was later revealed by President Laurent Kabila himself, and facilitated the creation of an American-Rwandan company for the purpose of regulating, or even controlling, the trade in rare metals.

There have been urgent calls within France to redefine its African policy. There has been a huge realization in Africa that the relations that existed between France and its former colonies were one of exploitation that benefitted the European country majorly.

The onus is on Paris to rebuild the friendship and ties it used to enjoy with Francophone Africa. Frankly speaking, it is in its best interests to do everything possible to build new mutually beneficial cooperation in all sectors: culture and education; health and pharmaceuticals; energy and mining; agriculture and food industry; transportation and infrastructure.

France must have the courage to address the issue of immigration with all the French-speaking countries of Africa. It must have privileged relations with these countries which will result in a visa policy welcoming migrants from Africa for specific purposes like training and employment.

France’s Africa policy must once again become rooted in mutual cultural influence, loyalty and first and foremost, shared history. A failure to do so, and Frances’ influence on the continent will be gone for good.

– Draws buzz of hypocrisy

“With the war, it’s a U-turn,” said Mamadou Fall Kane, energy adviser to the president of Senegal. “The narrative has changed.”

The flurry of European overtures has led to new or fast-tracked energy projects, with talk of more to come. The hope in African capitals is that Europe’s appetite will mean the financing of gas facilities not just for export but for use at home. In parts of the continent, the economic stakes are enormous.

Industry experts say Africa’s natural gas reserves are vast and North African nations such as Algeria, Egypt and Libya already have pipelines with links to Europe, however the continent faces infrastructure and security challenges that prevent the continent from scaling up energy exports.

Italian government ministers have accompanied executives from Eni, one of the largest energy companies in the world, to Algeria, Angola and the Republic of Congo as well as to Mozambique, where a natural-gas terminal operated by Eni is expected to begin supplying gas to Europe in a matter of days. Eni is now discussing an additional terminal with the Mozambican government.

Mahfound Kaoubi, an economics professor and specialist on energy issues at the University of Algiers says Algeria and Egypt are major gas suppliers in Africa, but both nations currently cannot offset Russia’s gas supply in Europe.

“Russia has an annual production of 270 billion cubic meters, that is huge,” said Kaoubi, adding, “Algeria is 120 billion cubic meters, of which 70.50 percent is intended for consumption on the internal market.”

The President of Senegal and the Chairperson of the African Union, Macky Sall says it is important for Africa to cash in on the gas projects but urges the continent to stay cognizant that an estimated 600 million Africans lack access to electricity.

“It is legitimate, fair and equitable that Africa, the continent that pollutes the least and lags furthest behind in the industrial process should exploit its available resources to provide basic energy,” said Sall as he addressed the U.N. General Assembly last month.Over the past couple of months, European leaders have been converging on Africa’s capital cities, eager to find alternatives to Russia’s natural gas, sparking hope among their counterparts in Africa that the invasion of Ukraine may tilt the scales in the continent’s unequal relationship with Europe, attracting a new wave of gas investments despite enormous pressure to pivot to renewables.

In September, Poland’s president arrived in Senegal in pursuit of gas deals. In May, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, came seeking the same thing and in recent weeks told the German Parliament that Europe’s energy crisis necessitated working “together with countries where there is the possibility of developing new gas fields,” while keeping pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Experts who have been keenly observing a new liquefied natural gas project on Africa’s west coast, say the project is 80 percent complete but is already attracting the attention of Polish and German leaders who are looking to wean their nations off Russian energy.

The initial field near Senegal and Mauritania’s coastlines is expected to contain about 15 trillion cubic feet (425 billion cubic meters) of gas, five times more than what gas-dependent Germany used in all of 2019.

“We must improve the competitiveness of its (Africa) economy and achieve universal access to electricity,” added Sall.

In separate interviews, African leaders have lamented that it has taken a war, thousands of miles away in Ukraine, to give them a bargaining power on energy deals, and they pointed out what they see as double standards on the part of the European continent that as after all, used not just natural gas, but far dirtier fuels like coal, for hundreds of years to drive an age of empire-building and industrialization. The wealthy countries that patronize African gas have been reluctant to fund pipelines and power plants that would facilitate the use of gas in Africa because of its emissions, yet haven’t delivered on promises to help finance green projects that could be an alternative source of energy.

Acknowledging the double standard is just the beginning, African leaders said in interviews. More importantly, Europe needs to come around to financing African gas projects quickly, and not just with an eye toward exports to Europe.

Europe’s awkward position was on display at the Group of Seven leaders’ summit in September. The world’s most advanced economies walked back a climate commitment to halt financing for overseas fossil fuel projects, but indicated that exceptions would likely apply to projects that would allow for more shipments of LNG to their countries. In another climb-down, European Union lawmakers recently voted to classify gas and nuclear energy projects within the bloc as “green investments”, potentially opening up billions of euros in fresh funding.

That approach has irked African leaders who need fuel, to lift millions of their citizens out of poverty. “We need a long-term partnership, not inconsistency and contradiction on green energy policy from the UK and European Union,” Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said in written comments shortly after the G7 leaders’ summit in Europe. “It does not help their energy security, it does not help Nigeria’s economy, and neither does it help the environment. It is a hypocrisy that must end.

Nigeria has Africa’s largest natural gas reserves, though it accounts for only 14 percent of the European Union’s imports of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, that comes in by ship. Ambitious plans have yet to yield results despite years of planning. The country exported less than 1 percent of its vast natural gas reserves last year.

A proposed 4,400-kilometer-long (2,734-mile-long) pipeline that would take Nigerian gas to Algeria through Niger has been stalled since 2009, mainly because of its estimated cost of $13bn.

Many fear that even if completed, the Trans-Sahara Gas Pipeline would face security risks like Nigeria’s oil pipelines, which have come under frequent attacks from armed militia groups and vandals.

The same challenges would hinder increased gas exports to Europe, said Wusu Olufola, a Lagos-based oil and gas expert. “If you look at the realities on ground — issues that have to do with crude oil theft — and others begin to question our ability to supply gas to Europe,” he said.

Wusu has urged pursuing LNG, calling it the “most profitable” gas strategy so far.

Even that isn’t without issues: In July, the head of Nigeria LNG Limited, the country’s largest natural gas firm, said its plant was producing at just 68 percent of capacity, mainly because its operations and earnings have been stifled by oil theft.

This year, Algeria is forecast to have piped exports of 31.8 billion cubic meters (1.1 trillion cubic feet), according to Tom Purdie, a Europe, Middle East and Africa gas analyst with S&P Global Commodity Insights. “The key concern here surrounds the level of production step-up that can be achieved, and the impact domestic demand could have” given how much gas Algeria uses at home, Purdie said.

Cash-strapped Egypt has also begun looking to export more natural gas to Europe, even regulating air conditioning in shopping malls and lights on streets to save energy and sell it instead.

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said that Egypt hopes to bring in an additional $450 million a month in foreign currency by rerouting 15 percent of its domestic gas usage for export, state media reported.

More than 60 percent of Egypt’s natural gas consumption is still used by power stations to keep the country running while most of its LNG goes to Asian markets.

Italy’s Eni, which is partially state-owned, bought a floating natural gas platform off the coast of the Republic of Congo for more than half a billion dollars. Company executives and government officials, who visited after the outbreak of war, began to fast track the project so that it could deliver gas by next year. By 2024, the company also expects to double its imports from Algeria, which is already connected to Italy across the Mediterranean Sea by a pipeline.

Eni executives are discussing a second floating terminal in Mozambique even as an Islamist insurgency in the country’s north continues to threaten a sprawling onshore energy project there. Offshore platforms typically yield less gas but are quicker to set up.

“With the war, suddenly there was new urgency,” said an Eni spokeswoman who declined to be identified, citing company policy. “It accelerated a shift to new gas sources that was years in the making.”

The visit to Senegal by the German chancellor has not yet yielded a deal, Senegal’s energy adviser said. The Senegalese government has been working with B.P. and Kosmos Energy, a U.S. company, to develop a gas field off its coast that is expected to start production next year, according to Kosmos.

John Kerry, the United States climate envoy, traveled to Congo in September, one of the most populous and least-electrified countries in Africa, for a climate conference and asked President Félix Tshisekedi to remove the blocks from auction that are in environmentally sensitive areas.

An aide to Mr Tshisekedi said the blocks remain on auction.

In an interview in September, the Congolese president said his country had no plans to endanger important environmental areas but had every right to exploit its gas and oil, just as the United States has done. “Requesting us to change our behavior and protect our forest, and not provide the resources and the know-how — it’s delusional,” Mr. Tshisekedi said.

One thing has been made clear though, African leaders are only going to deal with Europe on their own terms. The whole of Africa is watching with bated breaths to see if they can stand their ground and get the best deal possible.

— 2023 Elections could make or mar its future

Nigeria appears to be on another critical period once again – preparing to ascend another transition of power. But like every other election season, the stakes are undoubtedly high; tension abounds and uncertainty is also in abundance. It is this uncertainty that has now given rise to concerns and worries on the directions the 2023 presidential election will lead the nation. The polls which have been set for February 2023 will be the seventh consecutive elections since the return to democracy in 1999. This represents 23 years of unbroken democracy; the longest period in the country’s history.

It’s no longer news that Nigeria’s 2023 elections will be conducted under a new electoral framework, the Electoral Act of 2022. The Act allows INEC (the body charged with conducting elections in Nigeria) to review results made under duress or financial inducement, extends the time for campaigns from 90 to 150 days, and provides for the use of technology to determine the mode of voting and transmission of results. Pundits believe these measures can help manage situations where inaccurate results are returned, expand the opportunity for politicians to visit the nooks and crannies of the country if they so desire and cure the chaotic, vulnerable manipulation and unnecessarily opaque process of aggregating results.

However, instead of reducing the role of money in politics, the Act has increased the campaign finance limit from N1 billion to N5 billion for presidential candidates. The ceiling for all other elected positions has also been increased fivefold, but without any efforts to improve the scrutiny of compliance limits; they are still likely to be exceeded.

Beyond the shores of Nigeria, its neighbors have been waiting with bated breath to see how the success or failure of the upcoming polls will affect them. The Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) recently stated that it is concerned about the success of Nigeria’s 2023 general elections due to its effects on the region and Africa as a continent.

Former chairman, Electoral Commission of Ghana, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan who led a delegation of ECOWAS pre-election fact finding mission to Nigeria at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters two months ago said during his visit, “We all know the importance Nigeria holds, given the fact that, as they used to say, if Nigeria sneezes, the whole West Africa catches cold and we don’t pray that will be the result. So, we are here to listen to you, to see the area of challenges you have and how we as a commission can help out.”

Truth is, ECOWAS is not the only body keeping a close eye on Nigeria. The past five years or so has seen a series of Coup d’états rock several West African nations like Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania amongst others. The situation in those countries today is precarious at best. If Nigeria’s elections were to lead to a breakdown of law and order, it would most certainly have serious implications for its neighbors.

In the 23 years since Nigeria resumed a democratic form of governance, there have been 30 coups in the region and 17 of them have been successful. As a result, Nigeria’s elections are an important event in the region that seeks to reassert democratic principles and stem the tide of unconstitutional transfers of power.

Similarly, a contentious outcome could also lead to a strong displacement issue and significantly affect migration patterns and trade arrangements in the region. The next administration will likely have to deal with an increased trade area through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and ensure that Nigeria’s significant population and industries are able to leverage, and be leveraged, to ensure the trade bloc’s success.

Similarly, Nigerian troops have been at the forefront of many peacekeeping deployments around the world – and especially in the region. These concerns would ordinarily be on the plate of the next president, but the negative implication of a contentious and divisive election will not only have consequences for Nigerians, but the region as well.

The Nigerian Electoral Act requires that parties submit the names of their candidates 180 days before the elections, thereby allowing for the legal resolution of fractious primaries ahead of the voting day. In signing the Electoral Act, President Buhari also requested that the section that precludes political office holders from participating in party primaries and voting during congresses be deleted, as it breaches participation rights. However, the National Assembly refused to make this amendment. This meant that several of Buhari’s ministers were unable to contest for elective office unless they first resigned their positions.

In May, the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) delegates chose a long-time presidential aspirant, Atiku Abubakar as their candidate, as they did in 2019. He will be involved in a face off against Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). On June 8, Tinubu emerged from an initial field of 28 candidates who paid N100 million each to purchase the party nomination forms. Just like at the PDP convention, when the decisive moment was delivered by the governor of Sokoto’s decision to stand down, handing his delegate votes to Atiku, the APC presidential primaries saw frontline South-West candidates such as governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi and former Ogun governor, Ibikunle Amosun, stepping down, and handing Tinubu their bloc votes.

Tinubu, 70, and Atiku, 75, are now the frontline candidates in the forthcoming elections and both have significant war chests at their disposal. They previously worked together in 2007 when Tinubu’s party, the Action Congress, fielded Atiku, then the outgoing vice president, as their presidential candidate, and in 2015 when both were frontline promoters of the APC. However, with 60 percent of Nigeria’s population being youths and with many among that generation already disgruntled with the ruling class, following events such as the #EndSars protest against police brutality, the prospect of widening an intergenerational divide is clear.

Potential third forces that could increase the likelihood of Nigeria’s first ever presidential run-off election are Peter Obi, 60, who withdrew from the PDP primary contest and will now run as the Labour Party flag bearer, and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, 65. While Obi has cultivated a significant online following among younger voters, Kwankwaso is equally popular among youths in his native Kano State. The attempt to create a formidable third force seems to have been midwifed as the Peoples Redemption Party, New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), National Rescue Movement (NRM) and the Nigeria Labour Congress have all agreed, for now, to an alliance to run under the banner of the Labour Party. A joint Obi-Kwankwaso ticket was mooted early this year, and while there is no agreement of an alliance in place yet, a coordinated alliance could shake up the presidential race.

The 2023 elections will be one of the most challenging to conduct in Nigeria as the country battles nodes of complex insecurity issues. The Boko Haram conflict that defined the 2015 election is yet to be quelled, and with bandits operating across the North-West, violent secessionist agitation spiraling in the South-East and farmer-herder clashes ongoing across the country, the 2023 election is set to take place amidst nationwide insecurity. The June 5 attack on a church in relatively stable Ondo State, in South-West Nigeria, which saw more than 50 people killed, was a stark reminder of the insecurity challenges that will make the safety of election materials and personnel a major challenge for INEC.

INEC chairman, Professor Mahmud Yakubu, is the first election body head to get a second term in the country’s history. But whilst Yakubu has done well to build on the successes of his predecessor, Attahiru Jega by adopting innovation and consulting regularly with key stakeholders, Nigeria’s zero-sum political game with desperate and disparate actors, out to win at all costs, still poses a sizeable threat to electoral integrity, despite technological advances.

Voter turnout is another area of concern. Just 34.75 per cent of eligible Nigerians voted in 2019 and a similarly low, or lower, turnout in 2023 would further undermine the credibility of the poll. But given the prevailing insecurity across the country, the choice available when it comes to the presidential race, difficulties in registering for permanent voter cards in insecure areas in Northern and South-East Nigeria and the likely rampant misinformation and disinformation that will emerge in the lead up to voting day, designed to draw distinct divisions and undermine the credibility of key election stakeholders, means that fewer Nigerians may vote next year than in 2019.

The increasing dependence on technology in this upcoming election also highlights how susceptible and vulnerable the election is to foreign policy interests. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) revealed that there were several attempted server hacking attempts during the recently conducted off-cycle governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states, citing that some hacker attempts came from places as far as Asia.

While the confidence of the INEC Chair in their precautionary measures has been reassuring so far, it also serves to highlight how key these elections will be to foreign interests. This leads to strong concerns around fake news and concerted campaigns to discredit the elections. Some citizens and media platforms unwittingly engage in misinformation, which is when fake news is peddled unintentionally. However, some groups actively carry out disinformation campaigns, which is when falsehoods are intentionally directed towards an aim. This is, however, not a new addition to the country’s elections.

The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD-West Africa), a West African think-tank has been actively tracking fake news reports, especially around elections, and has often reflected them in its reports. For example, on the eve of the Ekiti State governorship elections this year, a ‘withdrawal’ message from the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate, Segun Oni, in favor of the People’s Democratic Party candidate was widely shared on social media. Despite efforts of many groups to fact-check this development, it is impossible to know the true extent of how this might have affected the elections. And while this point does not in any way seek to delegitimize the election, it definitely provides concern for ensuring a free and fair process.

Unlike the 2019 election which had 73 presidential candidates, the 2023 general election will feature just 18 candidates, with four main contenders: Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bola Tinubu of the APC, Peter Obi of Labour Party (LP) and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).

These politicians have in the recent past, worked together and against each other in a bid to get the presidential seat. For instance, in 2019, Mr Kwankwaso and Atiku decamped to PDP, joining Mr Obi, who later emerged as Atiku’s running mate.

Before then, the trio of Atiku, Tinubu and Kwankwaso were all part of the then newly created APC, where they backed the now outgoing president Buhari to defeat the then ruling PDP.

“Nigerian presidential elections have always been a numbers game with the successful candidate looking for a majority of the total vote, plus at least 25 per cent of the vote in two-thirds of the states,” CDD said. “Presidential tickets are developed with these national and regional calculations in mind and alliances, even between some of the four leading parties, remain possible as the campaign period unfolds.”

The civic group has projected that the key issues that dominated the 2015 and 2019 elections – economy, security, and corruption – will remain on the front burner in the 2023 polls. CDD also concluded that “politicians will ultimately resort to using money that will play a huge role in determining who emerges the winner if the presidential primaries and recent gubernatorial elections are to offer any indication.”

“Following the party primaries the country experienced one of its worst foreign exchange crises in recent memory as demand for US dollars overshot supply,” it added.

“The commodification of votes has become a permanent feature of Nigerian elections. Instead of concentrating on issue-based politics, vote buying is always prioritized with cash, food, clothing, and other commodities given out in exchange for votes. During the off-cycle gubernatorial elections in Osun and Ekiti candidates boasted about matching dollar for dollar and Naira for Naira to prospective voters with a vote trading for as much as N20,000 (approximately $47).”

The stark truth is that the 2023 elections will follow the same trend If history is to be our guide. The pathway to a saner 2023 presidential election may be tortuous, nebulous and daunting; but the onus to make the polls credible rest with Nigerian democratic institutions – INEC, parties, voters and state agencies. It is a fight between vested interests and the people; urban and rural; tribal gangs and patriots. It is a ritual that all the stakes are staked for political power.

The question the whole world wants answers to right now is if the will of voters will triumph or will power mongers have a field day? Time will tell.

Succor or gimmick for the black race?

The United Nations Organization General assembly this month finally adopted its resolution 75/134. This resolution which had been in the pipeline for a while formally empowers the Permanent Forum as a consultative mechanism for people of African descent.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) had been working to create a permanent Forum on People of African Descent since November 2014, when it was mandated to do so through the UN General Assembly resolution. 

The UN General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Council had appointed five members on December 16th 2021 to become members of the Permanent Forum, including Alice Angèle Nkom from Cameroon, a lawyer by profession and the President of the Cameroonian Association for the Defense of Homosexuality (ADEFHO).

During the session, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, pledged that the body will pursue its mandate vigorously and work hand in hand with all parties to ensure that it delivers on its promise to end the discrimination of people of African descent all around the globe.

U.S. Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice, Desirée Cormier Smith addressed the Permanent Forum to stress the country’s strong support for its mandate. The United States has long championed the Permanent Forum as a necessary space to promote the collective engagement of all people of African descent to build a better future globally and reaffirm U.S. readiness to partner in global efforts that address the issue of anti-Black racism.

The Permanent Forum has been mandated to ensure full political, economic and social inclusion of people of African descent in any societies in which they live. Among other functions, the body is to prepare and disseminate information, promote a greater knowledge of and respect for the diverse heritage, culture and contribution of people of African descent.

Justin Hansford, a professor of law at Howard University and director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center who was elected by the United Nations General Assembly to the Permanent Forum for the 2022-2024 term in April, said he will be focusing on racial justice around the world, not just in the United States. To prepare for this role, he traveled around the world in a space of four months to understand the unique issues that black people in different countries face in order to find new ways to address human rights issues.

Hansford, who was inspired by Malcolm X, expressed his excitement about the Permanent Forum and how he would use that influence to bring tangible improvements to the lives of all people of African descent. 

While many are hailing the formation of the UN Permanent Forum for people of African descent as a historic milestone, others are skeptical of any positive impacts to black people. It’s up to the likes of Desirée Cormier Smith, Justin Hansford and Volker Türk to change that perception. Meanwhile, the black race watches on with keen interest.