By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK, 7 March 2023 (IDN) — At a time of monumental climate challenges – from floods and pollution to hunger and drought, a legacy organization has tapped Dr Oulie Keita of Mali to lead the continent-wide activist group. The new Executive Director of Greenpeace Africa was chosen after […]
Flawed Nigerian Polls Stir Outrage Among Nation’s Voters
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | ABUJA, 2 March 2023 (IDN) — An error-filled election exercise witnessed countrywide and worldwide marred Nigeria’s much-awaited national polls, leaving the victory by the ruling party candidate stained by the stench of corruption and dubious validity. Held on February 25 using the supposedly secure Bimodal Voter […]
UN Chief Berates Global Financial Systems for Denying Debt Relief to Africa
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK, 21 Feb 2023 (IDN) — At the opening of the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa this weekend, UN Secretary General António Guterres scolded an “unfair financial system” for denying many African countries the debt relief and concessional financing they need. “Systems and structures, from health and […]
Nigerian Central Bank on Hot Seat After Sweeping Banknote Recall
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | LAGOS, 20 Feb 2023 (IDN) — Chaos! It’s hard to find a better word to describe the confusion, frustration and anger felt by many Nigerians discovering that, in a surprise move by the Central Bank, their naira currency was being pulled from circulation and replaced by […]
Sankara Family Rejects Plot Chosen by Government for His Reburial
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK, 20 Feb 2023 (IDN) — The military government in Burkina Faso announced this week that the burial of the country’s former president, Thomas Sankara, will take place in a private ceremony next week at the spot where he was assassinated in a coup more than three decades […]
Looking Back, Facing Forward as Nigeria Decides
Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria. ABUJA 15 Feb 2023 (IDN) — It’s hard to imagine that it’s nearly eight years since. This time in 2015, I was over the moon with the prospects of a general election that was certain to end the […]
Growing Violence as Nigerian Election Nears
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | LAGOS (IDN) — Election Day is around the corner in Nigeria and it’s approaching with new and troubling reports of violent attacks on candidates and their supporters. Over the weekend (February 11-12), supporters of candidate Peter Obi reported being threatened by vandals carrying machetes and other […]
South Africa in ‘State of Disaster’ As Power Shutdowns Grow
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | PRETORIA (IDN) — No lights, no water. Living in South Africa is no picnic today. In his recent State of the Nation Address, President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged crippling power shutdowns, which threaten the country’s economy and security and undermine daily life in the continent’s leading industrial […]
New Book Tells the Life Story of a Little-Known Swazi Woman Activist
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — To some, she was a towering intellectual, a pioneering African feminist and an anti-colonial political activist. But almost no one knows her name or her story, says Joel Cabrita, a researcher and director of the Center for African Studies at Stanford University and author of […]
Germany’s Gas Import Will Boost Modernisation in Senegal
By Karamba Diaby* BERLIN (IDN) — In Senegal, over 70 per cent of the population still has no access to electricity. This is one of the reasons why the country wants to begin the exploitation of offshore oil and gas fields by the end of 2023. Following his visit to Senegal at the end of […]