Former vice president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Jean-Pierre Bemba, has been appointed as the country’s defence minister in a sweeping government reshuffle.

President Felix Tshisekedi has appointed Bemba who was detained for over 10 years for war crimes as part of an overhaul of the 57 members of government, which the president’s spokesperson said was “urgent and necessary”, in an announcement on Congo’s national television late on Thursday. No further details were given.

President Tshisekedi appointed Vital Kamerhe, his former chief of staff who was released from prison in Dec. 2021 following an embezzlement conviction, as economy minister while Nicolas Kazadi continued as finance minister.

The reshuffle is more extensive than predicted by observers. One notable commentary has been from the Director of the Congo Research Group and a Professor at Canada’s Simon Fraser University, Jason Stearns, who stressed that the exercise was “a deeply political shuffle,”

“Key positions are given to senior politicians who have large constituencies to please but little expertise in their new ministries. Kamerhe is not an economist. Bemba was a rebel but has little formal military training,” he said.

Presidential and parliamentary elections are scheduled to hold in Congo DR on December 20, 2023, kicking off a year of complex preparations in the vast Central African country, large parts of which have been overrun by armed groups.

Nigeria’s ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has suspended Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation of Nigeria (SGF).

Mr. Mustapha was suspended by Gwadabawa ward, Yola north LGA of Adamawa state, as announced by Mu’azu Kabiru, chairperson of APC Gwadabawa, who said Mustapha failed to assist the party at the ward level when his attention was needed.

Kabiru said the SGF has failed to recognise the importance of the party’s executives in Gwadabawa who have worked to keep the ward united.

The suspension has however The acting chairperson of the APC in Adamawa, Samaila Tadawus, dismissed the suspension, saying that it was unconstitutional.

It should be recalled that Nigeria recently held general elections recently as President Muhammadu Buhari, who has been in office since 2015 will be completing his second term of four years by May 29.

The elections ushered a new political wave traceable to the presidential candidacy of dark-horse, Peter Obi of the Labour Party who appears anti-establishment and an appealing candidate to the demography of young voters. Obi came third at the national polls in the February 25th elections but his popularity has influenced victories for less popular candidates of the Labour Party at different levels across the country.

The opposition’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, won the Yola north LGA which is Mustapha while Aisha Binani, the governorship candidate of the APC, won the LGA but not by a wide margin during the governorship election.

Anti-party activities, that is, being engaged in activities that undermine or are detrimental to your political party, or may ruin its chances at the polls or bring it into disrepute, are common in Nigeria during election season. Perfect, the most notable in the 2023 election season was PDP’s G-5 governors who openly worked against the candidate of the party in the presidential poll.