Behind the News
Behind the News: All the backstories to our major news this week
Published
3 months agoon
By
Isaac Dachen![](https://africanewswatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Tinubu-and-Atiku-.jpg)
Over the past week, there were lots of important stories from around the African continent, and we served you some of the most topical ones.
Here is a rundown of the backstories to some of the biggest news in Africa that we covered during the week:
1. ‘Come clean on secret subsidy payments,’ Atiku tells Tinubu
Nigerians were rudely shocked last Wednesday when Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Wale Edun announced that the government is still paying subsidy for fuel after President Bola Tinubu had pronounced the end of the subsidy regime in his inaugural speech on May 29, 2023.
The unilateral removal of fuel subsidy brought with it a rise in the cost of living with fuel price shooting up and the cost of food items rising beyond the reach of the common man.
However, Edun, while presentating the Accelerated Stabilisation and Advancement Plan (ASAP) report, alluded to the fact that fuel subsidy will gulp N5.4 trillion in 2024 after the initial denial that government had completely deregulated the product.
“At current rates, expenditure on fuel subsidy is projected to reach N5.4 trillion by the end of 2024. This compares unfavourably with N3.6 trillion in 2023 and N2.0 trillion in 2022,” Edun had said.
The report painted a clear picture that despite the surface removal of fuel subsidy, the government was still paying it.
The revelation drew lots of criticism from Nigerians including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar who told Tinubu to come clean and tell Nigerians the truth about the subsidy payments.
Atiku, who made his views known in a statement on Wednesday, accused the Tinubu government of lacking in transparency and accountability while deceiving Nigerians in handling the affairs of the country.
“President Bola Tinubu, at his inauguration on May 29, 2023, announced the abolishment of the subsidy on PMS, popularly known as fuel.
“Ever since, it has been a bragging right of Tinubu and officials of his administration.
“It is curious that since April 2024, fuel queues have mounted at many filling stations across Nigeria, and the infamous ‘black market’ has sprouted in several states. How much PMS is being imported and distributed, and at what cost? What is the implicit subsidy?
“If the subsidy regime had been characterised by opaqueness, what would we say of a situation where the subsidy is still being paid under the cover without Nigerians in the know?
“Like millions of Nigerians, I was shocked to learn through media reports that
the “government is still supporting downstream consumption.
“Now we know that expenditure on fuel subsidy may reach N5.4 trillion in 2024, compared to the N3.6 trillion spent in 2023, the same year that Tinubu claimed to have abolished fuel subsidy,” Atiku said.
Though the government came out to debunk the report from the Minister, insisting that it is no longer paying for subsidy, the question on the lips of Nigerians have been who is lying to the masses.
Nigerians want to know what the conflicting statements from the Minister and the government which were at variance with the situation on ground.
Why is the Tinubu government engaging in trial-and-error economic policies that have refused to yield positive results for the country?
And as Atiku pointed out, why would the government still engage in subsidy payments yet lie about it?
So many questions are begging for answers here.
2. Less talk, more work, please
For the umpteenth time, President Bola Tinubu reiterated his resolve and commitment to improving the quality of life of Nigerians with his now famous “bold reforms” and policies which he embarked upon since assuming office as Nigeria’s president a year ago.
While commissioning some projects in Federal Capital Territory on Monday,
Tinubu, said he has been “having sleepless nights” working hard to improve the lives of Nigerians under his watch.
“I reaffirm my administration’s dedication to enhancing the quality of life for all Nigerians. What is unfolding in the Federal Capital is a testament to what can be achieved by the government’s Renewed Hope Agenda of quality transformation of the FCT, and indeed Nigeria,” Tinubu said.
But the downtrodden Nigerian masses are not convinced with their President’s level of commitment to taking the country out of the woods due to what they are currently going through.
Under Tinubu’s watch, cost of living has escalated to the extent that common commodities have gone out of the reach of the people.
Inflation has skyrocketed, multinational companies are closing down and leaving the country in droves, insecurity has gone up unabated and the people are going through unbearable hardship and hunger.
Nigerians are unanimously asking President Tinubu to do less of talking and rather concentrate on working more to return the confidence that has been lost in his government.
3. Invitation to anarchy? Zambian opposition party threatens civil disobedience
Worried by alleged oppression by the Zambia government which uses the nation’s security forces to intimidate opposition parties, the Socialist Party (SP), threatened to embark on civil disobedience by bypassing a “no-rally” order placed by the Zambia Police Service.
The SP which was angered by the cancellation of its planned political rally which was scheduled to take place at Kitwe’s Changanamai Grounds in the Copperbelt on Saturday, vowed to go against the police order and go ahead with its rally.
In a statement by SP’s Party General-Secretary, Dr Cosmas Musumali, the party said despite applying to the police in Kitwe District seeking permission to hold a rally at Changanamai Grounds in Riverside on June 8, but were denied by the police authorities.
“SP President Dr Fred M’membe is going to speak to the nation on pertinent issues affecting the country, such as the high prices of commodities, political intimidation and violence,” Musumali stated.
“We went ahead thinking that after so many attempts to speak to the people of Zambia as a political party on issues that need answers, we would be allowed. But we are being told that we cannot go ahead because the situation in the country is volatile.
“We have read and we have heard from the ruling party UPND that they are not going to allow any rally. This is dictatorship of the worst order. Under the PF, as a party, we were allowed at least two rallies.”
The political situation in Zambia succinctly mirrors what are obtainable in many African countries where the government in power does everything to muscle and silence the opposition or any dissenting voice that seem to deviate from its leadership style.
And typically, they always seem to have their way as the security agencies, more often than not, play to the dictates of the ruling government.
A clear case of he who pays the piper dictates the tone!
“We do not need police permission to go ahead with this rally. We are going to proceed on June 8, 2024, at Changanamai Grounds in Kitwe. Our members and supporters are welcome as SP President Fred M’membe will deliver a message of hope,” Musumali concluded.
4. When love hurts as Achraf Hakimi’s ex-wife gives up
The estranged wife of Moroccan international football star, Achraf Hakimi, Hiba Abouk, has given up on love after she confessed that she has been hurt and disappointed several times by all the men who come into in her life.
Abouk who is coming to terms with the reality of her messy split from the Moroccan international after she discovered that all his assets were in his mother’s with little or nothing left for her, cried out in a podcast broadcast on Friday, saying she is no longer interested in love and relationships following her failed marriage to the PSG footballer.
In the podcast, Abouk, a 37-year-old Spanish-Tunisian actress also branded her marriage to the footballer a failed project, after their union had been blessed with two children.
“All men have been a disappointment. I’m a little hater on this subject,” the mother of two said.
Abouk and Hakimi made the headlines in 2023 following their messy divorce after Hakimi was indicted by the French police on charges of rape and sexually assaulting a French woman.
In the heat of the scandal, many African men had applauded the footballer for taking the steps of transferring his assets to his mother.
Many cited the examples of former Ivory Coast and Arsenal player, Eboue, who lost everything to his ex-wife after their divorce.
Apart from Emmanuel Eboue, examples abound of many African players have also lost their life earnings to their wives after their divorce.
5. Despite Tinubu’s vow, Nigeria still goes a-borrowing
Despite a stern vow from President Bola Tinubu that the era of Nigeria going cap in hand to borrow money from the international community, the country once again, accessed a $500 million loan from World Bank to rejig its power sector.
The loan which has jerked up the country’s burgeoning debt profile, came following the increase in charges for high-volume consumers in Africa’s most populous country.
According to the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE), “the loan was included in the government’s borrowing plan for the month following the fulfilment of certain objectives.”
The BPE, in a statement on Friday, said the goal of the concessionary loan “is to help distribution businesses, who have had difficulty growing their capacity more than ten years after Nigeria turned over control of its electrical industry to private companies, perform better financially and technically.”
With the new loan, Nigeria’s debt profile has continued to rise, running into trillions of naira and continues to pile up pressure for the country.
Successive administrations seem not to learn from the past as they tend to always run to these international agencies to borrow money, thereby leaving the country at the mercy of their creditors.
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Behind the News
Behind the News: All the backstories to our major news this week
Published
5 days agoon
September 2, 2024![](https://africanewswatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/OSIMHEN.webp)
Over the past week, there have been many important stories from around the African continent, and we have served you some of the most topical ones.
Here is a rundown of the backstories to some of the biggest news in Africa that we covered during the week:
World at the rescue as mpox virus hits Africa
During the week, Africa became the largest recipient of Monkeypox vaccine donations amid the recent surge of the virus ravaging the continent. On Monday, Germany pledged 100,000 doses of the Mpox vaccine from its military stockpile to aid in the short-term containment of the outbreak on the African continent and to aid the affected countries. And plans to support its partners in Africa through the GAVI vaccination alliance and will supply the World Health Organisation with flexible funding resources through a variety of tools to fight Mpox.
In addition, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) provided Nigeria with 10,000 doses of the mpox vaccine as the week continued. The country has recorded a total of forty cases of the vaccine, although there have been no fatalities. Muyi Aina, who is the head of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), stated that the donation was a “critical step” for the country of Nigeria.
Mpox is endemic to West and Central Africa, with the first human case discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 1970. Nigeria had a major outbreak in 2017 and 2018. Before 2022, only occasional instances occurred outside of endemic areas. The virus can be passed from person to person through close contact, but it can also be passed from place to person through things and surfaces that a person with mpox has touched.
Failures in the implementation of rigorous surveillance, contact tracing, and containment techniques have allowed the virus to spread across at least 120 nations, even though early warnings were sent. A reminiscence of the Covid-19 dramatic experience with loud calls for equitable vaccine distribution remains. Whether or not Africa has done enough to prevent the outbreak and whether or not the continent is doing everything in its power to limit it, beyond pinning our expectations on the still rare doses of vaccine, are two fundamental concerns that ought to be asked.
Love Turns Sour: Nigeria’s Osimhen trapped in transfer saga
The summer transfer window of the European football season ended with a Nigerian, Victor of Osimen at the heart of the biggest controversy in the window. Osimhen’s proposed transfer to English side Chelsea and Saudi Arabia’s Al Ahli fell apart as he was caught in the middle of a transfer saga. Reports had emerged earlier in the week that Napoli reached a big money agreement with the Arabian club, Al Ahli, worth a whopping €80m while Chelsea also remained keen on getting him.
At the beginning of the drama, Osimhen was holding out for a possible transfer to Chelsea, but the negotiations broke down due to disagreements over personal issues. At the same time, a significant offer from Saudi Arabia was being considered, but the limited amount of time available to reach an agreement on the conditions of the contract led to the failure of that arrangement as well.
The 25-year-old Nigerian player was the driving force behind Napoli’s Scudetto-winning season in Serie A in 2022-23. Osimhen accomplished the feat of finishing as the highest goalscorer in the division, and the team had just won the championship for the first time in more than three decades. Throughout the 2023–24 season, the Nigerian player was plagued by injuries, frequent managerial shifts, and absences owing to his participation in the African Cup of Nations (AFCON). Despite these challenges, he managed to score 15 goals in 25 Serie A matches.
With the transfer failures, Napoli and its new coach Antonio Conte have both revealed that Osimhen will not be included in Napoli’s Serie A team for the 2024/2025 summer season. There have been reports that his connection with the club has deteriorated, which has resulted in his exclusion from the team’s preparations under the direction of the new coach Antonio Conte. This decision will keep the striker who is the current African footballer of the year in a state of uncertainty until at least January 2025.
Despite his heroics on the Italian side, Osimhen and Napoli have a history of toxicity. Last season, the club posted a video on social media which made a joke of Osimhen missing a penalty in a draw against Bologna, with an odd, sped-up voice dubbed over the top forcing a testament from the player’s agent Roberto Calenda threatening legal action. It seems love is lost again, and Osimhen might have to live with being ostracized in the city once “ruled.”
Musings on Al Shabaab and the Horn of Africa
Taye Atske Selassie, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia, on Friday, suggested that countries in the Horn of Africa collaborate to combat the terrorist organisation Al Shabaab in the eastern part of Africa, particularly in Somalia. This recommendation was made to combat the terrorist organisation. which has been the most deadly in the last decade in the region.
Selassie warned that Al Shabaab is “well-equipped” to carry out assaults that are lethal in the Horn of Africa region. Ethiopia is giving Somalia unrestricted military aid and other assistance until the Somali National Army (SNA) can manage the nation’s security issues independently.
Since 2016, Al-Shabaab has also carried out large-scale, intricate, and deadly attacks outside of Somalia, one of which occurred in Kenya. Concerns about recruiting and radicalization-related activities are ongoing.
Having pledged loyalty to Al-Qaida in 2012, Al-Shabaab remains the most active terrorist organisation in East Africa. Although they also happen in neighbouring states, the majority of its attacks take place in Somalia. There was an increase in the number of indirect fire strikes on aircraft and airfields in 2021. It is still incredibly adaptable.
Somalia continues to be one of the most violent countries in the world. According to the ACLED Conflict Index, which evaluates the level of violence based on four core indicators—deadliness, threat to civilians, geographic spread of conflict, and the number of active non-state groups—it is ranked the 21st highest in the world. In addition to being active in Somalia, Al-Shabaab has also been expanding its presence and activities in eastern Kenya.
Al-Shabaab has demonstrated that it is a capable insurgency and a growing threat to security in the Horn of Africa, although it has been banished to the countryside ever since it lost control of Mogadishu in 2011. This threat does not appear to be losing pace any time soon. Meanwhile, sub-regional forces of the East African Community have continuously been deployed in troubling countries but not much success has been recorded.
Xenophobia, Identity theft now behind her as Adetshina wins Miss Universe Nigeria
Chidimma Vanessa Adetshina, the South African model whose qualification for a spot as a Miss South Africa finalist drew controversy because of her Nigerian descent, has won Miss Universe Nigeria 2024. Ms Adetshina’s origins in South Africa were established by the South African contest organisers, confirming that she grew up in Cape Town and was born in Soweto, which is a township that is located close to Johannesburg.
However, critics on the internet, on the other hand, investigated every aspect of her life and asserted that her mother was not from South Africa but rather from Mozambique and that her father was from Namibia. Adetshina, who was in a strong position in the contest was compelled to withdraw from the pageant won by Mia Le Roux following allegations of her mother’s alleged identity theft and backlash from South Africans owing to the xenophobic response and rejection of her nationality.
Beyond her recent victory at the Nigerian contest, Adetshina’s saga brings the spotlight on matters of identity theft and continued Xenophobic slurs in Africa, particularly between South Africa and Nigeria. Businesses in Africa lose millions of dollars due to identity fraud, which is a growing problem across the continent. It is of the utmost importance to verify the identity of individuals to decrease instances of fraud and illegal activities as more and more financial transactions and commercial activities move online.
The xenophobic attitude that exists in South Africa harms the mission of the African Renaissance, ultimately affecting its relations within the continent against the need for improved intra-African relations. Matters have transcended into “e-wars” between nationals of the two countries which are arguably the largest economies in the continent. Africa definitely can’t afford a strain in their ties.
Behind the News
Behind the News: All the backstories to our major news this week
Published
2 months agoon
July 21, 2024![](https://africanewswatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Bola-Tinubu-1.webp)
Over the past week, there were lots of important stories from around the African continent, and we served you some of the most topical ones.
Here is a rundown of the backstories to some of the biggest news in Africa that we covered during the week:
1. Karma strikes as Nigerian govt gets jittery over looming nationwide strike
The Nigerian Presidency has been all over the place issuing warnings against a planned nationwide protest scheduled to commence on August 1st.
The Presidency which issued the warning vis a statement by Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said the protest tagged “EndBadGovernment” organised by concerned citizens, said it could degenerate into anarchy.
The Presidential spokesman went on to accuse opposition politicians like Peter Obi, Omoleye Sowore, Pat Utomi and supporters of Obi known as Obidients as being behind the planned protests.
“Peter Obi, FS Yusuf, another rabid Obi supporter, and Professor Pat Utomi, a Labour Party chieftain and a guy on X who goes by the pseudonym Peter Obi’s First Son” are behind the planned protests,” Onanuga had alleged.
Onanuga who acknowledged that it is the right of people to protest in a democracy, he however cautioned those behind it to should be careful so that it will not be hijacked by people who would use the opportunity to cause problems.
“My post is just to highlight that the people who are organizing this so-called nationwide protest are members of Labour party, they are Peter Obi supporters, so that’s my own take of it, it’s my own opinion so I am not going to say more than this,” he said.
But beyond running from pillar to post issuing warnings and accusing others of planning to destabilize Tinubu’s administration, Nigerian are quick to remind Onanuga and the Presidency that the hen has come home to roost.
In the tumultuous years of the Peoples Democratic Party’s regime, the likes of Onanuga, Tinubu, Buhari and other leaders of the All Progressives Congress which was in the opposition used protests to discredit the PDP at every given opportunity.
They were always quick to mobilize Nigerians to hit the streets and protest against the government all in a bid to take over power.
It is then a thing of surprise that they should be so vehemently opposed to protests when it was on the back of such actions that they rode into power.
Now Karma has come around in full circle, and it is left to be seen if the ruling party can stop Nigerians from expressing themselves and exercising their democratic rights.
2. Cunning Tinubu prevails over labour leaders on minimum wage
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu showed his masterful cunning ways when he practically coerced labour leaders to accept a paltry N70,000 (about $43) as the new national minimum wage after months of lingering negotiations between government and organised labour.
The agreement which was reached on Thursday, according to the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero, was more of an intimidation and coercion rather than a mutually agreed decision.
The N70,000, up from the previous N30,000, was approved by Tinubu after months of back and forth with labour which included strike actions and several threats of nationwide protests and economic shutdown.
His Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, who announced the agreement, said the President was magnanimous enough to approve the new minimum wage which is a far cry from labours’ demands of N250,000.
In an interview with journalists, Ajaero revealed that the labour leaders were forced to settle for the amount after Tinubu had threatened to increase fuel price if labour insisted on their N250,000 demand.
Those who know President Tinubu at close range are quick to point out that he has a way of using the carrot and stick approach to solve knotty issues and is wont to play dirty whenever he is in a right position.
It is then glaring that he also applied the same tactics when he threatened the labour leaders with a fuel price hike if the failed to accept his N70,000 minimum wage proposal.
And once again, he came out tops!
3. Sudan devastated by unending war as over 10m people displaced
The unending war in Sudan has led to the displacement of more than 10 million people, about 20 per cent of the country’s population, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The situation, according to the UN agency, has forced the affected people out of their homes since the conflict which is seen as one of the world’s worst displacement crisis.
The IOM, in a statement during the week, said the Sudanese crisis is the most recent alarming estimate from the nation in East Africa, which has been destroyed by fighting that started in April 2023, which has led to a majority of the 50 million people in the country in need of humanitarian help while half of them are experiencing starvation as a result of the war.
The Sudanese war which broke out last year When fighting broke out between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the capital city of Khartoum, has spread to the west throughout Darfur, with the RSF seizing control of most of the major cities.
“Since the start of the conflict, over 2.2 million people have fled to foreign nations and about 7.8 million have sought safety within the nation. Previous conflicts in the country have already resulted in the displacement of an additional 2.8 million people,” a bimonthly report from the IOM stated.
The situation in Sudan, though pathetic and avoidable, has once again highlighted the precarious state of African nations and its people whenever power mongering leaders decide to take on each other which is always to the detriment of the masses.
The Sudan war, like others in Africa, has led to mass killings of citizens as well as the destruction of public properties.
And in such wars and conflicts, one is forced to ask what the warring factions really want aside control of power and resources. So why kill the innocent citizens in the process?
4. More confusion as Zambian MPs walk out of parliament during proceedings
The political crisis rocking Zambia took another turn during the week when opposition Members of Parliament from the Patriotic Front and allied members staged a walkout during proceedings.
The aggrieved MPs decided to take the option citing inadequate debate time allocated by Deputy Parliamentary Speaker, Atractor Chisangano.
The dispute was ignited when Chisangano allegedly failed to grant sufficient time for discussing corruption allegations implicating senior government officials which the MPs felt was an attempt to shield indicted government officials.
MP Brian Mundubile, who led the walkout expressed frustration, emphasizing that crucial issues like corruption deserved more attention.
“The Speaker was expected to allocate at least an hour to debate these unprecedented corruption allegations against high-ranking officials. It’s unacceptable that such serious matters are sidelined,” Mundubile lamented.
He highlighted the concerns of the opposition MPs over a reported theft of medical kits and medicines, while calling for accountability and swift action against implicated government figures.
“Ministers and senior officials facing serious allegations should either be dismissed, resign, or face legal consequences.
“Theft of medical kits and medicines should not go unpunished. It’s imperative that those implicated in are held accountable through appropriate legal measures,” Mundubile said.
The celebrated ‘Medicine Gate’ currently rocking the country’s health sector has seen several key government officials accused of stealing medical equipment and kits meant for government hospitals but according to opposition figures, the culprits, some of whom are believed to be high ranking members of the ruling United Party for National Development (UPND) administration, are being protected instead of being prosecuted.
The walkout was also a show of displeasure by the lawmakers who felt the Speaker deliberately stunted their debate by allocating limited time for the scandal to be addressed.
5. Ghanaian actor stokes controversy with assertion that Jesus never performed miracles
In a continent where religion is seen as the opium of the people, veteran Ghanaian actor, Majid Michel, has raised a storm with many say is heresy following his comments that Jesus Christ did not perform miracles such as raising the dead or healing the sick during his earthly ministry.
The actor who is now a preacher of the gospel, stoked the embers of fire when he told a congregation during a sermo about Christianity that said contrary to widely held beliefs, Jesus Christ neither personally healed any sick person nor raised the dead, despite these acts being credited to him in biblical teachings.
“Do you know Jesus never healed the sick nor raised the dead? Jesus never let the blind see.
“Do you know what Jesus said? ‘I do nothing by myself. As I see the Father do, I do.’ In other words, I am Jesus, I have a will, but I will not use my will; only the will of my Father I came to do,” he said.
“If the devil had gotten Jesus to turn that stone to bread without asking his Father’s permission, he had gotten him to sin and that is what you call sin—separation from God, independence from God,” the award winning actor added.
Michel’s controversial sermon has continued to divide opinions from adherents of the Christian religion but typically, especially from Africans who have come to believe everything they read in religious books and sees any contrary opinion as an affront to their beliefs.
As offhand as Michel’s assertion may seem, it is also imperative to interrogate his claims especially when one considers another angle he put up in his argument.
“When you throw your own plans and make your own decisions without consulting the Father, you have sinned,” he had also stated.y
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