Politics

Court clears ex-Nigerian President, Jonathan to run for 2023 election. But will he dare it?

Published

2 years ago

May 27, 2022

In Nigeria, the Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, capital of Bayelsa state has ruled that former President Goodluck Jonathan is eligible to contest the 2023 presidential election.

There have been uncertainty arround the eligibility of the ex-Nigerian president to run for the office again having been sworn in as Nigeria’s president twice.

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana in April stated that the former president is not allowed by the constitution to contest in the upcoming 2023 presidential election.

Mr Jonathan became the President of Nigeria in 2010 following the sudden death of President Umaru Yar’adua, Yaradua and later contested and won the 2011 presidential election.

Mr Jonathan spent five years in office as President which would make it nine years in office if he contests and wins again, Mr Falana said.

Beyond the legal angle to ex-president Jonathan contesting in the 2023 presidential election, there is also a growing question of morality and value of Dr. Jonathan running on the platform of Nigeria’s ruling party, the All Progressive Congress (APC) which is the party that ousted him in 2015.

Besides that, it is still not clear if Dr Jonathan is a member of the APC or not. However, recall that a group under the aegis of ‘Fulani group’ purchased the N100 million nominations and expression of interest form for him to contest to be Nigeria’s next president under the APC.

The presidential primary elections for Nigeria’s two major political parties is scheduled to hold this weekend and eyes will be on Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city hosting the primaries to see who and who are likely to be the parties’ flag bearers for the Nigerian top job in next year’s election.

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Politics

Burkina Faso investigating reports of northern killings

Published

11 hours ago

April 28, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

A government spokesman has revealed that Burkina Faso is looking into reports that 223 people were killed by the Burkinabe army in two villages in the north in February.

The killing was first reported by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), causing a rift between the junta-led West African state and some foreign media that published the report. The HRW report released on Thursday said that the military had executed residents of Nodin and Soro, including at least 56 children, as part of a campaign against civilians suspected of working with jihadist terrorists. The report was based on interviews with witnesses, members of civil society, and other groups.

Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, a spokesman for the government, said that HRW’s claims were “peremptory” and that the junta was not unwilling to look into the claimed crimes.

“An investigation has been launched into the killings in Nodin and Soro,” Ouedraogo said in a late-evening statement, quoting a statement from a regional prosecutor on March 1.

Since Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger’s militaries took over in a series of coups from 2020 to 2023, violence in the area has gotten worse. This is because of the ten-year fight with Islamist groups related to Al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Attacks on Burkina Faso got much worse in 2023, with more than 8,000 people killed, according to the U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group ACLED.

Politics

S’Africa lengthens troop deployment in Mozambique, Congo DR

Published

3 days ago

April 26, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a speech that South Africa’s military would keep sending troops to Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which are both in the middle of wars.

The extension will leave 1,198 members of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) in eastern Congo for an unknown amount of time. They are there as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force helping Congo fight rebel groups.

The statement also said that 1,495 members of the SANDF would keep working in Mozambique, where they have been since 2021 helping the government fight dangerous extremism in the north.

After two SANDF troops were killed and three were hurt by a mortar bomb in Congo in February, South Africa’s military operations abroad have been looked at more closely at home this year.

Meanwhile, the major opposition party in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance, said that Ramaphosa sent troops into a war zone without being ready.
Under the supervision of the UN, the SANDF has taken on many dangerous and difficult peacekeeping tasks over the years to help war-torn African countries stay stable and peaceful.

In 2003, South Africa was one of the first countries to send troops to Burundi to help the peace process. During the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) peacekeeping mission in 2000, the SANDF led attempts to stabilize the country’s politics, rebuild and improve infrastructure, and train DRC troops.