George Ngwane calls on South Africa’s ruling elite to go beyond the euphoria of the 'Mandela Moment' and begin implementing his vision for South Africa:

'Nelson Mandela’s vision for South Africa was one of racial equality and racial reconciliation. It was also one of social harmony and equal opportunities especially informed by the appalling living conditions of black people whose future and destiny had been sacrificed on the altar of systemic apartheid. Sixteen years of black rule have still to record a balance sheet that emboldens the black ghetto squatters’ spirit of better life and economic renaissance. The new black political and economic elite needs to connect among themselves and then with the teeming masses that hunger for change. Granted that sixteen years are not enough to overturn decades of predatory racism; granted that democratic development still eludes even countries that are counting fifty years of nominal Independence; granted that it often takes many years to “reach the mountain top of our desires after having passed through the shadows of death again and again”. Still there is a case for the leadership to begin to switch off the Mandela moment and address the bread and butter issues that preoccupy the ordinary citizen. Sporadic expressions of xenophobia by black South Africans on ‘strangers’ are sometimes social constructs caged in regime frustrations. Frustrations that are welled up against a background of great expectations and legitimate hope; frustrations that are reminiscent of those years when their bodies were shields for whips and their souls targets for bullets; those frustrations are in search of a more creative channel and a more cooperative power dynamics.'

Nigerian Curiosity revisits the ongoing debate over the constitutionality of Goodluck Jonathan’s appointment as the interim President of Nigeria:

'Although foreign governments like the United States have congratulated Jonathan on his new position, the manner by which he became acting President has opened many more constitutional questions yet to be answered. According to Senate president, David Mark, legislators chose to rely on a January 12th 2009 telephone interview allegedly given by Yar'Adua to the BBC Hausa Service. Yar'Adua's pronouncement that he would have to wait to recover in order to return to Nigeria was interpreted as an admission of a prolonged absence. That absence thus required the use of the "necessity doctrine" to give the Vice President executive powers.

'Unfortunately, the "necessity doctrine" is raising criticism. Many point out that this approach could be used to promote distasteful measures that would sacrifice Nigerian democracy. Additionally, it has been pointed out that the ‘necessity doctrine’ should otherwise have been the basis for Presidential impeachment as provided for in Section 144 of the Constitution, something the legislators were clear to avoid. However, it is now appears that in an effort to ensure that their act was legal, legislators are considering the impeachment clause, and an additional option that would require the federal Executive Council to make a declaration that would open the path to Yar'Adua's formal step down.'

One Africa
http://onafrica.maneno.org/eng/articles/zix1265727758/
Still on Nigeria, One Africa questions whether Nigeria will soon become the new Pakistan as the US pursues continues its global campaign against terrorism:

'It seems then, that although the rhetoric is no longer there, the war-on-terror strategy continues to be a central piece for US foreign policy under President Obama...

'If last summer the US' Secretary of State could be hinting at a possible collaboration between Nigeria and the US to deal with these matters of strategic concern, then this need for close co-operation is more than likely to have increased following the failed Christmas Day bombing of an airplane in Detroit by the Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Furthermore, this whole episode took place among a serious leadership crisis - or rather power-vacuum - in Nigeria which still continues given President Yar'Adua's continued absence from the country for over two months...

'This growing concern has even led an "intelligence official in AFRICOM" to affirm "that Northern Nigeria could become like Western Pakistan" (AC 53,3), which in my mind leads to the follow-up question: Could Nigeria be the next Pakistan? I am totally ignorant about the specifics of US foreign policy decision-making or about the details of US-Nigeria collaboration, but given the growing strategic weight of Nigeria on both the energetic and counterterrorism fields, could this country - like Pakistan - become a (borrowing a fashionable economic term): a country "too-big-to-fail", which will require closer attention, and intervention from the US?'

Nii’s Rejoinder lambasts the decision of the Volta River Authority (VRA) to increase consumer energy tariffs in order to make up for the failure of major corporations to honor their energy bills:

'Admittedly the VRA says that it can no longer sustain its operations from the regular returns paid by loyal consumers. The Authority is therefore pressing for an anomalous 150% increment in tariffs, as it appears that the big companies are reluctant to pay their huge debts that have run the authority into a financial distress.

'Therefore the urgent solution being proffered is to shift the burden on to masses of the country while the mining companies and industries are left free. It’s so unfair that household consumers will have to suffer for the inefficiency of VRA to mobilize its debts from defaulting companies. By common sense understanding, the situation suggests that mining companies are having a field day in Ghana at the expense of the ordinary larger majority of Ghanaians (no apologies for my bias against Mining Companies). So much gold, diamond and other resources that these companies mine out of Ghana every year, they pay next to nothing using our energy for free while repatriating abnormal profits to their foreign owners and entities who have turned Ghana into a client state. This is undoubtedly draconian and sinister to say the least.'

Scribbles from the Den publishes excerpts of an article on Donatien Koagne, the legendary Cameroonian swindler who conned many African Heads of State out of millions of dollars in the 1990s before being jailed in Yemen where he reportedly died a couple of weeks ago:

'He took Marshal Mobutu for fifteen million dollars. Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso lost forty million dollars to him. Sassou, Etienne Eyadéma of Togo, several high officials of Gabon, Tanzania and Kenya, a member of the Spanish government and an ex-operative of the Israeli Mossad were bamboozled as well.

'Koagne has been linked to a wide range of illicit practices – drug dealing, money laundering and trade in controlled substances (blood diamonds, uranium), among others. The means he used to defraud Mobutu and his colleagues, however, were something else altogether. The modus operandi was a fabulous con job, a sham money-multiplication scheme involving a top-secret potion allegedly concocted by the United States Department of Treasury for use in the manufacture of dollar bills.
Eventually, Donatien was caught. He fell prey to the Yemeni police, following yet another con in which he took a high-ranking member of the local police for two million dollars. While the story of his arrest is an extraordinary one, the tale of manifold attempts made to extract him from Yemen is still more remarkable. The identity of his would-be rescuers is telling. First among them were the French secret service, which, at one point, devised a plan oddly reminiscent of the Rainbow Warrior affair... '

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Dibussi Tande, a writer and activist from Cameroon, produces the blog Scribbles from the Den.
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at Pambazuka News.