Month: September 2023

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called Tuesday for measures to slow the birthrate in the Arab world’s most populous country, citing China’s one-child policy as an example.

“We need 400,000 births per year,” said the leader of the country of 105 million inhabitants which recorded nearly 2.2 million births in 2022.

Sisi intervened when his minister of health and population, Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, told a conference that “having children is a matter of complete freedom”.

“I do not agree with your idea that having children is a matter of complete freedom,” the president said.

“Leaving their freedom to people who potentially do not know the extent of the challenge? In the end, it is the whole of society and the Egyptian state which will pay the price,” he said, during the worst economic crisis in the country’s history.

“We must organise this freedom otherwise it will create a catastrophe,” Sisi said.

“The Chinese made this decision in 1968” and in 2015, Beijing officially abandoned its one-child policy, allowing all married couples to have a second child.

“They succeeded in their population control policy,” Sisi said.

Sisi, a former army general who rose to the presidency in 2014 after deposing elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, is expected to run for a third term at elections in early 2024.

Protesters gathered Wednesday (Sep. 05) outside Abuja’s Court of Appeal, where judges were expected to rule on whether President Bola Tinubu’s election victory was legitimate or not.

The opposition challenged the election results, arguing that Tinubu was not qualified to run for president because he was a citizen of Guinea and allegedly did not have the required academic credentials.

Tinubu has denied all the allegations.

“We are here to witness the judgement from the judiciary to let them know that the last hope of the common man, or a common Nigerian depends on the hands the judiciary. So, we are here to let them know that they should do the right thing, not to force Nigerian youths to occupy everywhere,” a protester named James said.

“We are waiting, we are keeping vigil, and we hope the right thing should be done. Judiciary must be responsible as Nigerians have decided to make, their children are Nigerians, they are Nigerians, they are part of this rot. Let them help us to rewrite this wrong for once,” a member of the Nigerian-American Coalition for Justice and Democracy doubled down.

The tribunal is empowered to either uphold Tinubu’s February election win, declare someone else the winner, annul the vote or order a fresh one.

Whatever decision they make can be appealed at Nigeria’s Supreme Court.

The opposition has hinted at possible protests if the court rules in Tinubu’s favor.

Since Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999, all presidential elections but one have been contested in court. None were overturned.

THE die is cast and the stage is set. After five months of legal fisticuffs, the Presidential Election Petition Court (Tribunal) will decide the fate of President Bola Tinubu, former vice President Atiku Abubakar, and former Anambra State Governor, Mr. Peter Obi,

The trio were the leading presidential candidates in the February 25, 2023 presidential poll. While Tinubu, who was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, ran on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC; Atiku contested on the banner of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP; and Obi flew the flag of the Labour Party, LP.

Atiku, Obi, PDP and LP separately want the court to nullify Tinubu’s election, award the victory to Atiku or Obi, and disqualify Tinubu.

There is also a third petition lodged against President Tinubu by the Allied Peoples Movement, APM.

Specifically, APM contended that the withdrawal of Mr. Masari, who was initially nominated as the Vice-Presidential candidate of the APC, invalidated Tinubu’s candidacy in view of Section 131(c) and 142 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

Countering the petitioners, Tinubu, APC, and INEC urged the court to dismiss the petitions of the petitioners and affirm Tinubu’s election.

7 options before the court

As it is, there are three options before the court, namely:

Disqualify Tinubu, nullify his election and declare Atiku winner

Annul Tinubu’s election and declare Obi winner

Cancel the elections and order a fresh poll among the 18 candidates

Cancel the elections and order a re-run between the best two

Order a re-run between Tinubu and Atiku

Order a re-run between Atiku and Obi

The five justices Who’ll decide Tinubu’s, Atiku’s, Obi’s fate

The four men and one woman, who will take one of the above options are:

Justice Haruna Tsammani, Chief Registrar of the Court of Appeal and head of the panel; Justice Stephen Adah, Court of Appeal (Asaba division); Justice Monsurat Bolaji-Yusuf, Court of Appeal (Asaba Division); Justice Moses Ugo, Kano division; and Justice Abba Mohammed, Ibadan Court of Appeal.

Kenya generates more than 70% of its energy from renewable sources like geothermal, hydro and wind energy, with the solar energy sector becoming attractive for industrial and home use.

The Kenyan government zero rates the importation of some inputs like solar panels and inverters to encourage sales.

During the inaugural Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, President William Ruto, echoed that Africa can manage to depend entirely on renewable energy,

“The continent has enough potential to be entirely self-sufficient with the mixture of wind, solar, geothermal, sustainable biomass and hydropower.” he said.

However, solar technology that is imported into Kenya continues to be taxed with import duties and retailers often have to charge over 15 percent value added tax making consumers foot the high cost of going green.

Solar energy’s reliability and lower cost despite initial high installation capital has attracted steel manufactures and edible oil factories who form some of the biggest clientele for a company based in the capital, Nairobi.

The Solar Managing Director for Clean Power Rashmi Shah said the company has done 25,000 kilowatts of installations in the last six years adding that “it’s very clean energy” and clients are able to recover their initial costs with savings made within the first four years.

“We are not polluting the air at all, we are not raising the temperatures, we are not affecting the climate of the earth. So that is why more and more emphasis is coming into cleaner energy and solar is certainly one of the cleaner energies,” he told The Associated Press.

Despite the company’s focus on industries, some home installations including that of Shah’s house have enabled him to be completely off grid, saving him from a recent national blackout where those relying on the electricity distributor Kenya Power and Lighting Company, including the country’s main airport, were in the dark for hours.

The World Bank notes that the deployment of solar mini grids has increased in Sub-Saharan Africa, from around 500 installed in 2010 to more than 3,000 installed today.

The UN’s environmental agency says 60% of the world’s best solar sites are located in Africa and says there is still a great potential as this only harnesses 1% of the power.

Manchester United’s goalkeeper is officially back in the Indomitable Lions squad.

Andre Onana confirmed his return on Monday( Sep. 04) with a statement on platform X formerly Twitter.

“I answer the call of my nation with an unshakeable certainty, aware that my return is not only to honour my dream, but also to meet the expectation and support of Cameroonians,” the keeper said.

Onana was selected in a 24-player squad for an African Cup qualifying game against Burundi on Sept. 12. Cameroon needs only to draw the home game to advance to the tournament, which starts on Jan. 13 in Ivory Coast.

Onana said he was ending his international career last December at the age of 26. He was dropped after starting Cameroon’s first game at the World Cup in Qatar — a 1-0 loss to Switzerland — in a disagreement over team tactics with Song, who said players needed to “show discipline and respect.”

Cameroon then drew 3-3 with Serbia and beat Brazil 1-0 but did not advance to the round of 16.

Onana, however, said last year: “Cameroon remains eternal and so does my love for the national team.”

Fifty-three members of the security forces have been killed in an attack by suspected jihadists in northern Burkina Faso, the army said on Tuesday.

Seventeen soldiers and 36 civilian volunteers for the army died on Monday while repelling an “attack,” the army general staff said in a statement.

The unit had been deployed in the town of Koumbri in Yatenga province to help the resettlement of residents forced out of the area by jihadists more than two years ago, it said.

About 30 members of the security forces were injured, the army added.

It said that several attackers had been “neutralised” in a counter-operation and their combat equipment destroyed.

Operations are still under way in the area, it said.

Burkina Faso saw two military coups last year, triggered — as in neighbouring Mali and Niger — by anger at failures to stem a jihadist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives.

Since 2015, more than 16,000 civilians, troops and police have died in jihadist attacks in Burkina Faso, according to a count by an NGO monitor called the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED).

More than 5,000 have died since the start of this year.

More than two million people have also been displaced within Burkina Faso, making it one of the worst internal displacement crises in Africa.

On June 26, three attacks killed 31 soldiers and 40 auxiliaries in Centre-North province.

In August, two attacks in Centre-East province killed five police and around 20 others.

The authorities, for their part, say more than 65 jihadists were “neutralised” between August 7 and September 1.

The country’s strongman is Captain Ibrahim Traore, who took power in September 2022 at the age of just 34, making him the world’s youngest leader outside of royalty.

He has promised a return to democracy with presidential elections by July 2024

Relations between the junta and France broke down after the takeover, prompting French forces that had been helping the under-equipped Burkinabe army to quit the country in January.

Traore last week held talks with a Russian delegation on development and military cooperation.

On Monday, his foreign minister, Olivia Rouamba, held talks in Tehran with President Ebrahim Raissi in which she said she hoped for “stronger bilateral cooperation” with Iran.

Many of the casualties among the security sources are Volunteers for the Defence of the Fatherland (VDP) — civilians who are given two weeks’ military training and work alongside the army, typically carrying out surveillance, information-gathering or escort duties.

Following a spate of coups in Africans countries, United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, on Friday warned that military takeovers only make things worse.

“Many countries face deep-seated governance challenges but military governments are not the solution,” he said.

“They aggravate problems. They cannot resolve the crisis. They can only make it worse. I urge all countries to move quickly to establish credible democratic institutions and the rule of law.”

Guterres said international bodies like the African Union should be strengthened in their efforts to foster peace, stability, and democracy on the continent.

At the same time, conditions need to be created that allow African citizens to address the root causes of political instability; lack of development being a major factor, he said.

“Development is a central objective if we want to create conditions for peace and stability in Africa.”

His comments come after a coup d’état in Gabon on Wednesday, the eighth in Africa since 2020. The previous one saw the military take power in Niger in July.