Vol 49 No 6 | GUINEAUNITED STATES King Bauxite 14th March 2008 Known as the Bauxite King, Victor Dahdaleh is at the centre of a US case in which the Gulf State of Bahrain accuses him and the...
Vol 49 No 5 | NIGERIA Technical knock-out 29th February 2008 President Yar'Adua's supporters say his election tribunal victory will free his government to move on reforms The verdict was emphatic. On 26 February, Justice James Ogebe and his four colleagues on the Presidential Election Tribunal in Abuja voted 5-0 to dismiss the petitions brought...
Vol 49 No 5 | SENEGAL Local is national 29th February 2008 The elections for local councils are about national issues and the opposition wants to make a point At last Senegal's many opposition parties have decided to get together for local elections that are due on 18 May. Siggil Sénégal (Save Senegal), whose main component is...
Vol 49 No 5 | SENEGAL The Wade summit 29th February 2008 Several varieties of uncertainty hang over the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) before its summit meeting in Dakar on 13-14 March. Unfinished buildings are scattered across the...
Vol 49 No 3 | NIGERIA Judgment day is coming 1st February 2008 The courts are taking the lead in resolving the election crisis in Abuja - even if that creates new political problems The rival factions in the political drama in Abuja agree on one thing: the legal and political battles over the legitimacy of the 2007 elections will rumble on...
Vol 49 No 3 | NIGERIA Oil and Abuja: A rockier relationship 1st February 2008 Relations between multinational oil companies and the government of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua are deteriorating. The big oil companies are talking of a chronic financing crisis. Tony Chukwueke,...
Vol 49 No 3 | SIERRA LEONE Bring in the money 1st February 2008 The President's trip to London produced some useful aid and gave him a chance to encourage investors Links to the former colonial power serve Sierra Leone well. On a trip this week to meet British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Prince of Wales, the...
Vol 49 No 3 | GUINEA One Conakry, two Lansanas 1st February 2008 Rivalries between the President and his Prime Minister are exacerbating discontent within the trade unions and the military The army stands in the wings, looking suspiciously at the government of the ailing President Lansana Conté, while Conté looks suspiciously at his 'consensus' Prime Minister Lansana Kouyaté,...
Vol 49 No 3 | GHANA Cocaine cops 1st February 2008 An hysterical attack by the Inspector General of Police, Patrick Kwarteng Acheampong, on the sacked National Security Minister, Francis Poku, has backfired, prompting a new round of public...
Vol 49 No 3 | GUINEAMALIMOZAMBIQUE Ordinary rendition 1st February 2008 A diplomatic storm is brewing as Mozambican police crack down on West Africans they accuse of being illegal miners. The formal tone of a letter from the Mozambican...