Vol 40 No 5 | NIGERIA Soldier go, soldier come 5th May 1999 President-elect Obasanjo's greatest challenge will be his plans to reform the military and end the putschist mentality The Nigerian conundrum - ‘it takes a soldier to end army rule’ - is to be tested again. General Olusegun Obasanjo, the choice of most army officers...
Vol 40 No 5 | NIGERIA Virtual voters 5th May 1999 Election monitors coined a phrase for General Olusegun Obasanjo’s presidential victory on 27 February: the result was not ‘free and fair’ but ‘generally reflects the will of the...
Vol 40 No 8 | NIGERIA The $2.7 billion hole in the bank 16th April 1999 The military regime is leaving its civilian successor a mountain of dubious debts and undermining prospects for economic recovery General Olusegun Obasanjo's newly elected government starts work on 29 May. But the bright hope is dimmed by an unexpectedly grim financial legacy from the outgoing military...
Vol 40 No 8 | NIGER Accidental coup 16th April 1999 The murder of President Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara on 9 April was a genuine coup d'etat. After a couple of days' confusion, the dead man's supposed ally,...
Vol 40 No 8 | CÔTE D'IVOIRE Fighting the Fund 16th April 1999 President Henri Konan Bédié's attempts to make political capital out of his government's problems with the International Monetary Fund have badly misfired.
Vol 40 No 7 | NIGERIA Muddy waters 2nd April 1999 Friends of President-elect General Olusegun Obasanjo say he is incensed by the decision of the outgoing military regime under Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar to award 11 oil exploration blocks...
Vol 40 No 7 | TOGO Lomé minus Lomé 2nd April 1999 President Gnassingbé Eyadéma's latest round of fraudulent elections, held on 21 March, could provoke Togo's suspension from the European Union's preferential trade treaty known as the Lomé IV...
Vol 40 No 6 | SIERRA LEONE Leaving for Lomé 19th March 1999 Foreign pressure is growing for President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah to start substantive negotiations with the Revolutionary United Front. Even Kabbah’s closest backers question his grip over the mainly...
Vol 40 No 4 | NIGERIA The General's election 19th February 1999 Twenty years after he left power, Gen. Obasanjo looks set to return, this time with an electoral mandate General Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria’s first military officer to hand power to an elected government, looks set - 20 years later - to become the first officer to win...
Vol 40 No 4 | NIGERIA It's the economy 19th February 1999 Amid the campaign razzamatazz, politicians are ignoring the looming economic disaster In the party conventions and in the lobbies of Abuja’s smart hotels, the talk is of who should be the new civilian president - and of how to...