Vol 55 No 2 | SENEGAL An early test 24th January 2014 Local elections will show whether Macky Sall’s party can stand on its own. He must deliver on his promises to improve water and power supplies Scheduled for 29 June, the local elections will be the first popularity test for President Macky Sall’s government since his election in March 2012. The mayor’s job is...
Vol 55 No 2 | MALI Serval’s birthday evokes mixed emotions 22nd January 2014 Bamako held a parade to mark the first anniversary of the French intervention. Admiration, pride and suspicion were also on display, as a new military pact takes shape French Defence Minister Jean-Yves le Drian was the most notable guest at the ceremony on 20 January to mark the 53rd anniversary of the national armed forces, the...
Vol 55 No 2 | BURKINA FASO Rising up against Compaoré 21st January 2014 Mass demonstrations and party defections signal that 26 years of Compaoré are enough for many people in Burkina but will it be enough to unseat him? Tens – the opposition says hundreds – of thousands of people took to the streets of the capital and other towns over the weekend in the biggest protests...
Vol 55 No 1 | NIGERIA Economy billowing, politics floundering 10th January 2014 Rip-roaring growth, youth unemployment and deepening schisms in the political class will make for an eventful year before the 2015 elections With some 170 million people, 250 different languages and an economy about to overtake South Africa’s as the continent’s biggest, Nigeria is in many ways a symbol for... READ FOR FREE
Vol 55 No 1 | MALI Reconciliation and repression 10th January 2014 Preventing ethnic conflict will be a major priority, but special interests threaten to interfere Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta has passed the key electoral tests. He holds a decisive presidential mandate and the National Assembly is in place (AC Vol 54 No 17, IBK's...
Vol 55 No 1 | NIGERIA Goodluck Jonathan loses the numbers game 20th December 2013 The defections in the House of Representatives have stripped the President's party of its majority and boost the opposition coalition This year started with a row between President Goodluck Jonathan and former President Olusegun Obasanjo; and it is ending with a second and bigger row between the two....
Vol 54 No 25 | NIGERIA Presidential letter bombs 12th December 2013 Private letters to President Jonathan from General Obasanjo and Bank Governor Sanusi warn of deepening financial and political threats The leaking this week of two damning letters to President Goodluck Jonathan was surely no coincidence and fires a powerful broadside against his government and his plans to...
Vol 54 No 25 | NIGERIA The fire in Jonathan's backyard 12th December 2013 Piracy, oil theft and sectional rivalries are spinning out of control in the Delta, the political heartland of President Jonathan The idea that choosing a President and a Petroleum Minister from the Niger Delta would be the best way to tackle the crisis in the oil and gas...
Vol 54 No 25 | SIERRA LEONE Changing the constitution 12th December 2013 After two seats controversially changed hands, the governing All People’s Congress (APC) is just one seat short of a two-thirds majority in Parliament. That’s the vote needed, if...
Vol 54 No 25 | SENEGAL Sall struggles to stay on course 6th December 2013 The President needs big ideas to win elections and keep the faith of his allies, and turn around a sluggish economy. Yet he has been losing friends and momentum President Macky Sall arrived in Paris on 4 December for the African security summit with a diminished entourage. Although he brought a full complement of ministers and soldiers,...