Vol 59 No 16 | NIGERIA Barbarians at the gate 10th August 2018 A wave of defections to the main opposition party have President Buhari looking anxiously over his shoulder as elections approach The All Progressives' Congress, whose leader President Muhammadu Buhari is taking a holiday in London, has been under political siege for weeks while its senior members contemplate...
Vol 59 No 16 | NIGERIA Politics of patronage 10th August 2018 Long-delayed legislation promises to free the oil industry from state control – but will the government want to surrender this trump card? Nigeria's governments come and go but its oil and gas governance legislation keeps rolling on. The Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) was conceived during Olusegun Obasanjo's first elec...
Vol 59 No 16 | MALI Court in the act 10th August 2018 Despite a calamitous first five years in office, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta (IBK) sailed through the first round of the presidential election with 42% of the vote amid a flur...
Vol 59 No 16 | GHANA Gas contract claims minister 10th August 2018 The sacking of Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko on 6 August for supposedly mishandling renegotiations with the Dubai-based Ameri group on a power supply contract has triggered a cris...
Vol 59 No 15 | NIGERIA The probity contest 27th July 2018 To convince voters of his hard line on corruption, President Buhari’s prosecutors will have to win some cases at last With primaries for the 2019 election fast approaching, President Muhammadu Buhari is under pressure to push ahead with his anti-graft campaign. The Fulani herder-farmer killings an...
Vol 59 No 15 | MALI Electoral déja-vu 27th July 2018 The top two contenders in the 2013 elections slug it out again with incumbent IBK tipped to win Both the incumbent President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta and his main challenger in the 29 July presidential election, Soumaïla Cissé, offer the electorate security, improved basic serv...
Vol 59 No 15 | CÔTE D'IVOIRE It's Ouattara's party 27th July 2018 President Alassane Dramane Ouattara's new cabinet has not changed all that much, considering he purged from it of all Parti démocratique de Côte d'Ivoire members on 4 July over PDC...
Vol 59 No 15 | NIGERIAITALY Uncivil action 27th July 2018 Royal Dutch Shell and ENI claimed a minor victory on 20 July when the judge in the OPL 245 trial in Milan ruled that the natural resource lobbying groups and civil society organisa...
Vol 59 No 14 | NIGERIA A split by any other name 13th July 2018 A new grand opposition coalition and fresh splits in the President’s party are changing calculations about next year’s elections The latest round of defections and manoeuvrings in Abuja give weight to the opposition People's Democratic Party announcement that it will lead a new Coalition of United Political ...
Vol 59 No 14 | SIERRA LEONE Corruption inquiry takes off 13th July 2018 The new president is taking the advice of his transition team's explosive report by instituting a judicial inquiry into corruption President Julius Maada Bio's cabinet on 6 July approved a wide-ranging probe focusing on 'unexplained wealth' allegedly accumulated by former President Ernest Bai Koroma and his of...
