Although it lost the presidency, the opposition alliance will be a real force in the new parliament
Jerry Rawlings has delivered the knockout blow he had promised for the 7 December presidential election (AC Vol 37 No 22), finishing some fifteen points ahead of his...
Vol 37 No 24 |
- SIERRA LEONE
Foday Sankoh's Revolutionary United Front has been badly damaged, with 'spontaneous demobilisations' in the east. So it was expected to sign the draft Peace Agreement in Abidjan on...
Democracy seems to be working well here – to the irritation of military neighbours
The coup was a flop and President Alpha Oumar Konaré is looking even stronger than before. On 28 October Konaré's security services clamped down on a group of...
After fighting up country, the warlords bring their battles to the government offices
The personal vendettas in Monrovia are only part of the real battle for control of Liberia that is being fought out in the hinterland. All the signs are...
In the first real election campaign since 1979, tempers are beginning to fray
The smart money is on a close result in the legislative and presidential elections due on 7 December. President Jerry Rawlings is far more popular than his ruling...
Vol 37 No 22 |
- SIERRA LEONE
President Kabbah's shaky democracy lacks cash and the will to settle the war
With no friends and no money, President Tejan Kabbah's government is in deep trouble after less than nine months in office. The rebels of Corporal Foday Sankoh's Revolutionary...
The ruling soldiers believes that selling state assets will win them friends and influence
The government is pushing ahead with its sale of state assets in the hope of reaping political and economic dividends. First to come to market will be the...
The military announce five new parties and six new states but leave key questions open
Alongside General Sani Abacha's bold plans to sell the state oil and gas companies, plans for his political transition are becoming clearer. Above all, the government is determined...
The appointment last month of veteran journalist Peter Enahoro as sole administrator of the Daily Times is the Abacha government's latest bid to rescue the ailing newspaper group.
Delighting the IMF and World Bank, General Abacha plans to sell off the oil sector. Many wonder who will benefit
Finance Minister Anthony Ani's announcement that the government will sell its holdings in the oil, telecommunications and power sectors – valued at over US$50,000 million – marks a...
The municipal elections may comfort the opposition without shaking the President
Elections in Senegal tend to breed crises. In 1983, 1988 and 1993, they ended in violence and gaol for opposition politicians. No such fireworks are expected at the...
Vol 37 No 19 |
- SIERRA LEONE
As the security situation appears to worsen, a row has blown up over government payments to South African-owned Executive Outcomes. A leaked letter from the International Monetary Fund...
General Abacha's new enthusiasm for things eastern is beginning to pay commercial and diplomatic dividends
Increasingly, it seems that General Sani Abacha is drawing his political and business inspiration from the East. By bringing Malaysian, South Korean and Chinese companies into the country,...
President Eyadèma has picked a new premier and is planning his own re-election
The one-party state is back in Togo. The resignation of Prime Minister Edem Kodjo on 19 August puts President Gnassingbé Eyadèma back in control, after dividing the opposition...
Vol 37 No 18 |
- CÔTE D'IVOIRE
Whatever the truth about the alleged coup plot against President Henri Konan Bédié last October, it is being used comprehensively to weed out perceived enemies of the ruling...
The seizure of two military helicopters on 30 August at Miami's international airport, stored on a plane about to take off for Banjul, has raised more suspicions about...
Foreign minister Ikimi and his team bamboozle Marlborough House
Nigeria's delegation of 17 emerged victorious from its closed-door confrontation with the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group in London on 24-25 June. Led by Foreign Minister Tom Ikimi, it...
Having drawn up the rules, Captain Jammeh is to select his electoral opponents
Gambia's military rulers, like Nigeria's, appear to have got the better of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group and its attempts to encourage democracy and human rights. After a...
From a jumble of old enmities and personal ambitions an opposition pact is emerging
A streak of cold-blooded rationality is emerging in Ghana's opposition. Against expectations, the two main Nkrumahist and Danquah-Busiaist groupings are forging an effective alliance, choosing common candidates on...
Vol 37 No 13 |
- SIERRA LEONE
Kabba's government must patch up a peace if it wants to stop the military's return
Three months after their electoral victory, President Ahmad Tejan Kabba and his Sierra Leone People's Party still do not look as if they are in charge. Partly, this...
Oil traders and their sponsors may grumble that prices are low. But for the well-connected trader Nigeria is offering some of the best returns around. A comparison of...
The army's taste of power was brief. General Ibrahim Barré Mainassara's coup of 27 January this year (AC Vol 37 No 3) will be swiftly followed by the...
The army's taste of power was brief. General Ibrahim Barré Mainassara's coup of 27 January this year will be swiftly followed by the presidential elections due (inconveniently for...
Vol 37 No 11 |
- CÔTE D'IVOIRE
An economic boom has boosted President Bédié's fortunes but the army is not entirely happy
Whatever else was discussed during President Henri Konan Bédié's hastily arranged meeting with French President Jacques Chirac in Paris on 16 May, it seems certain they talked about...
The Economic Community of West African States' Accra 'Summit' on 6-8 May has bitten the dust (AC Vol 37 No 10). If things are not settled, we hear...
After the latest shoot out in Monrovia, West Africans want their peacekeepers to get tough or get out
Without a sustained commitment from Washington and the United Nations to help West African peacekeeping efforts and without an enforceable timetable for the disarmament of Liberia's warring factions,...
Poison pen letters and Abacha's absences are causing concern in Abuja
What can account for General Sani Abacha's continuing absences from public functions? One reason suggested by those close to the Aso Rock headquarters is that Abacha and his...
BHP-Utah, the country's biggest foreign mining concern, is selling up and pulling out of Mali. And according to an industry source it blames 'an unhappy mix between arrogant...
Dethroning Dasuki and cocking a snook at the Commonwealth will not solve the crisis
These are busy days for General Sani Abacha. Critics of his slow work rate and his indecisiveness are revising their opinions. In one week, he has sacked the...
Minority parties helped return Kérékou to power with some help from his old friends
Mathieu Kérékou is back in power. Benin's electors preferred the strongman they once rejected to Nicéphore Soglo, the economic reformer whose policies brought them scant rewards. Benin's...
Vol 37 No 9 |
- SIERRA LEONE
President Ahmad Tejan Kabba is edging towards some form of agreement with Foday Sankoh's Revolutionary United Front following their talks at Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire on 22-23 April....
General Sani Abacha's sacking of his Chief of Army Staff, Major General Alwali Kazir, and Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice-Marshall Femi John Femi, was a punishment, we...
Vol 37 No 7 |
- SIERRA LEONE
Civilians eagerly voted the military out but they ignore the soldiers at their peril
Demanding elections and calling the military's bluff in the middle of a civil war was always going to be a high risk strategy. Yet it may have worked,...
Vol 37 No 7 |
- SIERRA LEONE
Sensing the war is dying down, Lebanese diamond traders are swiftly moving back into centres such as Kono in the east. They are keen to regain control of...
Personal ambition has again got the better of hopes for a united opposition front
Articulate, persuasive and wealthy; for many, Kwame Pianim seemed the best candidate the opposition could put up against Jerry Rawlings in this year' s presidential election. Pianim' s...
Western support for democracy is being tested by Niger's military rulers who seized power on 21 January. On 25 March, the European Union decided, against French pressure, to...
Tension is rising in Monrovia. National Patriotic Front of Liberia leader Charles Taylor and United Liberation Movement -Krahn (Ulimo-K) leader Alhaji G.V.Kromah have banded together against Liberia Peace...
As Washington lobbies Europe for sanctions on the soldiers in Abuja, business gives them a vote of confidence
In a bizarre way, business is learning to live with, if not to love, General Sani Abacha. For those not exercised by questions of human rights, democracy or...
No one could describe General Sani Abacha as a convert to market economics yet the policy of 'guided deregulation' begun last year is certainly his own. Whilst he...
The prospect of former dictator Mathieu Kérékou returning to power as elected President worries those who argue that economic liberalisation must go hand-in-hand with democratisation. In the first...
The warlords behind the six-year conflict want to take control of the peacekeeping operation from the ECOMOG troops
Who rules Liberia? At present, nobody. Since 1990, the nearest thing to a national authority has been the peacekeeping force of the Economic Community of West African States....
A former dictator tries an electoral comeback in a test of Benin's democratic stamina
Next month's presidential election is important not just for the Beninese, who will give their verdict on five years of economic reform, but more widely as a test...
A head of steam is again building up for tougher sanctions against General Sani Abacha's government. A January review in Washington, we hear, considered three categories of sanction:...
Bombings and arms caches mean that both sides are upping the stakes in the political crisis
The rumblings are getting more ominous. General Sani Abacha's son killed in a plane crash, bombings in the north, tons of guns and ammunition found on the Benin...
Vol 37 No 3 |
- SIERRA LEONE
Brigadier Maada Bio wants a family reconciliation to help end the rebel war
Freetown may be stumbling into a peace deal of sorts with the rebels it has been fighting for the last four years. Brigadier Julius Maada Bio and his...
Africa's second coup of the year in Niamey had been brewing as long as its first in Freetown. Lieutenant Colonel Ibrahim Barré Mainassara, the former army Chief of...
Vice-President Arkaah's claim that President Rawlings beat him up helps the opposition
Whatever happened at the 28 December Cabinet meeting at State House, it is helping the opposition's campaign for this year's elections. According to President Jerry Rawlings' supporters, his...
Vol 37 No 2 |
- SIERRA LEONE
Brigadier Julius Maada-Bio’s announcement that he will not postpone elections scheduled for 26 February following his 16 January coup against Captain Valentine Strasser has several caveats. Most important...
Vol 37 No 1 |
- SIERRA LEONE
Prospects that the elections will be held, as scheduled, on 26 February are diminishing. The major parties contesting the poll remain in confusion, much of the logistical work...