Security officials around President Lansana Conté are cracking down ahead of the presidential election scheduled for December, when their man and his Parti de l’ Unité et du...
Gen. Obasanjo's presidential hopes have taken a beating after the local government polls
The local government elections on 5 December were good news for Nigeria and bad news for the presidential frontrunner and former military leader, General Olusegun Obasanjo. There was...
Political power in Nigeria grows out of a barrel of oil but the industry is in big trouble
If General Abdulsalami Abubakar’s government cannot sort out the oil business, its brokering of a political transition may not amount to much. Six months ago,when Gen. Sani Abacha...
Vol 39 No 25 |
- SIERRA LEONE
The Revolutionary United Front rebels and the remnants of the deposed military junta are bringing their terror campaign towards Freetown again. They are now striking along a 200...
Vol 39 No 25 |
- GUINEA BISSAU
West African leaders meeting, on 14 December in Lomé, Togo, to talk about Guinea Bissau have had a surprising success. They have brokered a power-sharing deal between President...
There is evidence of wide-ranging attempts to rig the forthcoming elections
By fair means or foul, President and General Lansana Conté is determined to 'win' the 14 December elections. His impressive opponents, who include a World Bank economist, a...
The parties are fighting internally - before fighting each other
The election season has come early. National elections are two years away but the two main parties - the ruling National Democratic Congress and the opposition New Patriotic...
Former military leader General Olusegun Obasanjo’s bid for the Presidency in February’s elections has attracted a strange coalition of
supporters: genuine patriots fearful of the breakup of the country,...
Undaunted by Western political opposition and Africa's rebel militias, the private armies are expanding their portfolios
Private military companies are stronger than ever in Africa, six months after the political row over the relations between Sandline and British officials (AC Vol 39 No 11)....
In a deal with São Tomé Petroleum, America's Mobil has bought information rights to all 22 of the blocks on offer. The most promising strip of sea-bed lies...
After four years as a virtual pariah, Nigeria was feted at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meeting as a rare bright spot on a sea...
Is the long arm of Lonrho chieftain Roland Tiny Rowland reaching from beyond the grave to grab one of Africa’s last dinosaurs - Togo’s President General Gnassingbé Eyadéma?
After the political jamborees in Abuja, former military leader General Obasanjo emerges as a frontrunner Presidential candidate
Party politics are back in Nigeria with all their ebullience and razamatazz. Alongside marching bands more than 10,000 supporters waving party flags packed out Abuja’s central parade ground...
‘After General Abacha you have a rather easy act to follow, don’t you?’ Lola Alakija, a feisty TV interviewer asked Head of State Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar on 7...
Vol 39 No 18 |
- GUINEA BISSAU
After a turf war between mediators, peace has begun to break out
With attention focused on the Congo-Kinshasa war, the rebellion which broke out in Guinea Bissau in early June (AC Vol 39 Nos 13, 14 & 16) has already...
Vol 39 No 18 |
- SIERRA LEONE
In Sierra Leone’s far interior - including Koinadugu district, with some diamond and gold deposits - the remains of the ousted Armed Forces Ruling Council/Revolutionary United Front (AFRC/RUF)...
Vol 39 No 18 |
- CÔTE D'IVOIRE
This month, the International Monetary Fund is due to pay Côte d’Ivoire the second and larger instalment of a US$385 million enhanced structural adjustment facility loan, and a...
One appointment and one non-appointment stand out in the 31-strong new Federal Executive Council announced by General Abdulsalaami Abubakar on 22 August just before his threeday trip to...
A military adventure abroad and political squabbles at home
By sending Senegalese soldiers into Guinea-Bissau, President Abdou Diouf has muddied the pool of Dakar’s politics. The bitter rebellion in the southern province of Casamance made little impact...
The rigging of Togo’s 21 June presidential election (AC Vol 39 No 14) may lead to Lomé being thrown out of the Convention named after it. The European...
Enigmatic Malian businessman and marabout Babani Sissoko’s finances are under the spotlight again following the start of legal proceedings against him in Miami by the Dubai Islamic Bank,...
Welcomed by the West, General Abubakar's transition to civil rule is drawing fire from the politicians - both civilian and military
For Nigeria's soldier-politicians, the so-called 'militicians', GeneralAbdulsalaam Abubakar's plan to return the country to civilian rule by next June, announced on 21 July, looks too much like a...
Hopes for a credible and popular transition to civil rule have been shaken by the death of the gaoled winner of the 1993 election
Although the sudden death of Chief Moshood Abiola (60) happened in the presence of a visiting United States’ delegation on 7 July, it has nevertheless raised suspicions of...
In Israel for medical treatment this week, President Gnassingbé Eyadéma faces unprecedented foreign pressure over the stolen 21 June presidential election. Eyadéma wanted the poll to given him...
Vol 39 No 14 |
- GUINEA BISSAU
Amid the shelling and the frantic efforts of over 200,000 displaced Guineans to find food and shelter, President João Bernardo ‘Nino’ Vieira’s mandate expires this month. But for...
After releasing some political prisoners and negotiating with the gaoled winner of the 1993 elections, Abuja breaks the political ice
For a regime which proclaims continuity with its predecessor, the new order in Abuja under General Abdulsalaam Abubakar is making some major changes to the political script written...
Abuja’s hoteliers are among the most obvious beneficiaries of General SaniAbacha’ sdemiseon8June.Sincethen,theinlandcapital’ s hotels and guest houses have been full of would-be advisors, influence- pedlars, contract-seekers and curious...
Vol 39 No 13 |
- GUINEA BISSAU
An army mutiny has quickly become a security problem for the neighbouring states
Demoralised troops, Casamance and cannabis smuggling have all fanned the flames of Guinea Bissau’s army mutiny. It has now engulfed the sub-region in the crisis, drawing Senegal, Guinea...
Vol 39 No 13 |
- CÔTE D'IVOIRE
Big companies with powerful friends dominate the newly privatised economy
Economic reform and party funding make uneasy bedfellows in Abidjan, where President Henri Konan-Bédié’s government is torn between the demands of financial rectitude and pork-barrel politics. As the...
Military dissidents may prove the most serious threat to General Abubakar's pledge to hand over to civilians in October
As enigmatic in death as in life, General Sani Abacha died suddenly in the early hours of 7 June. He left many Nigerians puzzling over whether it was...
Vol 39 No 12 |
- CÔTE D'IVOIRE
The World Bank drive to privatise cotton is causing cross-border problems. Soon Côte d'Ivoire must choose from three bidders for Compagnie Ivoirienne de Développement du Textile. Mali’ s...
Awkward questions are being asked about private security companies' growing power
Underlying the political storm in London about the ‘Arms to Sierra Leone’ affair (AC Vol 39 No 10) is a central question about the privatisation of British foreign...
Less well known but critical to Buckingham's African empire are his extensive interests in Namibia, where he's had close connections with influential politicians since the early 1990s and...
Politicians, civil servants and security men slug it out in a Whitehall row as the desperate plight of Sierra Leone comes a poor second
Bafflement and disgust are the main reactions in Freetown to the row that has blown up in Britain about President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah's hiring of London-based security outfit...
The Sierra Leone imbroglio casts more light on the web of security companies and mining houses associated with Sandline International and Executive Outcomes. It has focused attention on...
The coup plot trial has brought some military divisions to the surface
The death sentences handed down on 28 April to six convicted coup plotters - all from the Yoruba south-west - will do little to settle the unease in...
Ambushed by civilian politicians, General Mai¨nassara starts to hit back
Niamey's political violence took an uglier turn on 20 April when unidentified gunmen launched a professional-looking attack on the home of the coordinator of the opposition Front pour...
An astute change of strategy by President Jerry Rawlings to secure victory for his National Democratic Congress in the 2000 elections owes something to American history. The plan...
The appointment of Federal Capital Territory Minister Lieutenant General Jerry Useni as head of a taskforce to tackle the chronic gasolene and diesel shortage is having little effect....
Alarms are sounding about General Abacha's plans to follow President Suharto's example
What have Indonesia and Nigeria got in common? On the face of it, almost everything - deepening economic crises, embattled military leaders, a web of corruption and nepotism...
Like many of their counterparts elsewhere, the rebels of '68 have joined the system
Senegal's energetic media have been painting the general elections of 24 May as a rendez-vous with history. It's the thirtieth anniversary of May '68, when Senegalese students and...
Amid deadlock between government and opposition, preparations are starting for local elections. Business and donors are more worried about the electricity crisis. Donors have again suspended finance for...
As the coup plot trials near their conclusion, a sweeping military reshuffle looms and a new civilian presidential candidate emerges
True to his word, his supporters say, General Sani Abacha is determined to hand over to a civilian successor in October - himself. A year ago, that script...
Universally known as 'MD', former spymaster and police chief Alhaji Muhammadu Dikko Yusufu (66) has emerged as the most credible challenger to General Sani Abacha's as yet unannounced...
The detention at London's Gatwick airport on 24 March of the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, and his family after it was claimed that drugs valued at...
Vol 39 No 6 |
- CÔTE D'IVOIRE
Talk of ouverture or power-sharing in Abidjan has been scuppered by the defection of leading oppositionist Adama Coulibally to the ruling Parti Démocratique de la Côte d’Ivoire ....
Vol 39 No 5 |
- SIERRA LEONE
The Nigerian-led ousting of Major Johnny- Paul Koroma’s Freetown junta raises awkward questions for Whitehall’s proclaimed ethical foreign policy and its ban on military cooperation with General Sani...
Abidjan provided high-level political backing to make a success of the British Week heavily branded with the title ‘Ensemble’ held on 2-8 March, which brought in a large...
Vol 39 No 4 |
- SIERRA LEONE
The returning civilian government faces empty coffers and a continuing rebellion
Sierra Leoneans were surprised at the efficiency and speed with which the West African peace keeping forces (Ecomog) toppled Major Johnny Paul Koroma’s military Revolutionary United Front junta....
Two years before the next election and amid more economic problems, the parties are agonising over their presidential candidates
The best chance for the ruling National Democratic Congress to win the election in 2000 would be to find a way to put up incumbent President Jerry John...
Vol 39 No 3 |
- SIERRA LEONE
Abuja is working on a military option if the Freetown junta refuses to go in April
The commitment that Major Johnny Paul Koroma’s Freetown junta gave Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Tom Ikimi, to hand over power by 22 April, looks less credible by the day....
Amid general discontent and military nervousness, the Abacha regime's latest claim of a coup plot is unlikely to be its last
General Sani Abacha is pulling out all the stops to gain maximum political advantage from the latest alleged coup plot. Videotaped scenes from interrogations of the accused, including...
Hardline policing and economic pressures presage a tense political year
Car thefts at gun-point, a high-speed chase through the streets of Accra on a hot Sunday afternoon, live commentary on the car-chase on local radio, a track-suited President...
Popular pressure chips away at (democratic) one-party rule while rebels mine Casamance
Every one of nearly 400 beds at the beautiful Club Mediterranée at Cap Skirring, near the Guinea-Bissau border, was full for Christmas. But guests were taken aback by...
Vol 39 No 2 |
- CÔTE D'IVOIRE
A scalding splash has landed on the next round of talks with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, due early next month. As he prepares to bid...
Government and opposition say they want to talk but then say 'We won't budge'
French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's visit to Bamako on 20- 21 December was perceived as a show of support for President Alpha Oumar Konaré and his regime, which...
On the face it, the 21 December allegation that the Deputy Head of State, Lieutenant General Oladipo Diya, Major General Tunji Olanrewaju, Maj. Gen. Abdulkarim Adisa and eight...