Patrick Smith
This week, the political developments start in Kenya, with mounting protests for
electoral reform, then to the story of why some senior Nigerians are spending the week in
London and the private reactions to the appointment of the president's
daughter to h...
Blue Lines
Taking over the presidency of the African Development Bank from
Rwanda's Donald Kaberuka, whose combination
of political savvy and
straight talking on economics put the Bank back on the global map, was
always going to be tough. The tenure of new President...
Patrick Smith
This week starts with talks on Libya's crisis in Vienna and
negotiations in Nigeria over
the fuel price increase. Kenya's
government makes further moves to close down the world's biggest
refugee camp and Uganda's most
prominent opposition leader is held o...
Blue Lines
The big problem with the Anti-Corruption Summit organised by British Prime Minister David Cameron on 12 May was that no one could agree on
what it was for. It invited Nigeria's
Muhammadu Buhari, Colombia's Juan
Manuel Santos Calderón and Afghanistan's
Ash...
Patrick Smith
This week there are some sobering warnings from the IMF and some rambunctious election-campaign launches in South Africa. Pressure continues to increase on Nigeria's President Buhari to devalue the naira or set up a new exchange rate for specified transac...
Blue Lines
Unencumbered by the African Union's need to reach a consensus among
its
54 member states, the Tana Security Forum, which also meets each year
in Ethiopia, is expanding its
influence as it confronts some of the
more unpalatable realities of political stabi...
Blue Lines
This year’s flurry of ostensibly competitive elections is prompting
some activists to rethink their assessment of the forward march of
democratic politics in Africa. After the unprecedented victory of the
opposition presidential candidate in Nigeria,
Afri...
Patrick Smith
This week, there is some better economic news for Nigeria after President Buhari's trip to Beijing but more worries about pressure on banks in Kenya. Although Chadian President Déby looks confident of victory after general elections on 10 April, another ...
Patrick Smith
This week the leak of the details of over 10 million account documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca dominates the news and African activists start to probe the list to track their politicians and business people. Then there is the drama of co...
Blue Lines
Despite pressure from the doom-sayers amid the commodity price crash, some big battalions in Africa are fighting back with ambitious new projects that could create growth and jobs – if they go ahead. Most significant is the US$5.42 billion deal between Ke...
