FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron loves acting on the world stage. In the ongoing drama about the West and some West African leaders threatening to use force against the military regime that came to power in Niger Republic on July 26, 2023, he chose to play the outlaw. Exactly a month after they came to power, Read More…
Owei Lakemfa
The gates to hell were opened long ago
THE world gathered this week under the United Nations to talk peace, security and socio-economic justice, but hawks circled and beneficiaries of a skewed world sat silent in cold complicity. It was the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, UNGA, and even as the world on Thursday, September 21, complemented the UN objectives Read More…
Babysitting France in Africa
FRANCE is a problem. In Africa, it is a man-child fighting hard to retain its feeding bottle. The United Kingdom-based Socialist Labour organised a virtual conference of Africans to discuss this and the current crises in Africa, with an emphasis on the Francophone countries. Co-ordinator Tokunbo Oke, in commenting on the theme, “The Niger Coup: Read More…
Gabonese Coup: The fault is not in the electorate
THE scenario has various strands of familiarity. I mean the military coup of Wednesday, August 30, 2023 that removed Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba. An elected African dictator in a well-fortified Presidential Palace finds his palace has become his prison. It is like the fish realising that the water it is swimming in is boiling. Read More…
Kay Laro: The diplomat as humanist
I WAS to attend the International Labour Organisation, ILO, Conference for two weeks in 2011 and was late in making accommodation arrangements in Geneva. I turned to Ambassador Ayo Olukanni, then Nigerian Deputy Ambassador in Vienna, Austria, to see if he had somebody who could check out the hotels and make a booking. Olukanni had Read More…
When the American hawk decides to devour the Nigerien chick
The threat of the mighty United States of America, USA, on Tuesday, August 7, 2023, to invade the little Niger Republic is not for its love of democracy, Nigeriens, or Africans. It is basically in the nature of hawks to circle the sky looking for prey, especially chicks. There were American and French troops in Read More…
Let me breathe, I don’t want to die
Two different but related cries ring in my head. “Let the Poor breathe” and “I don’t want to die.” The first is the cry across the country as the masses are being suffocated by inflation and over 90 million poor get hungrier. The second is the plaintive cry of young medical doctor, Vwaere Diaso, whose Read More…
Before marching to Niamey, let us pause
THE new military rulers in Niger Republic, the country which marked Independence Day on Thursday, August 3, 2023, have a Sunday ultimatum from the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS. It is that they give up power and restore elected President Mohammed Bazoum to power or face serious measures, including possible invasion. ECOWAS also Read More…
The coup in Niger and the Moncada Barracks attack
EXACTLY 70 years separate the July 26, 1953, suicidal attack on Moncada Barracks by Cuban youths who wanted to remove the military from power, and this Wednesday’s coup in Niger Republic which removed elected President Mohamed Bazoum and restored military rule. The coup plotters, styling themselves as the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Read More…
Africans meeting in Nairobi: If Nigeria’s awake, Africa will rise
I have attended a few African Union (AU) Heads of State Summits and always came away with the impression that the agenda is always overloaded. But three things struck me about the July 16, 2023 meeting in Nairobi. First, its modest three-point objectives; fast-tracking the integration process in Africa; examining the Division of Labour among the Read More…