It’s never easy finding a balance between freedom of expression and freedom from persecution. When international statesmen and lawyers drew up the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1966), they had to work out how you could protect the right to freedom of expression while not allowing [...]
The decision by the Federal Government to celebrate Nigeria at 50 may appear to be a welcome development. 50 years is worth celebrating, but not in such an extravagant manner as is currently being planned and Nigerians are reacting.
According to the federal government the N10 billion naira ($66 million USD) budgeted for the nation’s 50th [...]
The Mo Ibrahim Foundation risks feeding into popular perception that there are no good African leaders by not awarding its leadership prize the second year running.
Following the Foundation’s announcement Monday 14th June, executive director of the Royal African Society, Richard Dowden told New Africa Analysis: ‘It is a prize for exceptional leadership; however the dilemma [...]
Africa, south of the Sahara, today faces its brightest prospects in a generation. Before dismissing this statement as yet another belied optimistic forecast, consider the following facts:
•Before the onset of the global financial crisis of 2008-9 that morphed into an economic crisis, African economies were growing at 5 percent a year for over a decade, [...]
The new vice president of Nigeria, Muhammad Namadi Sambo was confirmed in his position Tuesday 18th May by the two chambers of the National Assembly. It followed the burial of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua which sad event took place May 5th 2010.
A number of personalities jostled for the position and were talked about [...]
Coming hot on the heels of the 1994 ANC election victory and a much-lauded first year in power, replete with calls for reconciliation and the creation of the rainbow nation, the 1995 Rugby World Cup was a sporting, political, international and PR triumph for Nelson Mandela and South Africa.
The sight of a jubilant Mandela embracing [...]
Reports from South Africa suggest that racial tensions are at their highest level since 1993. The sentiment comes as an understandable reaction in the context of the recent much-publicised murder of right-wing leader Eugene Terre’Blanche.
Evidence of increase tensions can be seen on both sides of the divide. The ruling African National Congress (ANC) youth leader [...]
The name Nuhu Ribadu, continues to evoke passion, admiration, hatred and [or] fear. These projected sentiments depend from which side one chooses to look at the name and equate same with the anti corruption fights and/or controversies in Nigeria.
The man Ribadu came to lime light when the then President Olusegun Obasanjo established the Economic and [...]
UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon was asked Monday 29th March about the organisation’s plans for going forward in lawless Somalia. The UN has been involved directly in Somalia since deposing the Islamic Court Union (ICU) along with Ethiopian military assistance in 2006.
The UN scribe responded by stating that they are working closely with and backing [...]
Figures suggest that Asia, China in particular, is now a bigger net investor in Africa than Western countries. China’s own statistics from 2008 indicate China-Africa trade volumes at $106.8 billion, a 45.1% increase on 2007. South Africa last year alone saw bilateral trade at over $16 billion. Apart from the loss of capital, many countries [...]
