AFRICA

African leaders have been paying tribute to Robert Mugabe, who died in the early hours of Friday. His 37-year-rule in Zimbabwe made him one of the continent’s longest-serving leaders. Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president of Nigeria, on Friday, described the death of Mugabe as a “big loss”. Zimbabwe president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, had announced that Mugabe, 95, died in Singapore. He …

Adams Oshiomhole, the chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has called for the nationalization of South Africa-owned companies operating in Nigeria. Among the South African companies Oshiomhole wants the federal government to immediately nationalise are MTN, a multinational mobile telecommunications company operating in many African, European and Asian countries, Stanbic Bank and the direct broadcast satellite service DStv. …

Zimbabwe’s ex-president, Robert Mugabe, has died after battling ill health for years, his family has announced. The former leader, who  is believed to have died in the early hours of Friday,  had been in hospital in Singapore since April. Mugabe governed his country from its independence in 1980 until he was ousted in a military coup in November 2017, ending …

A Nigerian airline has offered to evacuate Nigerians wishing to leave South Africa as the country’s diplomatic missions shut down in Nigeria. Raphael Adenaike reports. Air Peace, Nigeria’s biggest airline by fleet size, has offered to bring Nigerians living in South Africa back home. The airline announced the offer on Wednesday as a fallout of xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals …

A day after Nigeria’s foreign minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, summoned Bobby Moroe, the South Africa High Commissioner to Nigeria, to his office following xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals in South Africa, Africa’s most populous country has now withdrawn its ambassador, Alhaji Kabiru Bala, to Pretoria. The latest diplomatic action was taken amidst attacks on South African-owned businesses operating in Nigeria. Abuja …

The Federal Government of Nigeria has summoned Bobby Moroe, the South Africa High Commissioner to Nigeria, following the latest xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals, including, Nigerians living in South Africa. Moroe was summoned by Geoffrey Onyeama, Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, to his office in Abuja on Tuesday. The action, in diplomatic practice, is a form of expression of displeasure …

Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, Gambia’s first post-independence president who led the small West African country for 24 years before being deposed in a 1994 coup, has died at the age of 95, the Gambian presidency said on Tuesday. The office of President Adama Barrow, whose election in 2016 brought an end to the rule of the army officer who toppled …

The physical assault on Senator Ike Ekweremadu on 17 August in Nuremberg while the Nigerian frontline politician was attending the 2nd Annual Igbo Cultural Day continues to generate controversy in Nigeria. Kinsmen of Senator Ike Ekweremadu, for example, have called for the thorough investigation, arrest and prosecution of the people, alleged to be members of the separatist Indigenous People of …

A Cameroonian court handed life sentences to 10 separatist leaders on Tuesday after finding them guilty of charges including terrorism in their fight to break away from the Francophone-dominated central government, their lawyers said. They included Julius Ayuk Tabe, a key figure in the Anglophone movement in western Cameroon, whose followers have made his release since he was arrested 18 …

President Muhammadu Buhari swore in the members of his cabinet for his second term in office today and assigned portfolios to the new ministers. The full list is below: Dr. Ikechukwu Ogah (Abia State) – Minister of State, Mines and Steel Development Mohammed Musa Bello (Adamawa State) – Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom State) – …

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved a change of name for the Federal University of Agriculture Makurdi in Benue State. The new name for the institution is Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University, Makurdi. The approval follows the president’s decision to sign a bill amending the law that set up the university. Mr Buhari also approved a separate bill that changes the name …

Every day, young Africans out of sheer desperation endanger their lives in their quest to cross the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean Sea for a better life in Europe. More than 20,000 have drowned in the past seven years while many more are even believed by experts to have perished in the desert. The main factor pushing young people to leave …

Deon De Swardt, Principal Consultant, Mercer, a global consulting leader in talent, health, retirement, and investments, writes on Africa’s most populous nation can harness the full potential of its booming population. According to the World Economic Forum, 70 percent of Africa’s population is under the age of 30, signalling a significant opportunity for the growth and advancement of the continent. …

Nigeria is currently undergoing a serious crisis as nomadic Fulani pastoralists seek to establish permanent settlements all over the country by violently dispossessing the original inhabitants of their land through ethnic cleansing. Since 2014, thousands of rural dwellers, especially farmers and their families, have been killed by the rampaging herdsmen, while hundreds of thousands have been driven off their land. …

Colonialism Reparation, a Berlin-based organization, has welcomed the recent UN decision on the continued British occupation of the Chagos Archipelago, a territory that belongs to the African nation of Mauritius. The United Nations General Assembly recently confirmed that the process of decolonisation of Mauritius in 1968 was not lawfully completed, giving the United Kingdom six months to withdraw its colonial …

The Lagos State Government has promised to bring Nigerians in Diaspora from around the world to the state to support capacity in education and youth development and empowerment. This was stated by the Senior Special Assistant (SSA), to the Governor of Lagos State on Diaspora Affairs, Mr Jermaine Sanwo-Olu, while declaring open a 2-day teachers training programme for teachers in …

Nigerian government praises its citizens living in the diaspora for the money they regularly send home, which in 2018 amounted to US$25 billion. The administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, however, would like Nigerians abroad to still do more as the Secretary to the Federal Government throws new challenges at them at the National Diaspora Day in Abuja. The Secretary to …

The Federal Government has set aside July 25 of every year as National Diaspora Day in recognition of the contributions of Nigerians living outside the country towards homeland development. This was disclosed in Abuja on Tuesday by the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM). The Media Coordinator of the Commission, Abdul-rahman Balogun, in a statement, explained that NIDCOM was hosting the …

According to a newly-published survey by Transparency International, most Africans think corruption is getting worse in their countries. The Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) – Africa, released by the Berlin-based anti-corruption organisation, reveals that 53 per cent of citizens surveyed in 35 African countries think corruption is getting worse while 23 per cent say the problem is getting better. More than …

As I write this article, 44 migrants, mostly Africans, who were rescued in the Mediterranean by the humanitarian organisation Sea Eye off the Libyan coast on Monday, are desperately looking for where to be allowed to disembark in Europe. The migrants’ dilemma follows the Sea-Watch 3 controversy in June, when the rescue boat forcibly docked in the Italian port of …