TimeLine Layout

February, 2020

  • 26 February

    Togo’s president wins re-election amid opposition’s claims of vote rigging

    Togo’s President Faure Gnassingbé has won a fourth term in power, the national electoral commission declared on Monday. According to preliminary results, he received 72% of the vote, defeating six other candidates. Gnassingbé’s closest rival and main opposition leader, Agbéyomé Kodjo, clinched only 18% of the popular vote cast in the election. The final results are expected to be announced …

    Read More »
  • 25 February

    Brussels summit to re-boot Africa’s relations with Europe

    On 4 March 2020 in Brussels, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group will host the ECR-Africa Summit to discuss policy options about governance, participation of women, foreign direct investment and the digital economy to develop a stronger relationship between the EU and Africa. Guest speaker is the President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo. The ECR’s co-chair Ryszard Legutko MEP, who …

    Read More »
  • 25 February

    Okoroshi in Germany: Nigerian film dazzles Berlin audience

    Berlin Critics’ Week, an independent event about film criticism which yearly takes place during the Berlinale festival in Berlin, showed two films on Sunday (23 February). One of the films is The Lost Okoroshi, the second feature of Nigerian director Abba T. Makama, while the other is the Brazilian entry Seven Years in May by Affonso Uchôa. Set in the …

    Read More »
  • 24 February

    EU scheme for the academic integration of refugees into higher education launched

    On 14 February 2020, the Council of Europe´s Education Department launched a toolkit aimed at integrating refugees as teaching staff or visiting experts into higher education institutions. The “CoLAB Toolkit” presents inclusive practices on how to best integrate refugees based on their competences and qualifications into the academic environment. The toolkit is based on the lessons learned from the project CoLAB implemented …

    Read More »
  • 24 February

    How Nigerian words made it into the Oxford English Dictionary

    The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) included 29 Nigerian English words in its January 2020 update. As the world’s foremost historical dictionary of English, the OED documents 600,000 words through 3.5 million illustrative quotations from over 1,000 years of history across the English-speaking world. Among the words, typically used by Nigerians, included in the latest edition of OED are Buka, Danfo, …

    Read More »
  • 24 February

    Kenyan Hollywood star Lupita Nyong’o visits Nigeria, praises Chimamanda Adichie’s novel

    Kenyan Hollywood actress Lupita Nyong’o paid a short visit to Nigeria at the weekend to attend an event organised by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the award-winning Nigerian writer. The purpose of the event was for the Oscar-winning actress to intimate the Nigerian creative community with her screen-adaptation of Americanah, a novel by Adichie. HBO Max, a division of Warner Media Entertainment, …

    Read More »
  • 23 February

    Dutch government returns stolen crown to Ethiopia

    The Netherlands has returned a ceremonial 18th century crown that had been stolen from Ethiopia in 1993. Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Ms Sigrid Kaag, personally handed over the crown to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed when she called on the Ethiopian leader in Addis Ababa on Tuesday (18 February). The crown, which has depictions of Jesus Christ, …

    Read More »
  • 23 February

    Africa takes historic global lead in female parliamentary leadership

    Nayé Bathily, an official of the World Bank, writes about the increasing role of women in political leadership in Africa and how the continent is showing itself to be a forerunner in the race for gender equality The archetype of the strong African woman standing as an unmoving pillar of her community is one that transcends national borders on the …

    Read More »
  • 22 February

    Nigeria appeals to US to review visa restriction on its citizens

    The Nigerian government has called on the United States of America to consider the long-standing relationship between the two countries and reverse its visa restrictions on Nigeria. The Federal Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, made the call on Wednesday when he received the American Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Leonard, and her team at his office in Abuja. According to a …

    Read More »
  • 22 February

    12 African companies named fellows at educational tech centre

    Twelve African EdTech Companies Named as First Fellows at Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning in ICT. Pan-African group will receive support to scale up EdTech innovations that improve teaching and learning in secondary education KIGALI, Rwanda, 1 February 2020,-/African Media Agency (AMA)/- The Mastercard Foundation Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning in Information, Communications, and Technology (ICT) today announced …

    Read More »