Guinea Junta Bans Political Protests

Conakry, Guinea —  The mil­i­tary jun­ta rul­ing Guinea has banned polit­i­cal protests after announc­ing a three-year tran­si­tion peri­od before civil­ian rule is restored. “All demon­stra­tions on pub­lic roads, whose nature is to jeop­ar­dize social tran­quil­i­ty and the cor­rect imple­men­ta­tion of activ­i­ties in the (tran­si­tion) timetable are banned for the moment until the peri­od of electoral…

Ethiopia revokes accreditation of The Economist reporter — The East African

By TESFA-ALEM TEKLE

Ethiopi­an author­i­ties on Fri­day revoked the press cre­den­tials of a for­eign jour­nal­ist who had been work­ing for The Econ­o­mist in the Horn of Africa nation.In a let­ter issued Fri­day after­noon and seen by The East­African, the Ethiopi­an Media Author­i­ty (EMA) said it has can­celled media accred­i­ta­tion of Tom Gard­ner, cit­ing fail­ure to main­tain pro­fes­sion­al ethics and vio­la­tions of the coun­try’s laws and reg­u­la­tions. It did not gave details of the allegations.“As a pro­fes­sion­al jour­nal­ist accred­it­ed to work in Ethiopia, you know very well that the con­di­tion of your per­mit is depen­dent on your strict obser­va­tion of pro­fes­sion­al ethics and the rules and the reg­u­la­tions of the coun­try,” it said.“This let­ter is writ­ten to inform you that your accred­i­ta­tion is revoked effec­tive imme­di­ate­ly, and you are no longer allowed to work as a jour­nal­ist in Ethiopia.”EMA said that pri­or to the deci­sion, the author­i­ty had sev­er­al dis­cus­sions with the journalist.However, the author­i­ty alleged that Mr Gard­ner failed to live to stan­dards of con­duct for journalists. 

Adver­tise­ment

“Despite our repeat­ed dis­cus­sions, ver­bal warn­ings and writ­ten rep­ri­mands, you have not shown the will­ing­ness to cor­rect your mis­tak­en approach,” the let­ter said.It, how­ev­er, said The Econ­o­mist is wel­come to appoint an “unbi­ased and inde­pen­dent” jour­nal­ist to replace Mr Gardner.A few weeks ago, EMA had issued a warn­ing let­ter to the jour­nal­ist after he post­ed on his pri­vate social media that Prime Min­is­ter Abiy Ahmed and TPLF rebel leader Debre Zion Gebre-Michael had a tele­phone conversation.Authorities warned him to be care­ful about his report­ing, espe­cial­ly on sto­ries that could affect nation­al interest.Since the Tigray con­flict broke out in Novem­ber 2020, the Ethiopi­an gov­ern­ment has been crit­i­cised for cre­at­ing a dif­fi­cult envi­ron­ment for jour­nal­ists and dissidents.Journalists have also com­plained that they have been denied access to war zones where right vio­la­tions, includ­ing mas­sacres, rapes, and oth­er seri­ous crimes, have been reported.The Ethiopi­an gov­ern­ment led by PM Abiy Ahmed, a 2019 Noble Peace Prize win­ner, has been crit­i­cised by sev­er­al inter­na­tion­al right groups for using the state of emer­gency as a tool to arbi­trar­i­ly detain sev­er­al jour­nal­ists to sti­fle crit­i­cal report­ing and to silence war zone news coverage.The Com­mit­tee to Pro­tect Jour­nal­ists’ (CPJ) 2021 prison cen­sus ranked Ethiopia as sub-Saha­ran Africa’s sec­ond-worst jail­er of journalists.“We are very con­cerned. This devel­op­ment is the lat­est sign of Ethiopi­a’s dete­ri­o­rat­ing press free­dom envi­ron­ment,” CPJ’s Africa Pro­gram Coor­di­na­tor, Angela Quin­tal, told The East­African on Friday.Since the con­flict in Tigray erupt­ed, sev­er­al Ethiopi­an jour­nal­ists and trans­la­tors work­ing for a range of inter­na­tion­al media organisation—including to AFP, Nation Media Group, Reuters, the BBC and the Finan­cial Times—have been detained while doing their jobs.Last year Ethiopi­an author­i­ties also revoked press accred­i­ta­tion of a New York Times reporter.

It’s Africa’s Century—for Better or Worse

In the com­ing decades, we face a rev­o­lu­tion­ary shift in the bal­ance of world affairs—and it is like­ly not the one you are think­ing of. Since the 1990s, the idea that we might be enter­ing an “Asian cen­tu­ry” has pre­oc­cu­pied and dis­ori­en­tat­ed the West. How­ev­er, once we take in view the long sweep of his­to­ry, the…

Tunisia is sliding back into authoritarianism. Here’s what the US should do.

Nine long months have passed since the start of the slow-motion coup in Tunisia, a coun­try that, until recent­ly, offered one of the best hopes for democ­ra­ti­za­tion in the Mid­dle East. After shut­ter­ing the par­lia­ment with tanks in July, Pres­i­dent Kais Saied has sus­pend­ed the con­sti­tu­tion and dis­solved the Supreme Judi­cial Coun­cil. In per­haps the most disturbing…

For Macron’s Second Term — a Lower Profile in Africa?

Paris —  Five years ago, France’s Emmanuel Macron saw big when it came to Africa. Days after his pres­i­den­tial inau­gu­ra­tion, he flew to north­east­ern Mali, meet­ing with French troops and vow­ing, along­side his Malian coun­ter­part, Ibrahim Boubacar Keï­ta, to wage an “uncom­pro­mis­ing fight” against Islamist ter­ror­ism. A few months lat­er in anoth­er Sahel coun­try, nearby…

Bank of Central African States Urges CAR to Annul Bitcoin as Currency

Yaounde, Cameroon —  The Cameroon-head­­quar­tered Bank of Cen­tral African States (BEAC) has urged the Cen­tral African Repub­lic (CAR) to annul a law it passed in late April that made the cryp­tocur­ren­cy Bit­coin legal ten­der. The bank warned in a let­ter made pub­lic last week that the move breached its rules and could affect mon­e­tary stability…

Seeking Covid Pills, Poor Nations Fear Repeat of AIDS Crisis

The antivi­ral pills, plen­ti­ful in the Unit­ed States, are scarce over­seas. Health groups and the White House want to expand access but face obsta­cles that evoke the H.I.V. epi­dem­ic. WASHINGTON — A dev­as­tat­ing virus was lay­ing waste to nations that lacked med­i­cines avail­able to Amer­i­cans. The pills were patent­ed and pricey. Poor coun­tries lacked refrigeration…

Agenda 2063: Education in Africa, a key to success, By Rahma O. Oladosu — Premium Times Nigeria

I believe one of the eas­i­est ways to push this Agen­da for­ward is through edu­ca­tion. Africa acknowl­edges the fact that social and eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment is not pos­si­ble with­out sub­stan­tive invest­ment in edu­ca­tion and research, espe­cial­ly at the ter­tiary level.

Over time, it has become imper­a­tive for Africa to map out a strat­e­gy of region­al coop­er­a­tion and inte­gra­tion and lay the foun­da­tion for sus­tain­able devel­op­ment. The estab­lish­ment of the African Union (replac­ing the Organ­i­sa­tion of African Uni­ty) has been a step in that direc­tion. The Union aims at achiev­ing greater uni­ty and sol­i­dar­i­ty and accel­er­at­ing the polit­i­cal and socio-eco­nom­ic inte­gra­tion of the continent.

In great efforts by the African Union to accom­plish what it has set out to achieve in mak­ing the con­ti­nent a bet­ter one, AGENDA 2063 was introduced.

Now, what exact­ly is agen­da 2063?

Agen­da 2063 is Africa’s blue­print and mas­ter plan for trans­form­ing the con­ti­nent into the glob­al pow­er­house of the future. It is said to be the continent’s strate­gic frame­work that aims to deliv­er on its goal for inclu­sive and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment and it is a con­crete man­i­fes­ta­tion of the pan-African dri­ve for uni­ty, self-deter­mi­na­tion, free­dom, progress and col­lec­tive pros­per­i­ty, pur­sued under Pan-African­ism and towards African Renais­sance. Agen­da 2063 encap­su­lates not only Africa’s Aspi­ra­tions for the Future but also iden­ti­fies key Flag­ship Pro­grammes which can boost the continent’s eco­nom­ic growth and devel­op­ment, and lead to the rapid trans­for­ma­tion of the con­ti­nent. It also iden­ti­fies key activ­i­ties to be under­tak­en in its 10-year Imple­men­ta­tion Plan, which will ensure that Agen­da 2063 deliv­ers both quan­ti­ta­tive and qual­i­ta­tive trans­for­ma­tion­al out­comes for Africans.

I believe one of the eas­i­est ways to push this Agen­da for­ward is through edu­ca­tion. Africa acknowl­edges the fact that social and eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment is not pos­si­ble with­out sub­stan­tive invest­ment in edu­ca­tion and research, espe­cial­ly at the ter­tiary level.

Get­ting an edu­ca­tion is not just a fun­da­men­tal human right, It is piv­otal to increas­ing employ­ment and income oppor­tu­ni­ties. It is fun­da­men­tal to break­ing the cycle of pover­ty. Edu­ca­tion is the key to unlock­ing the gold­en door of free­dom for all in Africa. It is the bedrock of social and eco­nom­ic development.

Edu­ca­tion is cru­cial as it is an invest­ment in human cap­i­tal. This yields tremen­dous ben­e­fits on many lev­els and spheres. It ben­e­fits the indi­vid­ual, fam­i­ly com­mu­ni­ty, and nation. Edu­ca­tion is a sus­tain­able means of alle­vi­at­ing pover­ty and bring last­ing change.

Con­se­quent­ly, to effect per­ma­nent change, any effort to bring last­ing change must include edu­ca­tion, in one way or the other.

Recent­ly, the exec­u­tive sec­re­tary of the Ter­tiary Edu­ca­tion Trust Fund (TET­Fund), Archi­tect Son­ny Echono, played host to a team from the African Union Com­mis­sion for Edu­ca­tion, led by Pro­fes­sor Mohammed Bel­hocine, the com­mis­sion­er for edu­ca­tion who came to the Fund on an impact­ful cour­tesy vis­it, which I was priv­i­leged to witness.

The Fund, gen­er­al­ly known for pro­vid­ing sup­port for research and devel­op­ment in ter­tiary insti­tu­tions in Nige­ria, revealed its readi­ness, through its man­age­ment, to forge a part­ner­ship with the Pan African Uni­ver­si­ty to push the African Union agen­da for­ward. Arc. Echono fur­ther said that the Niger­ian gov­ern­ment is actu­al­ly think­ing in the direc­tion of pro­mot­ing tech­nol­o­gy and is in the process of estab­lish­ing a nation­al insti­tute in Abu­ja, which will be a post-grad­u­ate insti­tu­tion for the pro­mo­tion of the tech­no­log­i­cal trans­for­ma­tion of the country.

I per­son­al­ly think this would be a plus for the edu­ca­tion sec­tor in Nige­ria, con­sid­er­ing the fact that there hasn’t been much atten­tion giv­en to tech­nol­o­gy in most of our ter­tiary insti­tu­tions recently.

The Pan African Uni­ver­si­ty (PAU) is the cul­mi­na­tion of con­ti­nen­tal ini­tia­tives of the African Union Com­mis­sion to revi­talise high­er edu­ca­tion and research on the con­ti­nent. Accord­ing to the African Union, the PAU will great­ly boost the pop­u­la­tion and reten­tion of high-lev­el human resources, along­side qual­i­ty knowl­edge out­puts and will attract the best intel­lec­tu­al capac­i­ty from all over the world.

For­tu­nate­ly, the Pan African Uni­ver­si­ty part­ner­ship with TET­Fund will most def­i­nite­ly yield pos­i­tive results with the lat­ter pro­vid­ing tremen­dous sup­port in terms of the con­struc­tion of more class­rooms, pro­cure­ment of lab­o­ra­to­ry equip­ment and all oth­er basic infra­struc­ture need­ed. This major devel­op­ment will pro­vide a con­ducive envi­ron­ment and enable stu­dent researchers to learn one or two things to attract val­ue. It will also be a huge oppor­tu­ni­ty for schol­ars to troop to the university.

With this, the goals of the African Union is being geared towards the right direc­tion with edu­ca­tion as an ear­ly foun­da­tion, encour­ag­ing research through the Pan African Uni­ver­si­ty and bring­ing young Africans togeth­er to study and con­duct research for about three to five years, and in the process they get to know each oth­er bet­ter in terms of their cul­tures, lan­guages and beliefs. And this will cre­ate the real momen­tum for Pan African­ism, and a step towards real­is­ing Agen­da 2063.

Rah­ma Olamide Ola­do­su writes from Wuye Dis­trict, Abuja.