As the news broke that Robert Mugabe has been ousted in a peaceful military coup, I didn’t know whether to celebrate or commiserate. The news filtered through with mixed feelings because on the one hand, his role in the Zimbabwean revolution can’t be ignored whilst on the other, the systemic decline of all the institutions in what was a promising nation is inexcusable.

After 37 years in power, some questions come back to bite all of Africa- what was he thinking? Why are African leaders so addicted to power? Do they understand the essence of seeking power? Are they oblivious to history? Why have we Africans accepted bad governance for too long? Why do we tolerate thieving leaders? Why are we so indifferent in the face of gross injustice and unacceptable pilfering of public funds?  These questions baffle me and the answers to them I seek during this existence.

The wretched statistic is that no matter how fanciful we try to cover-up Mugabe’s reign, it has been nothing but an abject disaster. But this scenario is all the same over our great continent. His young wife’s influence over him is pitiful. At 93 years of age, it never dawn on him that he was too old to lead a country. What was important to him was his and his wife’s vanity. As they looted from the state’s funds and funded a lifestyle of exaggerated luxury, they never thought a day like this was practical.

Mugabe was very old and unable to walk without support for more than a few minutes but was going to stand for re-election again at next year’s presidential election. Sad but not uncommon. His wife Grace Mugabe, 41 years his junior was been prepared as a successor should he die in office or unable to continue. If one told you this, you would have to pinch yourself to make sure you are not dreaming. But this is a very familiar scenario around Africa in the 21st century.

Is it any surprise that in the twenty-first century many countries and races around the world still look upon the African continent and Africans with incredulity? The fact is whilst millions in Zimbabweans languished in poverty, Grace Mugabe bought properties in Singapore and Malaysia. Whilst, the country is undergoing inflation at a level last seen only in 1920’s Germany, Robert Mugabe and his family continued to hang on to power with nothing to offer.

As this episode ends in the history of Zimbabwe, where next in Africa would the military/people stand up to the psychosis that is now a normalcy in Africa? Whilst gaining power through elections is the acceptable way to leadership in a civilised society, it appears to me that the only way to oust these dictators and bandits is through force.

Whatever happens now to Robert and Grace Mugabe, I hope the other longstanding offenders around our continent are watching their backs.

By Ashu Asu, London

Zimbabwe was on edge Tuesday as armored personnel carriers were seen outside the capital a day after the army commander threatened to “step in” to calm political tensions over the president’s firing of his deputy.

The Associated Press saw three armored personnel carriers with several soldiers in a convoy on a road heading toward an army barracks just outside the capital, Harare.

While it is routine for armored personnel carriers to move along that route, the timing heightened unease in this southern African country that for the first time is seeing an open rift between the military and 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe. The military has been a key pillar of Mugabe’s power since independence from white minority rule in 1980.

Mugabe last week fired Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa and accused him of plotting to take power, including through witchcraft. Mnangagwa, who enjoyed the backing of the military and was once seen as a potential successor to Mugabe, fled the country and said he and his family had been threatened.

Over 100 senior officials allegedly supporting him have been listed for disciplinary measures by a faction associated with Mugabe’s wife, Grace Mugabe.

The first lady, whose political profile has risen in the past few years, now appears positioned to replace Mnangagwa at a special conference of the ruling party in December, leading many in Zimbabwe to suspect that she could succeed her husband as president.

On Monday, army commander Constantino Chiwenga issued an unprecedented statement saying purges against senior ruling ZANU-PF party officials linked to the 1970s liberation war should end “forthwith.”

“We must remind those behind the current treacherous shenanigans that when it comes to matters of protecting our revolution, the military will not hesitate to step in,” the army commander said.

Mugabe did not respond to the military statement, and government spokesman Simon Khaya Moyo said only the president could respond. The state-run broadcaster did not report on the statement.

The ruling party’s youth league, aligned to the first lady, on Tuesday criticized the army commander’s statement, saying youth were “ready to die for Mugabe.”

The army spokesman was not immediately available for comment Tuesday. State broadcaster Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation was operating as usual and the capital remained calm.

Frustration has been growing in once-prosperous Zimbabwe as the economy collapses under Mugabe, the world’s oldest head of state. The country was shaken last year by the biggest anti-government protests in a decade, and Mugabe’s appointment of a minister for cybersecurity last month was criticized by activists as a crackdown on social media users.

(Source: AP)

Southern Cameroons militants have killed four security forces in several attacks over the past few days, the Francophone government said on Saturday, an unprecedented violent turn to a movement that risks morphing into a full blown insurgency. A French Cameroun government crackdown on innocent Southern Cameroonians has killed dozens of people since October and driven many into the arms of a once-fringe separatist movement ahead of presidential elections in 2018.

It followed on from demonstrations a year ago by English-speakers in the western region bordering Nigeria against what they see as a marginalization by the mostly French-speaking government of President Paul Biya, who has been in power for 35 years.  The secessionists have been around for decades, but operated underground and had been largely non-violent until a few weeks ago.

A spokesman for the separatists acknowledged the latest attacks but disputed details of the government account, and said five security forces had been killed. In Saturday’s statement, Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma gave more details of the killing of two gendarmes reported on Tuesday and Wednesday, and said two further attacks on Thursday night had killed two soldiers.

Referring to attacks earlier in the week, Tchiroma said assailants armed with machetes stormed a high school in the town of Jakiri on Tuesday. The separatists are disrupting schools that teach in French. Gendarmes arrived on the scene to stop them, but one was killed in the resultant scuffle.

Tchiroma said he was “executed”, but Cho Ayaba, a leading member of the political wing of the separatist movement who lives abroad told Reuters in Dakar by telephone that he was killed in a firefight. Then on Wednesday, in the restive city of Bamenda, another attack left a gendarme dead, Tchiroma said. Ayaba reported two deaths of security forces in that attack.

On Thursday night, insurgents killed a soldier in Bamenda by slitting his throat, Tchiroma said, and another female soldier guarding a bridge. “As I speak, four members of the Defense and Security Forces on duty have been killed, murdered by terrorists on behalf of the secessionist movement,” Tchiroma said.

Ayaba contradicted that, saying that all of the deaths had occurred in shootouts, and that no one had their throat slit. “That’s absolute nonsense,” he said. “There was no physical contact.”

Cameroon’s language divide is a legacy of World War One, when the League of Nations split the former German colony of Kamerun between allied French and British victors. Hundreds of Anglophone Cameroonians were swept up in mass arrests following demonstrations on Oct. 1, and at least 5,000 have fled the crisis for neighboring Nigeria.

The crackdown, which included cutting the Internet, locking up opponents and using helicopter gunships to fire on civilians, and a lack of any political solution is fast transforming a protest movement into an armed rebellion.

“Cameroon soldiers are enforcing an occupation,” Ayaba said. “The only thing that will make us stop these attacks is if the regime withdraws … if they stop using the military to impose political exclusion and systematic terror on our people.”

Source: Reuters

Liberia’s Supreme Court has ordered the West African country’s electoral commission to resolve allegations of fraud in the first round of presidential election before a scheduled run-off vote can be held.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Francis Korkpor said on Monday that the National Elections Commission (NEC) was prohibited “from conducting the run-off vote until the complaint filed by the petitioners is investigated.”

The judge went on to urge the Commission to hear the Liberty Party’s complaint lodged on October 23 and resolve it with “urgent attention,” given the “critical” nature of the presidential vote.

“By setting a date and proceeding to conduct a run-off election without first clearing the complaint of the petitioners which alleged gross irregularities and fraud, the NEC was proceeding contrary to rules which are to be adhered to at all times,” Korkpor added.

The Supreme Court last week halted preparations while it examined charges by third-place finisher Charles Brumskine’s Liberty Party that the October 10 first round was marred by fraud.

The ruling comes as former soccer star George Weah and Vice President Joseph Boakai are competing to succeed President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate whose election in 2005 helped draw a line under 14 years of civil war.

The vote is meant to mark Liberia’s first democratic transition of power since 1944.

The court on Monday also found that the NEC had acted contrary to the law in declaring Weah and Boakai the top two candidates in the first round election.

The court did not order a new date for the vote, which was originally to be contested on Tuesday. The date can only be decided by the electoral commission, once the complaint is resolved.

Weah won the first round of voting with 38.4 percent to Boakai’s 28.8 percent. Brumskine won nearly 10 percent.

Source: Presstv

The government should be under no illusion that the struggle is over because the resistance just began.

As distraught Anglophones continue to query and reject the very basis of the Cameroonian State;with a majority favouring independence, the leadership of the Anglophone struggle remains embattled on all fronts over its tepid response to the violent crackdown by security forces in the wake of the October 1 restoration of independence, in which hundreds of Anglophones were killed, hundreds more detained or missing, with thousands forced to flee to neighbouring Nigeria.From all indications, the independence restoration was a political misadventure, given the growing chasm within the fractious leadership,unvested with the history of liberation struggles and the taxing and quite complex challenges of navigating global power relations. Amid the apparent despair in the face of genocide, the government seems poised to run down the clock through the backdoor without genuine dialogue to resolve the crisis.The mistaken assumption is that differences between federalists and restorationists will divide and kill the struggle.This is a fatal mistake because Anglophones remain resolutely committed to the struggle. In the face of genocide, the message Anglophones have sent to the government is clear and unequivocal: give us freedom or death. The government should therefore be under no illusion that the struggle is over because, if anything, the resistance just began.

This is no time for public grandstanding; nor is it a moment political self-aggrandisement. The struggle is at crossroads and whether you support federalism or independence, the question every Anglophone must ask is this:Besides the token measures of appeasement, what has changed in the past 13 months? Has government through its actions and utterances of its spokespersons shown any interest in dialogue, let alone a desire to consider federalism? Without demagoguery,the truth is that nothing has changed.The government has shown no interest in dialogue and regime apologists have repeatedly foreclosed any debate on federalism.It is now clear that Anglophones will never get federalism unless the regime is pressured to realize that the two options to resolving the crisis is either federalism or independence. The catch-22 here is that only pressure for independence by restorationists will force Biya’s hand towards federalism. It therefore stands to reason that all Anglophones should raise their voices for independence until the rising crescendo becomes too loud to be ignored.

While not unmindful of the great trials and tribulations confronting our people; after our youths have been killed, maimed and dehumanised, it is mind-boggling to even contemplate sending our children to school. This will be more than just a betrayal of the struggle, and the sacrifices of Anglophone activists, including the larger than life Mancho BBC, who are still standing trial on bogus charges that carry the death penalty.Besides, giving up school boycott; the main leverage of the struggle has no redeeming strategic value, even to the federalists, as it amounts to an act of unilateral surrender.Our work is not done as long as the Anglophone is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of brutality by Francophone security forces who see us as a conquered and captured people.This is a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the high price our people have already paid, we must brace and bear ourselves to our responsibilities as a people fighting for their freedom.The real battle is about to begin.Upon this battle depends the survival of the Anglophone nation. Upon it depends our own future and that of our children and grandchildren.

The government knows it has to break the momentum of our struggle or lose the war. If we continue to be defiant in the face of torture; if we recognise that this struggle is not about us individually and focus on the big picture; if we keep faith with the sacred covenant signed with the blood of those who have paid the ultimate price, so that we Anglophones should be free; then, make your reckoning and realise that it were better to die 10,000 deaths than to act out of coward servility because it is folly to give way to evil counsels; to refuse to do what has to be done; to listen to the naysayers and advocates of the enemy’s cause, and to fancy that because we have sacrificed so much in blood and treasure, we as Anglophones will henceforth cease to be treated as second-class citizens in Cameroon; that, whatever happens, Anglophones will no longer suffer marginalisation and discrimination, even as Francophones see them as dogs, rats and slaves to be scourged and butchered with impunity.

With schools shut down, leaving students to an uncertain fate,puerile arguments about mortgaging our children’s future have been accompanied by claims that Anglophones were deceived that UNESCO will declare 2017 a blank school year. Such baseless claims are a wilful misunderstanding of the functioning of the UNESCO Recognition and Validation of Certificates Commission; the UNESCO Education Quality Accreditation Commission and the UNESCO Policy on Accreditation and Global Education.No one needs telling that UNESCO has strict guidelines and education harmonisation standards which signatory members must adhere to, in order for an authenticated certificate from that country to be given the same recognition in another signatory country. One such guideline is duration of the academic year.If a signatory country does not meet the minimum requirements in a section or the whole country, certificates issued that year in the whole country are declared null and void. The jury is not yet out on the fate of the “political GCE” that was written in 2017, as the crisis continues, but it is anyone’s guess that UNESCO will have the last laugh on those 2017 GCE certificates.

Besides, of what use is an education that turn our institutions into degree mills that produce certificated graduates who are so half-baked educationally that they are neither useful to themselves nor to society? Those complicit school resumption advocates must be reminded that school boycott was not invented by Anglophone freedom fighters. It has been the weapon of choice for liberation movements dating back over 1000 years. After the Roman conquest of Britain, the British refused to send their children to school to protest the emasculating education the Romans were imparting on the children. Despite the threats, intimidation and heavy-handed tactics of then Roman Governor of Britain,Gnaeus Julius Agricola (AD77- 84), British children boycotted school for five (5) years. When Britain later colonized Ireland and instituted an educational system designed to keep the Irish stupid,the Irish held their children from going to school for two years. The famous Irish Revolutionary,Padraic Pearse eloquently captured the mood of the Irish resistance: “The educational system the English have instituted in Ireland is a murder machine; the schools are soulless and instead of teaching they destroy; they cannot make men but they can break them. We will keep the children home instead of sending them to the murder machine called schools.”

Apologists of school resumption deliberately refuse to look at the unacceptable face of a monumental national scandal wherein the government pays lip service to education; but treats students as liabilities and teachers like beggars.A situation where degree holders end up as bike riders and call box agents will not change by merely cajoling or threatening parents to send their children back to school.The school boycott, sad though it is, is a cruel reminder that freedom has a price and the price of freedom is very high because freedom is not given. It is pointless sending our children to school where dormitories are burnt under the watchful eyes of soldiers. The fury of the enemy has already been unleashed on our people and our brothers and sisters are already in their graves! Why should we give up now when nothing has changed in the past 13 months?Think about those who have paid the supreme price so that we may live in freedom. And then ask yourself: is my own life so precious, as to be purchased at the price of second-class citizenship?

Therefore, arise oh Ambazonians, for as Thomas Paine said, these are the times that try men’s souls.This struggle is our struggle; it is our struggle no less than it is that of the Anglophone leadership or the Anglophone Diaspora. We must have faith; we must not be stampeded by rumors or fear by detractors and naysayers. Confidence and courage are the essentials of success in fighting for our freedom. Let us unite in banishing fear. Together we cannot fail.And if we must die as Claude McKay told Black Americans during their fight for freedom and equality; “let us nobly die, so that our precious blood may not be shed in vain; then even the monsters we defy shall be constrained to honor us though dead! If we must die, let us face our murderous cowards like men with their backs against the wall; dying, but fighting back.” Let the conscience of every Anglophone hold a conversation with his/her soul; then take this solemn vow: I am fighting for my freedom; I know not what course others may take; but as for me, the choice is simple – give me freedom or give me death!

By Ekinneh Valerian Agbaw-Ebai

*Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai is a Public Intellectual and graduate of Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he was Managing Editor of the Harvard Journal of African-American Public Policy. A former Research Analyst for Freedom House, he is a Consultant and lives in Boston, USA. Talk back at ekinneh@yahoo.com

Kenya’s opposition leader Raila Odinga has censured a rerun of presidential election in the country as coronation rituals for the ruling government, saying he would fight on and maintain a momentum of civil disobedience in the country.

Addressing his supporters in his western stronghold of Kisumu, Odinga said on Tuesday that the result of last week’s election, which gave President Uhuru Kenyatta a landslide win, was a sham.

“This election must not stand. If allowed to stand, it will make a complete mockery of elections,” said the 72-year-old opposition leader.

Odinga led a petition in early August that saw the results of the original presidential election annulled by Kenya’s Supreme Court. He then pulled out of the rerun, set for October 26, saying irregularities that enabled the government to tamper with the results had persisted.

Kenyatta’s government went on to hold the vote despite mass boycotting and street protests by Odinga’s supporters. The election watchdog in Kenya has also warned that the repeat of the vote could not be fair.

In his speech, the first since the Thursday vote, Odinga said without change, “elections will become coronation rituals.”

He pledged to transform his National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition into “a resistance movement” that would lead a campaign of “civil disobedience” in Kenya.

“If there is no justice for the people, let there be no peace for the government,” Odinga said during the speech while laying out plans for “economic boycotts, peaceful processions, picketing and other legitimate protests.”

Kenyatta, who won the rerun with 98 percent, said on Monday that the recent election victory was a vindication of his original triumph. The incumbent president had strongly protested the overturning of the results of the August election, which was a first of its kind in the entire Africa.

Odinga’s pledges for launching a fierce anti-government campaign have sparked fears that Kenya, a major economic power in Africa and a West’s ally in the region, could be hit by widespread ethnic violence. More than 1,100 people were killed in clashes and street confrontation that followed the presidential election in 2007.

Source: Presstv

The French Cameroun dictator, Paul Biya and his wife are in Ndjamena, the capital of Chad. The presidential couple was invited by the Chadian Head of State, Idriss Deby Itno, current President of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) for an extraordinary summit of the CEMAC zone.   Paul Biya left Yaounde on Monday, October 30, 2017 with the first lady Chantal Biya,

The press release from the Civil Cabinet of the Presidency which made public the trip, specified that the following personalities are in the Biya entourage: Lejeune Mbella Mbella Minister of External Relations, Louis Paul Motaze, Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Mengot Victor Arrey Nkongho Minister in Charge of Special Duties at the Presidency of the Republic, Alamine Ousmane Mey Minister of Finance , Le Joseph, Deputy Director of the Civil Cabinet, Rear-Admiral Fouda, Special Advisor to the Presidency of the Republic, Bah Oumarou Sanda Ambassador of Cameroon to Chad, Bikele Simon Pierre Head of State Protocol and Ekoumou Andre Magnus in charge of mission at the presidency of the Republic.

By Sama Ernest, CIR

At least three people were shot dead Thursday as opposition protests sparked violence during Kenya’s presidential re-run, according to police and hospital sources.

One man was killed in Nairobi’s Mathare slum, one of the hotspots where protesters tried to block the vote which has been boycotted by opposition leader Raila Odinga, prompting clashes with police.

“I have just confirmed he was shot in the forehead,” said Drugnet hospital director Dickens Osimba.

An AFP photographer also saw the body. A police statement from assistant inspector general George Kinoti said another person had been shot dead in western Homa Bay “where a large mob attacked a small police facility… and the few police officers were constrained to use live fire to protect themselves and the armory”.

Earlier police and hospital sources confirmed a 19-year-old was killed in Kisumu, whose body was also seen by AFP.

The latest casualties take the death toll since a disputed August 8 election to at least 43. Rights groups say most people were killed at the hands of police.

“With tensions running high there is a very real threat of further bloodshed as the election re-run takes place,” said Justus Nyangaya, director at Amnesty International Kenya.

“We are calling on the police to only use force as a last resort — unlawful police killings and other human rights violations must not be allowed to recur.”

The election is being held after Kenya’s Supreme Court overturned the August vote citing “irregularities” and mismanagement by poll officials.

Vote delayed

Kenya’s election commission said polling stations had opened in much of the country on Thursday but voting had been hampered by “security challenges” in a number of places where elections would be delayed until Oct. 28.

Wafula Chebukati, head of the election commission, said the areas where voting would be delayed included Homa Hay, Kisumu, Migori and Siaya – all in the opposition stronghold of western Kenya.

(Source: Agencies)

The United Nations has called on authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to release the opposition members recently arrested amid a crackdown on dissent by President Joseph Kabila’s government.

The UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, known as MONUSCO, made the plea on Monday, a day after Congolese police broke up a meeting by the main opposition party, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), in the southeastern city of Lubumbashi and arrested 28 supporters.

“I urge the Congolese authorities to release immediately and unconditionally those arbitrarily arrested yesterday in Lubumbashi,” said Maman Sidikou, head of the UN mission.

Sidikou said MONUSCO was “deeply concerned by ongoing acts of intimidation” against opposition members and reminded authorities of their duty to guarantee citizens’ rights “in accordance with the constitution and international commitments” of DR Congo.

Reports said the arrests took place on the eve of a return to the city of opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi after a long absence. Party sources said 48 were detained.

In a separate incident on Monday, riot police fired teargas canisters to disperse people who had gathered at the city’s airport to welcome the opposition leader.

Tensions are high in DR Congo after Kabila did not step down when his constitutional mandate expired in December.

Kabila’s presidential term expired on December 19, 2016, but ruling officials have effectively prolonged his mandate until 2018, claiming that the government would not be able to arrange elections before then.

The opposition accuses Kabila and the electoral commission of having “declared war on the Congolese people” by delaying the poll.

The UN has on several occasions said the current situation has created “tensions and a climate of uncertainty,” and the international community has strongly demanded that a clear poll timetable be released.

Joseph Kabila has run one of the world’s least developed countries since the 2001 assassination of his father Laurent.

Source: Presstv

A week of talks in Cameroon’s two English-speaking zones wrapped up Friday. The government organized the dialogue in a bid to end a push for independence in the regions. However, the talks appear to have made little headway.

Hundreds of protesters in Lebialem, an area in the English-speaking southwest region, jeered and chased away delegates sent by President Paul Biya to hold talks Tuesday with local leaders. The protesters set ablaze the residence of Bernard Foju, a lawmaker from the locality.

The protesters then sang this song they call the anthem of their newly-created state of Ambazonia and left, promising never to listen to Biya’s emissaries.

One of those emissaries, Senator Mbella Moki, said the government will not give up.

“We should be propagators of national unity, the relevance of living together, living in peace and contributing to national development in this beautiful country of ours,” said Moki. “That is the message. As we promised, we shall be back to ensure that the call that we made has had a very beautiful response.”

A government crackdown on leaders of a year-long strike in the two regions, as well as the emergence of anglophone separatist groups, have escalated tensions.

On September 1, President Paul Biya released 55 people detained over the strike. However, as many as 100 others remain in jail.

On October 1, tens of thousands of people marched in the southwest and northwest to support independence. Security forces killed at least 17 people, according to Amnesty International.

Not all English-speakers support independence, and Emmanuel Anyambot, senior pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, says the some groups may listen to Biya’s delegates if the remaining detainees are released.

“They went to prison because of the common course that we are facing. Some have been released and the others have not been released,” said Anyambot. “Release these people, let us dialogue, or you try them and pass a verdict instead of keeping them there.” Separatist groups have said they are ready for talks — but only with President Biya on the terms of their separation. The president has said he will engage in no talks that threaten national unity.

Source: VOA NEWS