Reduce Somalia’s violence by adopting policies of peaceful Somaliland. BUNGOMA, Kenya — These days, Somalia is known for two things: its pirates and its Islamic militants. When Al Shabaab, the extremist Islamic insurgents based in southern Somalia, claimed responsibility for the July bombings that killed 78 people in Kampala, international concern over the problem of [...]

The Ministry of Indoctrination This past week Ethiopia’s Ministry of Education issued a “directive” effectively outlawing distance learning (or education programs that are not delivered in the traditional university classroom or campus) throughout the country. According to reports, the directive of the Ministry’s Higher Education Relevance and Quality Agency (HERQA) prohibits enrollment of new students [...]

As the D-Day chosen by President Goodluck Jonathan to openly declare his intention to contest the 2011 election draws nearer, strategists for the presidential campaign have intensified measures that would ensure that the president maintains a clear win in five of the six geo-political zones during the presidential primaries. trategists in the presidential camp, who [...]

WHAT are President Goodluck Jonathan’s hobbies? Fishing is not likely to be one of them. Fishing is the major occupation of his people in Bayelsa State and the president dissected many fishes while at university. He must now be sick of the smell of dead fish. Dr Jonathan now happily, even greedily, inhales the aroma [...]

Former General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and current MP for Okere in the Eastern Region, Dan Kweku Botwe, has warned that the country is sitting on a time-bomb which is likely to detonate if practical steps are not taken to arrest electoral violence pervading the political landscape. According to the Okere MP, [...]

Speaking at the 8th edition of the annual Women in Business (WIMBIZ) annual conference late last year, the Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola responded to a question about banning commercial motorcyclists (okada), considered by many Nigerians a road hazard. “I cannot, just by the wave of the pen, say do away with them,” the governor [...]

AN ENGLISH author and lexicographer once remarked: “A Judge may be a farmer; but he is not to geld his own pigs”. This statement simply means that there is no such thing as a perfect leader either in the past or present. If there is one, he is only pretending, like a pig inserting scallions [...]

The Ghana political tradition examines ideological accounts of previous presidents, their beliefs, philosophy, economic virtues and the consensus of the citizens. One cannot ignore John Jerry Rawlings when speaking of the Ghana political tradition. To some scholars, he was the problem child of Ghana political history; to his opposition, he is seen as a threat [...]

In the next few weeks, Nigeria will be 50 years old. I was born in 1956 which means that I am older than Nigeria with four years. I got married in 1990 and have five children, and my first child will leave university next year. At 54 I am a full blown adult with some [...]

Hassan Mohamoud Mohamed once drove a taxi in Mogadishu. Today, he’s behind the wheel of what passes for an ambulance in the war-torn city — and he’s often the only hope for those caught in the crossfire, writes Mustafa Haji Abdinur. In a city where so much time and energy is spent on killing, few [...]