Boko Haram’s latest victim may have been Nigeria’s national elections.
Citing security concerns as reason for postponing the nation’s February general elections by six weeks, the Nigerian authorities have once again succumbed to the bogey of insurgency and insecurity bedeviling Africa’s largest and most populous economy.
The elections will now be held between March 28 and April 11 this year. National Security Adviser, Sambo Mohammed Dasuki, says the government will flush out the terrorists in six weeks. It was a shaky excuse. Nigerians are watching; waiting to see what security magic government will weave in six weeks.
The postponement has near and far reaching implications for the nation and the rest of Africa.
Professor Attahiru Jega, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), had previously maintained the commission’s readiness to conduct free and fair polls. Now INEC’s independence and neutrality is being questioned. According to media reports, government may even be shopping for a new, more compliant chairman for the commission.
If this happens, it will translate to political chicanery and serious credibility worries for INEC and the incumbent administration, which funds the commission. The fear that even the new election dates may not be sacrosanct is palpable. Constitutionally, federal and state-wide swearing-in of elected officials must be held on May 29. Observers have called this unfolding scenario a looming coup against democracy in Nigeria.
A prolonged political crisis in Nigeria would further harm efforts at national harmony and stall trade and investment in West Africa, already hit by the Ebola crisis, insurgencies in northern Nigeria and Mali, a democratic interregnum in Burkina Faso, poor external trade balances, fiscal deficits, weakening currencies and mass unemployment.
For most of 2014, Africa’s global image was defined by the Ebola epidemic, despite the scourge being confined to a few countries in West Africa.
Ignoring Africa’s rising middle class, the epidemic revealed the specter of a failing continent,  with poor sanitation, poor health budgets, poor health education, poor medical inventories, poor infrastructure, an entrenched culture of graft and official disregard for society’s commonwealth.
Nigeria’s democratic debacle will therefore be an ignoble chapter in the history of Africa.
For the last 30 months or so, the rest of the world struggled to empathize with Nigeria over its inability to curb the despicable rein of the Islamist fundamentalist group. Boko Haram has made the Sahel forest region around the Lake Chad basin its homestead, launching sporadic attacks into northern Nigerian cities and towns at will; making a mockery of Nigeria’s national security and defense systems. Huge sections of north eastern Nigeria have thus been rendered comatose and ungovernable.
A regional diplomatic initiative involving the governments of Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria failed to plug the onslaught. Indeed the group has become bolder. Last month, Boko Haram threatened to ‘deal with and defeat’ an African Union anti-Boko Haram special force. The group has unleashed more mayhem on northern Nigerian towns even after it kidnapped over 200 teenage girls from their Chibok village school in April 2014.
The political season began last autumn and soon, it would seem that the world had moved on from the sad case of the Chibok girls and the #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign. The conscience of the nation was on the chopping block. Also on the chopping block were investor sentiment and market forces. Agriculture and the automobile industry welcomed new investments in 2014; in the same period, the Nigerian Stock Exchange saw its market cap decline by $8.5 billion, a 13% drop.
Slumping oil prices forced the finance ministry to lower its economic projections for 2015. This year’s national budget was consequently slashed by $3 billion. Nigeria has never saved for the rainy day, largely due to politicians who earn stupendous salaries and allowances and insist on appropriating proceeds from the reserve Excess Crude Account (ECA). Nigeria’s four petroleum refineries operated at less than 50% of their installed capacity between 1985 and 1999 and have remained dormant since then. Parochial politics and economic perfidy has ensured that no new refineries were built in over 30 years.
If business is a natural extension of politics, then it is easy to see why Nigeria Inc. will continue to underperform. The consistent heating of the polity and absence of truth in practically all spheres of Nigerian life is a key hindrance to progress. The system resists reforms. Governance is driven by regional and religious sentiments. The current political class offers little hope. With little or no ideological difference between political parties, defections across party lines is the order of the day. It would therefore seem that principles have no place in Nigerian politics.
With a raft of political parties, presidential and governorship candidates vying for office, this will be the country’s most hotly contested and most expensive elections ever – complete with rented crowds, political hubris and multi-million-dollar media blitz. Nigeria’s cash-and-carry political culture was fully at work.
The late Chinua Achebe once quipped that the problem with Nigeria was Nigeria. The master storyteller would be turning in his grave now, as his beloved nation treks further away from established democratic ethos.
The protracted survival of Boko Haram is a national embarrassment and a scandalous testimonial for leadership in Nigeria. It reflects the failure of the social contract between government and the governed. And as the world prepares to replace the Millennium Development Goals with a new set of goals and priorities this year, Nigerians will also be desperately seeking to replace the mirage of hope with tangible political and economic achievement.

A Coup Against Democracy?

Getting Africa out of the development woods will require more than technology and telecommunications. After decades of lost trading opportunities, Africa needs a new trading lens. Personal and institutional initiatives to close the lacuna between ‘extant realities’ and development ideals is desperately needed.
New advanced technologies, progressive policies and new investment models to integrate economic and political systems would certainly help. Africa must open up its markets to African customers. We need to build new factories, generate energy solutions and open up trade corridors across the vast continent.
Intra-Africa tourism barely exists and intra-Africa trade is low, between 10 and 12% of total trade. Trade within Africa needs to surpass trade between Africa and the rest of the world. West Africa now accounts for 40% of the total African, Caribbean and Pacific trade with the European Union.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) region accounts for about 45% of Africa’s trade with the rest of the world. In East Africa, Kenya’s top 10 export markets are Uganda, Tanzania, Netherlands, the United States (US), Britain, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, UAE, South Sudan and Egypt. The five African countries here account for more than 30% of Kenya’s total exports. Kenya’s tea makers are yet to make a serious push into Nigeria, Africa’s largest market.
Ethiopia, Rwanda and Burundi produce excellent Arabica coffee. Most of it ends up in North America and Europe. You will search very hard to find East African produce in stores between Dakar and Douala. European coffee brands however abound.
Africa is largely disconnected from itself due to its poor infrastructure, restrictive immigration policies, corruption, failure to formalize informal trade, and unclear customs and immigration rules. Fresh facts emerging, however, suggest it is improving slightly. Data for 2013/14 shows that intra-African finance is a significant source of foreign investment in low and middle-income countries such as Burundi (79%), Namibia (42%), Rwanda (62%), South Sudan (64%) and Uganda (45%).
National and regional policy frameworks need to be strengthened and harmonized. This is a job for governments, companies and citizens alike.
Easing trade barriers would help. Building on a current system which allows citizens visa-free access to other West African countries for 90 days, the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is planning to launch a biometric identity card in 2016. It will be a digital identification card, travel document, and residence and work permit. This biometric passport is expected to resolve the regulatory bottlenecks that penalize local businesses at the expense of their international competitors.
Similar integration plans in other regional economic blocs also exist, aimed at reducing the expense and stress of traveling and trading across Africa.
Kinshasa and Brazzaville are only divided by the Congo River, yet a return ferry ticket cost the equivalent of $40, more than 40% of the average monthly wage for a Kinshasa resident. It costs less to move a container of maize from the flood plains of the Mississippi, US, to Dakar in Senegal, than it is to take the same harvest from Dakar to Tema in southern Ghana.
An ongoing diplomatic détente between Accra and Nairobi seems poised to attenuate these issues.
Puzzled by the poor levels of trade between Ghana and Kenya, Leah Nduati Lee, a Kenyan married to a Ghanaian, organized the very first Kenya Trade Expo in the Ghanaian capital last November. The three-day event smoothed trade relations between the two regional giants, building on the seven agreements signed in 2014 by President John Dramani Mahama and President Uhuru Kenyatta, to consolidate existing economic and trade ties, and deepen institutional cooperation in the energy, ICT, trade, tourism, transport, agriculture and education sectors.
According to Kenya’s Export Promotion Council, the country’s exports to Ghana were worth KSh479 million (around $4.7 million) in 2014, while imports from Ghana were worth KSh369 million ($3.6 million).
During the expo, Kenya’s envoy to West Africa, Ambassador Tom Amolo, said that consensus building between Africa governments to tackle integration issues is beginning to happen.
“Kenya is fully open for business,” says Amolo. “Our investment promotion frameworks continue to foment long lasting networks and commercial alliances between the business communities in East and West Africa… Deepening and broadening integration is essential for Africa’s inclusive development.”
The momentum between the gateway economies across Africa needs to be sustained.

TRADE WINDS  MusT Blow

Francois Pienaar holding aloft the William Webb Ellis trophy. Graeme Smith clutching the ICC Test mace. Cameron van der Burgh grinning proudly, gold medal between his teeth, after setting a new world record in the breaststroke.
These are some of South Africa’s most memorable sporting moments. They happen at world cups, at Olympic Games and when a team reaches the top of the world rankings. And South Africa’s national women’s hoc-key side want one of their own.
They compete in the Africa Nations Cup in Nairobi this month, a competition they have won for the past five years. This time, however, victory will be only the beginning of a far more important mission. The top two teams in the tournament will progress to next year’s World Cup in Holland – and it’s there that the South Africans want to make their mark.
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Previously, the team’s success in Africa has not translated into similar achievements on the global stage. South Africa’s best finish in a World Cup is seventh place, and that was 15 years ago. But the steady progress they have made recently holds the promise of a stronger showing this year.
“We’ve been at this process for three years. And now we’re looking for the results to show it,” says Sanani Mangisa, the team’s first choice goalkeeper.
Since 2010, the team have been under the tutorship of Giles Bonnet, a former player for the national men’s side and, with almost three decades’ experience, a renowned coach. When he took over, Bonnet vowed to turn South Africa into a top-six country, a challenge he acknowledged; the team were ranked 12th in the world at the time.
Mangisa describes Bonnet as the best coach she has worked with, because he has “brought a new level of skills to the unit, to make sure we are technically better”.
Bonnet’s secret weapons are camps in China, where he has established close relationships with the hockey elite. He has a deal to use facilities in the Lüshunkou District in the south, where a world class facility has recently been built at a cost of $19.3 million.
“It’s a place where we can really be tested and all areas of weakness are highlighted,” he explains.
After a training camp in June, the team played in a world hockey league tournament in London, which did not end well. South Africa finished seventh out of eight teams.
“We need to close the gap between ourselves and European teams,” Mangisa says.
Bonnet agrees, and points out that hockey is “big business” in Europe. “Each team has many specialist coaches and support staff to assist in creating the perfect environment.”
The geography allows for inter-national competition to take place frequently. Some South African players have tried to ply their trade overseas to gain experience. Pietie Coetzee, perhaps the country’s best-known hockey player, spent some time in the Netherlands in 2007.
But Mangisa says getting a contract in Europe is not easy, and language barriers make it a lonely experience. There is an upside, however: “The big advantage is the salaries. You can live off being a player there.” The same cannot be said for South Africa, where many members of the national team try to hold down jobs while they are in training.
“I think that’s why we see many players coming through while they’re still at university. I did a three-year degree over five years so I could concentrate on my hockey as well,” Mangisa explains.
She was still a student when she was chosen for the Olympic team in 2008. South Africa finished the tournament in 11th place. Four years later, she was part of the squad that went to London. That year South Africa went one better and finished in 10th spot.
But Mangisa would like to see them get within reach of a medal in Rio. She believes the maturity of the squad could help them punch above their weight.
“We’ve taken juniors with us on tours, even if they are just part of the squad and don’t play, so they can get a feel for the unit and how we work. The big feeder system is from the universities and we’ve seen now, the under-21 team has done very well,” she points out.
South Africa’s women’s under-21 side finished eighth in the junior World Cup. That bodes well for a strong Nations Cup, World Cup and then Olympics. The country’s women’s sides have consistently outperformed their male counterparts at the Olympics, even if it is by finishing one place higher, as they did in London last year.
Mangisa admits the women’s results do not have as much to do with girl power as they do with a packed schedule.
“It’s about the amount of international hoc-key we play compared to the men’s team. We go to a lot more tournaments in a year because we have the money to do that, through our sponsor.”
Where other corporates may view women’s sport as a commodity best kept at arm’s length, Investec saw an opportunity.
“It is a commercially uncluttered market. The quality of sport is high and sportswomen have enabled us to appeal to a wider audience and engage in benefits not typically offered by men’s sporting codes,” explains Investec’s Janet Larson.
The sponsorship agreement does not set specific performance targets, however, Investec says it is satisfied that the team have “met their expectations over the past three years”. Their contract comes up for renewal at the end of the year and Larsen has confirmed that Investec is “in discussions regarding future opportunities”.

Tag: National

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

A Coup Against Democracy?

TRADE WINDS MusT Blow

SA hockey team up their game